Sous titre
Janvier Africa is a diplomat's son. But, he says, it was genocide his
country's president ordered him to carry out - slaughter European
troops equipped him for, writes Mark Huband in Nairobi
Citation
FRENCH military advisers showed Hutu death squads how to throw knives
and assemble guns supplied to the Rwandan government, a former member
of the militia who is now in hiding said yesterday.
Janvier Africa, who fears Interahamwe death squads want to kill him to
stop him revealing their role in the deaths of up to 500,000 Rwandans,
said he was at a meeting in 1992 at which the late Rwandan president,
Juvenal Habyarimana, and his wife Agathe instructed militia leaders to
start murdering government opponents.
``We had two French military who helped train the Interahamwe. A lot of
other Interahamwe were sent for training in Egypt. The French military
taught us how to catch people and tie them. It was at the Affichier
Central base in the centre of Kigali. It's where people were tortured.
That's where the French military office was,'' said Mr Africa, the son
of a diplomat with high connections in the government.
``At the camp I saw the French show Interahamwe how to throw knives and
how to assemble and disassemble guns. It was the French who showed us
how to do that - the French major - during a total of four months
training for weeks at a time between February 1991 and January 1992.
``The French also went with us Interahamwe to Mount Kigali, where they
gave us training with guns. We didn't know how to use the arms which
had been brought from France, so the French military were obliged to
show us, along with the Rwandan soldiers'' he said.
Mr Africa is the first person directly to implicate France in the
training of the militia, who became the Hutu death squads that have led
the genocide policy since Habyarimana's death on April 6. His
experience in the militia supports claims by the rebel Rwanda Patriotic
Front (RPF) that France was intimately involved in Habyarimana's plans,
which is why the RPF has condemned French plans to send troops to
Rwanda.
Soon after their training started, Mr Africa said, they were sent to
kill government opponents. During that period, French military advisers
continued to train them.
``In early 1992 we did our first killing. Around 70 of us went to
Ruhengeri to kill Tutsis from the Bagogwe clan. We killed about 10,000,
over one month, from our base at the Mukamira military camp at
Ruhengeri. Two weeks later we went to Bugosera, where we killed about
5,000 people, mostly people who seemed to be Tutsi,'' he said.
Mr Africa said he was at a meeting of militia leaders in a Kigali
building known as ``La Synogogue'' on September 1, 1992 at which the
president and his wife ordered that their opponents be weeded out.
``There were 35 people at the meeting in the Lemera Trois district. All
of the chiefs of the death squads, plus the president and his wife,
Agathe Kanzinga''" he said.
Habyarimana then accused Mr Africa and three army officers of
disagreeing with the killing of Tutsis. Mr Africa was imprisoned and
two of the officers were executed. The third went into hiding.
``At the meeting they made the plan. The president said it was necessary
to find all the politicians who were not with us. They were all
considered to be RPF, because they were opposed to the killing of
Tutsis, which Habyarimana wanted to have them do. And Madame
Habyarimana, she addressed the meeting to advise the people how to
neutralise opposition among women,'' Mr Africa said.
A spokeswoman for Mrs Habyarimana, who now lives in Paris, last night
rejected the allegations. ``Madame Habyarimana does not know of Mr
Africa. She has never participated in hit squad activites, and I
challenge Mr Africa to prove his allegations,'' she said.
Mr Africa has been sought by Rwandan pro-government officials since
Kigali prison, where he was held, was occupied by the RPF last month
and he was able to leave the country.
He cannot get political asylum from the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees because of his role in the Interahamwe.
