RWANDAÂÂ9/3/2004Â19:36
FRENCH INVESTIGATION IMPLICATES KAGAME IN ATTACK AGAINST EX PRESIDENT
The current President of Rwanda and ex leader of the rebels of RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front), Paul Kagame, allegedly ordered the attack on the aeroplane of then Rwandan Head of State Juvenal Habyarimana in April 1994, according to a report by the âNational Anti-terrorist Branchâ of the French investigative police, anticipated in todayâs edition of the Parisian daily newspaper âLe Mondeâ. The anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis BruguiÃre, who is in charge of the inquiry, took delivery of the 220-page report on 30 January, concluding the preliminary stage of investigation.
On 6 April 1994, air-to-land missiles fired from the area around the airport of the capital Kigali hit and destroyed the âFalcon 50â that was carrying the Rwandan President, his Burundian homologue Cyprien Ntaryamira and high-ranking leaders of the two countries. According to the newspaper, the report describes Kagame â at the time head of RPF, the armed Tutsi movement that took power after the genocide in July 1994 and still controls the Rwandan government - as the principal accessory before the attack, which was organised by a dozen high-ranking RPF commanders.
âLe Mondeâ reports that the investigation is based on hundreds of testimonies, dozens of rogatory letters and numerous judicial missions abroad, thanks also to the collaboration of numerous RPF dissidents, who are currently in exile in a safe place. They apparently include several members of the ânetwork commandoâ, the clandestine structure directly under the orders of General Kagame at the time of the genocide, and which was charged with organising Habyarimanaâs assassination.
The death of the Head of State was seen as the âsignalâ for the extremist Hutus and interahamwe militias to begin the massacres of the Tutsi minority and numerous moderate Hutus; it is calculated that hundreds of thousands of people (between 500,000 and 800,000 people according to the most common estimates) were killed. Kagame has always rejected all charges, denying his involvement, or that of the RPF, in the attack.
The Head of State also contests the competence of the Parisian judges (the investigation began in 1998 upon the request of the families of the pilots of Habyarimanaâs Falcon, French nationals). The anti-terrorism judge BruguiÃre also points the finger at the UN, which allegedly partly obfuscated the investigations and retained custody of the aircraftâs âblack boxâ.
What risks does Kagame run? None, for the time being, according to a source cited by âLe Mondeâ, who recalls the immunity enjoyed by the Rwandan President. It is now up to the Parisian prosecution to decide whether to issue international arrest warrants against a dozen high-ranking government officials in Kigali for âmurder in connection with terrorist activitiesâ. [LC]
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
