Posted on 08/16/2008 1:45:02 AM PDT by fightinJAG
Is the defendant's dock at the International Criminal Court reserved for leaders of small and poor countries that defy the West? Not if Rwanda has its way. It wants to charge some of France's most celebrated leaders of the 1990s as collaborators in genocide.
Last week the government of Rwanda issued a damning 500-page report documenting France's participation in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. This marks a remarkable turnaround in the deeply politicized world of human rights reporting. Usually, such reporting takes the form of governments or human rights groups based in the West condemning poor countries for having political or social systems that do not meet Western standards.
Now a wretched African country has turned the table.
All who study the Rwandan genocide, as I did while researching a book about that ill-fated country, come away stunned by what they learn about French support of mass murder. France was so eager to defend a client regime against English-speaking rebels that, as the new report asserts, it gave that regime "political, military, diplomatic and logistic support" and "directly assisted" its genocidal campaign.
The report names 33 present and former French politicians and military officers as conspirators, among them the late President François Mitterrand and other well-known figures like former foreign minister Alan Juppé and former prime minister Dominique de Villepin.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Sounds like another case of Detroit blaming the suburbs for its plight. Nothing is the fault of the Africans, it is always the fault of the evil white outsiders.
Like everone thought the French were angels.
Just look to France’s colonial years. In Viet Nam there is a saying that under every rubber tree is the grave of a Vietnamese sacrificed to France. Michelin is not a very loved brand to older Vietnamese people.
Everywhere the French went they treated the people as if they were slaves. Why should Rwanda be any different? It was an opportunity for French interests to make money and reclaim some of their colonial empire days.
Let’s see how long the international criminal “court” lasts once more European leaders are indicted for genocide.
Non plus d'appels, s'il vous plaît.
Nous avons un vainqueur!
The French deserve to be brought up on charges for this.
But you’re right — the ICC would collapse shortly after that happened.
Did you read the report? France accused of being involved in the Rwanda genocide for many years by many parties not just the Africans.
French newspapers like Le Monde and Libération apparently believe the claims.
The Paris NGO Survie, which has tracked the Rwanda issue since 1992, asserts that France was unquestionably involved. “France was complicit with a regime that committed a genocide, and knew ahead of time what would happen,” says Sharon Courtoux of Survie. “It’s a nasty business, and most countries don’t like to admit such things.”
Stunned? Really? My only faint flicker of surprise is that they didn't eat them once they'd killed 'em. The French will eat anything.
All of whom are idols of the American Left.
Blame those who actually committed the murder. Trying to blame the French, for not stopping the violence, for the violence, absolves those who actually committed the violence, of their own responsibility. As if they were not human with a will of their own.
Similarly, it was blacks who enslaved blacks. Whites were not going inland to find slaves, it was blacks who brought other blacks to the coast to be sold as slaves.
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