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December 26, 2005

France opens inquiry into complicity in Rawanda genocide

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France is beginning to face its own role in allowing the genocide slaughter in Rwanda. The UK Times reports:

...a judge opened a formal inquiry into allegations that the French Army conspired in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The move, which will renew debate over the actions of Franis Mitterrand, France's late president, causes embarrassment to Paris at a time when it is struggling to maintain its influence in Africa.

Despite attempts by the French Defence Ministry to block the case, Jacques Baillet, the prosecutor at the army tribunal, has begun an investigation into the role of France's troops during the massacres.

An estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the violence that followed the death of Juvenal Habyarimana, then the Rwandan President, in an aircraft crash. The majority of the victims were Tutsis, slaughtered by the rival Hutu tribe.

Randall Hoven covered France's role in the genocide for AT in October.