Citation
1
France Genocide Tutsi Database
http://francegenocidetutsi.org
Information Letter n° 2
March 17, 2019
State of the database
FGT
The database “France Genocide
Tutsi” (FGT) includes currently 7,905
documents loaded on the web site
http://francegenocidetutsi.org.
Several new sections have been created since the letter n° 1 : documents
from UNAMIR, USA, New Zealand,
Czech Republic, RPF. A “Multimédia” section gives access to online
videos (YouTube) or on the web site,
as to some radio broadcasts.
It is recommended to copy, distribute the documents of this site and
even to copy the whole site. It is not
forbidden to reference it.
Mails
concerning
this
database
may
be
sent
to
contact@francegenocidetutsi.org.
The following comments are all related to documents readable on this
website.
Search engine
The search engine at http://78.217.
242.21 has been upgraded. It gives
access to the author-card associated
with each document allowing to determine its origin. The search is done on
these cards and not on the documents
(usually pdf files). Gradually, the text
of these documents will be extracted
by character recognition (OCR) and
placed in the author-card.
photo aérienne ou satellite
notes that “on October 2, Fred
gives access to maps, particulary, Rwigema has been killed by a bullet in the forehead at Nyabwishongmaps of today Rwanda’s districts.
wezi” by RGF (Rwandan Government
Forces) (p. 46). Contrary to what
Statistics
is written by Gérard Prunier (December 21, 2018), we read in PasHere are the most common sources of cal Simbikangwa’s book La guerre
documents :
d’octobre that, on October 2, 1990, A
Source
Freq.
squadron of the reconnaissance batReuters
739
talion advances in Nyabwishongwezi
UNAMIR
404
corridor, loses two vehicles and goes
ICTR
346
back. “But we just left Rwigema lying
L’Humanité
326
dead. Deadly wounded, this one who
Le Monde
262
thought he was conquering Rwanda
Billets d’Afrique
258
without effort and in less than six
Quai d’Orsay
233
days at the lowest cost will have travUnited Nations
209
eled only two kilometers in Rwandan
Libération
177
territory in one day and half, making his soul like a large number of
Élysée
174
his subordinates” (p. 136). Further
Amb. France, Kigali
169
on, Simbikangwa describes how the
Getty (photos)
140
successors of Rwigema, Majors PeAFP
118
ter Bayingana and Chris Bunyenyezi,
New Zealand
111
were killed in Ryabega on October 21,
Kangura
97
1990 (pp. 197-198). Simbikangwa, afMission d’information
92
ter the rejection of his appeal in cassaUS Dep. of State
84
tion on May 24, 2018, was finally conJeune Afrique
81
demned for genocide by French jusLe Soir
74
tice.
Chronology
Situation reports of UNAMIR,
Reuters dispatches, allow to follow
the course of events during the period
of genocide. AFP dispatches have yet
to be processed. However, there is
few references to the massacres.
War against Tutsi
As early as October 1990, Admiral Lanxade and President Mitterrand are fighting against “tutsi
forces” (Lanxade, Octobre 11, 1990).
The combat helicopters, provided by
France, have exhausted all their rockPictures, maps
ets, the president agrees with the re454 pictures have been uploaded. Fred Rwigema’s death
stock (Lanxade, Octobre 8, 1990).
They are accessed by the search enFrom June 1991 to January 1992,
gine choosing Type = Photo. Simi- In his book Paul Kagame, un De Lieutenant-Colonel Chollet, head of
lary, Type = Carte géographique, Gaulle africain, Philippe Lardinois the DAMI, trains RGF units fight-
2
ing and laying antipersonnel mines
(Chollet, June 10, 1991). A commando recruited among the students
of the gendarmerie school of Ruhengeri (EGENA), trained by French cooperants, participates to the massacres of Bugesera (Swinnen, March
27, 1992). The text defining the enemy as the Tutsi, written in French,
is broadcast on September 21, 1992.
The preparation of the genocide then
passes into operational phase. In his
speech of November 22, 1992, Léon
Mugesera is already calling for massacre. The French present in Kigali would have seen nothing, heard
nothing ? The Defense attache René
Galinié, expresses concern that the
conflict will degenerate into an ethnic
war and speeks about the elimination
of Tutsi by Hutu (Galinié, October 12,
24 1990).
Kangura
A collection of Kangura magazine (not
complete) has been loaded on FGT.
