Title
François Mitterrand : « Il reste des hôpitaux, des églises, quelques lieux, quelques sites où tout n'a pas été massacré. Il y a donc une extrême urgence ! »
Abstract
- The situation in Rwanda mobilizes the French authorities. François Mitterrand and Alain Juppé both speak of a military intervention in the coming days. France has in fact requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to set up a humanitarian mission. Mission which was instantly confirmed at the end of a meeting held in Matignon in the presence of Edouard Balladur.
- The peacekeepers, who have just paid a last tribute to one of theirs killed yesterday [June 17], proceeded today to the evacuation of 300 civilians stranded in the capital. A difficult evacuation due to the fighting in Kigali.
- France wants to intervene to ensure the safety of those who have escaped the killings to date. François Mitterrand: "There are still hospitals, churches, a few places, a few sites where everything has not been massacred. There is therefore an extreme urgency!".
- But this intervention could only take place within a specific framework. According to François Léotard, Minister of Defense, "Two things are excluded: it is first that we go alone. And it is that we stay a long time. Two things are necessary: it is that we obtain a mandate of the international community. And it is because we are being helped by other countries and in particular by African countries".
- An intervention project condemned by the rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front while the fighting continues in the capital.