2 Mar 10 - Agathe Habyarimana, widow of the Rwandan president whose assassination was the starting-pistol for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, was arrested in France this morning on a Rwandan-issued international arrest warrant. She is suspected of helping to mastermind the 100-day slaughter, in which an estimated million Tutsis were murdered, along with thousands of Hutus opposed to the extremist regime.
"Many survivors never thought this day would come," says Freddy Mutanguha, Director of the Kigali Genocide Memorial, himself a survivor. "In arresting Agathe, France is also starting to address the dark side of its own past in relation to the Genocide of the Tutsis. It's a welcome start. Now we need to see justice done."
"With the arrest of Agathe Habyarimana, France has today taken a hugely important step towards ending the impunity of suspected genocidaires living within its borders," says Dr James Smith, Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust. "We hope there will be more to come."
During his visit to Rwanda less than a week ago, French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial. There he laid flowers at the mass graves where over 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide lie buried, and observed a minute of silence in memory of the dead, before touring the main exhibition, which portrays the history of the genocide.
Contracted by Kigali City Council, the Aegis Trust runs the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre and was responsible for its creation in 2004.
