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Video length: 2 min
Genocide in Rwanda: the bitter memory of French inaction
In 1994, French soldiers were deployed to Bisesero, Rwanda, to put an end to the massacres of Tutsi. However, they only intervened after several days.
(france info)
In 1994, French soldiers were deployed to Bisesero, Rwanda, to put an end to the massacres of Tutsi. However, they only intervened after several days.
Aaron Gakoko is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. He remembers the arrival of the French from Operation Turquoise, supposed to stop the massacres, three months after the first killings. “They didn’t do anything, they just left us here”, indicates the survivor and resistance fighter from Bisesero. On June 27, 1994, the soldiers saw the lifeless bodies and promised to rescue the survivors. They will not return until three days later. Meanwhile, hundreds more Tutsis were massacred.
Army accused of “complicity in genocide”
The memory of the French is bitter. Before French justice, associations accuse the army of “complicity in genocide”, for abandoning civilians. After an initial dismissal overturned on appeal, the Paris judicial court is still working on this case, 19 years after its opening. “They left us in front of those who were waiting to kill us”, assures Vincent Kayigema, survivor of Bisesero. In Rwanda, few survivors have heard of the legal proceedings and frustrations persist.