Note that Kangura n° 6 contains, written in french, the Call to the Conscience of the Bahutu, followed by the
Ten Commandments. A photo of Mitterrand is published at the end.
Self-defense
ers on January 28, 1993 on France
2 TV, is the best answer to all who
The “loyalty of the peasants who par- claim that the genocide of Tutsi has
ticipate more and more in military ac- not been prepared (Home web site)
tion through armed self-defense groups
bows and machetes” is reported by
the Defense attache (Galinié, Octo- Sam 16 or Mistral ?
ber 13, 1990). Colonel Canovas notes
“the anger” and “zeal” of the popu- Contrary to the experts’ assertion
lations in the Ruhengeri area, during of the judge Trevidic (Oosterlinck, 5
the search and control operations (Ex- January 2012), the Mistral missile of
tracts from the Canovas report, April Matra was exported before 1994 and
30, 1991). Colonel Cussac informs the RGF had 15 (Annan, September
Paris of the distribution of french- 1st, 1994). Were Mistral missiles used
made weapons to the people of north- in April 6, 1994 attack ? French solern Rwanda through the gendarmerie. diers saw missile fragments (Fiche en
He is worried about Colonel Rwa- possession du ministère de la Défense
gafilita who replied him that there is tendant à montrer que le FPR avec la
a shortage of staff (Cussac, January complicité de l’Ouganda est respon22, 1992). The Colonel Bagosora or- sable de l’attentat, 1998) (Sheet in
ganizes the distribution of weapons possession of the Ministry of Defense
(Agenda colonel Bagosora, 1993). He tending to show that the RPF with
says he is very close to the lieutenant- the complicity of Uganda is responsicolonel Jean-Jacques Maurin (Judge ble for the attack, 1998)
Bruguière, May 18, 2000).
Monique Mas (RFI)
Monique Mas, Radio France International’s journalist, provided the documents she quotes in his book ParisKigali 1990-1994; Lunettes coloniales, politique du sabre et onction humanitaire pour un génocide
en Afrique (Paris-Kigali 1990-1994;
Colonial glasses, sword politics and
Jean Varret
humanitarian anointing for genocide
General Varret, dismissed from his in Africa). They are in the FGT
command of the Military Mission of database.
Cooperation in 1993, recalls this fact
in a book Général, j’en ai pris pour
Nsanzuwera
mon grade (Though general, I’ve been
punished). On March 14, 2019, he The former prosecutor Francois
remembers that in November 1990, Xavier Nsanzuwera, in a letter to
Colonel Rwagafilita, Deputy Chief of Minister of Justice on May 20, 1997
Staff of the Gendarmerie, asked him about Emmanuel Gapyisi and Félifor weapons and explained him “the cien Gatabazi’s murders, contradicts
Tutsis are not very numerous, we will accusations against the RPF.
liquidate them”. The Defense attache
had already considered the physical
elimination of Tutsi by Hutu (Galinié, Jean Carbonare
supra). He is replaced after criticizing Colonel Serubuga, Deputy Chief of The voice of Jean Carbonare who, reStaff of RGF (Galinié, April 4, 1991). turning from Rwanda, alerted view-
French plane on April
8, 1994
On the evening of April 8, Kofi Annan informs Boutros Boutros-Ghali
that french plane just landed in Kigali. This confirms what adjudant
José de Pinho writes in Understanding
the Rwandan genocide, testimonies,
revelations, analyzes, that is that a
Transall French landed at the airport
and immediately took off between 19
and 20 p.m. (pp. 96-97). This french
military assistant is telling also that
a plane landed 20 CRAP of the 1st
RPIMa the evening of April 7 (pp. 8890), information not confirmed.
Rusatira
AMSASU
denounce
During a telephone conversation on
April 10, 1994 with Joyce Leader, No.
2 of the United States Embassy in Kigali, folded to Nairobi, RGF Colonel
Leonidas Rusatira declares that the
death of the President was the provocation necessary to trigger a plan de-
3
veloped since long time. He accuses
the secret organization AMASASU of
having ordered the atrocities in Kigali. With other senior officers, the
Colonels Gatsinzi and Rwabalinda, he
met with the minister of Defense Augustin Bizimana on April 9 to ask him
to condemn the atrocities and dismantle the group that commits them. He
urges the United States to encourage a
French or Belgian intervention to stop
the escalation of fighting and protect
Rwandans (Brazeal, April 12).
