Genocide Survivors in Rwanda have Condemned the Arrest of Rwandan Official in Germany

Rwandan genocide survivors through their umbrella organization, Ibuka, on Wednesday issued a strong statement condemning French indictments of Rwandan senior officials and the arrest in Germany of government chief of protocol Rose Kabuye.

Kabuye, a retired army colonel, was together with nine other senior Rwandan officials indicted by French judge Jean Louis Bruguière in 2006 of involvement in shooting down of former Rwandan President Juvenile Habyarimana’s plane.

The shooting down of the presidential plane is widely believed by the French authorities to have triggered the 1994 genocide which resulted in the deaths of over one million people.

Theodore Nsimburudari, the president of the Rwandan genocide survivor’s organization, rebutted the claims and described the French indictments as pure escapisms from genocide crimes committed by France in Rwanda.

He said that by arresting Kabuye who was on a government, Germany was not only a breaching international conventions but also abetting genocide in Rwanda.

“We are deeply saddened and strongly condemn the arrest of the Rwanda official who in actual sense stopped the 1994 genocide,” he said.

“We instead call on both Germany and France to indict and arrest several genociders still at large in many European capitals,” he said in the statement.

The genocide survivors urged Europeans to disassociate themselves from the indictments that seek to prevent Rwandan leaders from pursuing development activities and repairing the heavy damages caused by the genociders and their supporters like France.

The association said France is engaging in escapism and negation of the genocide as the killings had been prepared and systematically carried out with direct involvement of French soldiers.

Source African Press Agency

Net News Publisher