11.05.10 - RWANDA/FRANCE - FRENCH JUDGES IN RWANDA TO INVESTIGATE GENOCIDE CASE

Arusha, May 11, 2010 (FH) - Two French investigating judges are currently in Rwanda to investigate the alleged responsibility of former army officer Captain Pascal Simbikangwa in the 1994 genocide.

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"They arrived on May 8 for two weeks of investigation," the Rwandan prosecutor general's spokesman Augustin Nkusi told Hirondelle news agency by phone on Tuesday.

Captain Simbikangwa, now restricted to a wheelchair, was in 1994 head of military intelligence at the office of the president. Rwanda accuses him of drawing up lists of Tutsis to be killed and participating in killings in Kigali.

Born in 1959 in northern Rwanda, Captain Simbikangwa was arrested in 2008 in the French overseas territory of Mayotte in connection with forged documents. He was then identified as being wanted by Interpol for his alleged involvement in the genocide.

He was indicted on April 16, 2009, and placed in detention in France following a complaint filed by a French association called "collective of the civil parties for Rwanda".

Simbikangwa is a relative of Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of former President Juvénal Habyarimana. He was allegedly a member of the inner circle of the "Hutu Power" structure, known as the Akazu.

Since 1995, France has opened fifteen investigations into Rwandan refugees in France accused of participating in the genocide. No trials have yet been held.

Another rogatory commission arrived in Kigali from Norway on April 29 to investigate the case of Sadi Bugingo, a Rwandan citizen living in Norway. He is charged by Rwanda with participating in the genocide. According to Augustin Nkusi, the Norwegian team should finish its mission on Thursday.

ER/GF/JC

© Hirondelle News Agency