Kagame to provide France with evidence against former First Lady

Kampala

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said his government will send evidence to France to prove that Ms Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the assassinated president Juvenal Habyarimana, participated in 1994 Rwanda genocide.

President Kagame, who was addressing journalists at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London on Monday, said they were working with French authorities to “make them aware” of the evidence.

Ms Habyarima was arrested in Paris last week and subsequently bailed out for allegedly masterminding the killing 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994. “We are already working with the authorities in France. France could either try the case or give it to Rwanda to try it. Whatever happens, we expect justice to be done.

That is the aim of our country,” a statement issued by the Commonwealth secretariat, quoted President Kagame. He, however, wondered why the French government had taken long to arrest her. “Certainly this woman has been accused of being involved in the genocide in Rwanda,” the statement said, adding,” Yet this person, who has committed these crimes has been sitting in France which is supposed to have a developed justice system which one might have expected would have seen her tried.” The arrest of Ms Habyarima came days after French President Nicholas Sarkozy visited Kigali in move to mend relations between the two countries.