Paris - Senior Rwandan politician Rose Kabuye said Thursday
that she was not involved in the 1994 assassination of former Rwandan
president Juvenal Habyarimana.
'I'm not afraid because I am innocent,' she told France 24
television. 'When I can explain what really happened, everything will
be fine again.'
The 47-year-old Kabuye, who is currently chief of protocol for
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, was placed under investigation late
Wednesday by a French magistrate on possible charges of complicity in
murder in connection with an act of terrorism.
The step is a preliminary phase that could lead to charges
eventually being filed against Kabuye. She was then released under
judicial supervision.
France's top anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, issued a
warrant for the arrest of Kabuye and eight other senior Rwandan
officials in connection with the death of Habyarimana, an ethnic
Hutu.
Kabuye is the first of the nine suspects to be arrested. She was
taken into custody on November 9 by German police in the city of
Frankfurt and extradited to France on Wednesday.
The shooting down of Habyarimana's aircraft, on May 6, 1994,
sparked the subsequent killing by Hutus of up to 800,000 Tutsis and
moderate Hutus, and ultimately led to Kagame, a Tutsi, becoming
president of Rwanda.
Some investigations have concluded that extremist Hutus shot down
Habyarimana's plane to gain a pretext to kill Tutsis.
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