Rwanda genocide: Twenty-five years after the massacre | Reporters Plus • FRANCE 24 English

welcome journalists here at

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24 I'm Marco and in this edition Rwanda, on the 25th anniversary of the

genocide

, we have an exclusive report on the role played by France in one of the darkest periods in history, at least 800,000 people were

massacre

d in the Rwandan

genocide

a chain of atrocities that began when the plane carrying the then president the young Habiarimano was shot down he led a Hutu government the Tutsi people were blamed for his death and this was the catalyst that pushed Rwanda towards genocide the issue France's role has been raised many times as to whether the French military operation to end the violence, the Turquoise operation simply acted as a screen to allow Francis Hutu's allies to escape.

Judge Paul Kagami, a Tutsi president of Rwanda since 1994, there are only men who have relationships with Elise's questions. A special report by Mikhail Shtanker remains unanswered thanks foreign foreign foreign foreign deaths one day after two months of

massacre

s and under UN mandate the French army intervened um this former Hutu combatant was sentenced by a popular court to seven

years

in prison for the crime of genocide why France has been associated for 25

years

with the Rwandan tragedy what role it played France's closely guarded secrets are only now being revealed Foreign hatred between Hutus and Tutsis dates back to the colonial era, when The colonial power Belgium granted the Tutsi positions of responsibility in 1962; once Rwanda became independent, the Hutu majority took power.

The Tutsis were persecuted, expelled and massacred. Many fled to neighboring countries, exiled in English-speaking Uganda, they created a rebel movement, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, for fear of losing influence to the Anglo-Saxon powers. France chose to side with the French-speaking Hutus to subject them to French influence during his rule. President Francois Miterong staunchly supported the young Hutu dictator Hadi Yaramana. Rwanda represented a way of opposing a kind of Anglophone control of the Great Lakes region in this Geocultural motivation played a very important role: the Belgian colonizer was no longer there. Rwanda became the key to entry, so it was a huge and extraordinarily rich territory and it is not impossible that French policies aimed at securing this entry into a territory indirectly controlled by France represented a considerable geopolitical advantage from 1990 corporation between Rwanda and France sent intensified troops to this country as large as a French province there were up to 1,000 soldiers present at the same time between 400 and 1,000 soldiers for months and months that went on to form and train the army supplies were delivered an entire military assistance program to the point that some French officers took over operational command of the Rwandan army there was extremely strong cooperation between 1990 and 1993 the objective of that military assistance was to save the javierimana regime against attacks by the RPF during that same period the ruling party organized sporadic massacres of tootsie communities what appeared to be pogroms were regularly perpetrated in Rwanda against Tutsi communities a program obviously with the complicity of the state, militias and governors in In a country as strictly controlled as Rwanda, such a program could not be carried out without local and national authorities turning a blind eye.

In 1991, a high-ranking official alerted Paris to a possible genocide. General Jean Vari was at the time the head of the French army. Corporation mission in Rwanda speaking for the first time on camera this four star general decided to explain I was asked to chair a meeting of John Darm who wanted help from military cooperation during this meeting the police chief told me well, I need machine guns I need artillery. This request surprised me and I told him, you are a police officer. It's okay for me to supply you with tear gas. Etc., but not machine guns.

So I told him no. So he told me, look here, we are all military. I am a colonel. You are a general. Let's talk frankly. Hello, I need this equipment for my men because we are going to join the fight against the Tutsis so I asked him what he meant and he said well you know we are going to eliminate them there are not many of them it will be over quickly I told him do you realize what you are saying he said yes but that is how it is in our country, the tootsy are in danger, we are going to eliminate them.

General very told his superiors of his fears, but France continued to support the Hutu regime without heeding his warning. There were meetings of colonels (I don't remember any particular general participating) and they took positions telling me that we must help the Hutu army fight the Tutsis, whether they meant the RPF or the entire Tootsie ethnic group, I don't know, but very often the Tutsis were assimilated into the FBR as the enemy and I kept saying, “be careful, be careful, be careful,” and what did they respond. Oh, they listened politely, but accepted. I didn't realize it and then little by little I got the impression that my theory was not taken seriously.

I really believe that French policy at the time was to let the Hutus think that France would turn a blind eye if a massacre occurred. La France General Jean-Vare was an embarrassment to the French authorities, he ended up being pushed aside and eventually resigned. France continued its military cooperation with Javier Amanas. The Hutu regime in this note marked confidential defense and addressed President Francois Miteral. The French army headquarters confirms the delivery of weapons to Rwanda. Ammunition was provided in the early days of the crisis. A useful measure would be to disagree now. A small batch of rockets to equip the helicopters.

