By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
PARIS, France — French police arrested Agathe Habyarimana Tuesday, the widow of Juvenal Habyarimana, the Rwandan president whose plane was shot down in 1994, setting off the massacre of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu. Agathe Habyarimana, who had been living in a Paris suburb for the past 12 years after fleeing her country, is wanted for trial in her homeland as one of the alleged masterminds of the 1994 genocide.
French police were acting on an international arrest warrant issued by Rwanda when they turned up at Habyarimana’s home in Courcouronnes, south of Paris, shortly before 8:00 am. The Tutsi-led government in Kigali has accused the 68-year-old woman of being a member of the “akazu” Hutu inner circle that planned the mass killings, a charge she has steadfastly denied.
Her arrest came a week after President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Kigali to seal the restoration of diplomatic ties between France and Rwanda after a three-year break. Kigali broke off relations with Paris in late 2006 after a French anti-terrorist judge implicated President Paul Kagame’s entourage in Habyarimana’s assassination.
During his trip, Sarkozy stopped short of offering an apology but admitted that France had made “mistakes” by failing to recognize the scale of the killings. After touring the genocide memorial, Sarkozy said France would do everything possible to ensure that “all those responsible for the genocide are found and are punished.”
Habyarimana’s lawyer, Philippe Meilhac, said the arrest of the widow dubbed “Lady Genocide” by some rights groups was directly linked to Sarkozy’s Kigali visit last week. “You can’t not draw a link,” said Meilhac. “The extradition request from Kigali dates back to November and was obviously re-activated” after Sarkozy returned from Rwanda.
Habyarimana was refused political asylum in 2004 and lost a final appeal in October before the State Council because French judges had found she was a central figure in the Hutu government that orchestrated the genocide. It was unclear if Mrs. Habyarimana would be extradited because France has refused to hand over other suspects for fear they would not receive fair trial.
Meilhac said that Habyarimana will fight extradition and that “if she must be heard, she asks that it be in a French or international court.” “She considers that Rwandan criminal courts are not sufficiently independent or impartial,” said Meilhac.
France has transferred three Rwandan suspects to Tanzania to face prosecution before an international tribunal, but judges have so far refused to extradite genocide suspects to Kigali.
For more information, please see:
The New Times – Agathe Habyarimana Arrested for Genocide – 3 March 2010
New York Times – Widow of a Rwandan Leader Is Arrested – 2 March 2010
AFP – Rwandan Leader’s Widow Arrested in France – 2 March 2010
