Genocide in Rwanda: 'There are very serious accusations against France'

RFI: After the extermination, an International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was established. 30 years later, what has international justice achieved?

Silvia Perazzo: What now remains of the international tribunal for Rwanda is a residual mechanism charged with finding those responsible who have not yet been tried.

This was the first attempt by the international community to prosecute crimes against humanity that had not been tried on Rwandan territory. In that sense, he is a pioneer of what will become the International Criminal Court, which, when the genocide occurred, did not yet exist. There were persecuted people who were not so responsible and many responsible people who were freed.

If you look at the list of those who were tried, which is more than 80, and those who were finally convicted, it was not enough. Those who executed and planned it were very young people. At this moment they are between 60 and 65 years old and almost all of them are now free. You only have one convict who is now serving prison. He is Hassan Ngeze, editor of the Kangura newspaper (which served to spread hatred towards the Tutsis).

RFI: This court basically convicted two-thirds of the defendants. Who also remains outside of justice?

Silvia Perazzo: Many of those who planned the genocide fled to Europe. First they fled to different states in Africa: Tanzania, Kenya, Senegal and others. Most of them managed to flee to Europe. Some people in charge are missing: the middle staff is actually missing, which would be the medium bureaucracy, the administration measure, those who were mayors and those who were prefects.

There are dozens of complaints. In addition, many people also fled from Rwanda with quite controversial mechanisms. On the other hand, the current government of President Paul Kagame, which is considered to have ended the genocide, carried out summary trials. He sentenced many people to death, and there were the traditional 'Gacaca' community courts. Despite three different judicial mechanisms, many culprits remain to be found.

RFI: Victims' associations consider that there are between 100 and 300 escapees here in France. How could these perpetrators have escaped and, above all, have remained hidden in the country for 30 years?

Silvia Perazzo: When Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) takes power, there is a mass exodus of two million people, half of whom fled to the Congo, for fear of reprisals, for fear of the possibility of a reverse genocide.

Among that population, many responsible people sneaked in to reach Europe. There is very strong criticism of the French government, because it was always said that “operation Turquoise” was carried out to exfiltrate the genocidaires, among them Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, who died in 2021, but who was one of those convicted by the court. international criminal.

There was some responsibility of the French government in the flight and of other African governments. To a lesser extent it is believed that they are in Spain. But especially in France and Belgium. They are helped by the language and the close ties that France had with the Rwandan government. Once they arrived in Europe, it is believed that they changed their identity and have infiltrated French daily life. Some connivance on the part of the French bureaucracy so that they can continue living is not ruled out.

RFI: Is France protecting some of these escapees?

Silvia Perazzo: No person can flee and hide for 30 years if they do not have some protection from some levels of the bureaucratic administration. Not necessarily from the current presidency of France.

It is true that President François Mitterrand had some responsibility for protecting the genocidaires. Then everything dissolves in time. France has an undeniable responsibility. There are many conditions of victims, there are many investigative commissions. Human rights associations have focused on this, reconstructing backwards not to see how they managed to enter, when, where, with what documents.

France has many experts in Rwanda who have done very good research. So if there is political will, it is likely that there will continue to be people collaborating with international justice.

RFI: Since 2019, the French Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office has been in charge of investigations into the genocide in Rwanda and the individuals who are here. At least 35 alleged perpetrators have been identified and only 6 have been convicted in France. Is Paris taking responsibility by prosecuting these individuals?

Silvia Perazzo: There has been a change in France's position on this whole issue, approximately 10 years ago. Macron has visited Rwanda not from the place of who is going to defend himself against what they say, but from the place of who recognizes mistakes.

Although, as he said a few years ago, “you cannot ask for forgiveness from State to State” – in my opinion a linguistic twist – he did recognize the role that France played in the genocide. This is captured in testimonies and photos. In 2020, much more fluid communication between Rwanda and France was evident. Félicien Kabuga, one of the main perpetrators of the genocide, was found in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Paris. He was one of those who financed the purchase of weapons and hate media. When there is political will this can be done.

RFI: Last year, 21 Rwandans together with some associations requested reparation via justice from the French State for its responsibility during the genocide. What is France being accused of for its actions 30 years ago?

Silvia Perazzo: There are several issues. First, during the four years of civil war that preceded the genocide, that is, between 1990 and 1994, having trained the militias of the National Revolutionary Movement for Development and Democracy (MRNDD), the government party at that time of President Juvenal Habyarimana. He is accused of having financed the purchase of weapons and facilitated logistics to begin carrying out the first massacres of Tutsis.

He is then accused of having given an international umbrella to Rwanda so that this would go unnoticed and, above all, the strategy of disinformation, especially in international organizations and especially in the United Nations. France underlined the exclusive responsibility of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (of the Tutsis).

In this sense, it protected those who later carried out the genocide and stopped, for example, the profound treatment of this issue in the UN Security Council.

When the genocide breaks out, he is responsible for not sending reinforcements to UNAMIR, the United Nations mission that was deployed in Rwanda, although it is debatable whether it could have done anything in the face of such a level of violence. We are talking about 10,000 people murdered per day, more or less 1,200 people per hour.

Despite having stopped these attempts, he did carry out special operations to save his fellow citizens, leaving and giving death to many Tutsis who had collaborated with the French embassy.

France is also responsible for having been able to exfiltrate part of President Habyarimana's entourage, such as the widow and some of his children, and for not having done anything, for example, for the children of the prime minister who was assassinated in the early hours of April 7. .

France was in charge of “Operation Turquoise”, which instead of stopping the genocide, exfiltrated genocide. Furthermore, he favored the massacre of the resistance hills in Bisesero. There is all the evidence that holds the French troops responsible for having given the genocidal Hutus the location of Tutsis who had been resisting for months, hiding in trees and in holes under the ground. They were found by French soldiers, denounced the next day and eliminated by the Hutus. The accusations are very serious.