Between 1991 and 1993 France trained what would become the organizing troop force of the Rwandan genocide. Fifty-seven days after that genocide was set in motion France intervened militarily in Operation Turquoise, the only Western nation to do so. The operation's stated purpose was humanitarian but had the understood political purpose of shoring up the genocidal Hutu regime.

The French military set up Zones Humanitaires Sures (ZHS) to protect Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). These ZHSs were neither safe nor humanitarian.

In Rwanda, even though Operation Turquoise was authorized to use all necessary means to protect the ZHS, it failed to credibly protect the IDPs, by not intervening when the government attempted to close the camps.

The crucial consequence of the French bias towards the Hutus was that Operation Turquoise did not disarm the Hutus, and thus the ZHS were never demilitarized. This was to have serious consequences for the protection of these areas, since the 1.2 million people in the ZHS were fed and sheltered but were not protected. Extremist Hutu militia members who were still armed operated in the zones, intimidating moderate Hutus and killing Tutsis. These armed activities led the camps to be considered as centers of hostility by the Tutsi government, greatly eroding the government’s support for the ZHS because they were evidently not neutral.

RWANDAN SURVIVORS RAISE THEIR VOICES AGAINST FRANCE

October 24, 2006 (Euronews) - On the 10th. anniversary of the trauma [scil., Rwandan genocide] Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, organising the memorial ceremonies for the victims, was clear about where at least some of the blame lay:

"As for the French, their role in what happened in Rwanda is self-evident. They knowingly trained and armed government soldiers and militia who were going to commit genocide, and they knew they were to commit genocide".

... Eyewitnesses have come forward in the decade since claiming the French were slow to help, giving the Hutus time to finish their grisly task, and in some cases helping them.

The truth of this is what the current investigation is trying to unearth and it could end with France being brought before the International Court of Justice.

RWANDA STARTS INQUIRY INTO FRENCH GENOCIDE ROLE

KIGALI October 25, 2006 (Scotsman) - Rwanda's Tutsi president, Paul Kagame, whose government came to power after the genocide, has accused France of training and arming Hutu militias, who were the main force behind a 100-day slaughter that killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. ... In one case, French soldiers have been accused of facilitating the murder of up to 50,000 Tutsis in Bisesero, a hilltop village, by luring them out of hideouts. Survivors say the Tutsis were abandoned and left vulnerable to militia attacks.

France, which sent in soldiers under a United Nations-authorised operation, has always denied any involvement in the killings. ... A French parliamentary commission in 1998 [Mission d’information sur le Rwanda] cleared France of responsibility for the genocide, but said "strategic errors" had been made.

... Rwandan officials said a seven-man commission, appointed by the government in April, will hear testimony from 20 witnesses over the next week. The testimony could be used as evidence in any legal action taken by Mr Kigali against France.

"We will summon people like former militiamen who were trained and commanded by the French to kill, as well as female survivors who accuse some French soldiers of rape," said Jean Paul Kimonyo, a member of the commission. "We are also going to invite foreign witnesses, including French nationals, to testify."

"The French sent troops, weapons, trained killers and manned roadblocks to facilitate murderers in achieving their mission of exterminating Tutsis," Jacques Bihozagara, a former Rwandan ambassador to France [and a rebel member Rwandan Patriotic Front], told the commission.

Although France came to repudiate the follow-on Sindikubwabo government as a "band of killers", it did so long after the epithet applied and long after being complicit in the facilitation of that government's slaughtering of Tutusis. Even after her repudiation, France still abetted the escapes of several key Sindikubwabo government officials and military who had planned and prosecuted the Rwandan genocide.

French humanitarian actions, such as they were, during the Rwandan genocide were compromised by the Mitterand government's inconstant political agenda, a consequent lack of mission clarity down its line of command, and a technical finicality, when it suited, about the responsibilities of the French mandate.

PFFT (What is this?): Credible complicity 4 | Credible crimes 4 | Credible disgrace 4 | Rayonnement français 0