Rwandan FM decries arrest of intelligence chief at AU meeting

Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said at an African Union (AU) meeting here Friday that the arrest of the intelligence chief of Rwanda in Britain is a "blatant" attack on Rwanda and dignity of every African.

Rwanda's head of intelligence and security services Karake Karenzi was arrested on Saturday in London against an arrest warrant issued in 2008 by a Spanish judge.

The AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) on Friday convened a meeting on the situation of the arrest of Karenzi at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

Mushikiwabo said Rwanda requests the council to strongly and equivocally condemn the arrest of the country's official.

"I am here this afternoon because one of the sons of Africa, Rwandan general Karake Karenzi was arrested in London on June 2oth, " she said.

What has happened to the Rwandan official, Mushikiwabo said, " is a blatant attack on Rwanda, and it is an attack on the dignity of every African."

"The absurdity of this is that those who committed genocide, have been...according to principles of universal jurisdiction, many of them still today 22 years later live freely and roam European capitals and have the audacity to instigate charges against those who stopped the genocide; that is the absurdity," said the minister.

She said that Rwanda requests the AU-PSC to among others strongly and equivocally condemn the arrest of the official.

This "very blatant violation of the basic principles of justice and universal jurisdiction" is to blackmail and humiliate Africans, she said. Endi