Report: US warns key African ally he may be charged with enabling war crimes

The State Department's war crimes chief has warned President Paul Kagame and other Rwandan leaders they may end up being charged with aiding in war crimes over their country's interference in the conflict in next-door Congo, England's Guardian newspaper reports.

The report quotes Stephen Rapp, the head of the U.S. Office of Global Criminal Justice, as saying Kagame may be open to charges of "aiding and abetting" crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the International Criminal Court. The Obama administration announced over the weekend that it will suspend its $200,000 in military assistance to Rwanda over the allegations.

The warning comes amid mounting criticism of a man who has been a close friend and ally of the United States since his Rwandan Patriotic Front dislodged the Hutu government that instigated the 1994 massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Rwanda under Kagame has become a model for successful development aid, but his rivals accuse him of running an increasingly authoritarian government.

The latest dust-up was caused by a United Nations report that accuses Rwanda of supporting Congolese rebels. The Obama administration reportedly sought to prevent the report's release but eventually caved in. 

The warning follows the Special Court for Sierra Leon's sentencing in May of Liberia's Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison for a similar crime. Taylor is the first former head of state to be sentenced by an international court since the end of World War II.

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