French court rejects fresh probe of plane downing that sparked Rwanda genocide

A plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana, from Rwanda's Hutu majority, was shot down in Kigali on April 6, 1994. BELGA/AFP/File/GERARD GAUDIN

While families of those who died when Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down vowed to pursue their quest for justice, Rwanda dismissed the French process as a “complete farce”.Habyarimana’s widow Agathe and relatives of the French crew of the downed plane said they will seek to challenge Friday’s decision before France’s highest court.

A plane carrying Habyarimana, from Rwanda’s Hutu majority, was shot down in Kigali on April 6, 1994, shattering a fragile peace process and triggering a killing spree targeting mainly members of the Tutsi ethnic minority, but also moderate Hutus. Then in 2012, a report by French experts pinpointed the camp of Kanombe, controlled by Habyarimana’s army, as the missile launch site — shifting the focus of the investigation.

As investigations dragged on in France, Kagame accused Paris ahead of the genocide’s 20th anniversary in 2014, of having played a “direct role” in the killing. The victims’ families want the investigation to be reopened so that French investigators can gain access to a secret 2003 report of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said to blame Kagame’s side for the attack.

Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)

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