Thousands have signed various online petitions posted on the Internet calling for the release of Director of State Protocol Rose Kabuye who was arrested ten days ago in Germany. Kabuye was on November 9, arrested in Frankfurt, following the contentious indictments by the French Judge Jean Louis Bruguiere. The Judge alleges that she was involved in the shooting down of Rwanda’s former president, Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane in 1994. She was arrested while on official state business. The online petitions are calling for the immediate release of Kabuye, they also attack the French and Germany governments for their collective abuse of the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. Some of the petition letters read in part that Kabuye is considered a hero and a liberator in ending the 1994 Tutsi Genocide that was observed and supervised by the French. The letters also express suspicion that the arrest is politically motivated by the French government and calls upon Rwandans, their friends and supporters from across the world to protest it. One of the websites http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/freerosekabuye calls on Rwandans to see the action of France as another war on them. Another website, www.petitionspot.com/petitions/RoseKabuye, states that “upon signing the petition, you are strengthening this effort in gaining true rights, and strengthening the freedom of a world wide community.” The petitions are expected to be produced and presented to the French Embassies around the world as a sign of the world communities’ intolerance for justice. Ends
