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THIS week the world looks back with collective shame at having failed to prevent the slaughter of close to one million people in the Rwandan genocide 20 years ago. As we mark this momentous event, the underlying sentiment is that it should never have been allowed to happen. Rwanda was completely broken by the genocide and the country is still recovering from that sad chapter. It has made remarkable progress since then and the spirit of reconciliation and national healing has kept the nation united and on the path to prosperity. But an introspection is in order as we remember those who lost their lives during a dark frenzied 100 days of slaughter and mayhem.
While the Rwandan genocide is a sad indictment on the conscience of the world, it is the involvement or lack of therein of powerful countries that has us reflecting on the sad events. The role of the United States, France and Belgium in the genocide has always been a touchy subject but is trite to mention that the three countries’ tussle for influence in the region contributed in some way to the conflict.
Initially, the civil war in Rwanda was a struggle for power between the Hutu-led government of President Habyarimana and the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front backed militarily and financially by the US and fronted by current President Paul Kagame — a commander trained at the US Army Command and Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas.
The French government supported the Habyarimana regime and there was an active involvement of the French and the US Central Intelligence Agency in the Rwandan conflict. Washington was angling to widen its sphere of influence in the region while France and Belgium were looking to consolidate their neo-colonial hold on the area it considered its dominion.
Allegations of complicity in the Rwandan genocide have been strongly denied by France but the snubbing of Paris from the official commemorations marking the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Kigali this week points to lingering suspicions and strained relations between the two countries. France had no presence at the commemorations after it cancelled a ministerial visit in response to the latest accusations by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and the French ambassador was barred from attending.
The Rwandan president said French soldiers — who helped train the Hutu nationalist-controlled Rwandan army prior to 1994, as well as being accused of aiding the killers to escape — were both accomplices and “actors” in the bloodbath that left close to a million dead. Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo also said France had to face up to the “difficult truth” over its involvement.
The re-awakened accusations sparked widespread outrage in France. Edouard Balladur of the centre-right UMP, prime minister at the time of the killings, said Kagame “is constantly seeking to accuse France when he himself has not, after 20 years, been able to bring together the Rwandan people.
“France is in no way complicit in the genocide. On the contrary, it of all countries in the world was the only one that took the initiative to organise a humanitarian operation to prevent widespread massacres,” he told Europe 1 radio. General Jean-Claude Lafourcade, the former commander of Operation Turquoise, the French military mission in Rwanda, also rejected the accusations.
“I find Mr Kagame’s accusations unfounded and unfair – they completely tarnish this day of commemoration for a global human tragedy,” he told RTL radio. Noting that French forces arrived at the end of June 1994, when “90 percent of the massacres” had already been committed, Lafourcade said: “Not a single French soldier was in Rwanda during the genocide.” In 2008, a report by a Rwandan commission of inquiry concluded that France had trained the militias that carried out killings and French troops had taken part in massacres.
It accused 13 politicians and 20 officers by name. There is an outpouring of emotions in Kigali as the country’s citizens continue to mourn their departed loved ones but the rest of the world should bow down in shame for watching from the sidelines as humanity showed its darkest side.
The Rwandan genocide showed the ugly side of conflict and the United Nations should ensure that no similar tragedy unfolds anywhere in the world on its watch. We find President Paul Kagame’s words during his address at the commemorations on Monday apt. He said: “We did not need to experience genocide to become better people. It simply should never have happened.”
Online Reporter