Europe 'ignoring French role in genocide' France and the massacre of the innocents.

France and the massacre of the innocents
This was a shameful massacre of the innocents - 800,000 of them -
Eight hundred thousand. Radovan Karovidzic is standing trial over
massacres of 100th the size. Everyone is outraged about Dafur. But
the scale and horror of this genocide certainly carried out with the
help of the French army , if possibly not their active
participation, dwarfs anything the Serb has done. And the French
politicians were deeply implicated. But France always treats parts
of Africa as continuing colonies where they may do as they please.

French politicians must answer for this and anyone personally
involved in the killings should be charged with genocide and shipped
to the International Court in The Hague.
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TELEGRAPH 7.8.08
Europe 'ignoring French role in genocide'
European leaders are ignoring French involvement in the Rwandan
genocide 14 years ago, the country's foreign minister has told The
Telegraph.

By Andrew Porter, Political Editor, in Kigali

A damning report has accused France of knowing that a genocide was
being planned as early as 1990. It also claims that French soldiers
took part in rape, sexual harassment and torture during the period in
1994 when 800,000 people were killed in ethnic violence.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Rosemary Museminali, the Rwandan
Foreign Minister, said that the people responsible for the murders
still needed to be brought to justice.

Rwanda cut diplomatic ties with France two years ago after a
prominent French judge indicted senior Rwandan officials for
allegedly conspiring to shoot down the aircraft carrying former
President Juvenal Habyarimana - an act which triggered the genocide.

Yesterday, Miss Museminali denied that the 500-page report condemning
France and released on Wednesday after a two-year investigation was
prepared in retaliation for the indictment.

She said: "It is completely wrong to suggest that. Our report was
commissioned in April 2006, and the French indictments were in
November of that year.

"Throughout the report there is damning evidence and testimony about
the French involvement on diplomatic, political and implementation
levels. There is also evidence that the (French) army and
intelligence groups were working with the Government.

"They armed them (the Hutu militias) and they supplied those who
killed. For us it is important that this comes out and that people
are tried."

But she is also despairing about the lack of acknowledgement of the
French involvement at European Government level and makes an
impassioned plea for the rest of the world not ignore what went on.

Miss Museminali said: "With Africa, European leaders are willing to
talk about Darfur and Zimbabwe, but not, it seems, about Rwanda.
European leaders need to be asked what they are going to do about
this report as Africa's problems are not just Mugabe and Zimbabwe.

"People cannot be allowed to just say 'oh, this is just another
African country.' Genocide is not just a crime against Rwanda, it is
a crime against humanity and as such it should not just be about
Rwanda fighting this battle alone."

The report painstakingly details alleged French involvement from
before the genocide and during it. In its communiqué it refers to
"ideological complicity" and states: "In the political sense, the
French Government greatly helped Habyarimana's regime to prepare the
course of the genocide."

It claims that the French portrayed the issues in Rwanda as "purely
ethnic" and that Francois Mitterrand, the late former president, was
among the French officials who "towed this line."

Dominique de Villepin, the former prime minister, is also among the
33 military and political leaders named in the document.

The feared Interahamwe militiamen, who were responsible for much of
the loss of life and violence, were trained in five military barracks
where the French army were residing, the report says.

In 100 days in 1994, more than 800,000 of Rwanda's minority Tutsi
tribe and moderates from the majority Hutu tribe were murdered.

Miss Museminali acknowledges that French President Nicolas Sarkozy
has attempted to take some tentative steps towards re-opening
dialogue with Kigali. But she also admits that little has changed
diplomatically since relations with Paris were cut off in the wake of
the French judge's indictments in 2006.

Those indictments still hang over Rwandan officials who have to limit
their travel to Europe for fear of being arrested. Spain has also
indicted 40 Rwandan officials.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, who led the Rwandan Patriotic Front
rebels in 1994, denies any involvement in the shooting down of the
plane carrying President Habyarimana. His assassination unleashed the
planned mass killing of Tutsis that quickly spread across the
country, led by the Interahamwe militia.

Last night Andrew Mitchell, the shadow international development
secretary, said of the new report: "This is a serious and disturbing
report that has been carried out over two years. Clearly questions
need to be answered."
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FINANCIAL TIMES 7.8.08
Rwanda points a finger at Paris

Rwanda has produced the most detailed account yet of France’s role
during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The report released in Kigali
follows a four year inquiry. It implicates top officials in the
French political and military establishment, including François
Mitterand, then president, his son, Jean-Christophe, two former prime
ministers and a host of military officers.

Some of the allegations are new. Some have been around for a long
time. But the thrust is that Paris gave diplomatic cover and provided
military training and arms to Hutu extremists who carried out the
slaughter of 1m ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. There are new
details of training that French officers gave to the civil defence
units that became the Interahamwe militias responsible for leading
the massacres. The report suggests that Paris was providing arms well
after the atrocities had begun. It also alleges some French personnel
participated directly in war crimes. If there is compelling evidence,
they should face justice.

Washington, London, the UN and others were guilty of standing by as
the ugliest chapter in modern African history was scripted. Paris is
being accused of much worse: active complicity in the writing of it.

As could be expected, the French have hit back, describing the
allegations as “unacceptable” and questioning the independence of the
government appointed committee that carried out the inquiry. There
may well be propaganda and exaggeration. The suggestion that French
officials knowingly connived in preparations for genocide might not
withstand scrutiny.

But there is substance to Rwanda’s accusation that France allowed the
conditions for genocide to develop by supporting a client regime even
after it started committing war crimes. Paris has still to
acknowledge its errors and issue any form of apology to Rwanda – a
source of immense grievance to survivors of the massacres. It also
explains why Rwanda has felt it necessary to put on record its
version of events.

This was the nadir of France’s relationship with client states in
Francophone Africa. President Nicolas Sarkozy has almost admitted as
much, but he needs to do more. Many leading political figures in
France have been outspoken in criticizing Turkey for its failure to
examine whether the massacre of Armenians during the collapse of the
Ottoman empire amounted to genocide. They cite this as a reason
Turkey does not belong in the European Union. They need to be honest
about their own behaviour in Rwanda. [Maybe France does not belong
in the European Union’ -cs]