After hearing over 500 witnesses, the commission that conducted the probe says the plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down by rebellious soldiers within his own army. Mr Habyarimana, a member of the Rwanda’s Hutu majority, pursued reconciliation with the Tutsi rebels led by Paul Kagame, the country’s current president.
The commission says radical Hutu saw the move as treason and murdered the president for that reason. A French magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguière, had previously concluded that Tutsis were to blame for the president’s assassination. The conclusion led France and Rwanda to sever diplomatic ties.
