20.04.07 - RWANDA/FRANCE - THE COMPLAINT FOR TWO RWANDAN GENERAL AGAINST FRANCE DELAYED TO MAY 24

Brussels, April 20, 2007 (FH) – Belgian courts postponed until May 24 the consideration of the complaint of two Rwandan generals to subpoena the French instruction judge Jean-Louis Brugiere and the Belgian state.   The status of the file not permitting a decision at this point, the first Chamber of the civil tribunal of Brussels had a hearing for postponement.   Generals Charles Kayonga, chief of the General Staff of ground-forces and Jackson Nkurunziza, in charge of civic education in the Rwandan army, are part of nine figures close to Rwandan President Paul Kagame named by international arrest warrants delivered following an order from the judge of instruction, made public on November 27, 2006.   This order concluded that the RPF and Paul Kagame were responsible for the bombing of President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane on April 6, 1994 the day before the genocide started, which caused between 800,000 and 1 million deaths.  Charles Kayonga and Jackson Nkurunziza participated in this bombing, according to the French judge.   The two generals asked Belgium to not enforce these arrest warrants which would constitute a hindrance to their freedom of movement in the course of their responsibilities.  They also allege defamation by the order “which considers facts as already established” even though the judge of instruction should have not stepped beyond the stage of “presumptions,” their lawyer Serge Moureaux told the Hirondelle Agency a few days ago.   The judge of instruction’s lawyer as well as those of the Ministers of the Interior and Justice who represent the Belgian state, did not wish to respond to our questions.   Rwanda also filed a case Wednesday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations in a request against France after these arrest warrants were issued.  Kigali asked the Court to take immediate measures and to suspend – during the time which the matter could be heard on the merits – the arrest warrants so that the named persons could travel.  Because France must accept the Court’s jurisdiction, it has, for this reason, little chance of occurring.   BF/PB/KD  © Hirondelle News Agency