U.S. Court Asked To Revive Suit In Rwanda Deaths

DENVER (AP) -- A federal appeals court in Denver has been asked to revive a lawsuit accusing the current president of Rwanda of ordering the 1994 deaths of the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi.

A lower court in Oklahoma dismissed the lawsuit in October, saying President Paul Kagame has immunity because he is a head of state.

The appeal was filed with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month.

The lawsuit was brought by the men's widows under a U.S. statute allowing people alleging violations of international law to sue in the United States. It was filed last year in Oklahoma on the day Kagame was speaking at Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City.

Kagame has denied involvement in the assassinations.

Juvenal Habyarimana, then president of Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the president of Burundi, were aboard a plane that was shot down by missiles as it approached the Rwandan capital.

The assassinations brought ethnic tensions between Rwanda's majority Hutus and Tutsis to the breaking point and triggered a wave of violence. About 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred.

The killings spread across the country and lasted 100 days until Kagame, a Tutsi who led a rebel army, overthrew the Hutu-led government.

Habyarimana was a Hutu.

The lawsuit contends Kagame knew the deaths would bring about reprisals.

Agathe Habyarimana, Juvenal Habyarimana's widow, lives in France and is wanted in Rwanda on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. France denied her request for asylum in 2004, but in September, French courts refused to allow her to be extradited.

The lawsuit against Kagame was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act. In a separate case, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether the 222-year-old statute can be used to sue corporations for alleged human rights abuses overseas.

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