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Rwanda

Uncomfortable Truths

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In the analysis of investigative journalist Linda Melvern, documents released from the

Paris archive of former president François Mitterrand show how the RPF invasion in
October 1990 was considered as clear aggression by an Anglophone neighbour on a

Francophone country. The documents are said to argue that the RPF was a part of an
"Anglophone plot", involving the President of Uganda, to create an English-speaking

"Tutsi-land" and increase Anglophone influence at the expense of French influence. In
Melvern's analysis, the policy of France was to avoid a military victory by the RPF. The
policy had been made by a secretive network of military officers, politicians, diplomats,

businessmen, and senior intelligence operatives. At its centre was Mitterrand. As a
matter of the French presidency, this foreign policy was not referred to parliament.

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During the first few days of the genocide, France launched Amaryllis, a military operation

involving 190 paratroopers, assisted by the Belgian army and UNAMIR, to evacuate
expatriates from Rwanda. The operation was later described by Gerard Prunier as a

"disgrace," as the French and Belgians refused to allow any Tutsi to accompany them;
those who boarded the evacuation trucks were forced off at Rwandan government
checkpoints, where they were killed. The French also separated several expatriates and

children from their Tutsi spouses, rescuing the foreigners but leaving the Rwandans to
likely death. The French did, however, rescue several high-profile members of

Habyarimana's government, as well as his wife, Agathe. “
"Role of France in the Rwandan Genocide: 119
Wikipedia
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“ The genocide had lasting and profound effects on Rwanda and neighbouring countries.
In 1996, the RPF-led Rwandan government launched an offensive into Zaire (now the

Democratic Republic of the Congo), home to exiled leaders of the former Rwandan
government and many Hutu refugees, starting the First Congo War and killing an
estimated 200,000 people. “

"Rwandan Genocide" 120
Wikipedia

(The significance of the above is that France actively abetted the current Rwandan leaderships enemies.
Not just in the genocide itself but in providing 'safe passage' so that these 'enemies' could relocate to
the neighbouring country and therefore become a continuing threat to present-day Rwanda. And as
events turned out, this led to a further military conflict.)

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