French arrest 'Lady Genocide'

Rwandan Exile; Alleged to have had hand in planning deaths of 800,000

Steven Edwards,  Canwest News Service 

Intrigue and uncertainty surrounded the arrest yesterday in France of the Rwandan presidential widow dubbed "Lady Genocide" by the current Rwandan government.

Agathe Habyarimana, 67, was taken into custody just days after Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, visited Rwanda and promised a new era of cooperation between the two countries.

The Rwandan government had sought Ms. Habyarimana's arrest over its allegations she helped plan the 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 people were killed.

But the two countries broke off diplomatic relations in 2006 after a Paris judge accused President Paul Kagame and nine aides of being involved in the assassination of Ms. Habyarimana's husband, the then-president Juvenal Habyarimana.

Yesterday, Ms. Habyarimana's lawyer in Paris said her arrest was directly linked to Mr. Sarkozy's visit.

"Rwanda's extradition warrant dates back to November, and when the President went to Rwanda, he will have been told France had not acted on it," said Philippe Meilhac.

"The result was immediate, for upon his return the warrant was activated within 24 hours -- which is far quicker than the usual seven days for such a circumstance."

Officials in the Rwandan capital Kigali welcomed the news.

"It's a very good sign. The French jus tice sys tem is starting to handle these cases in a serious way," Tharcisse Karugarama, Rwanda's Justice Minister, told Agence France Presse.

He urged France to extradite Ms. Habyarimana despite the absence of an extradition treaty.

French officials arrived at Ms. Habyarimana's home in Courcouronnes, south of Paris, at about 8 a.m.

"It's never going to be agreeable if you have the police show up as you are having breakfast," said Mr. Meilhac. "But she is well for now."

He added he has "utmost confidence" she will not be extradited.

Although Mr. Sarkozy was able to trigger action on the arrest warrant, regular judicial processes in which judges "make the decisions" then take over.

Ms. Habyarimana has been released under judicial supervision and will appear in court at a future date to hear whether she will be extradited.

French courts have previously ruled Rwandans accused of genocide may not get a fair trial in the country, and consequently have never delivered a suspect to Kigali.

Mr. Habyarimana's assassination on April 6, 1994, triggered the three-month long genocide in which extremists of the majority Hutus slaughtered minority Tutsis and any Hutus who sympathized with them.

Accusers of the former Rwandan first lady claim she was at the heart of an elite Hutu group known as the Akazu, or "Little House," which was central to organizing the killing.

But the UN war crimes tribunal set up to try the main architects of the genocide has never indicted her.

Still, the woman had seen her repeated requests for political asylum in France denied.

She lived in several African counties before settling in France in 1998. One of her seven children, Marie-Rose, is living in Canada.

Mr. Habyarimana, who came to power in a military coup in 1973, was killed as he returned to Kigali from talks in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where many presumed he had finally consented to install a broad-based transitional government after years of autocratic rule.

Two surface-to-air missiles blew the plane apart. Among those also aboard and killed were Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Burundi president, and a French air crew.

The act remains unresolved by the UN or any other body, despite having involved the death of two sitting presidents.


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