13.08.10 - RWANDA/FRANCE - FRENCH JUDGES IN RWANDA NEXT MONTH TO INVESTIGATE HABYARIMANA’S DEATH

Arusha, August 13, 2010 (FH) - Two French anti-terrorist judges will go to Kigali in September as part of their investigation into the downing on April 6, 1994 of the jet plane of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana.

According to the French news agency AFP, Marc Trévidic and Nathalie Poux are due to arrive in Rwanda on September 11 for a week-long stay . They will be accompanied by five experts in geometry, ballistic, explosives and arson. The French judges seek to determinate the material circumstances of the plane attack.

The Falcon-50 jet was shot down by a missile as it was about to land at Kigali international airport, killing President Habyarimana and his Burundian Counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira with there delegations. The fateful event triggered a genocide in which more than 800,000 Rwandan, mostly Tutsi, were killed, according to the UN.

The plane's crew members, who also perished in the attack, were French. Their death prompted the French justice to open an investigation.

French policemen and French lawyers representing the crew members' families will also accompany Marc Trévidic and Nathalie Poux.

ER/GF

© Hirondelle News Agency

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