French warrants seek associates of Rwanda's Kagame 2 hours, 1 minute
ago
PARIS (Reuters) - A top French judge has issued arrest warrants for nine
associates of Rwandan president Paul Kagame over a 1994 plane crash that killed
the country's president and sparked a genocide, a judicial source said on
Thursday.
Anti-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere issued the international
warrants on Wednesday on charges of "murder" and "complicity in murder," the
source said, adding one of the people targeted was the military's chief of
staff.
Under French law the warrants, to be passed on by Interpol, mean the suspects
have been placed under official investigation and now face questioning by the
French judge.
Bruguiere earlier this week called for Kagame to be brought before a U.N.
court, a move the Rwandan president has denounced as "bullying and arrogant."
Bruguiere has filed a document at the Paris prosecutor's office, citing
evidence that Kagame, a Tutsi, and members of his military staff devised the
operation to destroy Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane.
Habyarimana's plane was hit by a missile as he flew to the Rwandan capital
Kigali after a summit in April 1994. His killing triggered the massacre of
800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in 100 days of
bloodletting.
Kagame has said French judges have no authority over judges in Rwanda.
Under French law, a warrant cannot be issued for Kagame, who enjoys
diplomatic immunity as a serving head of state. But a judicial source said
Bruguiere had written to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan asking for Kagame
to be brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Bruguiere issued warrants for James Kabarebe, military chief of staff;
Charles Kayonga, army chief of staff; Faustin Nyamwasa-Kayumba, ambassador to
India; Jackson Nkurunziza, a Ugandan working for the Rwandan presidential
guard; Samuel Kanyamera, an FPR deputy; Jacob Tumwime, an army officer; Franck
Nziza, a presidential guard officer; Eric Hakizimana, an intelligence officer;
and Rose Kabuye, nee Kanyange, director general of state protocol
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