President Paul Kagame has rapped Britain and Spain for the arrest of the head of Rwanda’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in the UK.

President Kagame, speaking in the country’s Parliament, blamed the British government for not fulfilling its legal obligation to protect a senior Rwandan “picked on the street like a thug” despite his diplomatic immunity.

Lt Gen Emmanuel Karenzi Karake was arrested last Saturday at Heathrow Airport in London as he prepared to leave UK from an official mission, on what Britain said were ‘valid’ European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish government.

The president said the decision by UK to arrest a high-ranking Rwandan official is a sign of how Rwandans and Africans are despised or held in contempt by the West.

“It is a continuation of slavery, of colonialism, of arrogance, of bigotry and telling the Africans, wagging a finger at them and saying this is where you belong,” he said.

He noted that the intelligence chief had played a critical role in stopping the 1994 genocide, adding that taking RPF officers who halted the massacre to court can be equated to charging members of the allied forces who put a stop to the Israeli holocaust.

Rwanda, the president said, will “not accept this rubbish of injustice.”

The Rwandan leader also hit out at rights groups, whom he accused of pushing for the arrest of Gen Karake, saying they are targeting people who “sacrificed themselves to stop the genocide” and instead priding themselves on associating with genocidaires.

“We have Rwandans out there who exiled themselves, under all sorts of claims, but all of them have cases here to answer —all of them, not a single one that does not have a case to answer here.”

Kigali has over the years dismissed the indictments which were issued in 2008 by Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles, describing them as ‘politically motivated’ meant to ''inconvenience" Rwanda.

Gen Karake with 39 other senior members of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) are accused of crimes against humanity and terrorism which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, including eight Spaniards. The Rwandan government vehemently denies the accusations.

He was to appear before a London court Thursday at 2pm Rwandan time.