Rwanda probes French role in genocide

An independent national commission entrusted with probing the alleged French involvement in the Rwandan genocide began hearing on Tuesday in the Rwandan capital Kigali. The country's President, Paul Kagame, accused France-trained Hutu paramilitary forces of having supported the genocide.

French authorities have denied any charges. It is estimated that nearly one million Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 100 days in the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

The commission, which includes historians and professors, is led by general prosecutor Jean de Dieu Mucyo. It appears to be certain that there was some sort of French involvement. Commissioners are expected to hear testimonies from 25 genocide survivors.

At the end of the hearings, the commission is to determine whether it is necessary for Rwanda to issue a motion at the International Court of Justice in the Hague against Paris for its assumed role in the genocide.

In Tuesday's sittings, four witnesses testified, including the ambassador to France in the period following the mass murders and a high official of the Rwandan security services.

Residents of the country's south-western area who were involved in the "Operation Torquoise" by the French under UN mandate to open a secure corridor between June and August 1994, accused French troops for allowing the militias that perpetrated the massacres to flee into neighbouring Zaire (now Congo Kinshasa, DRC).

A former ambassador of Rwanda in Paris, Jacques Bihozagara, informed the commission that France had an active role in the genocide, which according to him, was mitigated by its fears to lose influence in Africa.

He blamed the French government for its failure to withhold genocide suspects. "France did not express repentance," the French news agency AFP quoted Mr Bihozagara as saying in his evidence.

The former diplomat said Operation Turquoise aimed to protect only those responsible for the genocide.

The International Criminal Court had already judged some of the most important cases of the Rwandan genocide in the Tanzanian city of Arusha. The court had convicted twenty-five leaders but the Rwandan government is said to have been slow in effecting the legal process.

A genocide survivor, Rupert Bazambanza, said at the start of the war no one knew what genocide was.

"Overnight, our friends and neighbours became our enemy and wanted to kill us," he said, adding that it was difficult for them to smile through tears at the end of the genocide.

"It was like the Titanic. Everyone wanted to leave the boat, but had no way of doing so," Mr Bazambanza told 'Africa Comic'.

At this point, he had realised that he could not go home because everything was burnt down and that people were being murdered around him and bodies surrounded and covered the roads. Feeling very alone, Mr Bazambanza went into hiding.

"I felt like no one cared about what was going on," he said. But Mr Bazambanza wanted to make sure that people didn't just let this tragedy fade from memory. He started travelling and sharing his story with the world. "Every time I have the chance to talk to people, I realise why I survived," he said.