Charles Pasqua : « Nous n'avons pas tellement de reproches à nous faire, c'est la communauté internationale qui doit se sentir coupable »

Colombani, Jean-Marie

Virieu, François-Henri (de)

19 juin 1994

19940619

Charles Pasqua : « Nous n'avons pas tellement de reproches à nous faire, c'est la communauté internationale qui doit se sentir coupable »

Transcription partielle de l'émission « L'Heure de vérité » diffusée sur France 2 le 19 juin 1994.

CharlesPasquaHeureDeVerite19Juin1994.pdf

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France 2

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Charles Pasqua: "I would be careful not to pass judgment on the origin of the troubles and of this appalling situation which is currently raging in Rwanda. I do not know enough about things to pass judgment. All I know is that indeed reproaches are addressed to France and in particular by the rebel, patriotic front. But I have also seen the answers of the President of the Republic. So what is the President of the Republic saying? Who seems to me to be making comments that should be taken into consideration. The President of the Republic says that it was France which was at the origin of the talks between the rebels and the government of Rwanda to reach an agreement. And unfortunately the President of Rwanda and that of Burundi were assassinated when they arrived in Rwanda, which led to the unrest we know. I don't think you can say that France took a position for one or the other. […] I have to to say that I was shocked, not by the attitude of France, but by the attitude of the international community: we are murdering, we are killing tens of thousands of people. We go looking for children in orphanages to massacre them and no one reacts. One wonders what use the UN is if in such cases we are not able to quickly mobilize the forces necessary to put an end to it! I believe that we ourselves probably should have taken initiatives earlier. But I remind you that we have already taken part in a certain number of actions in Somalia, Bosnia, etc., where we were often at the forefront of UN decisions! So I think we don't have much to blame ourselves for. But it is the international community as a whole that must feel guilty in this affair. […] I believe that in Africa we have made a number of mistakes. We made a first mistake, which was to want to export our type of society and our type of democracy to Africa. And in the name of that we have destabilized a certain number of African countries. It is normal that we encourage Africa to move forward on the road to democracy, but it must move forward at its own pace. Otherwise, we destabilize, and quickly, in Africa. We see it in Rwanda. We are likely to see it elsewhere! We saw it in the Congo! Very quickly one leads to ethnic conflicts. As far as the very conception of cooperation with Africa is concerned, I believe that indeed, we should probably have action in Africa based more on partnership and on specific agreements than on financial and economic aid. […] This being so, we cannot ignore Africa. And I believe, on the contrary, that an immigration control policy must have two components: the component controlling entry and stay in the country, of course. But also the development aid component. And in this area, France, to be faithful to its mission, should have taken the lead in a veritable crusade in favor of development aid long ago! Today, world economic experts consider that if 1% of the GDP of the seven major industrialized countries were invested in these countries, the problem would be solved. And I believe that France is also the link between Northern Europe, Southern Europe and Africa! We can't ignore that."