France Génocide Tutsi France Génocide Tutsi

Database about France role

in the Tutsi genocide

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On July 1, 1994, two French military officers acknowledge the meeting, on previous June 27, of a group of French soldiers from the special forces with Tutsi survivors in Bisesero. is acknowledged in a document of July 1, 1994 written by two French officers It is therefore certain that the date of the fax sent on June 27 evening by Lieutenant-Colonel Duval, alias Diego, was falsified by his superiors to conceal the abandonment to the killers of 381 to around 1,000 Tutsi survivors

Sartre De Stabenrath Operation Order.

On February 4, 1964, the newspaper Le Monde published the testimony of a Swiss teacher Denis-Gilles Vuillemin denouncing the systematic massacres of Tutsi in the Gikongoro region. The person who gave a copy of this article noted: "What more can I say? It's already 1994". Historian Marcel Kabanda met Vuillemin before this great witness died in 2020 and compared his diary notes with reports from ICRC delegates. Vuillemin described with scientific meticulousness a genocide that was beginning. It was Christmas 1963...

L'extermination des Tutsis.  Les massacres du Ruanda sont la manifestation d'une haine raciale soigneusement entretenue

While so-called experts claim that the Tutsi's genocide has not been prepared before April 6, 1994, one has to listen to Jean Carbonare who, returning from Rwanda, warned the televiewers on January 28, 1993 about the massacres of tutsi men and about the support of the murderers by France

Rwanda: autopsy of a genocide
La marche du siecle (Folder : States of emergency) - France 3
September 21, 1994
As the genocide against the Tutsi has barely ended, this report shows that it is not due to an immemorial ethnic hatred but that it was programmed by the Habyarimana regime and that France has supported and trained militarily the killers

Jean Chatain
Night and fog over Rwanda
Jean Chatain's articles for the newspaper L'Humanité during the Tutsi's genocide in 1994
Izuba editions, January 2020

Monique Mas
Paris-Kigali 1990-1994 - Colonial glasses, saber politics and humanitarian anointing for a genocide in Africa
Éditions L'Harmattan, 1999

The double genocide theory undermined
Patrick de Saint-Exupéry
La Traversée
Une odyssée au cœur de l'Afrique
Les Arènes, 2021

La France au cœur du génocide des Tutsi by Jacques Morel
This book, published in April 2010 with a preface by José Kagabo, summarized France's involvement in the Tutsi's genocide in Rwanda in 1994

Version v2.36, August 29, 2023, 65 Megs, 1604 pages

Hubert Védrine's confession at Defence and Force Armies Commission, National Assembly, April 16, 2014

6 septembre 2013 Minnaert, Stefaan
Musinga et les Pères Blancs : Rapport politique confidentiel du 24 Mars 1918

This report of a Belgian officer from 1918 shows the attempts of the Mwami Musinga to preserve his power while his country is beset by the Europeans. Threatened by the Belgians coming from the Congo, he accepted the German domination. But the Belgians with their Force publique fought the Germans out of Ruanda-Urundi in 1916. They put the Mwami in jail for treason but then change their minds.The country is devastated by the war. The White Fathers, many of whom are French, welcome Belgians.They will further increase their power to the detriment of traditional authorities. The Mwami here confides his grievances against them. He asks that they confine themselves to their religion and stop interfering in the affairs of the country.

18 septembre 2008 Minnaert, Stefaan
Les Pères blancs et la société rwandaise durant l'époque coloniale allemande (1900 ­- 1916). Une rencontre entre cultures et religions, in Les Religions au Rwanda, défis, convergences et compétitions, actes du colloque international des 18-19 septembre 2008 à Butare/Huye [Éditions de l'Université Nationale du Rwanda, septembre 2009, pp. 53-101]

Stefaan Minnaert, former librarian of the House of the White Fathers in Rome, reveals the original documents, somewhat different from the holy story told for the edification of Christians. We learn here that at the mission of Rwaza in 1904, Father Léon Classe, future bishop of Rwanda, did not disdain to use firearms to punish the natives who refused to work on the construction of the mission. This use of force is not stranger to the death of Father Loupias in 1910.

8 juillet 1998 Quilès, Paul
Audition de M. le Préfet Claude Silberzahn, directeur général de la DGSE (1989-1993) [Huis clos]

The DGSE regretted, since 1991, the increasing commitment of the French military apparatus in the Rwandan affair and recommended in writing and orally, as early as 1992, the military disengagement of France. The French military apparatus was presumptuous over its means, out of step with reality, unaware of its ignorance of the field.

