France ‘enabled’ 1994 Rwanda genocide, report says

Study commissioned by Rwandan gov’t alleges France ‘did nothing’ to prevent ‘foreseeable’ April and May 1994 massacres.

 

An estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered in the genocide [File: Baz Ratner/Reuters]

The French government bears “significant” responsibility for “enabling a foreseeable genocide,” a report commissioned by the Rwandan government concludes about France’s role before and during the horror in which an estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered in 1994.

The report, which The Associated Press has read, comes amid efforts by Rwanda to document the role of French authorities before, during and after the genocide, part of the steps taken by France’s President Emmanuel Macron to improve relations with the Central African country.

The 600-page report says that France “did nothing to stop” the massacres, in April and May 1994, and in the years after the genocide tried to cover up its role and even offered protection to some perpetrators.

It is to be made public later on Monday after its formal presentation to Rwanda’s Cabinet.

It concludes that in years leading up to the genocide, former French President Francois Mitterrand and his administration had knowledge of preparations for the massacres – yet kept supporting the government of then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana despite the “warning signs.”

“The French government was neither blind nor unconscious about the foreseeable genocide,” the authors stress.

The Rwandan report comes less than a month after a French report, commissioned by Macron, concluded that French authorities had been “blind” to the preparations for genocide and then reacted too slowly to appreciate the extent of the killings and to respond to them.

It concluded that France had “heavy and overwhelming responsibilities” by not responding to the drift that led to the slaughter that killed mainly ethnic Tutsis and the moderate Hutus who tried to protect them. Groups of extremist Hutus carried out the killings.

‘A common understanding of the past’

The two reports, with their extensive even if different details, could mark a turning point in relations between the two countries.

Rwanda, a small but strategic country of 13 million people, is “ready” for a “new relationship” with France, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vincent Biruta told AP.

“Maybe the most important thing in this process is that those two commissions have analysed the historical facts, have analysed the archives which were made available to them and have come to a common understanding of that past,” he said. “From there we can build this strong relationship.”

The Rwandan report, commissioned in 2017 from the Washington law firm of Levy Firestone Muse, is based on a wide range of documentary sources from governments, non-governmental organisations and academics including diplomatic cables, documentaries, videos and news articles.

The authors also said they interviewed more than 250 witnesses.

In the years before the genocide, “French officials armed, advised, trained, equipped, and protected the Rwandan government, heedless of the Habyarimana regime’s commitment to the dehumanisation and, ultimately, the destruction and death of Tutsi in Rwanda,” the report charges.

French authorities at the time pursued “France’s own interests, in particular the reinforcement and expansion of France’s power and influence in Africa”.

In April and May 1994, at the height of the genocide, French officials “did nothing to stop” the massacres, says the report.

Operation Turquoise, a French-led military intervention backed by the United Nations which started on June 22, 1994, “came too late to save many Tutsi,” the report says.

Authors say they found “no evidence that French officials or personnel participated directly in the killing of Tutsi during that period”.

This finding echoes the conclusion of the French report that cleared France of complicity in the massacres, saying that “nothing in the archives” demonstrates a “willingness to join a genocidal operation”.

French gov’t ‘distorted the truth’

The Rwandan report also addressed the attitude of French authorities after the genocide.

Over the past 27 years, “the French government has covered up its role, distorted the truth, and protected” those who committed the genocide, it says.

The report suggests that French authorities made “little efforts” to send to trial those who committed the genocide. Three Rwandan nationals have been convicted of genocide so far in France.

It also strongly criticises the French government for not making public documents about the genocide.

The government of Rwanda notably submitted three requests for documents in 2019, 2020 and this year that the French government “ignored,” according to the report.

Under French law, documents regarding military and foreign policies can remain classified for decades.

But things may be changing, the Rwandan report says, mentioning “hopeful signs”.

On April 7, the day of commemoration of the genocide, Macron announced the decision to declassify and make accessible to the public the archives from 1990 to 1994 that belong to the French president and prime minister’s offices.

“Recent disclosures of documents in connection with the (French) report … may signal a move toward transparency,” authors of the Rwandan report said.

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda praised the report commissioned by Macron as “a good thing,” welcoming efforts in Paris to “move forward with a good understanding of what happened.”

