Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- [This is not the feature I had in mind, which I'm still looking for, but still makes the point.] http://www.chez.com/inforwanda/nouvelles/rwa2.htm. "There was also speculation that the missiles came from the United States or Uganda." Saturday, March 25, 2000 French ask for access to assassination documents Revealed in national post: UN papers provide leads in death of Rwandan president Steven Edwards National Post UNITED NATIONS - Revelations in the National Post about the assassination of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana in a missile attack on his plane have sparked off a firestorm of controversy. French police and diplomatic officials have asked for access to the documents obtained by the newspaper that reveal vital leads in the Habyarimana assassination. Also seeking the documents are lawyers representing Rwandans accused in the country's genocide, which the assassination triggered. The new information comes from United Nations war crimes investigators, who told the Post on condition of confidentiality how their investigation was abruptly halted. If their allegations are true, they cast new light on the assassination. However, concerns for the safety of people named in the documents meant not all the information contained could appear in the article. France's interest in the murder rests in part on the fact there were three French crew on the Falcon 10 jet that was blown out of the sky by unknown assailants as it made its landing approach at Kigali, the Rwandan capital, on April 6, 1994. In addition, the Rwandans' lawyers -- several of whom are Canadian -- believe the documents contain information that may help their clients. In the years since the assassination, many scholars have speculated that Hutu extremists killed the president, who was also a Hutu, because he seemed to be on the verge of forging a power-sharing agreement with Rwanda's Tutsis. However, the documents obtained by the Post do not support this theory. They say that three informants told UN war crimes investigators sometime between April 6, 1996, and May 1, 1997, they had been part of a secret strike squad created by the mainly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front to carry out commando-style attacks, including the assassination of the president. The informants' most controversial allegation is that Paul Kagame, the RPF's former military chief, now acting president of Rwanda, was "overall operations commander" of the assassination plot. Mr. Kagame became Rwanda's leader in everything but name after the RPF snatched power from the 1994 Hutu-dominated government that had participated in the genocide. The informants also said the plane was shot down "with the assistance of the foreign government," though the documents do not identify which one. France, Belgium and the United States had all been trying to broker peace in Rwanda, while Uganda was an ally of the RPF. Early speculation that the missiles used to shoot down the plane were French may explain the French diplomats' interest in the documents obtained by the Post. There was also speculation the missiles came from the United States or Uganda. French police authorities asked to see the documents by approaching the Post through the RCMP. Lawyers representing Hutus accused in the genocide plan to petition Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, on Monday for the documents. They believe the information they contain could show atrocities were committed by both sides. They are also angry that war crimes prosecutors have denied there was any investigation into the assassination. Investigators who worked on the probe told the Post it lasted for several months and was shut down by Louise Arbour, the UN's chief war crimes prosecutor, after she was shown the allegations implicating the RPF. Her reason for doing this, says one of the documents, was that the assassination was not part of the mandate the UN Security Council had given her office. However, one of the documents also reveals she was "at first very positive" about the information provided by the informants. Ms. Arbour, now a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, has not commented publicly on the Post article about the documents. According to the investigators, the investigation involved following several leads beyond those implicating the RPF. For example, one investigator described how he had tried to trace a flight recorder alleged to be from the president's plane. Such devices -- popularly known as the "black box" -- are routinely sought when planes crash or are downed because they show instrument readings and record cockpit conversations in the last moments of the flight. However, soldiers of President Habyarimana's government prevented outsiders from inspecting the plane's wreckage after the crash, so no one was sure the plane even carried a black box. According to the investigator, a black box purportedly from the plane was delivered to UN offices in Nairobi in the months after the assassination. From there, it was sent to New York. The investigation was shut down before he could learn more. As it turns out, experts probing the assassination have since determined the plane did not carry a black box. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! 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