SOME THREE thousand Rwandans demonstrated outside the gates of the German embassy in the capital here yesterday to protest at the arrest in Frankfurt last week of a senior official on genocide-related charges.
Former Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Lieut Col Rose Kabuye, now Rwanda's director of state protocol, was held on an international warrant issued by French judicial authorities who claim she is one of several members of the current Rwandan administration responsible for the events that sparked the 1994 Rwandan genocide. She is due to be flown to France for trial.
On Sunday, the government denounced Kabuye's arrest as another bully boy tactic of European powers.
Lieut Col Kabuye, who holds a diplomatic passport, was on official business when she was taken into custody when arrested on the orders of Judge Jean Louis Bruguiere who claims she played a role in the events that sparked Rwanda's 1994 genocide that saw the deaths of nearly one million Tutsis.
The warrant is based on the assertion that several key RPF members were involved in the shooting down of former president Juvenal Habyarimana's aircraft in April 1994. The assassination sparked brutal retaliation by the Hutu majority against the minority Tutsis.
The hotly disputed French claim is that these key players knew that the assassination of Habyarimana would lead to civil conflict in Rwanda, giving the RPF, based mainly in Uganda, the excuse to enter, liberate and later control Rwanda.
In November 2006, the French diplomatic community was given less than 48 hours to leave Rwanda by the government when it became apparent that the French government was implicating the current Rwandan government in the events that led to the genocide.
Since the beginning of 2008, tensions have increased. France published a report accusing several RPF and Rwandan government members of being responsible for the genocide. In turn, Rwandan president Paul Kagame has accused Mr Bruguiere of "inexcusable arrogance" over warrants that include nine of Mr Kagame's close associates.
A commission of inquiry in Rwanda has implicated more than 30 top French government and military officials in the genocide.
Lieut Col Kabuye, offered the option of challenging the extradition in a German court, has decided to fight the case in France. German officials warned her before travelling of the likelihood of arrest.
Meanwhile, crowds continue to dance, rage, heckle and sing in the pouring rain outside the German embassy. The ambassador has yet to respond to the government's formal protest.