nation of the Tutsi .” No one can reasonably presume that the US and the UK governments are not aware of this fact as advanced by the Ambassador . But if they know and insist on including “ other victims ” then what they are after is not the truth . It is something else . In fact , their behaviour is reminiscent of France ’ s attitude towards Rwanda over the past 27 years that aimed to reclaim what it considered its sphere of influence before the defeat of their allies – the genocidal government .
France ’ s strategy to discredit the RPF government revolved around two main fabrications . One , that RPF was behind the downing of the plane that was carrying the then President of Rwanda , Juvenal Habyarimana and was , therefore , to blame for “ provoking ” the genocide against the Tutsi . Two , that the RPF had carried out another genocide against the Hutu .
These two fabrications were meant to achieve a number of objectives . First , to divert the world ’ s attention away from France ’ s continued support for the genocidal government before , during and after the genocide . Second , to render insignificant the decades-long anti-Tutsi pogroms that preceded the genocide and , particularly , the hateful Hutu Power ideology that informed them , by arguing that the assassination of President Habyarimana was the “ cause ” of the genocide against the Tutsi . Third , to create a moral equivalence between the genocidal forces that had retreated to former
Zaire and the RPF . With the moral ground at par , it would set the stage for the possibility of letting these criminals – France ’ s allies – back into Rwanda ’ s political space through negotiations , as legitimate actors since neither party would be better than the other .
In this bid , as recalled by a colleague on this platform , the genocidal “ government in exile ” was advised by their powerful friends in the international community , themselves accessories to genocide , to establish a new political organization representing the refugees . It would be led by “ new figures , untarnished , credible in the eyes of partners .” Accordingly , Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda ( RDR ) was created in April 1995 in Mugunga refugee camp in Zaire , with Victoire Ingabire at its helm three years later in August 1998 .
France ’ s self-serving strategy sought to reclaim its lost sphere of influence , even if this meant reintegrating – at the minimum through negotiations – those responsible for the slaughter of more than a million Tutsi into Rwanda ’ s political life . Pushing their racist conception of Rwanda as a veiled justification for their open hostility to the new political order and to counter the rising awareness on the global stage of their complicity in the genocide , French decision-makers buried their head in the sand ; they insisted that the RPF was a Tutsi-dominated movement that cannot maintain political control of Rwanda and bring peace and stability to a majority Hutu country .
Hubert Vedrine , the former Secretary-General of the French presidency during Mitterrand ’ s tenure , went as far as proposing the dividing of Rwanda into two countries , one for the Hutu and another for the Tutsi . Undoubtedly , these officials were always ready to do anything , no matter how inhumane , for France to maintain or regain its sphere of influence – even if it were to be a new state run by genocidaires .
For years , these French politicians waged a military and judicial war against Rwanda . Thanks to testimonies from French military officers and the work of investigative journalists , it was revealed that France had kept re-arming genocidal forces controlling the refugee camps in Zaire . These actions of destabilization , which the UN Security Council failed to stop despite repeated warnings from the Rwandan government , led to Rwanda ’ s military intervention in that country in 1996 .
They even bullied . Later on , in 2006 , a French Judge , Jean-Louis Bruguière , issued arrest warrants against top RPA military leaders in what turned out to be a disaster for the credibility of the French judicial system . Worse still , French soldiers who had been deployed in Rwanda during the genocide gave anonymous testimonies in favour of their genocidaire
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