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Rwanda has accused France of playing an active role in the genocide of 1994, in which about 800,000 people were killed.

An independent Rwandan commission said France was aware of preparations for the genocide and helped train the ethnic Hutu militia perpetrators.

The report also accused French troops of direct involvement in the killings.

The report says France backed Rwanda's Hutu government with political, military, diplomatic and logistical support.

It accuses France of training Hutu militias responsible for the slaughter, helping plan the genocide, and participating in the killings.

"French forces directly assassinated Tutsis and Hutus accused of hiding Tutsis... French forces committed several rapes on Tutsi survivors," said a statement from the justice ministry cited by AFP news agency.

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Originally posted by Khyron:
What motives would France have for doing such a thing?

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Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, Rwanda's Hutu Power dictatorship had enjoyed the patronage of France. As a former Belgian colony, Rwanda was a French speaking country, and Paris's neo-colonial policy in Africa was to support those who spoke its language at all costs. In the early '90s, when Rwanda was plunged into civil war between the Hutu government, and the predominantly Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandese Patriotic Front, France threw its military support behind the Hutu regime. After all, the RPF came out of Uganda--where its leaders had been living in exile--and Uganda is an English speaking country. French leaders were unconcerned by their murderous Hutu Power clients. As the genocide reached its peak in the early summer of 1994, France's President François Mitterand was reported to say, "In such countries as this, genocide is not too important." Sadly, by their actions and inactions during the Rwandan slaughter, the rest of the world's great powers signaled that they agreed.

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Originally posted by Khyron:
Based on what I've read, I highly doubt it, though.

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Originally posted by Geezer:
Quoted from Philip Gourevitch's book, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.

See more here. http://jeffweintraub.blogspot.com/2004/10/philip-gourevitch-french-act
ions-in.html

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Shameful. Sadly, Mitterand's alleged remarks seem to be about the norm when it comes to Africa. The world tends to turn a blind eye to any atrocities there just as long as they still get to plunder the continent's mineral wealth...

As Nick Cave said, "People just ain't no good."

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