Europe

Rwanda leader blasts France over 1994 plane crash inquiry

Associated Press
Published | Updated

FILE - In this Friday, April 4, 2014 file photo, the skulls and bones of some of those who were slaughtered as they sought refuge inside the church are laid out as a memorial to the thousands who were killed in and around the Catholic church during the 1994 genocide in Ntarama, Rwanda. Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Monday, Oct. 10, 2016 criticized French investigators who last week reopened an inquiry into the plane crash that sparked the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 people were killed. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Saturday, April 5, 2014 file photo, family photographs of some of those who died hang in a display in the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali, Rwanda. Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Monday, Oct. 10, 2016 criticized French investigators who last week reopened an inquiry into the plane crash that sparked the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 people were killed. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Monday, April 7, 2014 file photo, Rwandan President Paul Kagame addresses the public and dignitaries at a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, at Amahoro stadium in Kigali, Rwanda. Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Monday, Oct. 10, 2016 criticized French investigators who last week reopened an inquiry into the plane crash that sparked the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 people were killed. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) (The Associated Press)

Rwandan President Paul Kagame is criticizing French investigators who last week reopened an inquiry into a plane crash that sparked the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 people were killed.

In a series of tweets on Monday, the presidency said that "France should be the one tried for genocide."

The cause of the crash, in which the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed, has been a contentious issue in the years since the genocide. The plane had a French crew.

Kagame, the leader of rebels who ended the genocide, has been accused by a prominent Rwandan exile of ordering that the plane be shot down.

French judges in charge of the investigation have filed an international request to hear the exile, former Rwandan military chief Kayumba Nyamwasa.