French Anti-Terrorist Judge Indicts Paul Kagame’s Closest Aides
French Anti-Terrorist Judge Indicts Paul Kagame’s Closest Aides
Paul Kagame’s Closest Aides Indicted by French Judge
Photo: Jack Nziza
French anti-terrorist Judges Marc Trevin and Nathalie Poux have indicted six close aides to Rwandan President Paul Kagame. The six are accused of shooting down a plane carrying the late Rwandan and Burundian Presidents Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira.
The assassination of the two presidents and their staff, along with the french crew triggered the Rwandan massacres of 1994.
The indictments, with the aim of lifting or keeping the arrest warrants against the accused, happened from December 5 to December 15, 2010 in the Burundian capital Bujumbura. The pending arrest warrants were issued by the former French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere. This led to severed diplomatic relations between Rwanda and France. The relations were eventually restored when France agreed to revisiting the case and Rwanda had one of the accused appear before the French courts.
Those who were indicted in Burundi include: General James Kabarebe, the current Minister of Defense, General Jack Nziza, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Kayonga, Jacob Tumwine, Franck Nziza, Eric Hakizimana and Samuel Kanyemera.
Jacob Tumwine has since the assassination retired from the army. Frank Nziza and Eric Hakizimana are the suspected shooters. However, Eric Hakizimana is allegedly dead. Another suspect, but not present in Bujumbura is General Kayumba Nyamwasa, now in exile in South Africa. Earlier this year, the French judges travelled to South Africa to indict him. Subsequently, his lawyer Gerald Gahima travelled to Spain to respond to a related indictment (see our articles of September 28, 2010: Former Rwandan Prosecutor General Gahima testifies agains Kagame in Spain).
The former Chief of Protocol Mr. Kagame, Rose Kabuye, also named in the warrants was the person indicted in late 2008, and used to restore the diplomatic relations.
The two French judges have been working on the case for some time, after taking over from the retired Judge Bruguiere. In September 2010 they made a trip to Rwanda and brought in experts to reconstruct the attack. The results, with ballistic reconstructions, are expected in March 2011. The area from where the missiles were fired is a critical component that will help determine whether the assassins were in government held areas or on a farm suspected to have been used by a rebel commando, led by Frank Nziza and Eric Hakizimana.
The reactions from the two parts to the case are equally enthusiastic. In a statement made public, the lawyers of the indicted, Lev Forster and Bernard Maingain said:
"The explanations given by the accused shed a light on the case and provided the judges with new and specific facts and evidences. This has shown that the previous indictments and arrest warrants were more the result of manipulation an instruction".
However, the Counsel of late President Juvenal Habyarimana's widow, Philippe Meilhac, for his part, hailed the procedure as " a breakthrough long overdue,” and added that the indictments should have happened earlier, while expressing the satisfaction of approaching the end of the investigation.
©AfroAmerica Network, 2010.
Thursday, December 16, 2010