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Witness - French Troops Created Ex-Far Resistance Positions

The New Times (Kigali)
NEWS
3 May 2007
Posted to the web 4 May 2007

By Robert Mukombozi and Felly Kimenyi
Kigali
A Belgian expert who was in Rwanda at the helm of the 1994 Genocide has said
that French troops "supervised the digging of battle trenches around Kigali
City".
Pierre Jamagne told the seven-man commission charged with gathering evidence on
France's complicity in the Genocide that French soldiers mobilised civilians
and members of the government forces to create underground caves that were
later used as defensive positions during the war. "I was a resident in Kiyovu
and I used to pass by some groups of government soldiers and sometimes
civilians setting up defensive trenches under the supervision of French
troops," he alleged, adding that the tunnels formed between the National Office
of Information (ORINFOR) and the Belgian school Ecole Belge were to be used by
the genocidaires as defensive lines.
"By that time, the RPA had attacked and captured Rulindo, 30 kilometres from
Kigali city and the French soldiers were helping the army to create the
trenches as perimeters where the advancing force would be repulsed," Jamagne,
who worked in Rwanda from 1988 to 1994, testified.
Citing a conversation he had with one of the security officers at the French
embassy in Kigali, he explained that the French government was aware of the
support that was being given to extremists inside Rwanda during the Genocide.
He also disclosed that at some point the army was under direct command of the
French.
"Apart from the activities of digging trenches, the army, at the start of the
genocide, was getting orders and arms supplies from French soldiers."
France, Jamagne said, was not allowed to supply arms to any of the warring
parties because such an act at the time was in contravention of the Arusha
Peace Accord that stopped all arms deals in this embattled state.
"The French should stop acting as if they were not aware of what was happening
in Rwanda. They armed the killers," he charged.
The French adopted a two-pronged approach towards facilitating the genocide.
In his one hour testimony, the Belgian national, who was evacuated on April 14,
1994 revealed that on his numerous upcountry working missions he, on several
occasions, came face-to face with French soldiers, whose mandate had expired in
December 1993.
"They were camouflaging themselves in black head masks, armed to the teeth and
ready for war," Jamagne said.
Jamagne is the second Belgian national, and third overall on the list of
foreign officers that have testified to the commission.
The Mucyo commission on Monday heard Andrew Wallis, a British freelance
journalist and researcher. Both testimonies were coming immediately after the
witness account of Lt. Col. Walter Balis, a Belgian national who was part of
the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR).

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