France and the Rwanda Genocide (8)

silent acomplice

what others say about Anrew Wallis' book

the publisher:
the massac re of 1million Rwandan Tutsis by ethnic Hutus in 1994 has become a symbol of the international community's failure to prevent human rights atrocities. It is assumed that the West was well-intenioned, but ultimately ineefectual. But as Andrew walli reveals in his shocking book, on Western country -France- was secretely providing military, financial and diplomatic supprt to the genocidaires all along. Based on new interviews with key players and eye-witnesses and previously unreleased documents, Wallis'book tells a story which many have suspected, but never seen set out before. France, wallis discovers, was keen to defend its influence in Africa, even if it meant complicty in genocide. "In countries like that, genocide is not so important" as former French president francois Mitterand once said.
Wallis reveals that the french role went far beyond arms deals with the pro-Hutu Habyarimana goverment. Both before and during the genocide, French special forces armed and trained the interahamwe paramilitaries who carried out most of the killing. French vehicles and helicopters were used to transport the genocidaires up and down the country. And, as Wallis discovers, France's much-vaunted "humanitarian intervention"in the aftermath of the gencide was publicly welcomed as a gesture of supprt by the Hutu extrmists who had incited the killing. wallis'riveting expose of the french role in one of the darkest chapters of juman history will provoke furious debate, denials and outrage.

the Sunday Times
powerfull... Wallis produces plentiful evidence that some French officers were training the Hutus how to capture an tie up prisoners, how to slit thier bellies so that their bodies would not float (in the rivers and lakes)..there is no part of the french past that needs honesty and a clean break more than this.

Romeo Dallaire, canadian general and commander of UNAMIR peace-keeping force in rwanda from 1993 to 1994
This book indicates the influence exerted by an ex-colonial power as a permanent meme=ber of the Security council. On the difficult road that so many developing countries must travel towards the rule of law and human rights, as in the case of rwanda, this interference and less than helpful involvement in the denouncement of a civil war and genocide by diffrent levels of the french governemt is a reflexion of self-interest and inept use of what should have been the moral authority of a world power.
france could have lead the charge to reinforce the UN mission through direct supprt to Franco-African nations that were ready to come and stop the human catastrophe and civil war. The french gvernemtn instead chase to intervene on the side of one of the most ruthless and destructive group of genocidaires in world history.

Mehdi Ba, author of Rwanda, une Genocide Francais
through the quality of his sources and the rigour of his analysis, Andrew Wallis
renders France's complicity in the rwandan genocide undeniable.

the Independent
..furiously hard-hitting and thoroughly researched...