UN PROGRAMME D'ACTION POUR AIDER
LES 20 MILLIONS DE FRANÇAIS QUI DORMENT MAL
[A PROGRAM TO HELP THE 20 MILLION FRENCH WHO SLEEP BADLY]
PARIS 29 janvier 2007 (AFP/Yahoo)

Why does a third of heavily medicated France have trouble sleeping? Could it be their consciences are not fully numbed to this:

FRANCE IN RWANDA
"In These Countries, Genocide's No Big Deal."
François Mitterrand, Fourth President of the French Fifth Republic

RWANDA WANTS AN APOLOGY FROM PARIS
A Interview With [Rwandan President] Paul Kagame

March 21, 2007 (RIE/Figaro [December16, 2006]) - PK: Before, it would have been easy. But Paris always refused the easy way. Representatives of important countries -- the Belgian Prime Minister, the American President -- came here and admitted their responsibility, even though their responsibility bears no relation to that of Paris. France has never had anything to say. The French are the most implicated in the affair -- and nothing, not a single word. But simple apologies, showing that one feels affected by what happened here, would make a big difference. To be unable to do this when one was so deeply implicated only makes the situation get worse. It is up to France to think about it. It is up to France to decide. If a French representative came to Kigali to present apologies to Rwandans, it would make an enormous difference. This is what Rwandans are expecting.

FRANCE BLAMED AS RWANDA REMEMBERS

MURAMBI, Rwanda April 8, 2007 (TVNZReuters) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Saturday said France "should have tasted our wrath" for what he called their complicity in the central African country's 1994 genocide.

... Some 270 victims of Murambi were buried in a genocide memorial site where 50,000 people were killed. Murambi was in a zone controlled by the French in the early days of the genocide in a United Nations-sanctioned mission called Operation Turquoise.

... But critics and victims say France helped prop up the Hutu government it had long supported - and that French soldiers aided the killers.

"That's not a secret or a rumour, it's a fact," Kagame, a Tutsi, said. ... France has always denied any role in the slaughter.

Survivors of Murambi said French soldiers who camped there in 1994 played volleyball on a court over a mass grave.

"Playing volleyball on top of mass graves clearly shows that the French had not come to save people but rather to kill and even hide evidence," a visibly angry Kagame said.

He said France should ask for forgiveness from Rwanda.

... A French foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on Kagame's remarks.

See here for our background post. See here for the follow-on.

PFFT (What is this?): No apologies 5 | No regrets 5 | No shame 5 | Rayonnement français 0 (there is no lower rating)