/ 31 March 2000

RWANDAN PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF ATROCITIES

A COMPLAINT against Rwanda’s acting President Paul Kagame was filed on Thursday in a Belgian court, accusing the African strongman of crimes against humanity and wartime atrocities. The suit was filed on behalf of Bernard Ntuyahaga, currently languishing in jail in Tanzania and facing an extradition request from Rwanda for his alleged part in killing 10 Belgian peacekeepers in 1994. Belgian lawyer Luc de Temmerman defended the legal action by pointing to Kagame’s alleged link with the death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994 — an event that triggered a savage genocide of the country’s Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus, claiming up to 800000 lives.