07.03.07 - FRANCE/RWANDA - BRUGUIERE'S ORDER IS MARRED WITH "POLITICAL SENTIMENTS" ACCORDING TO HRW

 Arusha, March 7, 2007 – For the American organization in defense of human rights, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the investigative report of the French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere on the assassination of the former president Juvenal Habyarimana contains “political sentiments that are rather evident.” “It is unfortunate that there were rather clear political sentiments, conclusions which were neither necessary nor justified,” Mrs. Alison Des Forges, in charge of the African division of the organization, regretted Wednesday. According to the Bruguiere report published last November, the current Rwandan president Paul Kagame could be primarily responsible for the bombing that cost the life of his predecessor. The French Judge sent arrest warrants against 9 high-level Rwandan officials and called for the prosecution of Kagame before international justice, which led Kigali to break diplomatic relations with Paris. “It could have been possible to present these conclusions and facts which support them on the theory of the plane attack (that of Habyarimana) without ever venturing on the question of the final political objective,” declared Mrs. Des Forge, in an interview with the Hirondelle Agency, specializing in the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The American activist who came as an expert-witness for the prosecution in the trial of the former prefect of Kigali, Colonel Tharcisse Renzhao, also asked how there could have been “errors in such an important document.” The American historian nevertheless called states to aid in the execution of the warrants. “The position of our organization is like that of all human rights organizations: if there is an international arrest warrant, countries must accept executing them,” she said. “But the possibility of their (the issued warrants) being executed are limited. Twice already, suspects went to Rwanda’s exterior, in West Africa and in Tanzania and had no problem,” added Mrs. Des Forges. Mrs. Des Forges, who is one of the principal expert witnesses for the prosecution at the ICTR, also said she was ready to bring her expertise in the Tribunal’s service, in other eventual trials of members of the former rebellion of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). During her cross-examination Tuesday, she stated that the bombing against Habyarimana’s aircraft was, in her opinion, part of the ICTR’s mandate. The current ICTR prosecutor is opposed. ER/PB/KD © Hirondelle News Agency