Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
12 July 2007
Kigali — Classified Elysée memos detailing the internal functioning of President Mitterrand with his military Aides before and during the Genocide in Rwanda indicate that he was not ill as the public has been made to believe, a French researcher testified Thursday to the Mucyo Commission.
According to Mr. Jacques Morel, 65, during and after the Genocide the French public was given information meant to create an impression that the President was sick and therefore may not have been able to manage his office, later alone the Elysée policy on Rwanda.
"President Mitterrand was clear minded about whatever was going on in Rwanda with his closest advisers and not sick as some people claim", Mr. Morel said. "Despite a cancer operation on 18 July 1994, Mitterrand had the physical and intellectual abilities."
The only French citizen to testify in Kigali before the Mucyo commission also added; "He had foreign visits to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in April and South Africa on July 4. He also attended the G8 summit on July 10. These trips were effected when the President was absolutely in good health".
In 6-hour testimony, the witness detailed what he called the "anatomy" of the French decision-making as regards Rwanda between 1990 and 1995. Mr. Morel said Rwanda policy was an "exclusive" area controlled "directly" by Mr. Mitterrand supported by General Christian Quesnot, Admiral Jacques Lanxade and General Huchon.
Other very influential Aides close to Mr. Mitterrand, according to the witness included, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand (son), Hubert Vedrine, Ms. Françoise Carle (in charge of Rwanda), Ms. Anne Lauvergeon and Bruno Delaye.
Mr. Morel also named then Prime Minister Edouard Balladur (1993-95), Defence minister François Léotard and then Foreign Affairs Ministry Director of Cabinet Dominique De Villepin as knowledgeable about what was going on in Rwanda.
Mr. Nicholas Sarkozy, as Budget Minister (1992-95) according to the witness, was also "aware" of the Genocide financing scheme managed by President Mitterrand and a small clique of Military and political advisers.
"Money from the budget was used to cover a hole in the state reinsurance company but the Minister (Sarkozy) kept quiet about these transactions", the elderly witness explained as head read from numerous documents.
Testifying in May, Mr. Martin Marschner Von Helmreich said Caisse Centrale de Réassurance (CCR) company announced a loss of 1 billion French Francs on August 29, 1994. The money had apparently disappeared between the periods January and August 1994. Mr. Sarkozy was in charge of the French coffers.
As government spokesman as well, Mr. Sarkozy apparently said in June 1994 that turquoise operation was "purely humanitarian" contrary to available evidence of massacres committed against Tutsi civilians in the French controlled zone of western Rwanda.
The witness today also said he had documents indicating the Interim government had made an "advance payment" to notorious French Captain Paul Barril of $2million in April 1994 for weapons through Banque Internationale de Genève.
Archives "filtered"
Mr. Jacques Morel told the commission that he was preparing an 800-page research on the role of the French political and military elite in the Rwanda Genocide. He said the recently declassified Elysée archives were "incomplete" noting that most of the crucial elements may have been "filtered" from the memos.
The previously secret diplomatic telegrams and government memos released last week also suggest the late French president was obsessed with the danger of "Anglo-Saxon" influence gripping Rwanda. President François Mitterrand apparently supported the perpetrators of the Genocide despite clear warnings that mass killings of the Tutsi population were being orchestrated.
Reading from what he called "unknown" letters and memos, Mr. Morel for example brought up a May 22 1994 letter by Interim President Sindikubwabo Theodore to Mr. Mitterrand. Late Sindikubwabo headed the government after the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana.
In the secret letter, Sindikubwabo thanked Mr. Mitterrand for the continued "moral and material" support, and actually asked for more. He also alleged that the RPF rebels were carrying out "gruesome massacres" on the civilians.
"However, with the support of the military and government, I will try to pacify the areas we control", Sindikubwabo wrote. On the letter, the witness said there was an attachment of a memo prepared by General Christian Quesnot for the French President as his Aide.
Witness Jacques Morel also narrated that after the death of President Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart, the language used by top Elysée officials alleged that "Tutsis were massacring Hutus in Kigali" and that Hutus were fleeing to Tanzania and Zaire (D RC).
Public hearings end
Meanwhile, RNA has also established that the commission has finalized with hearing public testimonies and would now focus on recalling witnesses for clarifications. The Commission head Mr. Jean de Dieu Mucyo said foreign witnesses would end with Mr. Jacques Morel.
He told RNA in April that the commission plans to hand its report to President Paul Kagame by October 15. The Senate and lower chamber speakers will also get copies of the report expected to make recommendations for further legal action.
Back in November and December, the commission started with hearing contextual witnesses who mainly included Rwandan politicians. Some of these were heard behind closed-doors as they included sitting cabinet ministers.
These were followed by factual witnesses that included victims and militias from the Genocide. Some of these were also heard anonymously to protect their identities.
The commissioners remain Brig. Gen. Jerome Ngendahimana (vice president) also Army boss top aide, Geraldine Bakashyaka (secretary) formerly with the Supreme court, law don Dr. Jean Damascene Bizimana, political scientist Dr. Jean Paul Kimonyo, historian Prof. Jose Kagabo and Alice Rugira formerly with state insurance company SONARWA.
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