Kagame says French premier supported Rwanda genocide

LONDON, Dec 7 (Reuters) Rwandan President Paul Kagame said today France's Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was among French officials whom he accuses of supporting the 1994 genocide.

''There are French officials who were involved at that time who are still alive including the prime minister of France now, who was a director of the cabinet of the foreign minister and who, these people who were involved directly in this situation,'' he told BBC World television in an interview.

Rwanda broke off diplomatic ties with Paris last month in protest at a French judge's call for Kagame to stand trial over the killing of former President Juvenal Habyarimana in a plane crash in 1994.

Yesterday Kagame, on a visit to Britain, denied any involvement in Habyarimana's death -- widely regarded as the trigger for the genocide -- and accused France of actively supporting the killings.

''It's France that supported the genocidal forces, that trained them, that armed them, that participated in fighting against the forces that were trying to stop the genocide,'' he told BBC radio.

''France did not at any one time attempt to stop the genocide,'' he added. ''On the contrary, they actually participated in the period leading to that genocide in supporting the government of Rwanda.'' France denies involvement in the killing and instead says its military interventions helped Rwandans.

Kagame dismissed allegations that his rebel army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), shot down the president's plane.

''That is nonsense,'' he said. ''I was involved in fighting the genocidal forces. I am a freedom fighter, I am not to be seen as a criminal.'' The downing of the plane is widely seen as the spark for the 100 days of killing during which 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.

Kagame, a Tutsi, is revered by many genocide survivors because the RPF defeated the Hutu militants.

REUTERS PB BS1116