Rwanda: Religious Leaders Denounce Spanish And French Indictments
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Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
13 June 2008
Posted to the web 13 June 2008
Kigali
The Spanish and French judges that have indicted senior government officials over alleged war crimes have undermined the integrity of Rwanda which is completely unacceptable, leaders of major religious sects said on Friday.
Rwanda is an independent country whose territorial integrity has to be respected contrary to recent flawed indictments, the four leaders said in a joint-statement after a workshop in which they had been addressed by Senior Regional Presidential Envoy Dr. Richard Sezibera.
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In November 2006, French judge Jean Louis Brugiuere indicted 9 senior Rwandan army officers holding them responsible for the downing of President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane in 1994 thereby causing the death of French citizens. In the plane were 12 people including three French crew.
In February this year, Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles released his investigation calling for the arrest of 40 army officers on war crimes and death of Spanish nuns.
In both indictments, President Paul Kagame himself is subject but the judges left him off the indictments owing to his immunity as Head of State.
Numerous blocks of societies in the country have come out in total support of the government's position that these are just foreign moves aimed at undermining Rwanda and its people.
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The religious leaders' statement signatories included Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini - the Anglican archbishop of Rwanda and the country's Islamic leader Mufti Sheikh Swaleh Harelimana - both prominent voices.
They want the international community to disregard the indictments as, according to them, they simply serve to destabilize Rwanda and the region.
Dr. Richard Sezibera had earlier told his audience that they have a very big role to play in spreading the gospel of peace in the region that has seen its brunt of conflict.
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