www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4903
Another reason to hate France October 14th, 2005 Running low on reasons to hate France? Im no t talking about the blame poured on the UN and the West in general for negligence; Im talking about France actually helping commit genocide. France not only trained and armed the Hutu genocidaires in advance of the genocide, it armed them, gave them safe harbor, refused safe harbor to Tutsis, and sent its own troops into Rwanda to defend the Hutus during t he genocide of the Tutsis.
I should point out that Rwanda is not the focus of this boo k In fact, it is only covered in Chapter 27, out of 35 chapters and 75 2 pages. In 1990, the Rwandan government was led by Hutu extremists, headed by p resident Habyarimana. French President Francois Mitterand sent his own son, Jean-Christophe, to head Frances special Africa Unit. Jean-Chris tophe was popularly known in Africa as Papa ma dit, or Daddy told me t o In early October 1990, the opposition Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) gath ered in neighboring Uganda to stage strikes into Rwanda. President Mit terand authorized French troops to help the Hutu government fight the R PF. Jean-Christophe remarked, with a wink, We are going to send him a few boys, old man Habyarimana. In any c ase, the whole thing will be over in two or three months. With Frances help, Habyarimana expanded his armed forces by over 300%. France contributed training, expertise, weapons and foreign contacts f or more weapons. Rwanda spent an estimated $100 million on arms at tha t time, a huge amount for such a small country. In 1992 a ceasefire was signed between Rwanda and the RPF, but the abus e of Tutsis continued. Despite a 1993 human rights report accusing Habyarimana of massacres, t orture, arbitrary detention and other abuses against Tutsis, France con tinued its program of support for Habyarimana. Within 3 months in early 1994, Rwanda imported more than 500,000 machet es, enough to arm a third of the adult Hutu population. On April 6, 1994, Habyarimanas plane was shot down, perpetrators still unknown, and the killing began. The first victims were carefully selec ted with lists prepared well in advance. Ten Bel gian UN peacekeepers, sent to defend her, were taken prisoner, driven t o a military camp, beaten up, tortured and killed. The prime minister and her husband were also caught and killed. During a mass for some 500 Tutsis, a killing squad burst into the churc h The militia began slashing away, a survivor recalled. They were ha cking at the arms, legs, breasts, faces and necks. Across Rwanda, church buildings where Tutsis desperately sought sanctuary bec ame the scene of one massacre after another. On April 8, the RPF announced a return to war and prepared to advance o n the capital. On April 9, French troops landed in the capital to prot ect, not Tutsis, but Hutu extremists, who were put on the first plane o ut. Upon arrival in Paris, some of the Hutu extremists received hefty sums of money and a personal audience by President Mitterand. On the o ther hand, the French refused to evacuate the five children of the murd ered prime minister and long-standing embassy employees, most of them T utsi. According to Human Rights Watch, France continued arms shipments to the Rwandan army in May and June of 1994, the middle of the genocide. Military officers in Paris talked openly of breaking the back of the RPF. The Hutus greeted the arriving French troops as heroes, waving banners saying Vive la France and praising Mitterand. Radio broadcasts called for you Hutu girls to wash yourselves and put on a good dress to welcom e our French allies. Despite Frances attempts to help the Hutu government and to defeat the RPF, it was the RPFs victory that ultimately brought an end to the geno cide. In the space of 100 days some 800,000 people had been slaughtered about three quarters of the Tutsi population. More people had been killed m ore quickly than in any other mass killing recorded in history. The genocide was brought to an end by the opposition RPF, the very force that France fought, directly and indirectly, both before and during the genocide. France helped the extreme Hutus, the genocidaires, both befor e and during the genocide, with training, arms, money and its own troops . France gave safe harbor to the Hutu genocidaires at the same time it refused to help Tutsis. And this all happened with full knowledge and participation by French Pre sident Francois Mitterand. He ordered French troops into Rwanda during the genocide, not to protect the Tutsis from slaughter, b ut to protect the Hutu genocidaires. For its part, Rwanda is now trying to do something about it.
stated As for the French, their role in what happened in Rwanda is self-evident They knowingly trained and paid government soldiers and militia who w ere going to commit genocide and they knew they would commit genocide There are people who hide behind diplomacy.
investigation into Frances responsibility fo r the genocide. It claims that Paris knowingly armed the killers and pro vided an escape route after their defeat and allowed perpetrators of the genocide to escape when it launched an operation in south-western Rwand a in June 1994.
B BC, where we find that Jean-Christophe Mitterand (aka Papa ma dit, and M r Africa) was arrested in 2000 for illegal arms deals and the misuse of company funds involving the sale of Russian weapons and equipment to An gola in 1993 and 1994. But Frances Mr Africa was once right at the heart of the very particu lar relationship between the French Government and the African continen t Most of these countries were run by autocratic presidents who liked to d eal directly with President Mitterrand, bypassing the Foreign Ministry and other official channels. Discreetly they could ask for favours arms, money, help with troubleso me opponents, a good word on their behalf with the IMF, a comfortable r etirement if things got difficult at home. Their support raised Frances international profile, their contracts alw ays went to French companies, and several African leaders are believed to have made substantial donations to French political parties.
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