Rwanda wants former first lady tried for genocide

The widow of former President Mr Juvenal Habyarimana is at the top of a list of 300 people living abroad that Rwandan officials…

The widow of former President Mr Juvenal Habyarimana is at the top of a list of 300 people living abroad that Rwandan officials say they want captured and brought to justice for the genocide 10 years ago.

Rwanda is compiling a list of suspects living freely in Europe, North America and other regions who they accuse of helping mastermind the 1994 slaughter of some 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in just 100 days.

Top among them is the widow of Habyarimana, whose plane was shot down on April 6th, 1994. His death triggered the genocide, followed by a decade of war and upheaval in central Africa that is only now slowly abating.

"Agathe Habyarimana is considered one of those who planned the genocide in complicity with other senior officials who have fled the country," Attorney General Mr Emmanuel Rukangira told reporters in Kigali today.

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Rwanda's mass killings were planned and carried out by the Hutu government in power in 1994, but many of the regime's top office-bearers fled when the country fell to Tutsi-led rebels under the command of Mr Paul Kagame, who is now the president.

"We know she is in France and she should be brought to justice," Mr Rukangira said, days ahead of international memorial services planned to mark the tenth anniversary of the genocide on April 7th.