DGSE
The french secret service DGSE presented a different point of view than
that of the french armies headquarter
and other french secret services. The
February 18, 1993 notice explains the
RPF attack of February 8, 1993 by the
massacres of Tutsi and opponents. It
assumes that they have been fomented
by the Habyarimana’s inner circle to
stop the process of Arusha negotiations.
On April 11, 1994, a notice considers unlikely that RPF organised the
attack against Habyarimana’s plane.
On September 22, 1994, another
one considers Colonels Bagosora and
Serubuga as probable sponsors of the
attack.
During his hearing on July 8, 1998,
Claude Silberzahn, former Director of
the DGSE, tells he has regretted, since
1991, the growing commitment of the
French military apparatus in the case
of Rwanda and advocated, as early as
1992, the military disengagement of
France.
Security Council
At the symposium “International
Decision-Making in the Age of Genocide: Rwanda 1990-1994 ” in The
Hague on June 1-2, 2014, several participants made public documents relating to Security Council discussions
in 1994, especially at informal meetings. These are in particular docu-
ments from Colin Keating, representative at the United Nations of New
Zealand (NZ UN Mission), from Karel
Kovanda, representative of the Czech
Republic (CZ UN Mission), Madeleine
Albright for the United States (US
UN Mission) and David Hannay for
the United Kingdom (UK UN Mission).
On April 29, 1994, the Presidential statement of the Security Council is discussed (Kovanda, April 29 ;
Keating, April 29). The ambiguous
role of NAM (Non Aligned Members)
is underscored by Keating. According
to them, the word “genocide” would
prevent the cease fire talks (Keating,
April 30). France and Rwanda have
made withdraw from this declaration
the sentence stating that the Government forces were responsible for most
of the massacres (Keating, May 2).
The representative of Spain plans
to investigate on the massacres (Hannay, April 26). He will draft a resolution on a commission of experts to
investigate a possible genocide. This
project is ready in mid-June 1994
(Keating, June 14-15). It is put to the
vote only on the 1st of July, where it
makes it possible to overlook the report of the Special Rapporteur of the
Commission on Human Rights, René
Degni-Segui, published on June 28,
which concludes that there is genocide. The experts of this commission
will be appointed by Boutros BoutrosGhali only on August 1st. They will
conclude that there has been a genocide only on October 4th.
Let go genocide
François Mitterrand declares on May
10, 1994, in full genocide: “We are
not destined to make war everywhere,
even when it’s the horror that takes us
to the face. We do not have the means
to do it and our soldiers can not
be the referees of international passions that today are upsetting, tearing up so many countries”. Alain
Juppé overbids, telling on May 11 at
John Hopkins’s university in Wash-
ington : “I do not think the international community can go to make
police everywhere on the planet and
send, wherever people get beat, interposition forces”. On May 18, he admits that there is a genocide, but
on June 16, he speaks about several genocides telling that France “demands that all those responsible for
these genocides be judged”. After obtaining a warrant to intervene under
Chapter VII of the United Nations
Charter, we read in a note of Quai
d’Orsay of July 15th : “The attitude
to adopt with regard to political leaders in Gisenyi, almost all of whom are
deemed responsible for the massacres,
must be defined. At this point, there is
no provision for arrest and judgment”
(Note n° 1963/DAM). The major part
of the Government of the genocide will
remain in Cyangugu in the Humanitarian Zone from 14 to 18 July, the
last ones leaving only the 19th (Duclos, May 22, 1998, K76).
Weapon supplies
On April 16, 2014, Hubert Védrine
told the Commission of the National
Defense and Armed Forces of the National Assembly : “So there were deliveries of weapons for the Rwandan
army be able to hold the shock. Because if there was no army able to
hold the shock, you can forget about
Arusha and everything else. There are
no more elements, there is no longer
the lever to achieve a political compromise. So, it remained weapons relations and it’s not worth discovering
on a outraged that there have been deliveries that have continued” (footage
on the home page). This blunder was
quickly caught and does not appear
in the official report (Patricia Adam,
April 16).
Védrine often repeats that France
lobbied for the Arusha Accords (Védrine, June 15, 2004). He seems to ignore that these contained a ceasefire
agreement (August 18, 1992) which
prohibited arms deliveries. France
continues them in 1994, January 21
4
and April 9 for what is well established. In a book published in 2019,
General Bentégeat wrote: “When the
scale of massacres appears (500 000
deads), Mitterrand decrees, on proposal by Balladur, a total arms embargo on destination of Rwanda”.
