Rwanda ex-leader's widow arrested

Extradition 'unlikely'
French police have arrested Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of Rwanda's assassinated former president, who is wanted in her home country in connection with genocide charges. The authorities made the arrest at Habyarimana's home in Paris on Tuesday, but later freed her on bail. Her detention comes just a week after Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, visited Rwanda where he admitted that Paris had made serious errors of judgement over the 1994 genocide. Rwandan authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Agathe Habyarimana last year, calling on France to pursue genocide suspects living there.

Rwandan authorities welcomed the arrest, with Tharcisse Karugarama, Rwanda's justice minister, saying: "At long last the long arm of the law is finally taking its course." Agathe Habyarimana has steadfastly denied involvement in the genocide. The death of her husband, Juvenal Habyarimana, Rwanda's former president, in April 1994 when his aeroplane was shot down, marked the beginning of the Rwandan genocide. In less than 100 days, 800,000 people were killed, most of them Tutsis, while most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus. Agathe Habyarimana left Rwanda three days after her husband died and moved to France, but Rwandan authorities are convinced she played a key role in plotting the killings. WikiPedia: Hutu Power. Rwanda Development Gateway: Habyarimana’s wife bailed out of court.