Posted on 04/24/2005 9:25:29 PM PDT by HAL9000
PARIS, April 22 (AFP) - French soldiers trained Rwandan civilian militias in the two years leading up to the 1994 genocide, an officer in the French gendarmerie said Friday, contradicting persistent denials from the Paris government."I saw French soldiers giving fire-arms training to civilian Rwandan militiamen in 1992. There were about 30 militiamen being trained. I am absolutely categoric about this. I saw them and that is all there is to it," said Thierry Prungnaud.
"They must have been militiamen because the soldiers used to go around in fatigues and these were civilians," said Prungnaud, who was in Rwanda in 1992 on a training programme for the presidential guard.
"It must have gone on till 1994. It didn't shock me - after all I didn't see how it all turned out. It just seemed normal," he said.
Prungnaud, a former sergeant in the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), was speaking in an interview on France-Culture radio.
He said the training took place in a sparsely populated area of the country in La Kagera park.
The government in Kigali accuses France of training Hutu militias in Rwanda as the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front mounted an insurrection from neighbouring Uganda.
Hutu extremists went on to kill some 800,000 people in the genocide.
Successive French governments have denied the allegation.
la Legion?
poh see blay?
I knew Rwanda was nasty but the General had pictures, and that alone was a little much for some young students chock-full of moral certainty who had never seen a human body before, particularly not one chopped on with a bolo. It got worse (from their point of view) from there - General Dalliare stated that the Somolia debacle hurt peace-keeping worse than any other episode because it showed the bad guys that all they had to do was attack the peace-keepers and everybody would go home.
Then - mind you, this was at a "peace" conference - he praised the Iraq intervention from a human rights standpoint and the U.S. people for having the guts to take casualties there. There were pacifist veins popping at that point, but the General wasn't done. The second half of his presentation was on Darfur and the shameful lack of international effort there. Apart from accusing the UN of racism (accurately, IMHO) and incompetence he then put up a list of countries and said "you're going to have to kick these people's butts to get involved, in funding but especially with trained soldiers." On that list were Germany, France, Japan, and his own country, Canada. Inasmuch as the Canadian consul had introduced him that was a little politically incorrect at least.
The French training of the Hutu does not surprise me in the least, deny it or not. Their situation appealed to French political dilettantism - a recently "oppressed" people throwing off the putative chains of colonialism (and never mind that the French numbered among the most enthusiastic colonialists of all) who had recently attained power...tailor-made for theory and God help anyone who happened to be in the way. 850,000 human beings were. They're out of the way now.
Gen. Romeo Dallaire defied U.N. orders to withdraw from Rwanda. Without the authority, manpower, or equipment to stop the slaughter, he saved the lives he could but nearly lost his sanity.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Heroes/Gen_Romeo_Dallaire.html
Did the booking agent loose his/her head? Did Dallaire reference any literature? I'm down here in Louisiana, does Dallaire have an itenerary that puts him w/in 200 mi.? I saw him on the tube some months ago and was impressed at his anger and utter frustration. Just curious, why does Idaho need a peace conference or is Idaho just being invaded? What's a "Borah"?
Thanks.
The Borah Peace Conference happens annually at the University of Idaho, where I now work. Like Borah himself it is on the surface a "peace and love" conclave but with some serious independent twists. Quirky.
Lt. Gen Dallaire said a number of things with which I disagree - a passionate affirmation of the value of NGO's, for one - but on the whole was, unexpectedly to me at least, a professional soldier (who quoted Patton at a peace conference!) and a guy who was set up by Kofi Annan before the latter came to be Secretary-General of the UN. When he asked for 5500 soldiers to establish sanctuaries he was ignored for two agonizing months during which 500,000 people were murdered, and then given a group of Ethiopians who had just been through their own civil war and were wearing uniforms for the first time. Needless to say it didn't accomplish much.
You are absolutely right, but I can tell you that he retained his sanity, his honor, and a really wicked sense of humor.
I watched the movie Hotel Rwanda last night. I had never heard of this general before last night.
Thanks for posting that link. I plan to get the book.
If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it.
Thanks for the info.
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