Rwanda on Friday severed all ties with France as a row over a French judge’s implication of the Rwandan president and top aides in the assassination of the country’s former leader boiled over. President Paul Kagame’s Cabinet ordered the closure of the French embassy and the expulsion of its envoy in Kigali.
More than 25 000 angry Rwandans protested in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali, on Thursday over France’s alleged complicity in the 1994 genocide after a French judge called for the prosecution of President Paul Kagame and associates. Led by genocide survivors and community leaders, thousands paraded through the streets.
Rwanda on Tuesday rejected calls by a French judge to indict President Paul Kagame over his alleged involvement in the death of the country’s former leader, which sparked the 1994 genocide. ”The allegations are totally unfounded. The judge is acting on the basis of gossip and rumours,” Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said.
Rwanda plans to strike capital punishment for genocide suspects from its statute books to encourage European and North American countries to extradite suspected masterminds of the 1994 genocide, the attorney general said on Friday. Rwanda has demanded that Western nations extradite genocide suspects, but some nations have expressed reservations because of the death penalty.