20100111

KIGALI (Reuters) - Hutu extremists shot down the plane carrying former President Juvenal Habyarimana, whose assassination marked the start of the 100-day genocide in 1994, a government report said on Monday.

The probe, set up by President Paul Kagame, said members of Habyarimana's inner circle planned his murder months before to scuttle a power-sharing deal with then-rebel Kagame and used it as a pretext for killing 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

"(The) assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana was the work of Hutu extremists who calculated that killing their own leader would torpedo a power-sharing agreement known as the Arusha Accords," it said.

Habyarimana was returning from peace talks in Tanzania accompanied by his Burundian counterpart and was due to swear in a transitional government and begin integration of Kagame's forces into the national army, the report said.

Mystery surrounding Habyarimana's murder has spawned a number of investigations in the past that have aroused international controversy.

In 2006 French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière accused Kagame's largely Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of shooting down the plane.

Kigali immediately severed relations with Paris, and accused Francois Mitterrand's government of funding and training those responsible for the slaughter. France denies any involvement in the genocide. The two countries restored ties in November.

According to the inquiry, Rwanda Armed Forces (FAR) stationed near Kigali airport shot down Habyarimana's private Falcon 50 jet using a pair of surface-to-air missiles.