07:05 27/06/2015
Addis Ababa - The African Union has called for Britain to release
Rwanda's intelligence chief after his arrest on a warrant issued by
Spain, which accuses him of killings after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda's
foreign minister said on Friday.
British police arrested Karenzi
Karake, 54, at Heathrow airport on Saturday on a warrant issued in
Spain, a move the Rwandan government condemned as an "outrage".
Karake
was released on bail on Thursday and has said he would fight the
extradition. A full extradition hearing has been set for October 29-30.
After
a meeting of the AU's Peace and Security Council, Rwandan Foreign
Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told reporters in Addis Ababa that the
continental body had asked for Karake's release.
"The
outcome of this discussion has been the urgent call for the
unconditional and immediate release of General Karenzi and an awakening
of the Peace and Security Council and indeed the continent to the grave
danger that faces Africa with the abuse of international law..." she
said.
Mushikiwabo said Rwanda was in touch with the United Kingdom on the issue and that the arrest was a mistake.
"We
have communicated back and we are in constant discussion, because to
this hour we do not see why the United Kingdom would arrest General
Karenzi," she said.
Karake was part of the Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF), the then-rebel force led by Paul Kagame, who is now president of
Rwanda. The RPF halted genocidal attacks being carried out in Rwanda,
mostly against minority Tutsis, making Karake a hero to his supporters.
The
Spanish warrant stems from a lengthy indictment issued by a judge in
2008 which accused 40 senior Rwandans, including Karake, of war crimes
in the aftermath of the genocide. Karake is also accused of ordering the
killing of three Spanish volunteers from a medical charity in 1997.
The
RPF government has long accused Western nations of failing to act to
prevent the genocide and many of them have acknowledged the failing and
since poured in aid.
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