The genocidal machinery began to function at the end of the year 1990. It continued until 1994. And I can say that it was raised by France by the French army like a broody chicken and if France had not intervened to save the Rwandan army then the Javier regime rhymes the random army and militia would have collapsed foreign 1993 with the weakening of the habihiramana regime France organized agreements for a fragile peace between the two parties the Arusha Accords its official objective to prevent a civil war in Rwanda during all those years French policy was to unite to all parties instead of heading towards a Civil War and general extermination to reach a compromise looking back may seem naive, but anyway As far as one can tell, it cannot be said that France was complicit in what It happened later, since France was the only country in the world that tried to prevent it.

These agreements were considered treason by the Hutu extremists, numerous within the Happy Roman regime, they were never implemented. and they were blown to pieces Just a few months later, on the afternoon of April 6, 1994, Hutu President Habir Amana was assassinated in an attack on his plane. Rwanda descended into chaos. President Abiarimano was assassinated on the afternoon of April 6 during a After a series of meetings, the French Embassy instituted a caretaker government for the 8th and 9th of April 1st. France continued to support a government in which it did not see or did not want to see that it was the extremists who now had the advantage. how to power the extremists determined to a massacre this government in office was composed of Hutu extremists who ordered the population to kill Tutsis and moderate Hutus for 100 days, from April to July 1994, Rwanda fell into unimaginable violence, men , women and children were massacred by a genocidal machine in its entirety. swing almost a million people were methodically murdered after two months of massacres on June 22, 1994 France received the UN mandate to launch a peacekeeping mission.

This was the beginning of Operation Turquoise and the deployment of 2,500 troops to Zaire and Rwanda Paris. We present this operation as a humanitarian mission to put an end to the killings. What do we see happening? We saw the best units from France arrive. Elite units that were superlatively trained and equipped. We saw weapons that didn't officially exist at the time start appearing on the battlefield. The troops were ready for all kinds of battles but nothing to deal with the humanitarian mission. Thank you, why did we send such an important military operation with planes and armored trucks because before in Somalia the United States had killed some men due to lack of equipment to protect well? to their soldiers during the operation in Somalia as is happening here and considering that the RPF is hostile and that the Rwandan armed forces are unstable and all those things, we do not want to get caught in the dangers of a confrontation, so we create means to avoid a confrontation but it was a totally defensive objective the RPF rebels led by Paul Kagami continued to advance towards the country under the guise of a humanitarian mission France deployed its best elite unit during operation turquoise Junior officer Guillo Mansell was given the mission to guide the pilots. for airstrikes, he remembers that he had been ordered to prepare an airstrike against the RPF.

The legion company I was told to join was very excited because they were ordered to move to the other side of the New Forest, a tropical forest about 40 kilometers wide to go and set up an ambush for the approaching RPF, They informed us that the RPF that was in front of us had about 1,500 men and we knew that they were very well trained and their command was top quality, they were true warriors and we were only 150 men, the helicopters. They take off they start to climb and it is at that moment that an operations officer comes out of the Special Forces command post and orders the helicopters to land immediately we were furious we were on our way to fight the operation was launched in the usual way do not stop an operation which is already underway so the operations officer informed us that we were going to establish a humanitarian zone.

It was the first time we heard about humanitarian action in this operation and the guys from the legion who have a very special humor told me you were in charge of the air strikes now you are in charge of the humanitarian strikes the former military commander in charge of operation turquoise does not agree with guillaume's version of events I know perfectly well all the important decisions that were made by General Cab or the Paris headquarters I was at the heart of the system at my level of responsibilities. I am one of three senior officers directly under the command of the General in command of the operation.

I have never known of such an order or counterorder, there was never any doubt about such an action but the beginning of the turquoise operation and that is why I myself ordered fighter planes, we did not know how the different parties would react, in particular the RPF's attitude towards foreign French forces, however, a French pilot stationed at a base in Zaire gave this disturbing testimony who now serves in the reserve prefers to remain anonymous in a handwritten letter the pilot claims he waited the same day as Guillaume Ansel a Order for an air attack on the afternoon of June 30, 1994 on the Kasangani base in Zaire, the crews received the order from Goma, where the headquarters of Operation Turquoise was located, to prepare fire support to assist the Ground Forces, fire support or an air strike against the LPF for the soldiers involved in operation turquoise, things were getting confusing in Rwanda, the Hutu population and the Rwandan army. welcomed the French with enthusiasm France's historical ally Rwandan armed forces aided by militiamen and police led the genocide militia member Emanuel Nirambuga recalled his relationship with the French soldiers of Operation Turquoise foreigner foreigner at that time The French army realized that a genocide was taking place.

