The recent evolution in Franco-Rwandan relations has brought Operation Turquoise back into the spotlight. As the realities of that operation are little known and often misrepresented, it seems useful to give my account of what happened by its commander, someone who was directly concerned, faced with a difficult mission against which some serious accusations have been made.
Turquoise: an Essential Operation, a Difficult Mission
Ethnic conflict in Rwanda between Hutus and Tutsis (respectively 85 per cent and 15 per cent of the population) broke out as soon as the country gained independence in 1962. Many of the minority Tutsis became refugees in neighbouring Uganda.
The period 1990-93 in Rwanda was marked by fighting between the Tutsi community in Uganda and the Hutu majority in power in Kigali. France gave military assistance to the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR, who were mainly Hutus) of the legal government in Kigali, in accordance with a cooperation agreement dating from 1974. The quid pro quo of this agreement was the acceptance of power-sharing by both communities. A French initiative at the end of 1993 led to the Arusha Peace Agreement: this put an end to the fighting and set up a coalition government of national reconciliation which came into force under UN supervision(1) and with the agreement of both parties. France withdrew its troops from Rwanda.(2)
On 6 April 1994 civil war broke out following the assassination of President Habyarimana and the President of Burundi, when the former’s aircraft was brought down. Genocide was carried out by certain units of the presidential guard and by Hutu militias against the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutu officials. Citing the need to help the victims, Tutsi forces of General Kagamé’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) invaded the north-east of the country from Uganda.
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