Black on Black Huh???

Expert wants France sued over Genocide....

By Magnus Mazimpaka
Sunday, 18 September 2005

A renowned researcher on the Genocide has asked the Rwandan government to sue France over its role in the 1994 Genocide. Dr. Christian P. Scherrer, a Professor at Hiroshima City University, (Hiroshima Peace Institute) in Japan, insists France masterminded the Genocide...

...and should be tried, particularly at ICC or at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).His plea comes after France continuously refused to step down, plead guilty and ask for forgiveness to the Rwandan government. Scherrer is also a peace researcher on long term conflicts like that of the Sudan, Rwanda and Ethiopia. He is currently helping the Rwandan government to research on Genocide.

“The then Rwandan army was not so tactical and was not quite strong to carry out the Genocide. From 1990 in October to 1994, French soldiers were training several Rwandan special forces, even the militias were trained. If you go to Gisozi, a Genocide museum, there is a picture of the French forces training the Interahamwe and I think this is something symbolic (of the role France played in the Genocide),”

Dr. Scherrer remarked.“The French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who was the head of the Africa Section in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, threatened the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) delegation that had gone for peace talks to stop the Genocide in 1992 in Paris,” he said. He added: “The French officials told the RPF delegation that if they continue with the war, they will find their sisters and brothers killed. This is evidence; this was also disclosed by President Kagame himself when he was the vice president,” the researcher observed.

He also said France had several forces in Rwanda at the time of the massacres, operating under different names and at different places.“There were very many French special forces right from the front in the north, up to bases. There were prominent forces and with different names, and this was a kind of manoeuvre it had in the anti-revolutionary war,” he disclosed.He said the French forces controlled the then Rwandan army; “It distributed guns and trained militias and these militias were killing people.

I think those people like the ICC should look at that because France was an accomplice in the Rwandan Genocide. And genocide probably would not happen if it was not for the French conspiracy.”He advised to investigate the case basing on the evidence against the France.Scherres, who recently attended a hearing of a Belgian priest Fr. Guy Theunis, a genocide suspect who was placed in the first category of genocide suspects, also strongly criticized Human Rights Watch activist, Allison des Forges, for sabotaging the Gacaca system.This was after Allison des Forges defended the priest, who is being accused of faxing letters containing hate messages to Europe.

Allison des Forges defended the priest, claiming that the faxes he sent did not constitute incitement to Genocide because they were not addressed to local people. The expert immediately rebuffed des Forges for sabotaging the Gacaca system, and cited a case where the HRW activist criticized Gacaca at an international conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Scherres, who said that Fr. Theunis incited Genocide, openly disagreed with the HRW officials, and said it would be betrayal if Rwanda did not convict the clergyman at a time when Belgium has jailed several Genocide suspects.

Genocide