Novembre 1994 Blam, Wolfgang
Témoignage à Kibuye. Le génocide comme instrument politique « moderne »

Wolfgang Blam, a German doctor, stayed in Kibuye until mid-May 1994. He tried to help the Tutsi parked in the stadium but they were murdered. His brothers-in-law and Beatrice, the wife of the director of the hospital, Camille Kalimwabo, and their four children were also exterminated. With his wife Jackie and their newborn son, they became hunted like wild beasts until rescued by german fellows through Lake Kivu. His account of the events is precise, cold and scathing. [Original in German]

2 septembre 1994 Artiges, Guy
Audition de François Nzabahimana

Former Captain Barril met with Rwandan government officials in Gisenyi at the end of May - early June 1994. He was introduced by Colonel Serubuga. He was accompanied by three mercenaries of white "race" within, which a mortar firing specialist.

9 août 1994 Goblet d'Alviella, Michael
Rwanda : situation à Kigali le 6 et 7 avril 1994

Major Charles Ntambazi, commander of the Kanombe transport company, reveals that two paras-commando companies were moved from Kanombe camp to the Kimihurura Presidential Guard camp on April 1 or 2, 1994.

27 juin 1994 Smith, Stephen
Dialogue difficile avec les massacreurs

In Cyangugu, Colonel Rosier, commander of the special forces, refused to disarm militiamen, saying: "The militiamen are waging war. For the sake of neutrality, we do not have to intervene. Otherwise, tomorrow, if there is any rebel infiltration, we will be blamed".

26 mai 1994 Monier, Éric
Envoyé spécial - Fuir pour vivre

In this report on the flight of Hutu to the Benaco camp in Tanzania, the burgomaster of Kabarondo, a certain Octavien Ngenzi, has retained his former prerogatives…

12 mai 1994 Goblet d'Alviella, Michael
Entretien avec M. A. Gasana, ancien Ministre des Affaires étrangères et de la Coopération du Rwanda

From his meeting with M. A. Gasana, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda, the Belgian ambassador in Dar es-Salaam holds that the guilt of the presidential guard and the Rwandan army in the assassination of President Habyarimana and the massacres that have followed is virtually no doubt.

6 mai 1994 Goblet d'Alviella, Michael
Entretien avec l'ambassadeur Marlaud

Visiting Dar es-Salaam, ambassador Marlaud tells his Belgian counterpart that he had advised "them" to take Twagiramungu as Prime Minister.

6 mai 1994 Quesnot, Christian
Note à l'attention de Monsieur le Président de la République. Objet : Entretien avec le Chef de l'État intérimaire du Rwanda

In the middle of the genocide, while the RPF hunts the killers of eastern Rwanda, General Quesnot is worried about the creation of a "Tutsiland" with the help of Anglo-Saxons and writes to president Mitterrand: "We have the means and the relays of an indirect strategy that could restore a certain balance".

5 mai 1994 Haesendonck, Yves
Rwanda - Conférence de presse

The Rwandan Foreign Minister's visit to Paris was aimed at asking France to decode the black box of the plane shot down on the evening of April 6, 1994.

May 2, 1994 Keating, Colin
Security Council: Rwanda

Rwanda and France sought to amend opening paras to remove assertion that Government forces were responsible for the bulk of the killings.

April 12, 1994 Brazeal, Aurelea
Colonel Blames Right Wing Military for Kigali's Nightmare

Colonel Rusatira denounces the secret organization Amasasu for triggering the massacres.

11 mars 1994 Claes, Willy
Livraison d'armes [Par la France]

80 tons of shells, rockets, mortars, France continues its arms deliveries to the FAR in Kigali despite the Arusha peace agreement. Willy Claes, Belgian Foreign Minister, reports that the Secretary-General of the United Nations is worried about this.

11 mars 1993 Martres, Georges
TD Kigali 11 mars 1993 - Position du C.D.R. sur les accords de Dar es-Salaam

The French ambassador shares the point of view of the Coalition for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) which judges that President Habyarimana is "worn out" and "finally failed everything".

21 septembre 1992 Nsabimana, Deogratias
Définition et identification de l'ENI

"The main enemy is the Tutsi [...] who has never recognized and does not yet recognize the realities of the 1959 Social Revolution and who wants to regain power".

Décembre 1990
L'Appel à la conscience des Bahutu, suivi des 10 Commandements [Kangura No. 6]

The Call to the conscience of the Bahutu, followed by the 10 Commandments of Muhutu. "Bahutu must stop pitying Batutsi".

11 octobre 1990 Lanxade, Jacques
Note à l'attention de Monsieur le Président de la République. Objet : Rwanda - Situation

France is fighting against "Tutsi forces".

