Rwanda accuses France of hiding late Habyarimana`s plane black box

Angola Press
Dec. 10, 2006

The row between France and Rwanda went a notch higher after Rwandese foreign minister, Charles Murigande, challenged Paris to disclose the whereabouts of the black box of the ill-fated plane that killed President Juvenal Habyarimana.

Rwanda`s President Habyarimana and his Burundi counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed on 6 April 1994 after their plane was shot down, sparking off the infamous Rwanda genocide.

France is currently investigating the cause of the plane crash, and is locked in a diplomatic row with Rwanda after a judge presiding over the case indicted Rwanda`s President Paul Kagame and nine other senior government officials of having been responsible for the plane crash.

"The French are in possession of this black box and we are asking them to give it back to us to identify the people behind this attack, charged Murigande during a radio-televised debate on the matter in Kigali Tuesday.

Murigande added that France is looking for scapegoats when it blamed the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) and its leader President Kagame for the crash.

"France has always shown its hostility towards the Rwanda government`s programmes since the end of the genocide. They have kept blaming the current authorities for being behind the attack, but they do not want to enquire into the whereabouts of the plane`s black box," he said.

"We are certain about the role the French government played in this case", the Rwandan minister said, while questioning the "complacent attitude" adopted by Paris in the matter.

He alleged that the former Rwandan Armed Forces (RAF), backed by the French army who were then protecting the airport, quickly moved into the scene of the accident, hence blocking off the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) troops who had just moved in to help the situation.