Rwanda severed diplomatic ties with France today in response to a French judge's decision to issue international arrest warrants for nine ranking Rwandans suspected of plotting the 1994 killing of the African nation's president.
The French Foreign Ministry said it regretted Rwanda's decision and was "taking all necessary arrangements."
France's ambassador in Rwanda, Dominique Decherf, will leave the country Saturday and the 29 other embassy personnel in the capital, Kigali, were leaving by Monday evening, embassy security chief Serge Kulmicht said.
On Wednesday, a French investigating judge issued arrest warrants for nine ranking Rwandans suspected of plotting the downing of then-President Juvenal Habyarimana's airplane on April 6, 1994 — an act that sparked the country's genocide.
Late yesterday, Rwanda withdrew its ambassador, Emmanuel Ndagijimanam, from Paris for consultations, diplomat Parfait Gahamanyi said. The officials targeted by the French judge are close to Rwanda's current president, Paul Kagame, and the decision has enflamed tensions.
Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said the move was a response to French "bullying."
"There is no reason why there should be diplomatic relations with a country that is actually attempting to destabilize the institutions of Rwanda's government," Karugarama told The Associated Press.
French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere suspects that nine Rwandans were responsible for plotting the assassination or actually shooting down Habyarimana's airplane.
Bruguiere - renowned for tracking down the renowned terrorist Carlos the Jackal - is investigating the case because the crew on the downed plane was French. The families of the pilot, co-pilot and mechanic, who all died in the crash, filed a suit in France in 1998.
AP