Miss Habyarimana, who has French citizenship has already received 20 000 euros (27 000 USD) from the guarantee fund for victims of acts of terrorism and other infractions (FGTI) which took its decision on 20 July after receiving the case eleven days before. The FGTI will come to a conclusion, within a few weeks, about the total amount to grant her, continues the AFP. Miss Habyarimana is asking for compensation of 75 000 euros (100 000 USD) for "non-pecuniary damage" and 200 000 euros (270 000 USD) for "material damage" after having had to "hastily" leave her country.
The attack against the plane of President Juvénal Habyarimana was used as a trigger for the 1994 genocide which resulted, according to Kigali, in nearly a million deaths, primarily Tutsis. The investigation opened in France into this attack led to the indictment of nine acquaintances of President Paul Kagame, currently in power, and a request for refer the Head of the Rwandan State to an international tribunal. Following these decisions, the Rwandan government, which has always denied these allegations, broke its diplomatic relations with France.
The other children of the former president, who do not have French citizenship, do not have the right to this recourse. The young woman, who is 28 years old today, was in the presidential residence when she saw crash, in the garden, of the plane transporting her father.
Furthermore, adds the AFP, the members of the Habyarimana family requested on 30 July, by way of their lawyers, a meeting with the new French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
ER/PB/MM
© Hirondelle News Agency