Rwanda cuts diplomatic ties with France
Source: Reuters
(Adds French reaction) By Arthur Asiimwe KIGALI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Rwanda broke off diplomatic ties with France on Friday in protest at a French judge's call for President Paul Kagame to stand trial over the killing of a former leader, the event 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 had accused France of trying to topple the government. "We in the cabinet have decided to cut our diplomatic relations with France," he told Reuters. Rwanda has also recalled its ambassador from Paris France said it regretted Rwanda's decision. "Rwandan authorities told our ambassador in Kigali verbally today of their decision to break off diplomatic ties, with the decision taking effect on Monday, Nov. 27," the French foreign ministry said in a statement. "We regret this decision," the ministry said, adding: "We are taking all the necessary measures." Thousands of Rwandans protested in the capital on Thursday 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. Bruguiere's investigation followed a complaint by the families of the French crew flying Habyarimana's plane and the leader's widow Agathe. "WAGING WAR" The crash, which Hutu extremists blamed on Tutsis, was used to fan the flames of ethnic hatred and launch a 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: "Judge Bruguiere has filed international arrest warrants but he did this on his own authority and in total independence."
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