French Judge Accuses Rwandan President of Assassination

The bitter relationship between France and Rwanda sank to new depths yesterday after a French judge accused the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, of ordering the assassination of the Hutu president that led to the genocide of 800,000 Tutsis in 1994.

The judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, who is investigating the shooting down of President Juvénal Habyarimana's plane over Kigali, is expected to issue international arrest warrants for nine officials in Rwanda allegedly involved in the assassination. They include the head of Rwanda's armed forces, James Kabarebe, and the army chief of staff, Charles Kayonga.

Mr Bruguière said he believes Mr Kagame, a Tutsi, should also stand trial, but the president has immunity as head of state. Mr Kagame has vigorously rejected accusations that his Rwandan Patriotic Front was responsible for killing Mr Habyarimana.

Other investigations have concluded that Hutu extremists were probably responsible for shooting down the plane because they moved swiftly to seize power and instigate the genocide.

The Rwandan foreign minister, Charles Murigande, accused France of attempting to distract attention from its collaboration with the Hutu regime responsible for the genocide. "They have panicked because they know their acts during the genocide were going to be exposed to the rest of the world in the ongoing probe commission here," he told Reuters.

Rwanda is conducting its own inquiry into the French role in the genocide. Before the slaughter, French officers were attached to a number of elite battalions who came to play a leading role in the killing. It is not forgotten in Rwanda that when French troops arrived at the beginning of the genocide they evacuated white foreigners and their pets while ignoring the pleas of fleeing Tutsis for protection. A French contingent abandoned about 2,000 Tutsis under their protection at a school to be murdered.

Mr Bruguière is investigating the shooting down of the plane because it had a French crew. He says in the warrants that Mr Kagame gave orders for the assassination because the death of Mr Habyarimana "was the necessary precondition for seizing power by force, and was inscribed in a vast plan worked out to this end". His case is largely built on the testimony of former members of the RPF who fled to Europe.