An influential historian has said French authorities should carry out further investigation into the widow of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana for her alleged role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Vincent Duclert, who led a commission that documented the role of the French government in the Genocide in a March 2021 report, spoke up after a Paris court on Thursday, August 21, dismissed charges against 82-year-old Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana for her role in the massacre that claimed more than one million lives. ALSO READ: When Habyarimana’s wife and her “Akazu” orchestrated genocide Further investigation clearly seems necessary, Duclert told Radio France on Saturday. The archival documents we collect show the very strong involvement of Agathe Habyarimana in the genocide against the Tutsi, being, like her brother [Protais Zigiranyirazo], the mastermind of the zero network, that is, the secret general staff responsible for the extermination of the Tutsi, Duclert, said in reference to the Akazu. ALSO READ: Kanziga should be in the dock, says Genocide researcher The French historian noted that the attack on President Habyarimana's plane on April 6, one day before the Genocide began, was carried out by the elite network, either directly or as a sponsor. This attack triggered in the hours that followed, on the night of April 6, the paroxysmal phase of the genocide, in which Agathe Habyarimana was also very involved, Duclert said. ALSO READ: Genocide: There is still hope that Akazu members will face justice Indeed, she was evacuated from Kigali on April 9by French forces on the express order of President François Mitterrand. But other documents attest to her activism during her French asylum, alongside the genocidaires operating in Rwanda. Are these established facts known to the investigating magistrates? I don't know. However, further investigation clearly seems necessary. 'Complete aberration' Agathe Habyarimana has been under investigation by French authorities since 2008. Following Thursday's dismissal of the case against the former First Lady, the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR), which has tracked genocide suspects in France for three decades, said the Paris court's decision was incomprehensible. We are in the midst of a complete aberration, it is totally revolting, Alain Gauthier, co-founder of CPCR, told Radio France on Friday. Mrs. Habyarimana's family was a very powerful family, much more powerful than her husband's, Gauthier argued. The problem is that the investigating judges only investigated three days of her presence in Rwanda, between April 7 and 9, before she left the country on a French plane. According to Alain Gauthier, there was not much to find about those three days, and the investigation should have been extended to before the Genocide. On Thursday, France's National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office announced that it would appeal the dismissal of the case against Agathe Habyarimana. The CPCR also intends to appeal the decision.