Juin 1961 Lacger, Louis (de)
Ruanda

In this story of Ruanda, canon de Lacger defines stereotypes that will fuel genocidal propaganda. "Batutsi are, no doubt, the latest to come to Rwanda [...]. Their supremacy is not disputed. What is it stemming from? From three points. The racial one, their physical type superiority [...]; the other economic: they are magnates, whose wealth is made up of large herds of cattle [...]; the third policy: they are men born for the command" (pp. 50-51).

24 mars 1957 Kayibanda, Grégoire
Note sur l'aspect social du problème racial indigène au Ruanda [Le manifeste des Bahutu]

"The departure of the European could reduce [the Muhutu] in a servitude worse than the first".

26 septembre 1933 Servranckx, André
Territoires du Ruanda Urundi. Résidence du Ruanda. Territoire d'Astrida. « Rapport de Sortie de Charge. Etabli par M. Servranckx André, Administrateur Territorial de Ière Cl. [Première Classe] ayant administré le Territoire d'Astrida depuis le 27 août 1932 » [69 pages]

"One can write that distinction 'Batutsi - Bahutu' does not include in the eyes of the native, as for us, a distinction of race, but of wealth and influence. A Muhutu owner of cows is a Mututsi".

1933 Pagès, Albert
Un royaume hamite au centre de l'Afrique [Tome I]

In A hamite kingdom in central Africa, Father Pagès, influenced by De Gobineau, writes the history of Rwanda in terms of races. "The word 'Hamites' is used to identify the Batutsi. The community of origin of the Hamites with the Semites (Egyptians or Abyssinians) seems out of dispute".

4 mars 2023 Macron, Emmanuel
Extrait de la conférence de presse conjointe entre les Présidents Macron et Tshisekedi au Palais de la Nation (Kinshasa)

During his speaking at the Palais de la Nation in Kinshasa, the President of the French Republic allows himself to give lessons in justice to the Congolese when no French official has so far been worried about his role in the genocide perpetrated against Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. He dares to affirm that his country has had nothing to do with the wars that have bloodied Congo ex-Zaire since then. Yet it is France that has refused to arrest those responsible for the genocide, it was she who protected their flight to Zaire, rearmed them, hindered any coercive action by the UN against these criminals and restored in this country the authority of Marshal Mobutu.

25 janvier 2023 Fontaine, David
Barril désamorcé ou toujours explosif ?

"Too degraded on the cognitive level", Paul Barril could not be heard by the judge who is investigating the contract he signed with the Rwandan genocidal government. His illness, however, did not prevent him from calling the judges "real pitbulls" in a recent article published by L'Essor de la gendarmerie nationale. Too taken aback, Le Canard enchaîné forgot to ask where Barril was around April 6, 1994. Yes indeed, "enchaîné" (chained) to the obligation to defend the honor of France…

17 septembre 2022 Anfré, Antoine
Si la France n'était pas intervenue avec autant de constance en faveur du régime Habyarimana, on aurait évité le troisième grand génocide du XXème siècle

Interviewed by Joseph Nsengimana, genocide survivor and former minister, the new French ambassador to Rwanda Antoine Anfré reports that he was number 2 at the French embassy in Uganda from 1987 to 1991 then "Rwanda" editor at the Africa division of the Quai d'Orsay where he was sanctioned for his analyses. He endorses the conclusion of the Duclert report that France's responsibility is "heavy and overwhelming" and that of the Muse report for which "France made possible a genocide which was foreseeable".

24 mars 2022
Rwanda, les mercenaires invisibles

Bob Denard sent to Rwanda to help the assassins. This recourse to the "privateer of the Republic" shows that there was an agreement to keep Rwanda in the French orbit between the Elysée and Jacques Foccart, therefore between François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac and Alain Juppé.

18 février 2022
Génocide au Rwanda : l'amiral Lanxade n'exclut pas que Barril ait eu une aide de l'Élysée

Admiral Lanxade, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, does not deny that the plane of ex-Captain Barril en route to Rwanda during the genocide made a stopover at the military air base of Istres. He says he didn't know. He suggests that the landing of the plane could be authorized on intervention of the Elysée. Ex-captain Barril, who had a contract with the Rwandan interim government to support it militarily, was therefore not acting on his own but on the orders of the highest state authorities.

