Rwandan President Kagame accused of sparking 1994 genocide

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda

Rwandan President Kagame accused of sparking 1994 genocide

A former supporter of Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused him of involvement in the death of a former president which sparked the 1994 genocide.

Theogene Rudasingwa said he heard Mr Kagame boast in 1994 that he ordered the shooting down of the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana.

He said, "By committing that kind of crime Kagame has the responsibility in the crime of genocide."

However, President Kagame has constantly denied any involvement in the attack.

Mr Rudasingwa, who lives in the US, has fallen out with Mr Kagame in recent years and was sentenced in absentia in March to a 24-year jail term for threatening state security and propagating ethnic divisions.

 Casualties

 Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in the genocide which began on the evening of 6 April 1994, after Mr Habyarimana and Burundi's leader died in the plane crash.

Hutu militias then began a campaign of orchestrated killing against Tutsis.

BBC/Adekusibe/Ekata