A French judge has unexpectedly decided to reopen an investigation into the massacre at Bisesero in Rwanda in June 1994 and the actions of the French military in relation to it. This bloody event, part of the Hutu genocide against the Tutsi people, is seen as one of the most embarrassing episodes for France during the entire genocide. The investigating judge is reopening the case following an independent commission's report on the Rwandan genocide that was delivered to President Emmanuel Macron in March 2021. That commission, led by historian Vincent Duclert, said France bore “serious and overwhelming responsibilities” for events in Rwanda. Fabrice Arfi reports.
Aloys Ntiwiragabo, the former head of Rwanda’s military intelligence under the country’s extremist Hutu regime, accused of being a ringleader in the 1994 genocide that is estimated to have exterminated up to one million mostly Tutsi people in the African state, continues to reside in France despite a request by Rwanda for his extradition and the rejection of his asylum application. The case of Ntiwiragabo, suspected of “crimes against humanity”, is a further demonstration of the unofficial haven that perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide have found in France. Theo Englebert reports.
However, when asked if an apology would be a further important gesture Kagamé, who was in Paris for a summit on post-pandemic financing for African nations hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, responded: 'I think so.'
The Paris prosecution services have advised that a judicial investigation into the alleged complicity of French troops in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of Tutsis by Hutu extremists be dropped for lack of evidence.
The report also said Paris bore "heavy and overwhelming responsibilities" over the 1994 Rwanda genocide, but it found no evidence of French complicity.
In July 1994 in Rwanda, immediately after the fall of the murderous Hutu regime that had led the genocide of hundreds of thousands of the minority ethnic Tutsi population, a group of regime officials, including its president, had fled into a “safe zone” controlled by the French army. A document now discovered in official archives in Paris proves that the French government knew of the presence of the regime officials, but instead of detaining them it organised their escape out of Rwanda. The document, a cable sent from the office of then French foreign minister Alain Juppé, was signed by the current head of the French foreign intelligence agency, the DGSE. Fabrice Arfi reports.
The Rwandan authorities have issued an international warrant for the arrest and extradition of Aloys Ntiwiragabo, a former head of the country’s military intelligence who is accused of playing a key role in the 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered, after an investigation by Mediapart revealed that he had settled with his wife in the French town of Orléans.
In July Mediapart revealed that Rwandan colonel Aloys Ntiwiragabo, who is suspected of playing an important role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, was now living in Orléans in France. Now we can reveal that the former head of Rwandan military intelligence has been living here for at least 14 years. Yet, curiously, paperwork acknowledging his request for political asylum in France was only sent to him in February 2020. The fact that his asylum application has only been made recently raises questions about what Aloys Ntiwiragabo's status had been in the meantime - and whether he had received discreet support. Théo Englebert reports.
France's anti-terrorism prosecution authorities have opened a preliminary investigation for 'crimes against humanity' into Aloys Ntiwiragabo after Mediapart revealed that he was living in a quiet suburb of Orléans, a city 75 miles south-west of Paris. There had been an international search for the former head of military intelligence over his suspected role in the massacre of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Aloys Ntiwiragabo, now 72, also founded and led a criminal armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which has been blamed for attacks in central Africa. But the Rwandan fugitive disappeared off the radar until Mediapart tracked him down. There are now questions over how France could have allowed him to enter the country and live here undetected. Théo Englebert reports.
Félicien Kabuga, 84, who is accused of funding and encouraging the genocide of 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, and who was was indicted by the UN international criminal tribunal for Rwanda in 1997 for genocide and six other counts, was arrested on Saturday in the Paris suburb of Asnières where he had been living under a false identity.
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