Félicien Kabuga, a Rwandan long wanted for his alleged role in supplying machetes to the killers, was arrested outside Paris last May.

And in July an appeals court in Paris upheld a decision to end a years-long investigation into the plane crash that killed Habyarimana and set off the genocide.

That probe aggravated Rwanda’s government because it targeted several people close to Kagame for their alleged role, charges they denied.

Last week, a Rwandan priest was arrested in France for his alleged role in the genocide, which he denied.

 

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France, Sweden to receive more African refugees from Rwanda

By Hudson Kuteesa

Refugees from Libya upon their arrival at Kigali International Airport on October 11, 2019. Photo: Sam Ngendahimana.

France and Sweden have pledged to take in hundreds from the group of African refugees brought to Rwanda after they were trapped in Libya for years, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

After it was announced earlier this week that Norway was considering taking in up to 600 African refugees and asylum-seekers from Libya, some of whom are currently hosted at an Emergency Transit Centre (EMTC) in Bugesera District, it has emerged that more countries have expressed willingness to receive more refugees.

In an exclusive interview with Saturday Times on Thursday, Elise Laura Villechalane, the External Relations Officer at UNHCR Rwanda, said that France and Sweden have also pledged to take in more.

According to her, France has committed to receive about 150 refugees, while Sweden will take about 200, on top of the seven that have already been resettled Sweden.

So far, Rwanda is hosting 299 refugees and asylum seekers at the Gashora Transit Centre, and they are of different nationalities, mainly from the Horn of African countries of Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea.

More are expected to be brought at the facility that in its current state can accommodate up to 500 people.

We however do not have yet the date of the next flight,” she said.

The resettlement to new countries is expected to create more room for Rwanda’s EMTC to take in more refugees because thousands of others are still stuck in Libya.

Rwanda’s hosting of the asylum seekers is part of an agreement signed in September in Addis Ababa Ethiopia last year, where Rwanda agreed to set up a transit mechanism to host up to 500 refugees, asylum-seekers and other persons in need of protection who are trapped in Libya.

The deal was signed between the Government, the African Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

Villechalane said that when the refugees came into Rwanda, the UNHCR has been looking at how to help them with resettlement options and preparing their requests in line with what host countries may require.

Without specifying who is currently eligible for the resettlement slots available, Villechalane said that one of the main factors based on while making selection for each country’s resettlement programme is vulnerability.

This may cover where the refugee comes from and what they have been through.

She also highlighted that the resettlement countries consider burden-sharing as factor for receiving refugees.

For instance, as Norway is receiving some 600, other countries can look at assisting with carrying a portion of the remaining burden.

Here, Villechalane stressed that some of the slots from France and Sweden may end up being taken by fellow asylum seekers hosted in Niger.

Niger hosts a larger Emergency Transit Mechanism for African asylum seekers trapped in Libya. The UNHCR has evacuated close to 3000 asylum seekers to Niger’s EMTC.

How about the option of being settled in Rwanda?

Villechalane said that not all asylum seekers will be transferred to other countries, meaning the option of being integrated into Rwandan communities is still available.

She praised Rwanda as “generous” to have accepted to be a place to which the refugees were evacuated from the dire conditions in Libya.

She said Rwanda is “a humanitarian corridor” where these asylum seekers would be reached by humanitarian activities.

According to the terms of the Addis Ababa agreement, the Rwanda’s EMTC was established to temporarily host evacuees for their stay in Rwanda, while durable solutions, including repatriation and resettlement, or incorporating them in Rwandan communities are being identified.

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Why eight African countries have severed currency ties with France

Former French colonies to replace the CFA franc with the eco

Eight West African countries have announced that they will rename their common currency and sever financial links with their former colonial ruler France.

Since the end of the Second World War, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo - known collectively as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) - have all used the CFA franc as their currency.

For four decades, the CFA franc – named originally as the franc of the French Colonies in Africa – was pegged to the French franc, before being linked to the euro.

CNBC reports that the currency “compels participating African countries to deposit 50% of their foreign exchange reserves with the French treasury”, which “in turn guarantees payments into euros even if the CFA member state cannot meet import payments”.

This link has meant that the currency has been seen as an important stabilising financial force in the region.

