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| Europe |
| French soldiers 'trained Rwandan militias' |
| 2005-04-22 |
| PARIS, April 22 (AFP) - French soldiers trained Rwandan civilian militias in the two years leading up to the 1994 genocide, an officer in the French gendarmerie said Friday, contradicting persistent denials from the Paris government. "I saw French soldiers giving fire-arms training to civilian Rwandan militiamen in 1992. There were about 30 militiamen being trained. I am absolutely categoric about this. I saw them and that is all there is to it," said Thierry Prungnaud. "They must have been militiamen because the soldiers used to go around in fatigues and these were civilians," said Prungnaud, who was in Rwanda in 1992 on a training programme for the presidential guard. "It must have gone on till 1994. It didn't shock me - after all I didn't see how it all turned out. It just seemed normal," he said. Prungnaud, a former sergeant in the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), was speaking in an interview on France-Culture radio. He said the training took place in a sparsely populated area of the country in La Kagera park. The government in Kigali accuses France of training Hutu militias in Rwanda as the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front mounted an insurrection from neighbouring Uganda. Hutu extremists went on to kill some 800,000 people in the genocide. Successive French governments have denied the allegation. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #5 we can only hope. They used to be humorous in their whoring for Francs, but it's getting to the point that their greed knows no bounds on civil behavior. Bet Jacques wishes he'd got that reactor contract for Iran and NK |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-22 7:04:00 PM |
| #4 I am praying for a stroke for the Boss, a traffic accident for at least one subordinates (the FM will do) and fatal food poisoning for another that ought to wipe the heads of this group of French vermin out. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-04-22 7:01:05 PM |
| #3 Geez. Frank - that would be a hysterical comment - if this was a joke. As it is, it just boggles how low Chirac & CO can go. Now I guess it's clear there's no limit. None. He's "in" until 2007. Imagine how much more damage he can do in that time. Time for either a contract or the Sixth Republic. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-22 6:56:14 PM |
| #2 another proud moment for deliberate Gallic ignorance : "How were we to know??" next episode: the massacre at Taiwan |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-22 6:51:12 PM |
| #1 Wouldn't be surprising. French arms shipments ostensibly ordered before the genocide occurred, were delivered during the Hutu attacks. And French troops were guarding the Rwandan president. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-04-22 6:43:00 PM |