15 février 2022 Soulard, Christophe
Cour de cassation, chambre criminelle, arrêt n° 20-86.394 [Rejet des pourvois. Confirmation du non-lieu prononcé dans l'instruction du juge Bruguière qui avait accusé des membres du FPR d'avoir abattu l'avion du Président Habyarimana piloté par trois Français]

The unspeakable remains unspeakable. Since 1998, French justice has been used to falsely accuse members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front of being the perpetrators of the attack which gave the signal to trigger the genocide of the Tutsi. Would this attack remain without a determinable author? The plane actually crashed. The cause of the Airbus Rio-Paris accident on June 1, 2009 was determined when the flight recorders were found at a depth of 3,900 meters in the middle of the Atlantic. A note from General Rannou assures that the Rwandan President's Falcon was equipped with it. French soldiers stationed in Kigali rushed to the scene of the crash. They were not questioned about the black box and the missile debris they allegedly had in their hands. The judges content themselves with noting the "absence" of the black box and that "the type of missile could not be identified with sufficient certainty". It was enough to ask the Ministry of Defense (today Minisry of Armies) in Paris for the report of these soldiers and the objects they have picked up. This failure to investigate designates where to search the perpetrators of the crime.

Décembre 2021 Sartre, Patrice
La décision politique dans les engagements militaires de la France [Aveu sur l'abandon des survivants de Bisesero par les forces spéciales]

A french general admits that it is by a deliberate choice of the special forces in connection with the Elysee that the surviving Tutsi of Bisesero were abandoned to the killers on June 27, 1994.

27 mai 2021 Macron, Emmanuel
Discours du Président Emmanuel Macron au mémorial de Gisozi à Kigali

In a serious tone, President Emmanuel Macron recognizes on the one hand the responsibility of France in the genocide of the Tutsi while denying on the other hand denying its involvement in the events. He affirms France's good intentions and grants it the right to make mistakes and clumsiness. The establishment of the interim Government by Colonel Bagosora in close collaboration with the French Ambassador Jean-Michel Marlaud notably contradicts his speech and proves on the contrary that France has played a decisive role in the genocidal process. He also resorts to the argument of the responsibility of the international community, omitting the fact that France has used its seat as a permanent member of the Security Council to abuse the United Nations by pretending to recognize the genocide and by allowing its perpetrators to take flight. He finally recognizes a debt to the victims.

April 19, 2021 Muse, Robert F.
A foreseeable genocide - The Role of the French Government in Connection with the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda

Report by the law firm Levy-Firestone-Muse commissioned by Kigali [this report is rich in Rwandan, French and American archives]. The investigators of the American cabinet conclude that "the French state bears a heavy responsibility for having made possible a foreseeable genocide". Unlike the Duclert report, they believe that "the French state was neither blind nor unconscious about the genocide". But, probably for diplomatic reasons, they do not dwell on individual responsibilities.

6 avril 2021 Castex, Jean
Arrêté portant ouverture d'archives relatives au Rwanda entre 1990 et 1994

Featured, the archives of the President of the Republic François Mitterrand and Prime Minister Edouard Balladur relating to Rwanda between 1990 and 1994 are made accessible to all citizens!

26 mars 2021 Duclert, Vincent
La France, le Rwanda et le génocide des Tutsi (1990-1994) - Rapport remis au Président de la République [Rapport et notes fusionnés]

An important step to shed light on the truth hidden in State documents. But the concealment of facts already known makes it possible to hide the evidence of an complicity, or even a conspiracy with the perpetrators of the Tutsi genocide.

17 décembre 2020
Base de données France Génocide Tutsi - Lettre d'information No 3

Some sections: Relocation of anti-aircraft batteries - The United States did not support the RPF - The anti-aircraft threat in Kigali in April 1994 - De Grossouvre would have warned Mobutu - The assassination of Joseph Kavaruganda - 500 Belgian soldiers banned from landing in Rwanda - For the CIA, the attack and the massacres were initiated by the Hutu extremists - The RPF denounces the genocide on April 13, 1994 - The weapons bought in the Seychelles thanks to the BNP - History of Rwanda - Etc.

16 novembre 2020 Englebert, Théo
Commission Rwanda : l'historienne controversée prend la porte

The article in Le Canard enchaîné of October 28, 2020 arouses controversy over historian Julie d'Andurain who wrote a notice on Operation Turquoise in the 2018 edition of the Dictionary foreign operations of the French army . She makes gross factual errors and numerous omissions. Instead of talking about the genocide of Tutsis, she mentions "massacres between Hutus and Tutsis". It is the participation of this historian in the commission on Rwanda chaired by Vincent Duclert that rises a problem. Blamed, Julie d'Andurain said she was the victim of a "media lynching" and alerted his fellow researchers who have published a message of support. Following the protest of two historians who considered that d'Andurain's text was "at the heart of the negation", the majority of the members of the board of the French Society for the History of the Overseas (SFHOM), which had defended d'Andurain, have resigned. Eventually, Vincent Duclert took note of Madame d'Andurain's decision "to withdraw from the work of the Commission".