Before their eyes there is a vision of violence in terms of massacres, let's say reciprocal massacres, and then we have the elements of a Civil War that should be stopped peacefully, one does not see that there are murderers on one side and victims. On the other hand, an important event was about to change the minds of the soldiers of Operation Turquoise. On June 27, 1994, a French patrol and some journalists found hundreds of Tutsi survivors in the hills of Business Zero. Journalist Patrick was among them. People emerged from the sides. of the road and those people were in a very bad state, really pitiful, it was incredible, they told us every day they are tracking us every day, they come to kill us and they took us to this hill and they lifted up some earth and there were corpses, there were dead people, the hill was plagued of foreign deaths the officer said we will return in three days and we left because we did not have the means or the possibility to do anything there were no orders so we left following the chain of command the French soldiers abandoned the survivors of the tootsie to the Hutu militias They returned just three days later, on June 30.

I wasn't going to send two poorly equipped jeeps into the hills and we could hear the RPF shelling a dozen kilometers away. I will not send them without a support force or security. If I had gone in a hurry, I would have had aambush and French casualties, I'm sorry to say, but between the death of 10 French soldiers and the death of some Hurus due to my fault. of concern well if I mean Tootsie I'm sorry during those three days without the protection of the French army a thousand Tutsis were killed when the soldiers of operation turquoise returned to business zero Hills finally began to act rescuing about 800 survivors after these operation massacres Turquoise became strictly humanitarian, the French army then set up camps to receive and care for Tootsie refugees to house victims of clashes between the Rwandan armed forces and the RPF.

France created a humanitarian zone in southern Rwanda. We proposed a Safe Humanitarian Zone, we considered that there was a risk that the conflict between the FPR and Javier Romana's Army would occur precisely in the area where we were intervening to stop the massacres within that area, the only thing they allowed us to do according to the resolution of the UN was to stopAfter the massacres of July 15, 1994, members of the genocidal Hutu government fleeing the RPF also found refuge in this humanitarian zone. It is evident that some heavy black limousines arrived in the city with some trucks full of Rwandan military, probably belonging to the presidential guard.

It was obvious that these men were not welcome in the area, whatever the responsibility or not, we were not there for the good of the old commanders of a regime that had just collapsed in a diplomatic telegram sent to Paris that day the French ambassador called for them to be arrested immediately we know that the authorities are enormously responsible for the genocide we have no choice but to arrest them no matter how difficult it may be immediately so we immediately asked for orders what are they going through now what should we do right for me at that time I informed the general for a long time I said legally that I had no right to arrest people against whom I had no mandate to act here was the response of France, at the request of the head of the turquoise operation, a Reuters dispatch stated that Paris was ready to arrest members of the government.

The then secretary of Elise Uber Verdrin wrote these few words, reading from the president, this is not what had been said before the first ministers, that is why the Elysée did not agree to arrest members of the genocidal government, the mandate of the United Nations would never have been given if we had asked for a mandate to impose justice, the mandate of the UN was humanitarian, not judicial, it was not the weapon of a criminal court that was dealing with those responsible for the genocide was not our problem, in other words we had no right to do so, there was a legal framework determined by the UN resolution and we could not act outside of it, especially for the military, for them there was the risk of having to appear before international courts if France had been prosecuted for arresting members of the sitting government in the At that time I don't think there would have been any problem because, despite everything, everyone realized that the sitting government started the massacres and I can't imagine there would have been a strong legal process, especially given that UN members are all bound by the 1948 genocide convention, which obliges all states to prevent and suppress the crime of genocide, which It means that France could have simply argued that it was contributing to the prevention of risks to civilians and the punishment of a series of responsible foreign persons who acted in On orders from Paris the military of Operation Turquoise protected and organized the escape of tens of thousands of refugees including members of the Rwandan army, Hutu militiamen and members of the genocidal government, the French army did not deny it and the operation was even promoted in this magazine of the Foreign Legion kepi Blanc the turquoise headquarters helped organize the evacuation of the interim government of Rwanda I wish on July 17 the government of Rwanda crossed into Zaire no, we did not arrest them, we provoked and organized their escape we actually gave them shelter or gave them They gave them the means to find shelter Border, once they crossed the border, some of them were taken on military planes to Central Africa, for example, and there they were able to leave, so they left, a certain number went to Togo or Cameroon and so we were able to find them.

The sub-prefect of Gisigara himself admitted during a hearing that he had abandoned the Congo on the French plain heading to Central Africa. I don't think I was the only one who benefited from this foreign transportation. Some of the alleged culprits found refuge with the French. the soil is here who had indisputable responsibilities and it did not bother you in the least even before the complaints were filed, it did not bother them the international tribunal for Rwanda convicted 17 of the 21 acting government ministers, at least 10 of They had passed through the turquoise zone, notably Prime Minister Jean Combandar, who was arrested three years later and sentenced to life imprisonment in France.

Judicial investigations were carried out against several officials accused of genocide. Laurel Cereebruga, former deputy deputy chief of staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces, kanziga of Agat, wife of Hadi Yaramana. of president Habia Romana, former prefect of the province of geekongoro, still live peacefully in France today. Our special report on the Rwanda genocide, by Mikhail Stanika, can of course be seen again on our website

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