10.06.09 - RWANDA/FRANCE - 1994 GENOCIDE: KIGALI WANTS PARIS TO TRY FORMER RWANDAN GENDARME

Arusha, 10 June 2009 (FH) - Kigali requested on Wednesday Paris to try a former Rwandan gendarme who currently resides in France, Captain Pascal Simbikangwa, accused of having played an active part in the 1994 genocide, reported on Wednesday Radio Rwanda.

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Indicted for genocide in April in Mayotte, a French island in the Indian Ocean, Simbikangwa saw his case transferred last week to Paris.

"We have requested his extradition. But they (French officials) did not answer favourably. We now ask them to try him without any delay", stated Wednesday on the airwaves of Radio Rwanda the spokesperson of the prosecutor general, Augustin Nkusi.

"I hope that the French magistrates do not get involved in politics. We think that a decision will be made by French justice", said Nkusi, stressing that the participation of the captain in the genocide is "obvious".

Kigali accuses Paris of having played a role in the genocide in Rwanda and helping to hide the Rwandan authors of these massacres from April to July 1994.

According to Nkusi, the suspect took part in the creation of lists of Tutsis to be killed.

Pascal Simbikangwa, born in 1959, was indicted for "genocide" on 16 April in Mayotte and placed in detention pending trial within the framework of an open investigation after a complaint filed in February by the "collective of the civil parties for Rwanda".

Verifications after Simbikangwa's arrest made it possible to discover that he was wanted by Interpol at the request of the Rwandan authorities.

A dozen Rwandans living in France are the subject of investigations for their alleged participation in the genocide committed against Tutsis in 1994.

All these investigations have been gathered together in Paris.

Among the suspects, there are the catholic priest Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and the former prefect of Gikongoro (southern Rwanda), Laurent Bucyibaruta, initially wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), headquartered in Tanzania, but whose cases were entrusted to French justice in November 2007.

Questioned in February on the evolution of these two cases, the ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow who has the duty to ensure their follow-up, he told the Hirondelle Agency that there has been "nothing to announce" since then.

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