Audition d'André Vincent, colonel CTM

Artiges, Guy

6 mai 1994

19940506

Audition d'André Vincent, colonel CTM

PV n° 652

Vincent6mai1994.pdf

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2

Auditorat militaire belge

VdM

Audition judiciaire

FR

According to Colonel Vincent, the attack of April 6, 1994 was a plot fomented by Hutu extremists, soldiers included, and whose thinking head was General Nsabimana. President Habyarimana knowing of the existence, he would have forced the latter to board his plane. The attack was intended "to sink the Arusha Accords. For the extremists, these agreements meant in the medium term the seizure of power by the Tutsis".

Colonel Vincent is the head of Belgian military cooperation and the local branch of the SGR, the Belgian military intelligence service. He is a supporter of the traditional policy of support for the Hutu that the Belgians put in power from November 1959. It is surprising that he was surprised by the attack. He was on vacation in Tanzania. His allegation that the attack was fomented by Chief of Staff Nsabimana is false. He was a victim of it. If he was tough, he was not a member of the Akazu and, according to Jean Birara, he would have opposed the massacre of opponents planned by Habyarimana. It was Bagosora who put him on the plane to replace Defense Minister Augustin Bizimana, according to the Mutsinzi report. On the other hand, the rest of the deposition seems quite accurate. The attack was intended "to sink the Arusha Accords. For the extremists, these agreements meant in the medium term the seizure of power by the Tutsis". He confirms, but softens them, the remarks made during a dinner at his home by Colonels Nsabimana and Kabiligi according to which "Arusha wouldn't happen". Around May 15, Major Aloys Mutabera, commander of the field artillery battalion, trained by the French, explained to Vincent "that they had to apply the solution final".