KIMIHURURA - Members of the Chamber of Deputies have described recent indictments by a Spanish judge against former key figures in Rwanda’s liberation struggle, all members of what used to be called Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) now Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF).

Earlier this year, judge

Fernando Andrei Mirelles alleged that forty former RPA officers committed crimes against humanity during and after the 1994 Genocide.

The lawmakers expressed anger at judge Mirelles’ indictments against the Rwandans – most of them currently occupying senior positions in Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) – after Justice minister Tharcisse Karugarama delivered a statement on the indictments yesterday at Parliamentary Buildings, Kimihurura. Most of the lawmakers called on the government to drag Mirelles to a court of law, describing the indictments as an act of disrespect of Rwanda as a sovereign state and negationism of the 1994 Genocide.

Some also described the action as a "judicial terrorism" and blatant abuse of the international law. "Our enemies have always tried to disturb the country’s security through all sorts of elusive efforts.

It is clear that they have now embarked on using foreign judges to terrorize us but they can never achieve their evil objectives," MP Ezechias Rwabuhihi stressed.

He said that Mirelles’ efforts are also meant to negate the 1994 Genocide and to give support to the Genocide perpetrators still at large and who continue to harbour the ideology of genocide.

MP Abbas Mukama wondered where Merrelles derived the authority to "insult a sovereign state" and launch a slanderous campaign against people who have instead sacrificed their "everything" to liberate their nation.

"Genocide fugitives are using foreign judicial systems to launch a diplomatic Coup d’état which we should strongly fight," Mukama said angrily.

He urged the Rwandan community living in the Diaspora and civil society organisations to denounce such indictments, which he said were only issued to disrupt the unity of Rwandans and the country’s healing process in general.

MPs said that Merelles’ warrants are baseless and a sign of sheer carelessness because he never bothered to come to Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – the alleged scenes of the purported crimes – to find out the truth. "This also demonstrates how FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) militias are using some foreigners to carry on with their propaganda against our country," Samuel Musabyimana observed. FDLR is a Rwandan rebel outfit based in DR Congo, with most of its members believed to have taken part in the 100-day Genocide in which over one million people died. "He (Merelles) only wants to take the country back into the culture of hatred and discrimination; we can never accept that," Musabyimana added.

Minister Karugarama also told the parliamentarians that the judges’ action was politically motivated. "It was a document full of racism and attacks on our officers; which needs to be strongly condemned," he observed.

He told the MPs that the government was exploring several avenues including legal and diplomatic measures.

He however said the Spanish government had disassociated itself from the indictments, and never forwarded them to Interpol.

Ends