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UN Trashes French Judge Allegations

The New Times (Kigali)
NEWS
November 23, 2006
Posted to the web November 24, 2006

By Edwin Musoni
Kigali
The Arusha, Tanzania-based United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR), has trashed France's allegations accusing President Paul Kagame
for having ordered to shoot down a plane carrying the then-Rwandan president,
Juvenal Habyarimana.
The ICTR has stated that it was at nobody's order to prosecute Kagame.
"Magistrate Bruguiere (pictured) took instructions from nobody in the world to
issue an arrest warrant; not even UN Secretary General Koffi Annan," the
tribunal Deputy Registrar Lovemore Green Munlo said at a press conference in
Arusha yesterday.
Munlo also said that the tribunal has evidence to the effect that the missiles
which downed Habyarimana's plane were from the arms stock of the ex-FAR and had
been purchased from Egypt.
It is also alleged that the missile, SA-16 that downed Habyarimana's plane was
imported from Egypt by the then Rwandan government. Also, sources have it that
the French had a link to the two missiles. Bruguiere is a French anti terrorism
magistrate who said on Monday this week that Kagame should be prosecuted for
'suspected involvement' in the death of Habyarimana. Last month, under the
order of UN, the ICTR denied a request to hear testimony from Bruguiere. Also
under the same order, the tribunal refused to give a 1997 UN report to
Bruguiere which allegedly discusses the spark of the 1994 Genocide.
Meanwhile, protests against the French judge's statement went on in Kigali
yesterday, as President Kagame referred to the magistrate's statement as
bullying and arrogant. According to French law, the French government does not
permit a warrant to be issued for Kagame's arrest because he has diplomatic
immunity as a head of state. However, it is alleged that the French is doing so
as an escape tactic to their direct role in the Rwandan Genocide and
speculation on their responsibility for the death of Habyarimana.
Sources have said that there has been reflection of panic in the Paris
government about Rwanda's commission of inquiry about the alleged role of the
French government in the Rwandan genocide. Also citing tension from Paris,
sources have it that the French's fear for exposure has made Jacques Chirac's
government inspire and motivate Bruguiere to act against the law.
Rwanda and France have been at loggerheads since the 1994 massacre; with Kigali
government accusing Paris of training soldiers it knew would later commit
genocide.


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