Commentaire
In his book Le Monde, un contre-pouvoir? (ed. L'Esprit frappeur, October 1999, p. 114), Jean-Paul Gouteux recalls that "In January 1996, Jean Hélène is arrested by the Bujumbura authorities: 'After having received death threats in 1994 for having recounted the horrors of the genocide of the Tutsi, I am now accused of being on the side of the genocidaires by the supporters of the RPF (sic)' (Le Monde January 16, 1996). Jean Hélène is in fact suspected of espionage by the Burundian security, accused of being in collusion with the Burundian Hutu extremists and of possessing two passports, one under his real name (Alsatian), the other under his pseudonym as a journalist (made up of the first names of his father and his mother). If this is the case, one can wonder about these true-false passports and how he obtained them. Jean Hélène will be released on 'intervention of the French Embassy'.". And Jean-Paul Gouteux continues: "Jean-Marie Colombani will write in Le Monde January 13, 1996: 'This attitude is all the more incomprehensible since The Monde has endeavored to combat the indifference of French opinion towards the terrible tragedies experienced by Burundi and, above all, neighboring Rwanda'. No comment. The reader will judge.".
Citation
Le Monde a émis, dès jeudi, les plus vives protestations auprès de l'ambassadeur du Burundi en France. La situation faite à Jean Hélène n'est pas seulement une atteinte manifeste à la liberté de la presse, mais une entrave à la simple liberté d'aller et venir. Cette attitude est d'autant plus incompréhensible que Le Monde s'est efforcé de combattre l'indifférence de l'opinion française envers les terribles drames vécus par le Burundi et, surtout, le Rwanda voisin. Nous espérons que les autorités de Bujumbura reviendront rapidement à plus de raison.
