France under fire

[Occhidiangela]

What part of 'well, apparently some of them did' did you fail to read?

Did you read the link kandrathe provided?
AllAfrica Times - Rwanda: 1994 Tutsi Genocide - Try French Suspects

Now, once you read it, please tell me, in your own words, why you think the <strike>article</strike> hit piece

is objective and factual,

or

the standard load of hearsay and agitprop.

While you are at it, learn the old adage, and follow the money.

Now, let's look at k's second link:

The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994.

A recent French official report blamed current Rwandan President, Paul Kagame.

The report - extracts of which appeared in the daily, Le Monde - said French police had concluded that Mr Kagame gave direct orders for the rocket attack.

And so Kagame has to have a rhetorical counter to that accusation, of whatever merit it holds. (I have my doubts that Kagame was behind the shootdown.)

Now we go to the events themselves.

In August 1993, after several attacks and months of negotiation, a peace accord was signed between Habyarimana and the RPF, but it did little to stop the continued unrest.

When Habyarimana's plane was shot down at the beginning of April 1994, it was the final nail in the coffin.

Exactly who killed the president - and with him the president of Burundi and many chief members of staff - has not been established.

Whoever was behind the killing its effect was both instantaneous and catastrophic.

Mass murder

In Kigali, the presidential guard immediately initiated a campaign of retribution. Leaders of the political opposition were murdered, and almost immediately, the slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus began.

Within hours, recruits were dispatched all over the country to carry out a wave of slaughter.

The early organisers included military officials, politicians and businessmen, but soon many others joined in the mayhem.

Encouraged by the presidential guard and radio propaganda, an unofficial militia group called the Interahamwe (meaning those who attack together) was mobilised. At its peak, this group was 30,000-strong.

Soldiers and police officers encouraged ordinary citizens to take part. In some cases, Hutu civilians were forced to murder their Tutsi neighbours by military personnel.

Participants were often given incentives, such as money or food, and some were even told they could appropriate the land of the Tutsis they killed.

On the ground at least, the Rwandans were largely left alone by the international community. UN troops withdrew after the murder of 10 soldiers.

But to eppie, the French were pulling the triggers.

Even the reasonably rational piece about French changes in Africa policy (kandrathe's last post) falls for the lie. Nicely done, I might add, since its aims are to show how the new and better idea is better than the old, blah blah blah.

Ultimately, it was an attempt by France to provide a clear distinction between the Francophone areas of Africa and the Anglophone areas. In attempting drawing that line, France armed the Hutu forces that did the majority of the killing. While France would not have sold the arms to the Hutus if the French knew the eventual usage of the weapons, it does not change the fact that the French supplied the Hutu’s.

The fact that at the time THE HUTUS WERE BY AND LARGE THE GOVERNING FACTION/PARTY IN THAT COUNTRY, and thus the legitimate government with whom any foreign nation and its agencies must deal, apparently was overlooked by the authors of that piece.

HEY, EPPIE, LISTEN UP, REALITY IS CALLING YOU!

As a government, you deal with the governments who are in power.

Or, you can be like eppie and ignore reality, and throw them out of the UN if, as eppie would promise us, you can predict that they are naughty people by reading their minds, and thus should be treated differently.

Let me illustrate in a way even you can understand: When Schroeder was elected in Gemany, the US dealt with the German government who was now in power. The US did not deal with not the Germans in the parties who did NOT win the majority. So, when the French were doing their military assistance bit, they did so with the government in power, not some ethereal entity invented in the mind of eppie. That those in power turned scumbag as quick as the plane went down is

Not The Fault Of The French.


A bit more of an in depth look. www.iansa.org/documents/development/undermining_development.htm
Edited for brevity

Arms exports to the region
Finland and Germany both supplied Eritrea with military transport aircraft in 1994, and Italy licensed the export of jet trainer aircraft in 1996 [3]. This is despite the fact that Eritrea has recently emerged from a prolonged conflict, and is currently in dispute with Sudan.

The UK, from 1993 - 1996, issued arms export licences for the following categories of equipment to countries in the Horn and Central Africa (no figures are available for exports since June 1996, due to a computer breakdown in the Department for Trade and Industry):

France supplied five shipments of arms to Rwandan Government forces after the imposition of the UN arms embargo, in May and June 1994, according to Human Rights Watch. The shipments allegedly contained artillery, machine guns, assault rifles, and ammunition [4]. The French Consul in Goma justified the shipments as being fulfilment of contracts negotiated prior to the embargo.

France signed a military co-operation accord with Rwanda in July 1976. Military assistance totalled nearly 12 million Francs in 1992 [5] , including ammunition supplies, training for the military, and aerial support.

France also signed an accord with Burundi in 1974. Military assistance continued into 1995, whilst Burundi was in the midst of a civil war. Between 1992 and 1994, France supplied the equivalent of US$10 million in military transfers to Burundi, including helicopter gunships, spare parts for aircraft and armoured vehicles, light weapons and artillery, and communication equipment[6].

The illicit trade

One of the most significant findings of the report is that the vast bulk of weapons exported to the Horn and Central Africa have not been officially recorded or registered, and have arrived illicitly. In most cases, such transfers have involved light weapons or small arms. The report contains extensive details of alleged illicit transfers (often in contravention of UN or other embargoes).

Belgium

Belgian involvement in Africa has tended to be concentrated in Central Africa, especially those countries that formerly made up Belgian Congo - Rwanda and Burundi. Belgian law prohibits the sale of "lethal aid" to countries at war. Consequently, the Belgian government suspended the provision of all arms to Rwanda in 1990, when war broke out. (But until then, Occhi notes, sell they did.)

A large proportion of Belgian arms documented in the Horn and Central Africa by various sources are, therefore, likely to have been exported prior to the imposition of embargoes on these countries, or to have arrived illicitly from other sources.

The vast majority of allegations of Belgian involvement in arms transfers relate to brokering by Belgian-based companies or individuals, or to the use of Belgian ports and airports as transit points for illicit shipments of arms. Although the Belgian authorities have made some moves to block the illegal transhipment of arms and military equipment through Belgian ports, Belgium continues to have a reputation as being a 'hub for international arms trafficking' [7] . Networks operating out of Belgium are alleged to have facilitated the delivery of weapons from the former Soviet Union to Africa [8], including Burundi, the Zairean military, and Hutu rebel forces based in Eastern Zaire [9].

A Belgian entrepreneur is said to have been one of the primary arms procurers for the Burundian government and military, and for Tutsi paramilitary forces. According to Human Rights Watch, his clients in Africa have included President Mobutu of Zaire, UNITA's Jonas Savimbi, and President Buyoya [10].

Landmines of Belgian origin were identified in Rwanda by French (and other Western) officials, according to Human Rights Watch. The landmines were traced to a shipment previously sold by Belgium (at an unspecified date) to Libya [12].

A Belgian company, FN Herstal ha s been instrumental in building and equipping an ammunition factory in Kenya at a cost of 2.4 billion Bfr. There have been a number of allegations that ammunition from the factory has been supplied to the Great Lakes region, including Interahamwe militia groups in Zaire [13].

But eppie wants to blame the French for genocide, perhaps due to him pretending that the Rwandan war was some sort of spike in the generally violent political friction in Africa since WW II ended.

So, where did Kagame and the RPF get their weapons? ;)

Eppie, you might want to learn how cynical "victor's justice" is, in its implementation. That the Rwandan rhetoric wishes to apply this across borders is more garbage. Their hands are not clean.

Occhi