Different activists and Genocide survivors have reacted to the latest ruling by France’s highest court saying that it brings an end to a fallacy that has prevailed for over two decades. This follows the decision by the French cassation court, the highest in the European country, dismissing findings by French magistrate Jean Louis Bruguiere who accused former RPA officers of shooting down the plane that carried former President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. At least seven former officers of the liberation army were indicted by the French magistrate in a case that was dismissed by many – including would-be key witnesses – as politically motivated. The shooting down of the plane near Kigali International Airport preceded the Genocide against the Tutsi by the then regime where over a million people were killed. Eric Ndushabandi, professor of political science at the University of Rwanda, observed that the development puts an end to a theory of Genocide ideology, where the victim was depicted as villain and it also clears the image of Rwandan leadership that was tainted by the accusations. Bruguière’s probe was one-sided, he said, “he spent all these years delivering falsified justice which is influenced by individual incrimination or passion.” “When he first issued the indictments, he would have been mistaken like any other person, but had he been a credible person, he would have done another report or considered others that were released afterward and change his perspective, instead, he held onto it,” he said. Different reports, including one by fellow French judge Marc Trevidic, concluded that there was no way the RPA (Military wing of Rwanda Patriotic Font) could have been behind the attack on Habyarimana’s plane. It vindicated another Mutsinzi Commission report, which concluded that Hutu extremists at Kanombe barracks orchestrated the deadly attack on the Falcon 50 jet as a pretext to carry out the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The probe was carried out by a Rwandan team of experts led by former Chief Justice Jean Mutsinzi. Speaking to The New Times, Yolande Mukagasana, a survivor, author, and researcher on Genocide said that it is saddening that after 20 years, France came to this decision while all along “they knew the truth.” “The reports that were made showed that the firing came from Habyarimana’s military camp (at Kanombe barracks) who were together with French military personnel,” she said, wondering why the lie has persisted for long. She also said that this would be a good time for France to bring to book Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, widow of Habyarimana, who has found a safe haven in the country for nearly three decades. She is a core member of Akazu, a small elite group that orchestrated the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994 and has an indictment on her head to answer for her role in the Genocide. Another point raised by Mukagasana is the tarnished image of the Rwandan officials who were implicated in this case during all these years, and to whom an arrest warrant was issued while they were performing their duties, some as diplomats. Egide Nkuranga, the president of Ibuka, an umbrella of survivors, said that this is an “ouuf!” moment, “the decision should have been taken a long time ago, but political tension between the two countries contributed to the delay.” “They knew the truth, what remained was to officially declare it.” He said that they expect France to now bring to book different Genocide suspects who still live in the country. “We pay tribute to people who were prosecuted in a totally defamatory manner and who unfailingly supported the fight led by the defense,” said two lawyers who represented Rwanda’s interests in the case, Bernard Maingain and Leon Lef Forster in a joint statement. Asked what is next, Maingain said that the next step can only be taken by the government of Rwanda.
