Politique Africaine de la France: arrêtons le massacre

• Main Author: François-Xavier Verschave
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: York University Libraries 1994-10-01
• Series: Refuge
• Online Access: https://refuge.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/refuge/article/view/21831

The Rwandese genocide dramatically reveals the senseless nature of French policy in Africa-determined by personal relationships, speculation, and corruption. As the "reserved domain" of the French President for the past 35 years, French policy on the African continent has been dominated by personal relationships between the French President and his African counterparts, the military lobby, the francophone lobby (Fachoda Syndrome), and some French enterprises (EL Bouygues, Bolloré), all of which have escaped from an democratic control. Hence in Rwanda, France armed, financed, and trained a regime that exhibited Nazi-like features with its guard presidential, militia, hatred ropaganda (Radio Mille Collines), pogroms throughout 1992, and finally the genocide of April 1994. Since the coming into power of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF)-perceived as pro-Anglo- Saxon because of its link with Uganda-France has multiplied its efforts to fill the (pro-French) vacuum left in the region, by calling upon the Zairean dictator Mobutu to "stabilize" the region, and by selling the usual military "package" (arms and training) to the Sudanese regime. [The author is calling upon] the French population and the international community to mobilize against the present French policy in Africa, and identifies three French organizations that are currently lobbying for a human, pro-democratic and non-secretive French policy in Africa.