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However, The Telegraph reports that critics of the CFA have “long seen it as a relic from colonial times”, with France24 adding that it is “seen by many as a sign of French interference in its former African colonies even after the countries became independent”.

The announcement that the CFA is to be ditched was made on Saturday during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Ivory Coast.

The host country’s President Alassane Ouattara announced “three major changes” to the ECOWAS’s currency set-up. These are “a change of name” of the CFR franc to the eco, an end to “holding 50% of the reserves in the French Treasury” and the “withdrawal of French governance” in any aspect related to the newly renamed currency.

“This is a historic day for West Africa,” Ouattara said during a news conference with Macron, who hailed it as a “historic reform”. 

“The eco will see the light of day in 2020,” Macron added.

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Macron in Ivory Coast: meets troops, set to launch anti-terrorism academy

French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Ivory Coast, where he plans to share a holiday meal with French forces Friday evening, at the start of his West Africa visit aimed at confronting the region’s rising jihadist violence.

The weekend trip is providing a respite for Macron from the ongoing strikes back home over his plans to raise the retirement age, which have paralyzed transport ahead of the holiday season.

France has some 4,500 military personnel stationed throughout West and Central Africa, where Islamic extremist groups have carried out unprecedented attacks this year against local armies in Mali and Niger. Attacks are multiplying, too, in Burkina Faso.

The security situation Africa’s Sahel region is deteriorating by the day, said Ivorian political analyst Geoffroy Julien Kouao. Ivory Coast is not only home to a French military base, it is also the region’s economic powerhouse and it came under attack in 2016 when al-Qaida-linked militants sprayed gunfire at a popular beach, killing 19 people.

“Let’s not forget that Ivory Coast shares 800 kilometers (500 miles) of border with Mali and Burkina Faso so the military component dominates this visit by the French president,” Kouao said.

Macron was to meet with leaders of the Sahel countries in France earlier this month but the meeting was postponed when an Islamic State affiliate carried out the deadliest assault on Niger’s military in recent memory. Officials said 71 soldiers were killed when their army camp was overpowered near the volatile border with Mali.

During his first stop Friday evening at a French military base, Macron is meeting with those on the front lines of the fight including some commandos who were involved in the operation in Mali during which 13 soldiers died in a helicopter collision.

On Saturday, Macron plans to help launch the International Academy to Fight Terrorism, which will focus on regional strategies and training those involved in the fight against extremism, according to the French presidency.

He also will pay a visit to Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou in Niamey on Sunday before returning to France, where the summit with West African leaders has been rescheduled to mid-January.

Macron’s high-profile visit to Ivory Coast’s commercial capital also comes ahead of pivotal elections scheduled for October 2020. The former colonizer has substantial economic interests there, and past outbreaks of violence have seen French expatriate civilians targeted.

Ivorians remain scarred by the post-election bloodshed in 2010-2011 that left more than 3,000 people dead after then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat to Alassane Ouattara, who ultimately prevailed and then was reelected in 2015.

Initially Ouattara was limited to two terms, meaning the 2020 election would be a wide open field. Ivorian elections, though, have proven to be anything but predictable: Ouattara recently has given signs he might consider a third bid if his nemesis gets involved.

Gbagbo, who was accused of unleashing violence to cling to office after losing the runoff vote, remains popular among some Ivorians and it’s unclear what kind of influence he could have. He has been acquitted of criminal charges at The Hague in connection with the violence, though International Criminal Court prosecutors have launched an appeal.

Before that electoral crisis Ivory Coast already had suffered through a civil war that began in 2002 and left the country with a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south until a 2007 peace deal. During the crisis a 2004 bombing killed nine French soldiers and an American scientist who had sought refuge at the base amidst the fighting.

On Sunday, Macron will pay tribute to the victims of a 2004 bombing during Ivory Coast’s civil war this weekend in Bouake. A trial is to begin in France next year, 15 years after the attack that killed nine French soldiers and an American civilian who had sought shelter at the French army base.

The Belarussian pilot and two Ivorian co-pilots who carried out the bombings are accused of murder and attempted murder, but will not be there because the international arrest warrants were never carried out.

