March 2004
April 7, 2004 marks the first decade since the genocide of over one million Rwandese in 100 days of calculated slaughter directed at anyone born Tutsi or opposed to the political agenda of Hutu Power.
Many reports from international organisations as well as numerous well documented books have already pointed out that among the foreign countries most implicated in the genocide, France by far played the most active role. An ever increasing number of concerned French citizens no longer accept the key phrased conclusion of the 1998 parliamentary information report which sought to absolve our government once and for all of any responsibility whatsoever in the acts of genocide perpetrated by the military and administrative apparatus of the interim government whose members France had consistently supported and provided with strategic expertise since 1990. We are also shamefully aware that even on the symbolic level, France unlike the United Nations, Belgium and the USA has not deemed it necessary to proffer any official message of regret and has not sought the pardon of the Rwandese survivors for failing to have stopped this contemporary genocide.
The case of Rwanda also proves to us that once again it was possible to use genocide as a strategy to ensure domination and restructure society.The United Nations have a moral and judicial obligation to punish not only the immediate planners and organisers of this genocide but also to prosecute any individual whose complicity facilitated the crime-regardless of nationality.
Because so much new evidence leads us to refute the official version of our presence in Rwanda and in fact points out that France continued to provide the criminal interim regime with weapons, military expertise, financial and diplomatic support even after the intention to commit genocide became manifest as well as during the actual phase of of mass extermination, we have decided to constitute a Citizens Commission of Inquiry. From March 22 to March 26 we will conduct open public hearings with witnesses, journalists, historians and legal personnel to cross examine all the elements at our disposition tending to give credence to the disturbing contentions that France might have been complicit to one of the most serious crimes of the the 20th century.
Faced with a lot of pressure to abandon this project we are seeking support from individuals and organisations in France and worldwide to sign the following appeal.
The genocide of the Tutsi, like every other genocide in the past, is the result of many lies; maintaining these lies means encouraging emulation and repetition of the crime. We support the citizens of France who refuse the lack of public accountability and the impunity accorded to their government officials. We therefore support the organisation of the Citizens Inquiry Commission in order to determine the nature of the role played by France in 1994 during the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Please return this petition before March 2004 to Survie-France , 210 Rue St.Martin, 75003 Paris , France or sign online www.enquete-citoyenne-rwanda.org
