Silent Accomplice: The Untold Story of France's Role in the Rwandan Genocide

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Publishing, Mar 26, 2014 - Political Science - 288 pages
FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED

The massacre of 1 million Rwandan Tutsis by ethnic Hutus in 1994 has become a symbol of the international community's helplessness in the face of human rights atrocities. It is assumed that the West was well-intentioned, but ultimately ineffectual. But as Andrew Wallis reveals in this shocking book, one country - France - was secretly providing military, financial and diplomatic support to the genocidaires all along.
Based on new interviews with key players and eye-witnesses, and previously unreleased documents, Walliss' book tells a story which many have suspected, but never seen set out before. France, Wallis discovers, was keen to defend its influence in Africa, even if it meant complicity in genocide, for as French President Francois Mitterrand once said: "in countries like that, genocide is not so important". Wallis's riveting expose of the French role in one of the darkest chapters of human history will provoke furious debate, denials, and outrage.
 

Contents

1 A Policy of Bad Habits
1
2 The Invasion and Intervention
14
3 Civil War and Peace Talks
37
4 Militia Massacres and Arusha
51
5 Retreat
79
6 Arming the Genocide
102
7 Operation Turquoise
122
8 Bisesero and Withdrawal
146
9 Burying Genocide
180
Conclusion
206
Notes
217
References
228
Index
233
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2014)

Andrew Wallis is a freelance journalist, academic, and author, and a leading expert in the African Great Lakes Region, especially Rwanda.

Bibliographic information