Védrine says that these weapons
did not serve the genocide. It is false,
because the elite units of the Rwandan army (RGF) were the spearhead
of massacres. On April 7, 1994, the
Belgian peacekeepers are targeted by
French armored cars (Dewez, September 20, 1995). The RGF provides
arms to militia (Hélène, May 17,
1994). The militiamen appealed to
the army to overcome the Tutsi’s
resistance (Chatain, June 13, 1994,
Otto Mayer, September 1st, 1994;
African Rights, Resisting Genocide:
Bisesero April–June 1994, 1998, Murambi. Go If You Die, Perhaps I Will
Live, April 2007).
These deliveries continued while
the Rwandan army was back to Zaire
(Patrick de Saint-Exupéry, June 24,
2017; Guillaume Ancel, August 29,
2014; Walfroy Dauchy, March 12,
2019).
Denard in Rwanda
The letter that Augustin Bizimana
sends to Jean Kambanda on September 13, 1994 about the purchase of
weapons or services, mentions an assistance contract by the genocidal
Government with a some Martin who
turned out to be the alias of the
well known mercenary Bob Denard
(Survie, February 1, 2018).
The judge Bruguière’s report had
already revealed the presence in
Rwanda of Jean-Marie Dessales, with
whom Denard will lead his last blow
to the Comoros in 1995. This intervention by Denard in Rwanda would
involve its sponsor, Jacques Foccart,
and Jacques Chirac ? Was there
an agreement between Mitterrand and
Foccart on the basis of the observaWhile the french commandants
tion that, with the Arusha Accords, claim that the lieutenant-colonel DuRwanda escaped french “pré-carré” val aka Diego did not report on his
and the need to oppose it?
meeting on June 27, 1994 with Tutsi
hunted in Bisesero, a video of the next
day shows Sergeant Meynier informing of this tragic situation the Colonel
Jean Chatain
Rosier who seems not to care (Arfi,
The reports of Jean Chatain pub- October 25, 2018). He will not give
lished in May-June and July 1994 in any order to rescue them but prefers
L’Humanité, written with restrained evacuate nuns by helicopter. He will
emotion, remind the horror of the repeat to journalists that RPF fighters
massacres discovered by RPF combat- arrived in the hills of Bisesero and terrorize the region (Duquesne, France 2,
ants in eastern Rwanda.
June 27, 1994 Dernière).
Seychelles
US Archives
The purchase of arms in Seychelles
in June 1994 was denounced by Human Rights Watch (Rwanda/Zaire,
Rearming with Impunity, 1995). It
has resulted in a UN commission of
inquiry into violations of the embargo
decided on 17 May 1994 by the Security Council. This one revealed the
role of a French bank, BNP, in the
transaction. Documents gathered in
the FGT database have fueled a lawsuit against the BNP, filed by Sherpa,
Ibuka and the CPCR being civil parties.
State Department documents have
been declassified and loaded into
FGT. As early as 15 June 1994, the
question of the arrest presumed guilty
is addressed by US diplomats. They
seem to have been the most active to
establish a court to try the alleged
criminals (ICTR). On 1st September,
they submit the first draft of court
which limits its jurisdiction to crimes
committed from 6 April 1994. France
would not therefore be at the origin
of the limitation of the jurisdiction
of the ICTR in the year 1994 ! In
fact, France is approaching this court
question “backwards”. On July 13,
1994, François Rivasseau of the Quai
d’Orsay argues that France has no
mandate to arrest the guilty parties
and that the Convention against genocide is not integrated into French law
(Bohlen, 13 July). But it has been
since the new Penal Code of 1st March
1994.
On August 12th, the Quai d’Orsay
rejects the American proposal to stop
presumed guilty before the formation
of the court (Harriman, August 12).
On August 24, Louis Joinet, advisor at the Elysee Palace, believes
that “to do away with the executions
is a condition of the reconciliation”
(Carle, August 24).
Bisesero
Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, Minister of
the Family of the Interim Government
reports that at the Council of Ministers meeting of 17 June 1994, it is said
that “Gisenyi will be attacked from
Bisesero and Kabuhanga (Gisenyi)”
(Nyiramasuhuko’s Agenda, 18-19
May). On June 22, François Léotard declares in Council restricted
that the RPF makes effort to Kibuye.
The map of the front line of June 28
that the general Quesnot presents to
Mitterrand shows that the RPF is
still far from Kibuye (DRM, June 28,
1994).
