Why Rwanda鈥檚 intelligence chief was arrested in Britain
One of Rwanda鈥檚 most senior military officials has been arrested by British police,聽sparking diplomatic tension between the two countries.聽
Lt. Gen. Karenzi Karake, director general of the National Intelligence and Security Services of Rwanda, was detained at London's Heathrow airport on Saturday, on a European Arrest Warrant on behalf of the authorities in聽Spain, where he is wanted in connection with war crimes against civilians, the .
鈥淗e went to London on official business on June 14th,鈥� 聽Johnston Busingye, Rwanda鈥檚 attorney general and minister of justice said, . 鈥淪even days later, on his way back to Kigali, he was not allowed to proceed beyond the airport. We are still talking to the British government.鈥�
, Mr.聽Karake is expected to be brought before a court of law in London on Thursday.
Karake, a close ally of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, was one of 40 members of the Rwandan military indicted in 2008 by Spanish High Court Judge Fernando Andreu聽on charges of engaging in retaliation killings after the country's 1994 genocide.
The arrest sparked controversy both in Rwanda and the United Kingdom.
鈥淲estern solidarity in demeaning Africans is unacceptable!!鈥� 鈥淚t is an outrage to arrest Rwandan official based on pro-genocidaires lunacy!鈥�
Andrew Mitchell, the Conservative MP and the former UK聽Secretary of State for International Development, Karake was arrested for political reasons. 鈥淚t鈥檚 politically motivated and acted by supporters of the genocidal regime in Rwanda. The warrants were originally set up in 2008 against 40 officials 鈥� but a Spanish high court suspended these indictments in March 2014. I think it is a misuse of the European Arrest Warrant system,鈥� Mitchell said.聽
on Tuesday that prosecutors in Spain called for UK to extradite Karake to Madrid.
General Karenzi is a prominent member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the guerrilla army that ended the genocide against the country鈥檚 Tutsis in 1994. His arrest is likely to strain relationships between Rwanda and the UK which is already inflamed over Rwanda鈥檚 Untold Story which aired in October 2014.
The documentary suggested that President Kagame may have played a role in the shooting down of the then-president Juvenal Habyarimana鈥檚 plane, the act which sparked the genocide. BBC broadcasts have since been banned in the country.聽
