Rwanda's Kagame lambasts French judge over warrants

[oberliner]

KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame denounced as "bullying and arrogant" a French judge's call for him to face a U.N. court over a 1994 plane crash that killed the country's leader and sparked a genocide of 800,000 people.


"That some judge in France whose name I cannot even pronounce has something to say about Rwanda -- trying a president and some government officials -- that's rubbish!" Kagame told more than 300 guests, most of them foreign donors, attending an annual meeting on development in Kigali.

"That is justice of bullies, arrogance. France cannot try anyone -- try who over what? They should first try themselves because they killed our people," he said on Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061122/wl_nm/rwanda_france_dc_1

[Charlie Brown]

1. sounds like he's the bully

I second the Judge's call for justice.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Ya.

That vicious asshole Habyarimana's plane was given to him by Chirac. French forces protected the genocidaires. Yeah, they're really in a fucking position to judge anybody in Rwanda.

Has France admitted to its part in the genocide? People who live in glass houses and all that, y'know...

[conscious evolution]

3. First I have heard of French

complicity in this.Could you provide links that show such actions on the part of France?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. I'll need to dig through my bookmarks...

In the meantime, here's a rather shoddy wikipedia entry that is relevant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ration_Turquoise

Please PM me in a day or so if I haven't posted the proper links.

[conscious evolution]

5. Thanks for the link

I'll be looking forward to more.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. Everything you never wanted to know about the Rwandan genocide.

Warning: This is not light reading. I wouldn't suggest starting on it if you want to do anything fun with the rest of your afternoon.

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/

With respect to French involvement, this is a good place to start:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno15-8-02.htm#P438_141967

The sections on the US, Belgium, and France's failure to act are also interesting. Clinton says not intervening in Rwanda was his biggest failure. That's the understatement of the century.

There's also a good Frontline program:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/

And the whole thing is happening again, albeit in slow motion, in Darfur. And nobody gives a fuck. Utterly tragic. And people wonder why I'm cynical.