Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 May 2004
29 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on reports that link the current leader of Rwanda with the shooting down of the plane carrying the former Rwandan President in 1994; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14514/04]
View answerI am aware of the reports which appeared in Le Monde newspaper last March, based on an internal French inquiry, alleging that President Paul Kagame of Rwanda was implicated in the shooting down of the plane carrying former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart, Cyprian Ntayamira, on 6 April 1994. President Kagame, however, has vigorously denied any such involvement and the precise circumstances of what occurred on that day and who was responsible for the shooting down of the plane carrying the two Presidents still remains unclear and extremely difficult to determine. It is to be doubted whether a full and proper explanation of what occurred at that time will ever become available.
The horrific and completely unjustified killing of Presidents Habyarimana and Ntayamira in 1994 unleashed a traumatic chain of events from which Rwanda is still trying to recover. During my recent visit to Rwanda, I was genuinely impressed and moved by the progress which the government and people of Rwanda have made in rebuilding their country and launching a genuine process of national reconciliation to reunite all those who survived the genocide, including through the internal justice system known as gagaca which the EU has indicated its willingness to support.
The imperative at this stage must be for the international community to work with and support the people of Rwanda as they continue on the path of national recovery, and also to seek to ensure through our collective efforts that there is never again a repetition of what occurred in Rwanda in 1994. The European Union, for its part, will continue its constructive engagement with the Rwandan government and will pay particular attention to supporting the consolidation of democracy and promotion of human rights in Rwanda as the best means of fostering true national reconciliation among all Rwandans.
