|
Rwanda -
France
·
On August 5,
2008 an
independent
Rwandan
commission
accused
France of
playing an
active role
in the
genocide of
1994, in
which about
800,000
people were
killed.
·
An
independent
Rwandan
commission
said France
was aware of
preparations
for the
genocide and
helped train
the ethnic
Hutu militia
perpetrators.
Mission
IAS’2009
·
The report
also accused
French
troops of
direct
involvement
in the
killings.
·
France has
previously
denied any
such
responsibility.
·
Among those
named in the
report were
the late
former
President,
Francois
Mitterrand,
and the then
Prime
Minister
Edouard
Balladur.
·
Two men who
went on to
become prime
minster were
also named -
Alain Juppe,
the foreign
minister at
the time,
and his then
chief aide,
Dominique de
Villepin.
·
Some 800,000
minority
Tutsis and
moderate
Hutus were
slaughtered
by Hutu
militias in
just 100
days in
1994.
·
The report
says France
backed
Rwanda's
Hutu
government
with
political,
military,
diplomatic
and
logistical
support.
·
It accuses
France of
training
Hutu
militias
responsible
for the
slaughter,
helping plan
the
genocide,
and
participating
in the
killings.
·
"French
forces
directly
assassinated
Tutsis and
Hutus
accused of
hiding
Tutsis...
French
forces
committed
several
rapes on
Tutsi
survivors,"
said a
statement
from the
justice
ministry
cited by AFP
news agency.
·
The
two
countries
have had a
frosty
relationship
since 2006
when a
French judge
implicated
Rwandan
President
Paul Kagame
in the
downing in
1994 of
then-President
Juvenal
Habyarimana's
plane - an
event widely
seen as
triggering
the
killings.
·
President
Kagame
has always
denied the
charge.
·
He says
Habyarimana,
a Hutu, was
killed by
Hutu
extremists
who then
blamed the
incident on
Tutsi rebels
to provide
the pretext
for the
genocide.
|
