La capitale du Rwanda est à feu et à sang après l'attentat qui a coûté la vie aux deux chefs d'État africains et dans lequel la garde présidentielle a été mise en cause

Duprat, Florence

Korkikian, Jérôme

Bouchaud, Hervé

8 avril 1994

19940408

07:30:00

CEST

Journal de 7 heures 30

La capitale du Rwanda est à feu et à sang après l'attentat qui a coûté la vie aux deux chefs d'État africains et dans lequel la garde présidentielle a été mise en cause

La crainte aujourd'hui, c'est que cette mort relance la guerre interethnique dans ces deux pays. Depuis des générations au Rwanda et au Burundi, deux tribus s'affrontent : les Hutu majoritaires et les Tutsi minoritaires.

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France 2

INA

Transcription d'une émission de télévision

FR

- The body of François de Grossouvre, the former adviser to François Mitterrand, was discovered shortly after 8 p.m. last night, a revolver in his hand, in his office at the Élysée. The judicial police were called by the presidency to make the usual findings.
- At 76, François de Grossouvre was said to be very tired. Since 1985 his role at the Élysée had declined. No more secret missions in Africa, Korea or Lebanon, especially to sell weapons. His action was considered too cumbersome by several ministers.
- He was only responsible for the presidential hunts. An end of career that this close friend of François Mitterrand had trouble supporting. For several months, he let appear before his visitors the disappointment of no longer having the place he had with the President.
- Last September, François de Grossouvre was heard by Judge Jean-Pierre in the investigation into the accounts of Patrice Pelat, another intimate of the President.
- Abroad, Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, is on fire after the attack which cost the lives of the two African heads of state and in which the presidential guard was implicated. Violence was unleashed: massacres, looting, kidnappings. The country descends into civil war.
- Explosive situation in Kigali. After a night of riots and clashes, the most total confusion reigns this morning in the capital of Rwanda.
- The only certainty is the death of the Prime Minister, Mrs. Agathe Uwilingiyimana, and 11 Belgian peacekeepers, probably murdered by the presidential guard.
- A strong guard of 6 to 700 men, suspected today of being the cause of the plane crash which on Wednesday [April 6] caused the death of the two heads of state of Burundi and Rwanda.
- The fear today is that this death will relaunch the inter-ethnic war in these two countries. For generations in Rwanda and Burundi, two tribes have clashed: the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi.
- Already last October, a civil war in Burundi led to the death of tens of thousands of people and caused the exile of 700,000 inhabitants.
- Currently, 600 French nationals live in Rwanda. The government is currently studying their possible evacuation.

From April 8, 1994 on France 2, the presidential guard is suspected of the attack.