Rwanda to Issue Arrest Warrants Against French Soldiers

In a retaliatory move, Rwanda is preparing to issue international arrest warrants against 23 French soldiers for their alleged role in the 1994 genocide which claimed over one million souls in just 100 days, according to a senior Rwandan justice official.
The Rwandan move is retaliating against the arrest in Germany on Sunday of Rwanda president’s chief of protocol and war heroine, Col. Rose Kabuye, following indictments issued by the French judge Jean Louis Bruguiere.

In 2006 Bruguiere issued the international arrest warrants against Kabuye and other nine senior Rwandan officials, charging them with involvement in shooting down of a presidential aircraft in 1994 that killed former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart. The crashed plane also included French pilots.

“The indictments are being finalized, the arrest warrants can be issued any time from now,” Rwanda minister of Justice Tharcisse Karugarama told APA on Tuesday night, calling on Rwandans to remain calm during this trying period of Kabuye’s arrest.

“It’s a struggle like any other that has been fought with highest sacrifice. The harder the struggle, the sweeter the victory and Kabuye is a sacrifice for a sweetest victory to come.”

Kabuye’s arrest is seen by many in Kigali as a politically crafted diversionary tool by France and its European allies to undermine the work of the recently published Rwandan government report that implicated several senior French military and political officials in the genocide.

Among them is the former President Francois Mitterrand and ministers.

According to the report, the French were directly involved in planning and execution of the genocide.

Ten French senior military officials, who include five generals, who participated in the French peace keeping mission in Rwanda under “Zone Turquoise” have since filed a lawsuit against Rwanda in a Paris court for Rwanda of defamation and slander.

Source African Press Agency

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