Habyarimana family to sue government

The family of the late Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana says it will sue Rwandan government officials in connection with his death in a plane crash that sparked the 1994 genocide. On Wednesday, his daughter Jeanne told the BBC Kinyarwanda service that the family had given its lawyers the go-ahead to present its complaint to Carla del Ponte, prosecutor of the
International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. "Now that the truth is emerging [about the plane crash], we have decided to take the matter to The Hague because we cannot do so in Rwanda," she said. "It does not mean that the person who brought down the plane is unknown, we know him. Those who brought down the plane are those who attacked Rwanda from 1990." The UN has acknowledged the existence of an internal document, citing
"witnesses" as saying the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front brought down the plane.

Rwandan government spokesman Joseph Bideri told IRIN this was not the first time the Habyarimana family had threatened to sue the government. "Every person has a right to go to court, but the point is what are they taking there?", he said. "To me, the Habyarimana family has nothing worth wasting the time of the International Court in The Hague. Do you think they are happy that Paul Kagame is the president of Rwanda? Those
allegations are timed for the swearing-in of the president, that is all."