Genocide in Rwanda?

From Greg Dunkel, 13 April 1998

L'Humanite, which is the daily paper of the French Communist party, had a two-page special report last week on the French involvement in Rwanda from 1991 to 1994, how they armed the government, even after massacres of Tutsis took place in 1992-1993, how they sent high level military advisors to the Habayarima government in 1993, and much more. All this, in a very measured and careful fashion, was designed to support the French CP's assertion that France and the French army was implicated in the massacres that took place.

This is a very charged issue in French politics right now, since the parliamentary investigation into the French role does NOT have the power to issue indictments; both the CP & the Greens wanted this commission to have that kind of authority.

One remark that I read in Le Monde a few weeks ago has stuck in my mind. The author was explaining why French officers were not allowed to give testimony at the war crimes tribunal in Arusha: the army was afraid that they -- the officers -- might wind up on the bench of the accused.

It's not just the left in France that suspect the French army and France of complicity in those massacres.

/greg
joscu@cunyvm.cuny.edu