After several French courts refused to reopen the long-term investigation into the 1994 Rwandan residential plane downing and the following genocide in the Eastern African country, Rwandan Justice Minister Busingye Johnston said on Friday that the French probe into the case was a "complete farce
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2020) After several French courts refused to reopen the long-term investigation into the 1994 Rwandan residential plane downing and the following genocide in the Eastern African country, Rwandan Justice Minister Busingye Johnston said on Friday that the French probe into the case was a "complete farce."
The ongoing French investigation on the matter targeted several Rwandan government officials close to the current president, Paul Kagame. The probe caused damage to the bilateral relations between the two countries. In 2018, France's investigating judges decided to end the investigation, but families of the victims of the genocide appealed the decision. On Friday, it was upheld by the Paris appeals court.
"The Court of Appeal of Paris has dismissed the 'Bruguiere Case,' on appeal. The first instance court also dismissed it. This so-called Bruguire Case has been a travesty of justice, a total and complete farce that should not have happened in the first place," Johnston wrote on Twitter.
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda began after a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu, was shot down over Kigali airport on April 6, killing Habyarimana and the president of neighboring Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira. The plane crash was followed by 100 days of massacres against the Tutsi, Rwanda's ethnic minority, and moderate Hutus.
As the presidential plane had a French staff, the Rwandan government denounced France for involvement in the accident and subsequent mass slaughters. France has denied such accusations.
The relations between France and Rwanda slightly improved after incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron set up a commission to determine the role of France in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
