The Paris Court of Appeal on Monday, August 30, ruled against the request by Agatha Kanziga Habyarimana, the widow of former Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, not to be brought to justice over allegations of involvement in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. For over two decades, survivors and the government of Rwanda wondered how Kanziga, 78, a wanted Genocide suspect, continues to evade justice. Kanziga is one of the core members of Akazu, a small elite group that orchestrated the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. For over a decade she had been the subject of an investigation in France, according to reports. Alain Gauthier, the president of the France based rights group, Collectif des parties civiles pours le Rwanda (CPCR), which filed genocide charges against Kanziga 14 years ago, last year noted that when they first filed a complaint against Kanziga on February 14, 2007, we were well aware that we were facing insurmountable difficulties. Politically, he indicated, they knew that it was unfathomable to see how France, which had welcomed her in the first days of the Genocide, with heavy indemnities and a bouquet of flowers, was going to be able, 13 years later, to accept to try her. Despite the fact that she officially has no residence, it was noted, that does not prevent her from spending happy days (apparently not that happy), in her villa in Courcouronnes, surrounded by part of her family, which is far from being the case for many survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi. According to the CPCR, Kanziga could have been extradited, but the Court of Cassation opposed, on 42 occasions, and perhaps more, any transfer to Rwanda. Last November, she appeared before a court in Paris for questioning in an ongoing investigation against Barril, a man who, among others, supplied arms and mercenaries on behalf of the French government to Rwandas genocidal government in 1994.
