IN 1994 thousands were killed in the genocide in which Rwanda now officially accuses France of playing an active role.
It has now come to light through an independent Rwandan Commission that France was aware of preparations for the genocide and helped in training the ethnic Hutu militia perpetrators.
According to the report France helped train the Rwandan ethnic Hutu troops and militias that carried out the genocide and continued to supply arms to the perpetrators even after the killings had started.
About 800,000 people perished in the genocide.
In addition to French troops being accused of direct involvement in the killings, the report claims that 33 senior French military and political figures should be prosecuted.
However, to date France has denied any such involvement or responsibility.
The late former President Francois Mitterrand, and the previous Prime Minister Edouard Balladur have been named together with ex Foreign Minister, Alain Juppe, and his then chief aide Dominique de Villepin.
The French Foreign Ministry has confirmed that it will respond to these fresh allegations in the report.
Human-rights groups said Tuesday that French involvement was "well-documented" and that France's ties to the genocide "should be acknowledged as historical fact," said Alison des Forges, a prominent researcher on the genocide for Human Rights Watch.
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Omuhle • n/a Subject: n/a Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:06:31 • This is old news. Read a book by Martin Meredith called the State of Africa. It charts all the countries, how they attained Independence, how they abused or used it, how they went downhill and how the IMF got involved and so on. If you want to know the beginnings of the Rwanda genocide look into what the Belgians did as part of their divide and rule tactic in splitting Hutu from Tutsi. As for the French involvement, read the book and make up your own mind. Some things you shouldn't expect the French to admit before you believe. The information should be put out there. At every opportunity when you speak of the Rwanda massacres do not forget to mention that oh yeah, the French helped the Hutu, they armed them and trained them and so on. Let them deny it as much as they want. Everyone will form an opinion from the informatino sent out, not from French denials or admissions. This is a sad chapter in Africa's colonialism and the direct consequences of colonialism. It ranks with the Srebrenica massacre, the Holocaust, the Armenian massacre, Gukurahundi and many others. We can't hope for justice anymore because what justice can you give 800 thousand dead men, women and children? Let's just put it out there and get as many people to know about it as is possible. Don't tell anyone what to think. Informed minds and objective enough to categorize as they see fit.
snoopy and dat red baron • na.germany Subject: ITS ALL ON PUBLIC DISPLAY Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:46:29 • the pictures were taken in a museum which is dedicated to the 800,000 who died and their skeletons are stacked there on shelves for everyone to see. watch the two dudes on their motorbikes travelling thru Africa to Cape Town in the tv documentary LONG WAY DOWN and you will see everything in the museum which was filmed during their visit.
Everyone who visits Rwanda goes to this museum to look at the remains and see the photographs which are horrific. Its reality.
N/A • N/A Subject: N/A Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:58:49 • It is sad such a huge number of people had to be killed because someone wanted power or to remain in power. However from my naive point of view, If i were to investigate this issue, I would start from cause to effect. The Rwanda issue is emotive. I shed a lot of tears when I saw on TV the floating of human bodies in rivers. I also feel its not right for us to continue to be showing pictures of these departed comrades in order to score points. What has happened to our African values? The Rwandans are our relatives takabva GURUUSWA sandizvo here?
The point I also want to make is from cause to effect. Has anyone investigated who downed the Presidential plane? Whoever that is, is the source of the Rwandan genocide. Lets call a spade a spade. You kill a leader of a section of any community, if that community has the werewithall, they will revenge. Lets investigate who downed the plane,then we can find who was responsible for actions that initiated the Genocide.That should be the starting point.
STAFF REPORTER • na. Subject: YOU DONT BELIEVE ME? Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:32:48 • Tuesday 05 August 2008
By FRANCE 24 with agencies (text) / G. Cragg (video)
BBC NEWS | Africa | France accused in Rwanda genocide
Rwanda's government accuses France of playing an active role in the 1994 genocide, in which about ... Rwanda has repeatedly accused France of arming and ...
news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/africa/7542418.stm - 59k - Cached
http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?y=y&ei=utf-8&fr=ieas-tb&p=france and rwanda genocide
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