Rwanda’s government has announced it would Monday release a report that investigated the assassination of former President Juvenal Habyarimana.
Jean Bosco Gasasira, editor of the independent Umuvugizi newspaper said the report contradicts claims that Habyarimana’s assassination triggered Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
“The report will show why and who shot the plane of the former President Habyarimana. It shows that the plane was shot by Hutu extremists and (it) also shows that the reason why it was shot was because it was designed in order to sabotage the Arusha peace process, whereby President Habyarimana had accepted the sharing of power,” he said.
Charged by President Paul Kagame’s government in 2007 to investigate the assassination, the commission of experts says in its report that ranking Hutu extremist members of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) were behind Habyarimana’s plane attack.
The report also states that the assassination was part of a coup attempt aimed at avoiding any power-sharing with Tutsi rebels.
It has been widely reported that the assassination of former President Habyarimana triggered the 1994 genocide in which hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were massacred.
But Gasasira said the report rebuts claims that the former president’s death led to the genocide.
“It (will) also show that the genocide was planned by the former regime and even President Habyarimana was among the planners. The report totally contradicts the French judge, whereby he was showing that the (shooting) of the plane sparked the genocide and it was done by RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front),” he said.
Gasasira said Rwandans are anxiously awaiting Monday’s launch of the report, which is scheduled to take place in the capital, Kigali.
