They are 52 seconds that could, on their own, sum up France's attitude during the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda nearly 25 years ago. This video, of which Mediapart has obtained a copy, was filmed by French soldiers in the summer of 1994 and throws into sharp relief the passivity of the French army during one of the most embarrassing episodes for France during its military presence in Rwanda in 1994: the massacre at Bisesero.
This video was filmed on June 28th, 1994, and shows the head of French special operations in Rwanda, Colonel Jacques Rosier, in conversation with a subordinate, staff sergeant M. The sergeant is trying to alert the officer to the mass killing of Tutsis being carried out several kilometres from there on the hills of Bisesero in the west of the country. But in vain.
Despite the information given and its urgent nature, the French Army – which had already been alerted the day before, June 27th, about the massacres at Bisesero – took several days to intervene. During that time more than a thousand Tutsis were methodically killed by Hutu militia, even though French forces' United Nations mission in the country had mandated them to put an end to massacres.
The images shown here by Mediapart come from the archives of the French Ministry of Defence's audiovisual agency ECPAD:
The judicial authorities, who have just concluded the investigation they began more than ten years ago into suspicions of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity, and who have not placed any individuals under formal investigation, have had this tape since 2013. It was given to them by a soldier who was a member of France's mission in Rwanda, an operation known as Opération Turquoise.
The Ministry of Defence camera had been used to film the evacuation of some nuns, who were from a neighbouring village. Continuing to record, the camera then catches a conversation which says everything – or nearly everything – about the French attitude in Rwanda at the time.
In a hesitant voice, Staff sergeant M. is reporting some unbearable events to his superior officer, Colonel Jacques Rosier. He says: “Yesterday we were in I can no longer remember which hamlet. There were hunts all day long. In the hills houses were ablaze everywhere, guys were running around with bits of flesh torn off.”
The colonel mutters: “Yeah, yeah.” Then he looks elsewhere, into the distance.
The staff sergeant continues: “The problem is, I don't know how they will get treated. There are lots of infected wounds everywhere.”
The colonel replies “er, yeah”, while flattening down his uniform.
The staff sergeant then goes further in his story and points out that the French Army's guide was probably a genocidal Hutu. “We avoided a lynching because, clearly, the guide who was with us was one of the guys who was guiding the militia in the preceding days. So when we came across the group of Tutsis who were fleeing to the hills, when they saw him, we had to raise our voices, I thought they were going to stone him.”
After several questioning “ah, yeahs?” the colonel ends up looking at his boots. No action was taken.
Colonel Roiser was placed under the status of 'assisted witness' by the investigating judges. Under the French criminal law code the status of assisted witness means that in the judges' view there exists “some evidence making it plausible [that the person in question] could have participated, as perpetrator or accomplice, in the carrying out of offences which have been referred to the investigating judge”. But that this evidence is not sufficiently “serious” and/or “consistent” to justify the judges putting the person under formal investigation, which is one step short of charges being brought.
When in June 2015 the colonel was questioned by judges about the video he said: “That scene there tells me nothing.” He continued: “In the end, looking at this scene and knowing myself, I see that I don't catch on, for in all likelihood I don't grasp what he is telling me, my mind is elsewhere, I'm in the process of preparing for my press conference, lots of things have happened since the day before. You have to know that I was under pressure. It's true that seeing this scene again it seems unbelievable to me not to have reacted to the information given.”
When contacted by Mediapart, Colonel Rosier's lawyer Emmanuel Bidanda, said his client did “not want to make any comment in the press on an ongoing investigation”.
To understand the full meaning of these images, it is essential to know the context. At the time this conversation took place Colonel Rosier had known about the massacres at Bisesero since at least the day before, according to the testimony of two French soldiers involved in Operation Turquoise.
The first is Lieutenant colonel Jean-Rémy Duval, who says he gave the alert on June 27th, 1994, during a reconnaissance mission to Bisesero. Questioned by the judges investigating the case, the officer explained how, horrified, he had reported his discovery to his superior officer, Colonel Jacques Rosier and asked him if he could return there as soon as possible in a bid to save lives. “His reply to me was no… it seemed urgent to me. I came back [editor's note, from Bisesero] a little shaken and moved,” the officer said.
Jean-Marie Carpentier, a member of the same detachment as Lieutenant colonel Duval, also insisted that the information about the mortal danger facing the Tutsis at Bisesero had “of course” been sent to the military hierarchy on June 27th. Journalists who reported from the scenes have also confirmed this version of events.
There is also written evidence. A number of army documents, highlighted by Mediapart here, also show that from June 27th, even June 26th, the French military hierarchy had a precise idea of the massacres being carried out at Bisesero and of the absolutely urgent need to intervene to save lives.
A note from military intelligence, which Mediapart has not previously reported on, also confirms that the events taking place at Bisesero were known about from June 27th. “On the 27th [editor's note, of June] reconnaissance carried out to the south-west of Kibuye, in the Bisesero sector … revealed around a hundred Tutsis taking refuge in the hills in a state of total destitution. According to their statements, 2,000 people were hidden in the woods and the mines,” says this note, dated June 29th.
“In general terms, the fervour with which the French contingent was welcomed and the fears that were expressed at their departure bear testimony to a non-stabilised security situation and the fear of a resumption of the massacres,” the note said.
Enlargement : Illustration 2
In another note military intelligence writes that in the Bisesero region “some Tutsis have, on the 27th [editor's note, of June] been attacked by Hutu soldiers. There were some dead and wounded. Two thousands Tutsis there await the protection of French forces. Extreme state of nutritional, sanitary and medical deprivation”.
There is therefore little doubt today that the French Army was aware of the grim events at Bisesero from June 27th, 1994. Indeed, a report found by the judges in the archives of France's Defence Historical Service (SHD) at Vincennes in the eastern suburbs of Paris has confirmed this. It was a chronology of Opération Turquoise. Against the date June 27th, 1994, it reads: “Reco [editor's note, meaning reconnaissance mission] Bisesero sector – Tutsis could be at risk and are counting on French protection.”
“I noticed that the writer used the conditional by saying that the Tutsis 'could be at risk' whereas Duval reported that they really were at risk because he saw the state of these people with his own eyes,” Jean-Marie Carpentier later told the judges when questioned about this document.
Enlargement : Illustration 3
After Mediapart's revelations in September about the progress of the case, some of the military offices involved have announced their desire to take legal action for a breach of the confidentiality of a judicial investigation, saying that journalists “should not know about” such details.
In addition to Colonel Rosier, four other officers have been placed under the status of 'assisted witnesses' by the judges investigating alleged army complicity in the Rwandan genocide.
They are:
General Jean-Claude Lafourcade, the commanding officer of Opération Turquoise in Rwanda,
Commander Marin Gillier, head of a COS unit,
the commanding officer of the Mission d’Assistance Militaire unit in Rwanda, Captain Étienne Joubert,
Lieutenant colonel Jean-Rémy Duval, a member of the COS.
Since the start of the investigation the military hierarchy has consistently denied all the claims in the Bisesero case, insisting that the facts about what was happening there were only discovered on June 30th, and that the army immediately went to help those who had escaped the carnage.
Following the announcement that the investigation has concluded without any individuals being placed under formal investigation – reducing the likelihood that there will be a trial – several non-governmental organisations who sparked the probe, the International Federation for Human Rights, the Human Rights League and the anti-corruption body Survie, have said they fear a “denial of justice”. In a statement issued on September 29th this year they said: “The refusal to hear certain key witnesses (including some high-ranking officers), to ask for certain military documents or to challenge the sometimes contradictory versions of the officers at the time is incomprehensible as far as we associations are concerned.”
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter