General Paul Kagame, the commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and the de facto leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels is responsible for the assassination of late Rwandan President General Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, their close aides and the French flight crew, General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, former chief of staff of the RPA has lately testified in a sworn confidential statement in front of French prosecutors. The latest testimony has led to the reopening of a formal investigation, that had been suspended years ago, without much explanations. Presidents Habyarimana and Ntaryamira were assassinated on the
evening of 6 April 1994. Their assassination was the catalyst for unprecedented ethnically based massacres. At the and of the massacres, millions of Rwandans, from Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups were killed. The assassination and the massacres that followed set off a regional humanitarian catastrophe whose consequences are felt even today, 22 years later. One can safely say that the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira has led to more than 7 million deaths, based on estimates from the NGOs, experts and, most importantly, the United Nations, to date.
The French investigation, initiated following a case brought to court by the families of the French flight crew, has been on-going for more than 15 years, but was paralyzed in courts for unclear reasons, mostly, according to sources close to the case, due to diplomatic and political interference from French politicians. In some instances, French politicians, either bowing to pressure or to maintain their unexplained close relations with General Kagame’s regime suspended or shelved investigations, without explanations. It is believed that that the current French government, known to have given a cold shoulder to General Paul Kagame and his aides, has taken the opportunity of the deposition from Gen Kagame’s former army chief, General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, to heartedly reopen the case. FULL STORY