Trevidic and Poux Report: The Platform Stop Impunity in Rwanda denounces the media campaign of confusion of international opinion

On January 9, French judges Marc Trévedic and Natalie Poux, unveiled the first technical report of the experts in ballistics to the parties involved in the investigation of the crash of the aircraft in April 1994 that killed Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and President of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, as well as members of their delegations and the French crew.

These leaks have caused a strong echo in Spanish and international press which is selling, and leading to confusion, that it is a judicial decision. We denounce that these media have not checked the information they transmit but on the contrary they have quickly accepted the version of the victorious environment of President Paul Kagame, who says that "these findings put an end to more than 16 years of manipulation and lies. "We denounce that their headlines do NOT match the true conclusions of the report, which are far from incriminating or exculpating anyone, and is merely an EXPERT REPORT made public in court, and must be completed with other reports, testimonials and documentary evidence.

The then 'right hand' of Kagame, Theogene Rudasingwa, continues to insist that the responsible was Kagame and regrets that the judge Trévidic still has not given him the opportunity to testify before him and thus provide evidence to help clarify the truth and reconciliation in Rwanda. He made public these evidences in a confession, last October.

The technical report by ballistics experts investigates six potential missile launch sites of the attack, combining the work of different experts and analyzing some testimonials. Of those six, it eliminates two places, but cannot establish which one of the remaining four is the final one. They say that "probably" the missile was launched from Kanombe, where the military camps of Habyarimana’s personal guard were. This out of context statement has been used to make people believe that experts believe that the shot was made by the president’s guard. In fact, they have not made such a statement and even they have not opted for any of the four possible launch sites, not having sufficient evidence for it.

The statement that it is really conclusive, and that the media have not reported, is that the two missiles fired at the presidential plane were Russians. In 1994 the Ugandan government, which supported with arms the RPF, bought weapons from the former Soviet Union, not the Rwandan government.

We recall that the first judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, based on technical and research testimonials accused Paul Kagame of the crash in 2006 and issued arrest warrants for nine close partners to the president. The judge Trévidic still has active these warrants, a fact that is far from exonerating Kagame and his associates.

PLATFORM STOP IMPUNITY IN RWANDA

For more information contact Susana Sanz, coordinator of the PBIR,

susana@bastadeimpunidadenruanda.org / Phone: +34 620 791 109