29.03.07 - RWANDA/ATTEMPT - RWANDA DECIDES TO LEAD AN INQUIRY INTO THE ASSASSINATION OF HABYARIMANA

Kigali, March 29, 2007 (FH) - The Rwandan government’s Council of Ministers decided Wednesday to launch an investigation into the assassination on April 6, 1994 of former President Juvenal Habyarimana, the event considered to be the catalyst for the 1994 genocide, it was learned from an official source Thursday. "The Counsil of Ministers presided by the head of state Paul Kagama adopted the decree of the Prime Minister instituting an independent committee of experts » charged with investigating the bombing « of April 6, 1994 against the Falcon 50 plane, » which carried Habyarimana, the government-controlled radio station Radio Rwanda reported Thursday morning. President Habyarimana’s plane was attacked by missiles during the evening of April 6, 1994 while it was landing in Kigali upon its return from a meeting of heads of states in the sub-region in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira also was also killed as a result of this bombing. At the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, Tanzania, the Chief Prosecutor, the Gamibian Hassan Bubacar Jallow, repeated that the bombing was not part of the United Nations’ tribunal’s mandate. At the end of last year, the French antiterrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, after many years of investigation, found current president Paul Kagame as the primary person responsible for the assassination. Kagame has continued to deny responsibility for the assassination of his predecessor. The judge immediately issued arrest warrants against 9 Rwandans, which led Kigali to break all diplomatic relations with Paris. ER/PB/KD © Hirondelle News Agency