Abstract
For Alain Juppé, what is happening in Rwanda deserves the name of genocide and the international community must move up a gear in terms of humanitarian aid and obtaining a ceasefire. The Minister of Foreign Affairs also considers that "it must be announced very clearly that we are determined to sanction, to punish those who indulge in such massacres".
Comment
While he asserts that there is a genocide in Rwanda, Alain Juppé only envisages humanitarian action and the negotiation of a ceasefire. Are we negotiating with the perpetrators of genocide? No, we fight them. It was later that the Quai d'Orsay would agree that the perpetrators of the massacres would be excluded from the negotiations. The Minister of Foreign Affairs launches the word "genocide" here but diverts the meaning given to it by the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. However, he undertakes on behalf of France "to sanction, to punish those who indulge in such massacres" and he specifies "in areas which are held by the armed forces Rwandans". It is this commitment that he will not keep when the French army, armed with a mandate from the United Nations under chapter VII of the charter, does not arrest the assassins on the orders of the Quai d'Orsay.