France accused of assisting Rwanda genocide

The Rwandan government has called for the prosecution of a number of senior French politicians over the 1994 genocide of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis, after releasing a report from an official commission that accuses the former president François Mitterand and more than 30 senior French officials of aiding the killers. A two-year investigation by the commission also accuses French forces in Rwanda of crimes against humanity and of using a UN-sanctioned haven for refugees to help those responsible for the 100 days of mass slaughter to escape justice. The 500-page report is the latest salvo in a bitter struggle between France and Rwanda's Tutsi leadership to pin responsibility for the genocide on each other. Two years ago a prominent French judge accused Paul Kagame, Rwanda's president today but in 1994 the leader of Tutsi rebels fighting the Hutu government, of ordering the assassination of the then president, Juvenal Habyarimana, which kick-started the killing. The accusation outraged Kagame, whose Rwandan Patriotic Front went on to defeat the Hutu extremist regime that organized the murder of Tutsis. The Rwandan commission named 13 French political leaders -- including Mitterand, who died in 1996; the former prime ministers Edouard Balladur and Dominique de Villepin; and former foreign ministers Alain Juppe and Hubert Védrine -- it says played a role in arming Hutu extremists. It says they also helped cover up Paris's role. "The French support was of a political, military, diplomatic and logistic nature," the report said. It cites official papers abandoned by the defeated Hutu regime that investigators said proved France made large weapons shipments to the former Rwandan army and trained members of the Interahamwe militias who carried out the genocide. The report also details how French soldiers were involved in frontline operations against Kagame's forces. In some cases they commanded artillery and flew helicopter gunships. It accuses some of those soldiers of crimes. "French forces directly assassinated Tutsis and Hutus accused of hiding Tutsis ... French forces committed several rapes on Tutsi survivors," the report said. The Rwandan commission heard from Hutu former soldiers who said they had served with French soldiers and journalists. Among the witnesses was Isidore Nzeyimana, a former military instructor, who told the commission he worked with French officers who trained members of the Interahamwe. The Rwandan justice ministry said on Aug. 5: "[We ask] authorities to undertake all necessary actions to bring the accused French political and military leaders to answer for their acts before justice." The French foreign ministry said it would not respond until it had read the report. Earlier this year the foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, denied French complicity in the genocide but said political errors were made. The investigation was launched in response to an inquiry by France's leading anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, who accused Kagame of responsibility for the genocide by ordering Habyarimana's assassination and unleashing revenge killings against Tutsis. Bruguière, who was unable to indict Kagame because he is a head of state, issued arrest warrants for nine of the Rwandan president's closest aides. However, the judge's accusations are contentious because plans for the genocide were already well laid before they took place. He has also been criticized for taking evidence from Hutu extremists. The 1990 invasion of Rwanda by Tutsi exiles living in Uganda laid the ground for the genocide of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis four years later. France poured in weaponry, troops and military advisers to keep the Tutsi rebels at bay. Hutu extremist politicians whipped up a campaign against Rwanda's minority Tutsi population, accusing them of supporting the rebels and trying to take power. The assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, probably by Hutu extremists, unleashed the planned mass killing of Tutsis that quickly spread across the country, led by the Interahamwe militia. The killing lasted 100 days before the Tutsi rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front finally seized power.