TD KIGALI 542 - Situation générale le 13 octobre 1990 à 12 heures locales

Galinié, René

13 octobre 1990

19901013

TD KIGALI 542 - Situation générale le 13 octobre 1990 à 12 heures locales

TD KIGALI 542 ; NMR 673/2/MAM/RWA/CD

GalinieMartres13oct1990.pdf

175788 bytes

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Ambassade de France, Kigali

FM

Document diplomatique, TD

FR

CD

In section Bravo, page 1, Colonel Galinié notes that "Hutu peasants organized by the MRND have intensified the search for suspected Tutsis. Massacres are reported in the Kibilira region". Galinié seems to fear a generalization of these massacres. But on page 2 (section Charlie, paragraph 2) the Defense Attaché considers with benevolence "the loyalty of Hutu peasants who increasingly participate in military action through self-defense groups armed with bows and of machetes". He stresses the need to better arm these farmers in order to be able to "definitely reverse the situation in their favour".

This region around Kibilira was not affected by the fighting. These are massacres of Tutsi organized by government authorities to respond to an armed incursion of exiled Tutsi as happened several times in the 1960s. The french defense attaché doesn't condemn the massacre. He only regrets the primitive armament of peasants. This one is not made to confront the RPF soldiers, all equipped with repeating assault rifles, it is made only to massacre defenseless civilians. So from 1990, the French soldiers admitted the usefulness of self-defense groups made up of peasants mobilized by the single party, whose sole purpose was to massacre the Tutsi.