Rwanda/France - interview

Kabuye indictment "politically motivated", says minister

Article published on the 2008-11-20 Latest update 2008-11-20 16:48 TU

Demonstrators protest in Kigali at Kabuye's arrest
( Photo: Reuters )

The French indictment of Rwandan presidential aide Rose Kabuye is "poltically motivated", Rwandan Information Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told RFI on Thursday. She called for the case against Kabuye to go to court quickly and said that the poor relations between Kigali and Paris should not be allowed to affect it.

"These indictments are politically motivated, they are legally shallow, but we haven’t had a chance to prove it," Mushikiwabo says, adding that Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, who prepared the case but has since retired, "indicted individuals without giving them a chance to be heard".

"What we’re expecting from the French judicial system is fairness and speed," the minister says. "Mrs Kabuye should not be there … she needs to get back to her family and her function.These indictments have apparently been ready for two years, so there is no reason for her to be delayed in France."

Mushikiwabo claims that both the Rwandan government and those named by Bruguière have been asking to be heard for the last 18 months, "but nobody’s paid attention".

Kabuye, who was extradited to France on Wednesday, was placed  under judicial investigation - in effect charged - for "complicity in murder in relation to terrorism" on Thursday. She was later released on condition she not leave France without permission and appear when requested by magistrates, according to her lawyers.

A key witness has retracted his testimony and now France should recognise that it has made a "very serious mistakes", says the minister. "We want to see these particular individuals as our citizens, free and operating freely in any part of the world."

Mushikiwabo offers no compromise on Rwanda's accusation of  French complicity in the1994 genocide, but insists that the controversy should not influence the judicial process.

"The relations between our two countries for the last 14 years have been not good and for good reason," she says. "France has wronged Rwanda and France has refused to acknowledge and to admit its responsibility in the genocide that really affected so many people in this country."

But "that’s a separate issue to justice which should be not tainted by relations or politics and that’s why we would like all the officials targeted by this shallow indictment to recover their rights as citizens".

And she concludes, "As for the relations, I think there’s a long way to go."