Thursday, October 26, 2006

French Role in Rwandan Genocide

International Law specialist Julien Ku reports that Rwanda is looking into evidence of French involvement in the 1994 genocide there. This is the second report of a nation revisiting foreign involvement in a 1994 atrocity this week.

Most of the allegations refer to the French training the participating militias who engaged in the killing, or standing aside and giving the killers access to their victims. However, perhaps the most shocking claim is that French helicopters specifically airlifted people out of the cities to be executed in isolated forests.

France is apparently cooperating with the probe, which is good news.

4 comments:

The probligo said...

David, this is a surprise, but not for the reasons you think.

If the investigation had specified Belgian involvement I would have had the same reaction as yourself.

But the French? Something not quite right there...

David Schraub said...

Why? Rwanda was a French colony (Belgians ruled over Congo).

Anonymous said...

Surprise? No, this is old news. Peter Gourevitch, in his 1998 award-winning book "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We will be Killed with our Families"--provides ample documentation of French complicity in the Hutu Power movement from the beginning, and of France's work to impede Tutusi resistance to the genocide.

PS: Actually Rwanda was a Belgian colony first, then French.

Anonymous said...

No! Rwanda was a german colony and after WW1 , a belgian colony. Rwanda was never a french colony.