Showdown as France re-opens probe into Rwandan genocide

Kagame said: “There are so many judgments out there whose basis is dishonesty and deliberate distortions. You are dealing with people who think they own you, treat you in manner that doesn’t meet standards used for their own people. We have decided we are not going to be deterred from our responsibility to deliver justice and dignity Rwandans deserve.”

He said Rwanda and her judicial system were not subordinate to France or French interests.

“After investigating the case for two years and not finding anything, they want to start all over again. I have no problem with that. If starting all over again is a show down, then we will have a show down. When it is your right, it is never going to cost too much to do the right thing. France should be the one being tried for Genocide, not Rwanda.”

Habyarimana was killed when his Dassault Falcon 50 private jet was on the night of April 6, 1994 shot out of the sky above Kigali International Airport. Also killed in the attack was Burundi president Cyprien Ntaryamira, along with seven other officials and a three-man French crew.

Immediately after the incident, Hutu extremists began slaughtering Hutu moderates and Tutsis in the violence that became known as the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi.

Several inquiries

There have been several inquiries into the incident and France has rejected many of them. The International community, including the UN and the USA, has expressed contrition for not standing with Rwanda in its hour of need.

Most scholars into the genocide have concluded that although the attack on Habyarimana appears to have been the trigger, there had been substantial build up to the genocide. Many speak of hatespeech on radio, TV, and newspaper by government operatives. Many of the promoters of the genocide openly called on the Hutu to massacre the Tutsi.

However, when the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) led by Kagame captured power, it pursued a policy of reconciliation. It encouraged perpetrators of the genocide to seek reconciliation with victims and organised quick trials based on ancient Rwandan traditions. This enabled the country to push the genocide into the background and push forward with fresh attitudes. Incidents like the French re-opening of the probe into the Habyarimana attack threaten to open old wounds.

In November 2006, Rwanda broke off diplomatic ties with France after the controversial former French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière claimed that top Rwandan officials were involved in the downing of the Habyarimana’s plane.

In February, a French general testified in a Rwandan genocide hearing in France for the first time.

Gen. Jean-Claude Lafourcade led France’s UN-mandated Operation Turquoise in Kigali at the time of the genocide.

The French force is accused of leaving Tutsis to be slaughtered by Hutu killers in the western Bisesero hills in June 1994 even when it had capacity to intervene and save lives. The French soldiers had been deployed in Rwanda a few days earlier under UN instructions to stop the genocide that had begun in April.

In 2005 survivors filed a complaint in France, saying the French troops had on June 27 vowed to return to Bisesero, but when they came back three days later, it was too late for hundreds of Tutsis who were massacred. The 72-year old Gen. Lafourcade is not on trial but appeared as an “assisted witness”. He denied the accusations.

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editor@independent.co.ug