Habyarimana’s plane: New evidence revealed

New findings made public by a French daily newspaper, Libération, shows that the United Nations, had in its archives, documents indicating that former Rwandan Army (ex-FAR) was in possession of Mistral missiles used to shoot down Habyarimana’s plane but kept silent about it. The report, which brings to limelight most of what was published in the Mutsinzi Report of Experts Investigation of the April 6, 1994 crash of president Habyarimana’s Falcon-50 jet, quotes findings by British investigative journalist, Linda Melvern, that reveal the presence of 15 French Mistral ground-to-air missiles in the Rwandan army’s arsenal in the build-up to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. According to Libération, this new finding reveals that “the Rwandan regime was, on the day of the attack, in possession of 15 French Mistral missiles, a strictly prohibited export. Why should France provide air defence weapons when the Rwandan rebels (RPF/A) had no planes?”In an article by Maria Malagardis titled “Rwanda: missiles that link Paris”, she reported that the investigation into the attack was vital to understand the history of the Genocide against the Tutsi. “Although the attack was the trigger and not the cause of the long planned Genocide against the Tutsi minority, the identity of sponsors inevitably weighs on our understanding of the events,” wrote Malagardis She explained how the UN report was found by Linda Melvern, “almost by chance, during the course of historical research, Melvern, discovered the famous list in the archives of the UN suggesting the presence of Mistral missiles. The document had been buried in the middle of another report.” Reacting to the development, Rwanda’s Supreme Court Judge, Jean Mutsinzi, said the report might somehow make a positive impact in the attitude the west has when it comes to the shooting down of the Falcon-50“The report does not reveal anything new compared to what appeared in our (Rwandan) report. The only impact I see is that the International Community will now believe the reality surrounding the death of Habyarimana,” said Judge Jean Mutsinzi. He added that; “We proved in our findings that 15 AAM French-made Mistral man-portable surface-to-air missile belonging to the French were in the hands of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR).” “Just a week before the attack, the Belgians had complained about the existence of 15 Mistral missiles in the FAR arsenal. This is the same evidence provided in the French newspapers,” said Mutsinzi. The ex-FAR has always denied it was behind Habyarimana’s murder claiming they did not possess any missiles. France, which trained and supplied equipment to the Rwandan army, backed the claim and argued that without missiles they could not have shot down the air craft.Now, the list of the weapons has been handed over to French judges Marc Trévidic and Natalie Paux who are conducting a new French inquiry into the assassination.

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Habyarimana’s plane: New evidence revealed