Demonstrations in Kigali as Rwandan government official placed on remand in France

A senior Rwandan presidential aide has been placed on remand by a French court investigating her over the killing of a former President. Rose Kabuye was detained in Frankfurt last week and extradited to Paris yesterday.

She is one of Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s closest confidants and is accused of involvement in the assassination of a former President, along with nine others.

Its hoped the relaxed terms of Kabuye’s detention will ease worsening tensions between Kigali and France.

Her arrest has led to protests across Rwanda, where she is a popular, almost heroic, figure, having been a former guerilla fighter.

Thousands turned out yesterday in the capital, Kigali, to protest against her extradition.

“Rwanda has something to accuse France of. France has nothing to accuse Rwanda of. France was involved on the side of the genocide planners. France participated in the genocide in this country. Its been widely documented.” said the country’s Information Minister.

President Jouvenal Habyarimana was an ethnic Hutu. His plane, whose crew was French, was shot down in April 1994 as Tutsi fighters advanced on the Rwandan capital.

The Hutu government accused them of the assassination, triggering three months of systematic ethnic slaughter in which an estimated 800 thousand died.

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