Maybe we should call the Haiti Fries
France Fails to Accept Responsibility over Rwanda
Julio Godoy
PARIS, Apr 7 (IPS) - In the face of overwhelming evidence that France backed the Hutu-dominated Rwandan army responsible for the massacre of some 800,000 people ten years ago, it continues to deny its responsibility in the tragedy.
On the contrary, former minister for foreign affairs Dominique de Villepin claimed three weeks ago that ”French intervention in Rwanda saved hundreds of thousands of lives.”
New Rwandan leader Paul Kagamé, a Tutsi, corrected De Villepin. ”Yes, the French saved many lives -- of those who committed the genocide.”
De Villepin was referring to Operation Turquoise, a peacekeeping mission launched by the French government with UN authorisation on June 23, 1994 -- when the genocide was mostly over.
Experts who have studied the events say Kagamé is right. Operation Turquoise protected Hutu authorities who had led the massacres since April 1994, partly to flee Rwanda and to seek refuge in neighbouring Zaire, then controlled by another Francophile dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.
