Local government leaders protest Kabuye’s arrest

More than three thousand local government leaders in Kigali City yesterday also added their voice in the protest against the arrest of Rose Kabuye, the Chief of State Protocol. It’s now ten days since she was arrested and detained in Germany while on official duty. She is now awaiting extradition to France where she will challenge the basis of French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière’s allegations of having had a role in the shooting down of Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane in 1994. The protesters from the cell up to the district level, matched from downtown Kigali up to the German Embassy in Kiyovu. There, they demanded for the immediate release of Rose Kabuye and denounced ‘manipulation of international justice’. “This is a message from all Rwandans to the European countries: Madame Rose Kabuye is innocent,” one of the protesters read a message on behalf of other local leaders. Several independent analysts believe Bruguiere’s accusations were doctored by France in order to cover-up its reported role in the 1994 Tutsi Genocide. Yesterday’s protests follow many more which started as soon as news of Kabuye’s arrest reached Rwandans. The news was broken to the country on the very day of her arrest by the Minister of Information, Louise Mushikiwabo flanked by Foreign Affairs Minister, Rosemary Museminali and Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Tharcisse Karugarama. The protesters emphasised that Rose was innocent and that she was ‘ready to prove it in court’. ‘She stopped the Genocide in Rwanda when the rest of the international community was overseeing it,’ a protest placard read. “She is a hero…she is innocent, she saved our country,” read yet another. Ends

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Local government leaders protest Kabuye’s arrest