“We have to interpret this decision by French judges as a form of resignation faced with a political context which prosecutors did not know how to fight. Rwandan authorities have never sought to help bring the truth to light.”

Philippe Meilhac — Lawyer for Habyarimana’s widow

Presidents François Mitterrand and Juvenal Habyarimana (December 10 1984)

December 28 2018 — French judges have dropped a long-running investigation into the 1994 shooting down of a plane carrying the former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana. His death triggered a genocide. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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The plane carrying Habyarimana was shot down by a missile on April 6 1994, triggering the Rwandan genocide in which more than 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus died.

A French inquiry began in 1998, at the request of the pilot, who was French.

French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière accused Tutsi rebels — led by the current president Paul Kagame — of the attack.

Judge Bruguière concluded that Kagame — who led the RPF rebels in 1994 — had ordered the attack.

In 2006, arrest warrants were issued for a number of people close to president Kagame.

All charges were dropped on December 21 2018. The probe was a major source of tension between France and Rwanda.

Analysis of Habyarimana Plane Crash

This video is brief synopsis of the findings of Rwanda’s the Mutsinzi Report, also known as the Committee of Experts Investigation of the April 6, 1994 Crash of President Habyarimana’s Dassault Falcon-­50 Aircraft.

REFERENCES

Rwanda genocide: Habyarimana plane shooting probe dropped — BBC News

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Rwanda — French Investigators Drop Habyarimana Plane Shooting Probe