Kagame Blasts Spain Over Indictment of Rwandan Soldiers

The Rwandan President Paul Kagame has blasted the Spanish government following indictments issued against senior military officers in his government for alleged human rights crimes during the 1994 Genocide.

The Rwandan leader described the recent indictments by a Spanish judge as an attack on the Kigali establishment.

“If you look at what is in the dossier, they are actually not indicting the individuals listed (army officers) but the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF),” Kagame told journalists during a monthly press conference held in Kigali on Wednesday.

“Just imagine the arrogance! How a judge sitting in a Spanish village feels a duty to indict a whole leadership of another country. This is totally unacceptable,” he said.

He also openly protested the Spaniards’ move to try top Rwandan army officers. He said that the reason behind the issuance of indictments had something to do with the relationship between the developed and developing states.

“In the west, people behave as if they are in heaven. They have put themselves in the place of God. That is why a Spanish judge can sit in Spain and decide to indict Kagame because I lead RPF, which stopped the genocide that they were part of,” the visibly bitter Kagame said.

Kagame also wondered how the same judge could not indict people in Spain or in other countries who participated in the genocide in Rwanda but, easily rushes to hold the Kigali leadership (which stopped the genocide) responsible.

He said his government won’t tolerate such an unfriendly attitude of the west towards the developing world, and as such he would treat it as aggression.

Kagame’s remarks come after the indictment of some senior military officers in Rwanda by a Spanish judge.

In February this year, Judge Andreu Fernando Merrelles indicted forty officers of the former liberation army - the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) on genocide related crimes committed during the genocide of a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994.

They were also linked to the death of nine Spanish nationals during the mayhem. The Spanish judge also claims to be in possession of evidence implicating Kagame, the former commander of RPA in the atrocities but, cannot indict him because he has immunity in his status as head of state.

“If I could meet him (Fernando), I would tell him to go to hell,” he said, adding that he would not hand over any of the indicted persons because Spain has no jurisdiction over Rwanda.

Meanwhile, this is the second time the international community is indicting senior officers in Kigali. France issued similar indictments in 2006 leading to severing of ties between the two countries.

Source African Press Agency

Net News Publisher