RWANDA: Rwanda breaks off diplomatic ties with France in protest at French judge's call for President Paul Kagame to stand trial

Record ID: 285301

  • Title: RWANDA: Rwanda breaks off diplomatic ties with France in protest at French judge's call for President Paul Kagame to stand trial
  • Date: 26th November 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Kinyarwanda) KIGALI RESIDENT, THEODORE NTAKABURIMVANO, SAYING: "This decision to sack the French embassy here in Kigali could not surprise anybody because after (the) 94 genocide, this government never appreciated France because it supported the former government, so (it is) nothing new if the relationship is interrupted."
  • Embargoed: 11th December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Rwanda
  • Country: Rwanda
  • Reuters ID: LVA1MODJOWRKTAII79VXP7QB4SNK
  • Story Text: Rwanda broke off diplomatic ties with France on Friday (November 24) in protest at a French judge's call for President Paul Kagame to stand trial over the killing of a former leader which unleashed the country's genocide.
    Kigali's foreign affairs minister Charles Murigande said the government had given France's ambassador to Rwanda 24 hours to leave the central African country and told other French diplomats to go within 72 hours. A Rwandan statement earlier on Friday accused France of trying to topple the government.
    France said it regretted Rwanda's decision.
    Thousands of Rwandans protested in the capital on Thursday (November 23) after anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere issued arrest warrants for nine associates of Kagame over the 1994 shooting down of a plane carrying former President Juvenal Habyarimana.
    The accusations have infuriated the Kagame government which calls them a cover-up for France's alleged role in training soldiers who carried out the genocide.
    In Kigali on Saturday there was a flurry of activity as French citizens tried to find out what was going on from their embassy.
    Rwandans supported the decision by their president.
    "This decision to sack the French embassy here in Kigali could not surprise anybody because after (the) 94 genocide, this government never appreciated France because it supported the former government, so (it is) nothing new if the relationship is interrupted," said Theodore Ntakaburimvano, a Kigali resident.
    Others accused France of trying to colonise Rwanda.
    "France did genocide here with militias, now they want to make terror on our country. This is unacceptable. I want to say that we can not be terrified by France or any country, we are calm here - (it) is good to live with someone (in whom) you have confidence, and the powerful countries must know that colonisation is over forever," said Karake Joseph.
    Bruguiere's investigation followed a complaint by the families of the French crew flying Habyarimana's plane and the leader's widow Agathe.
    The crash, which Hutu extremists blamed on Tutsis, was used to fan the flames of ethnic hatred which led to the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over 100 days.
    Kagame, a Tutsi, is revered by many genocide survivors because his rebel army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, defeated the Hutu extremists in a march across the country to Kigali.
    Rwanda said France was trying to bring down its government.
    "For the last 12 years, France has waging both overt and covert war against the government of Rwanda hoping to overthrow it and re-instate to power allies and perpetrators of the genocide," a foreign ministry statement said.
    Rwanda was a Belgian colony until independence in 1962. France maintained close links with the Francophone country from 1975 to 1994, providing financial and military support to Habyarimana's government.
    Rwanda last month launched a probe into France's alleged role in the genocide. It accused France of backing Habyarimana's government and training soldiers it knew were plotting to commit the massacres. Paris denies the charges.
    Bruguiere said there was evidence Kagame and his military staff devised the operation to shoot down Habyarimana's plane, which was hit by a missile in April 1994. There were three French crew members on the plane.
    Kagame has immunity under French law but Bruguiere urged the U.N. tribunal on Rwanda's genocide to try him.
    French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said that Judge Bruguiere had filed international arrest warrants but did so on his own authority and in total independence.
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