Thursday, January 05, 2006

Rwanda: "Why Not Put the UN and Its Leaders on Trial?"

In 1998, a French parliamentary committee attempted to investigate France's role in the genocide. But most of the evidence it sought was classified as a state secret.
As a French military tribunal opened an investigation into allegations that French peacekeepers facilitated attacks on ethnic minority Tutsis during the 1994 genocide of more than half a million Rwandans; as the body of a former Rwandan government minister indicted on charges of involvement in the genocide had been found floating in a canal in Brussels (merci à RV); and as controversy keeps following the French army's role in Ivory Coast, one of the commanders of Opération Turquoise, Jean-Claude Lafourcade, comes out in favor of the "humanitarian action taken by France".

The arguments are well presented — as is that of lieutenant-colonel Marcel Abbonen from Ivory Coast ("Il y a eu l'affaire Mahé, mais il y a 1 000 autres exemples montrant que le bataillon a été exemplaire") — the only problem — again — is double standards.

Indeed, the general's explanations would be just as fitting a defense — moreso, probably, since the only charges of genocide lie with Saddam's pre-invasion régime — for the presence of American troops in Iraq.
Face au massacre des Tutsis au Rwanda en 1994, aucun autre pays dans le monde n'a eu le courage d'intervenir. On peut se demander pourquoi... La communauté internationale représentée par l'ONU avait été incapable d'enrayer le processus. Seule la France a eu la volonté politique et militaire d'intervenir pour arrêter les massacres en obtenant un mandat de l'ONU. Pourquoi les autres pays ne sont-ils pas poursuivis pour non-assistance à personnes en danger ? Pourquoi ne fait-on pas le procès des défaillances de l'ONU et de ses responsables ?

…Accuser aujourd'hui ces soldats de crimes contre l'humanité est inacceptable.

No comments: