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August 4, 2023 French

Le général Lafourcade a réaffirmé que les militaires français respecteraient une stricte neutralité mais qu'ils utiliseraient tous les moyens nécessaires pour protéger les civils contre des bandes qui échappent à tout contrôle

Card Number 3506

Number
3506
Author
Chazal, Claire
Author
Jacquemin, Marine
Author
Marescot, Frans-Yves
Author
Jentile, Catherine
Author
Berrou, Loïck
Date
25 juin 1994
Ymd
19940625
Time
20:00:00
Time zone
CEST
Uptitle
Journal de 20 heures [6:12]
Title
Le général Lafourcade a réaffirmé que les militaires français respecteraient une stricte neutralité mais qu'ils utiliseraient tous les moyens nécessaires pour protéger les civils contre des bandes qui échappent à tout contrôle
Subtitle
À Kigali les soldats du Front patriotique constatent que la présence française a redonné le moral à leurs adversaires.
Size
23997250 bytes
Source
TF1
Public records
INA
Type
Journal télévisé
Language
FR
Abstract
- Operation Turquoise is proceeding without incident for the moment. The French soldiers are based in Goma and Bukavu in Zaire. They have already been to a Tutsi refugee camp on the other side of the border. They also tried to remove all the roadblocks set up by the Hutu militias who terrorized the Tutsi.
- Contact has already been made with the local authorities, the endangered populations identified. The work to be done in depth in the country is only just beginning.
- The headquarters of the French forces is based in Goma. This is where General Lafourcade arrived, commanding Operation Turquoise and organizing reconnaissance missions in Rwanda with his men. About 100 men, including 30 Senegalese, entered the Gisenyi region near the Zairian border. They discovered two Hutu refugee camps comprising about 500 people, whose health status is not catastrophic.
- General Lafourcade indicated that the population is friendly. He reaffirmed that the French military would respect strict neutrality but that they would use all necessary means to protect civilians against bands which were out of control.
- For the moment a thousand French soldiers out of the 2,500 planned have arrived on site. They still have logistical problems. And only 40 remain permanently in Rwanda, the others return to their base in Zaire every evening.
- During this time in Kigali, the Patriotic Front and the government forces could not agree on a provisional ceasefire. The situation is extremely tense to the point that the United Nations forces have abandoned their plan to evacuate refugees stranded behind the front lines.
- The soldiers of the Patriotic Front try to convince themselves that France will confine itself to a humanitarian intervention but find that the French presence has boosted the morale of their adversaries.
- François Léotard declared today that "the humanitarian operation carried out by the French army in Rwanda is gradually becoming more European than it was at the beginning". The operation received the support not only of six WEU members but also of the participants in the Corfu summit.