The American victim, Robert Carsky, 49, grew up in Syracuse, N.Y. and spent most of his adult life working in West Africa as a soil scientist and crop researcher. A representative from the U.S. Embassy in Ivory Coast is expected to join Macron and his entourage at the site.

“These events took place in a context of war and relations between Paris and Abidjan were abysmal at that time,” Kouao said. “Macron and Ouattara want to erase this difficult moment and show that the two countries have excellent relations today.”

SOURCE: AP

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Some West African nations that need to decolonize their currency

The CFA Franc has always seen as a vestige of colonialism, but now eight West African countries are aiming to decolonise and start their own currency.

Eight West African countries have proposed to withdraw their currency reserves from the French central bank.

The proposal would look to replace the euro-linked CFA franc with a new common West African currency: eco. The French-regulated CFA franc is currently used by 155 million people across the African continent in 14 West and Central African countries.

The CFA franc is currently used by eight West African nations, but its days could be numbered (Thierry Gouegnon / Reuters)

The CFA was specially created in 1945, after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement, which saw the world usher in a new global monetary system with the US dollar replacing the gold standard. The French-regulated CFA franc was for the French colonies of Africa, it is linked to the euro and its convertibility is guaranteed by France. According to the arrangement, described by analysts as a colonial relic, these African countries had to deposit half of their foreign currency reserves in the French central bank.

Benin’s President Patrice Talon announced last Thursday that the West African Monetary Union wants to take back control of its currency. Eight African countries including Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Niger and Guinea Bissau have reached an agreement to pull the reserves from France. 

"We all agree on this, unanimously, to end this model," Talon told French media last Thursday.

The move, if it happens, could also have serious implications for the French economy.

Decolonization?

The CFA franc has been the currency used by French colonies since 1945, and despite the subsequent independence of several African nations, it is still in use. The system is seen as one of the last vestiges of colonialism and the CFA franc has always been a target of criticism. 

Talon said that the decision may take time, but it has been adopted at the meeting of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

"The injustice has gone for too long. It is time to discuss issues with France to clarify many things, to allow us to have our monetary sovereignty. We do not have it today,” Chadian President Idris Debby said during a media briefing last Monday.

An agreement was made to introduce a single currency, eco, for the entire region by 2020. 

According to the plan, as a first phase, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, which currently have their own currencies, will launch the eco. Then in the second phase, the eight countries which use the CFA franc will replace their currencies.

The eco first came to the fore in 2003, however, it has been delayed several times. 

Will it be any different this time? 

Nassir M A Doutoum, an Africa Researcher at the Association of Researchers on Africa (AFAM) told TRT World that as part of a decolonisation process, most leaders of African countries have attempted to realise moves like this in the past. Leaders like Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita, Sylvanus Olympio and Thomas Sankara criticised the colonial policy of the CFA, and some of them even stopped using it. 

Doutoum Said: “But somehow, the leaders who tried to give on up on CFA were eliminated or killed. In the past, African countries were not ready to realise it, however, today’s circumstances are different. As of today, the struggle against CFA is not just based on leaders and intellectuals, also most of the African public supports the idea.”

According to Doutoum, France has tried to prevent several NGOs in various African countries that have been protesting CFA and trying to raise awareness about the damage it does to Africans. 

There have already been protests in the past to say no to the CFA and the issue may be gaining even more momentum among the public. Doutoum sees that the developments as a whole may allow this attempt to succeed.

AFAM Researcher Kaan Devecioglu described Talon’s statement during an interview with TRT World as both courageous and divorced from reality as he believes that the statement was mainly political. 

He says that whoever criticises the CFA in the continent gains sympathy and support, but it is just rhetoric. He says every country has to form a consensus, which is no easy task.

How will France’s future in Africa be shaped?

Professor Ahmet Kavas, an African expert, Turkey’s former ambassador to Chad and founder of the Association of Researchers on Africa (AFAM), said: “Even France recognises the independence of the African countries which it colonised in the past, but France still keeps deep political, cultural, economic, and social ties with these countries.” 

In this context, Kavas stated that for Africa’s natural resources to reach markets, France stipulates the CFA (also known as west-middle African franc) be used as the mandatory currency in its previous colonies. He adds that to maintain competitiveness in the international arena and to sustain its current position, France doesn’t want to abandon opportunities provided by its colonies.

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