Kabuye says she is innocent in Rwandan leader's assassination

Nov 20, 2008, 8:02 GMT

Paris - Senior Rwandan politician Rose Kabuye said Thursday that she was not involved in the 1994 assassination of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana.

'I'm not afraid because I am innocent,' she told France 24 television. 'When I can explain what really happened, everything will be fine again.'

The 47-year-old Kabuye, who is currently chief of protocol for Rwandan President Paul Kagame, was placed under investigation late Wednesday by a French magistrate on possible charges of complicity in murder in connection with an act of terrorism.

The step is a preliminary phase that could lead to charges eventually being filed against Kabuye. She was then released under judicial supervision.

France's top anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, issued a warrant for the arrest of Kabuye and eight other senior Rwandan officials in connection with the death of Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu.

Kabuye is the first of the nine suspects to be arrested. She was taken into custody on November 9 by German police in the city of Frankfurt and extradited to France on Wednesday.

The shooting down of Habyarimana's aircraft, on May 6, 1994, sparked the subsequent killing by Hutus of up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and ultimately led to Kagame, a Tutsi, becoming president of Rwanda.

Some investigations have concluded that extremist Hutus shot down Habyarimana's plane to gain a pretext to kill Tutsis.