Culled from NEWAFRICA MAY 2002 BY Ibrahim Seaga Shaw
The French high court was the scene of a chain of
dramatic flip-flops on 8 April as the court began to
hear a case brought by the Rwandan president Paul
Kagame against the paris-based cameroon freelance
journalist and author Charles Onana.
The journalist is charged with defamation for
publishing a book titled ( The secrets of the Rwanda
genocide-investigation into mysteries of a president),
which alleges that Kagame was the principal suspect in
the shooting down of president Juvenal Habyarimana's
plane on 6 April 1994 which according to him, sparked
off the Rwandan genocide.
The book blames Kagame and his RPF army for shooting
down the falcon 50 plane, using two ground-to-air
missiles.Also on the plane was Burundian president,
Cyrien Ntarymira.The two presidents were returning
from peace summit in Tanzania.
Since Kagame was defamed, He does not want money.He is
calling for the french court to order the author to
pay one symbolic euro to Rwawdan state for prejudice
suffered as a result of defamation.
Kagame's lawyer, Natasha Renaudin charges that
investigation into the shooting of the plane are
underway before the french judge and accuses Onana of
not respecting the principle of presumtion of
innocence for Kagame in the whole affairs.
The prosecution asked the judge to order the book
withdrawn from the market. But the president of the
three man council of judges, refused the prosecution
request on the ground that Kagame was not the accused
person before the judge.
Onana has described the case as attempt to stifle the
truth.Interestingly, Deo Mushayidi, a Tutsi journalist
and former Kagame spokesman, helped Onana to write the
book.The english version of the book will soon be out
to let the truth reach a much wider audience.
According to Onana both Tutis and Hutu committed
crimes and most of the time it is very difficult to
tell the difference between the Hutu and Tutsi killers
or victims.

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