Hasbara Buster
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France bans demo condemning Paris role in Rwandan genocide
Ramin Mazaheri, Press TV, Paris
Judges are deliberating a final decision in France's first case regarding the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which killed one million people. A former Rwandan army captain is awaiting his verdict, but many say France’s long-standing reluctance to go to trial indicates just how complicit they were in the tragedy.
In an even stronger indication, the French state illegally shut down a demonstration outside the courthouse which tried to call attention to France’s role. The causes of the Rwandan genocide are rooted in the 19th-century style of colonial politics still practiced by the West: Simply put, France and the US were competing for influence, and each supported extremist elements among the Hutus and the Tutsis, respectively. Despite mounting evidence of genocidal hysteria, France provided the Hutus with military, political and economic support. But other Western-led institutions are also at fault: In the early 1990s the IMF imposed austerity measures on Rwanda, resulting in economic disaster and boiling social tensions. The US refused to use the term “genocide” and bring back UN peacekeepers, because that would have jeopardized the military success of the Tutsis. France’s fabrication of ethnic or economic divisions in order to divide-and-conquer has obvious parallels today in Mali and especially the CAR. Paris still refuses to extradite, much less prosecute, key Rwandan figures who live in France. But many wonder how court decisions from a country which is so complicit in the genocide can bring about justice and closure for Rwanda and its neighbors.
PressTV - France bans demo condemning Paris role in Rwandan genocide
Ramin Mazaheri, Press TV, Paris
Judges are deliberating a final decision in France's first case regarding the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which killed one million people. A former Rwandan army captain is awaiting his verdict, but many say France’s long-standing reluctance to go to trial indicates just how complicit they were in the tragedy.
In an even stronger indication, the French state illegally shut down a demonstration outside the courthouse which tried to call attention to France’s role. The causes of the Rwandan genocide are rooted in the 19th-century style of colonial politics still practiced by the West: Simply put, France and the US were competing for influence, and each supported extremist elements among the Hutus and the Tutsis, respectively. Despite mounting evidence of genocidal hysteria, France provided the Hutus with military, political and economic support. But other Western-led institutions are also at fault: In the early 1990s the IMF imposed austerity measures on Rwanda, resulting in economic disaster and boiling social tensions. The US refused to use the term “genocide” and bring back UN peacekeepers, because that would have jeopardized the military success of the Tutsis. France’s fabrication of ethnic or economic divisions in order to divide-and-conquer has obvious parallels today in Mali and especially the CAR. Paris still refuses to extradite, much less prosecute, key Rwandan figures who live in France. But many wonder how court decisions from a country which is so complicit in the genocide can bring about justice and closure for Rwanda and its neighbors.
PressTV - France bans demo condemning Paris role in Rwandan genocide
