Rwanda: France Aided in 1994 Genocide
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Rwanda has accused France of arming and advising extremists involved in the 1994 genocide in a report that names French leaders and says they should “answer for their actions.”
The report of a two-year investigation, published yesterday, named Francois Mitterrand, a late former president, and Dominique de Villepin, a former prime minister, among 33 military and political leaders.
Fourteen years ago, more than 800,000 of Rwanda’s minority Tutsi tribe and moderates from the majority Hutu tribe were killed in 100 days.
A French force sent to establish a “humanitarian safe zone” once the genocide had started took part in killing and raping Tutsis, the report said.
“French soldiers themselves directly were involved in assassinations of Tutsis and Hutus accused of hiding Tutsis,” it said. “French soldiers committed many rapes, forced sexual intercourse specifically with surviving Tutsi women. They clearly requested Interahamwe [Hutu militia]… to kill Tutsis.
“They also clearly requested to have Tutsi who had infiltrated in displaced population camps brought to them and have Interahamwe kill at least some of them.
“They let Interahamwe kill Tutsis under their eyes.”
The report, commissioned by President Kagame and the result of an inquiry that heard from 120 witnesses, said that France knew that the genocide was likely to take place but failed to act.
French military advisers were working with the Rwandan government in the years leading up to 1994. Those advisers helped to draw up battle plans and military strategy for the Rwandan armed forces, including elite units accused of being among the first to start the killings, the report said.
The French suggested a program to arm civilians to protect against opposition rebels, and then went on to train volunteers. These militia formed the core of the later genocidal infrastructure.
Training and funding was also given to a department of Rwanda’s national intelligence services on how to establish a computerised database of people’s tribes, which was later used to draw up a “kill list” of Tutsis.
