France to help genocide inquiry

France says it will co-operate with an inquiry in Rwanda into
allegations that French forces were involved in the 1994 Rwandan
genocide.

A commission in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, has started hearing
witnesses in public this week on the issue.

A French defence ministry spokesman told the BBC that the testimony of
two army officers would be made available.

France has denied playing any role in the 100-day frenzy of killing in
which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died.

The panel, whose hearings are being broadcast live on local radio, is
hearing from 25 survivors of the genocide, who claim to have
witnessed French involvement.

After the testimonies, the Rwandan panel will rule on whether to file
a suit at the International Court of Justice.

‘No evidence’

"Two officers have been requested to testify by Rwandan officials and
as we do with the international courts we shall organise this," Jean
Francois Bureau, spokesman for French defence minister, told the BBC’s
Network Africa programme.

French soldiers were deployed in parts of Rwanda in the final weeks of
the genocide under a United Nations mandate to set up a protected
zone.

Rwanda says the soldiers allowed Hutu extremists to enter Tutsi camps.

But Mr Bureau says there is no evidence to support these accusations.

The BBC’s Geoffrey Mutagoma in Kigali says that it is also alleged
that French soldiers provided escape routes to militia escaping to the
Democratic Republic of Congo after the massacres.

Meanwhile, in France a military tribunal is currently investigating
claims by six Rwandans who filed a case accusing French troops of
facilitating the massacres.

Separately, some of Rwanda’s most high-profile genocide cases have
already been tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
(ICTR), based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha.

Twenty-five ringleaders have been convicted since 1997, but the
Rwandan government has expressed frustration at the slow legal
process.

Story from BBC NEWS:
/6087454.stm

Published: 2006/10/26 12:11:28 GMT

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