Rwanda closes French cultural centre
2014-04-24 09:35
Kigali - Authorities in the Rwandan capital have forced the closure of
the French cultural centre, officials said on Wednesday, just weeks
after the two nations were in a major diplomatic spat over genocide
commemorations.
The French ambassador to Kigali, Michel Flesch, said the land where
the centre was located was confiscated by the local council following
a long-running dispute over urban planning regulations.
He said the centre was forced to shut its doors last week.
The long-strained relations between France and Rwanda took a turn for
the worse earlier this month as the country held formal commemorations
marking the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide, in which at least
800 000 people were murdered.
After Rwandan President Paul Kagame repeated allegations of French
complicity in the genocide, France decided not to send a
ministerial-level delegation to the commemorations. Rwanda in turn
responded by withdrawing the accreditation of the French ambassador.
But the mayor of Kigali, Fidele Ndayisaba, said the issue of the
cultural centre had "no link" with the diplomatic dispute, insisting
that the land was "not being used rationally" and therefore did not
comply with local planning laws that stipulate constructions must meet
a certain surface ratio based on the land they occupy.
"At the end of November 2013, the French embassy received a 90 day
notice which ended in February. As the law states, there was a
confiscation demand issued in March for non-use of the land", he
explained.
Kigali has seen rapid urban development in recent years and the
cultural centre is not the only building to have fallen foul of local
building regulations.
Speaking in Paris, a French foreign ministry official played down the
closure and said the cultural centre was continuing its activities,
mainly the teaching of the French language at another location in
Kigali.
The dispute between the two nations centres on France's role prior to
the genocide as a close ally of the Hutu nationalist regime of Juvenal
Habyarimana.
The shooting down of his plane over Kigali late on 6 April 1994 was
the event that triggered 100 days of meticulously-planned slaughter of
the Tutsi minority.
France is accused of missing or ignoring the warning signs, and of
training soldiers and militia who carried out the killings. When the
genocide was in full swing, France was also accused of using its
diplomatic clout to stall effective action. AFP
http://m.news24.com/news24/Africa/News/Rwanda-closes-French-cultural-centre-20140423
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