3 juillet 2020 Gras, Romain
Génocide des Tutsi : la justice française referme le dossier sur l'attentat contre l'avion de Juvénal Habyarimana

The Paris Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal in the investigation into the April 6, 1994 attack on President Juvénal Habyarimana's plane. Opened in March 1998, this investigation led Judge Bruguière to accuse Paul Kagame of having committed the attack against President Habyarimana and provoked the genocide of the Tutsi in order to take power. He was contradicted by the expertise carried out in Kigali at the request of his successor. The shot that brought down the plane was said to have originated from the Kanombe military camp or its immediate surroundings. An attack by Hutu Power extremists seems the most likely scenario. In conclusion, the French judge therefore dismissed the case in favor of the relatives of Paul Kagame accused by Judge Bruguière. This case, which caused the breakdown of diplomatic relations, is not yet closed. France has no ambassador in Kigali since 2015.

12 juin 2020 Lasserre, Bruno
Conseil d'État, assemblée, arrêt n° 422327, 431026 [Le Conseil d'État autorise François Graner à consulter de manière anticipée certaines archives du Président Mitterrand]

The Council of State's decision invokes Article 15 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which guarantees the right of access to public archive documents, as well as Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms relating to freedom of expression, from which may result , under certain conditions, a right of access to information held by the State.

16 mai 2020
Un des principaux génocidaires rwandais arrêté par les gendarmes après 25 ans de cavale

Felicien Kabuga, member of Akazu, president of the RTLM initiative committee and alleged financier of the genocide, was arrested in France after 25 years on the run.

June 2019 Kiley, Sam
The discovery of Bisesero

Sam Kiley recounts how Father Curic, met in Kibuye on June 25, 1994, urged him to go to Bisesero where he discovered that Tutsi killings were continuing. On June 26, on his way to Goma by Gisenyi, he meets a French military convoy. He alerts Captain Eric Bucquet and shows him Bisesero on the map as recorded by a CNN footage. The French will not help the Tutsi. On June 29, Kiley returns to Gishyita near Bisesero and warns captain Marin Gillier, who does not want to hear anything. On June 30, Kiley precedes him in Gisovu and with Michel Peyrard of Paris-Match, they will find survivors in Bisesero. Peyrard will warn Captain Dunant and Chief Warrant Officer Prungnaud to initiate the rescue operation.

14 mars 2019 Servenay, David
Pour la première fois, un général reconnaît la « faute » de la France au Rwanda

Colonel Rwagafilita to General Varret : "Tutsis are not very numerous, we will wipe them out". Varret warned his hierarchy, but nothing changes. In 1993, he was ousted from the command of the Military Cooperation Mission. He denounces a military lobby.

6 février 2019 Arfi, Fabrice
Génocide au Rwanda : révélations sur les mensonges de la France

About the attack on Rwandan President Habyarimana, Mediapart and Radio France reveal a note from the intelligence service (DGSE) that the two main sponsors are Colonels Theoneste Bagosora and Laurent Serubuga, the latter being in France. This note confirms Jean Birara's testimony of 26 May 1994. Why was this DGSE note of 22 September 1994 never taken into account?

21 décembre 2018 Herbaut, Jean-Marc
Ordonnance de non-lieu [Attentat du 6 avril 1994 contre l'avion du Président rwandais]

In the investigation into the attack on President Habyarimana's plane, Judge Herbaut finally finds that the accusations against Paul Kagame and members of the RPF are baseless.

25 octobre 2018 Arfi, Fabrice
Génocide des Tutsis au Rwanda : la vidéo qui accable l'armée française

While the French command claims that Lieutenant-Colonel Duval alias Diego did not report on his meeting on June 27, 1994 with Tutsi hunted in Bisesero, a video of the following day shows Sergeant M. informing of this tragic situation Colonel Rosier who seems not to worry about it. He will not give orders to rescue them.

10 octobre 2018 Renucci, Nicolas
Réquisitoire définitif aux fins de non-lieu

In the judicial investigation into the attack on the plane of President Habyarimana, the Paris prosecutor's office requires a dismissal in favor of Rwandans indicted by Judge Bruguière. He does not identify the clues that lead to establish a French complicity with the perpetrators of the attack: presence of French soldiers at the scene of the crash, disappearance of the plane's black box and missile debris, role of former Captain Barril, presence of Mistral missiles in Kigali…

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