KIGALI - Senator Aloysia Inyumba has said that the arrest in Germany of Rwanda’s Director of State Protocol, Rose Kanyange Kabuye, is not about her alone but it is about Rwanda as a country.

"Rose is a hero and a liberator for this country. So this is unfair. Again this does not end on an individual (Rose Kabuye) but it is about Rwanda as a country,” Inyumba, who was part of the demonstrators at the German Embassy, underscored.

She had joined Rwandans from different walks of life who had gathered at the Germany embassy in protest against Germany’s outrageous act.

By mid day yesterday, thousands of demonstrators had filled all roads leading to the embassy shouting slogans and waving posters with messages expressing their disgust.

Kabuye’s arrest follows the issuing of French warrants in 2006 against her and eight other individuals with allegations of their involvement in former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana’s death.

In spite of her arrest on Sunday, Berlin had last June said that it was aware of the warrant, but that its laws prevented the arrest of representatives of foreign states on official visits.

Most of the demonstrators were of the view that this arrest was unjust and a direct insult meant to degrade and belittle Rwanda as a country.

"Those that arrested Kabuye are after degrading our country and those very heroes who helped to bring to an end the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda,” one of the demonstrators, Nsengiyumva (he did not give his second name) told The New Times.

Another protestor who declined to give her name was of the view that they should release Kabuye immediately because she deserves more respect than humiliation.

"We want our Rose back because she is a hero and not a villain…she deserves respect not harassment,” she said.

Many of the demonstrators saw Kabuye’s option of facing the French in their courts of law as a sure sign of a clear conscience. She had been given two options by a German court, one being the former and the other being contesting the indictments from Germany.

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