Filip Reyntjens : « Il n'est pas exclu que le Front patriotique rwandais prenne le pouvoir à Kigali. Ce qui provoquerait une guerre civile généralisée dont les Tutsi seraient les principales victimes »

Autheman, Marc

Gérouard, Jean-Paul

Chabod, Alain

12 avril 1994

19940412

19:00:00

CEST

Journal de 19 heures

Filip Reyntjens : « Il n'est pas exclu que le Front patriotique rwandais prenne le pouvoir à Kigali. Ce qui provoquerait une guerre civile généralisée dont les Tutsi seraient les principales victimes »

94 orphelins ont été évacués en urgence de Kigali pour échapper à la tuerie.

ScriptFrance3JournalDe19Heures12041994.pdf

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France 3

INA

Transcription d'une émission de télévision

FR

- Rwanda practically left to itself: the fighting continues after the evacuation of the last foreigners. In four days, French soldiers took care of 1,600 people!
- The evacuation of Westerners from Kigali is almost complete. The French soldiers are now withdrawn to the airport where they remain until further notice. Also evacuate the humanitarian associations. Closed, the embassies of France, Belgium and Germany. Gone, the legal government which fled under good escort about forty kilometers from the capital.
- The Rwandan drama will enter its second act: the capture of Kigali by the forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the rebels with a Tutsi majority. According to the UN, their reinforcement troops have already entered the city. They were able to link up with one of their battalions which was already there. Objective: defeat the Hutu-dominated regular army and depose the government. If it is achieved, Rwanda is likely to be drawn into a Somali-type scenario. Filip Reyntjens, "specialist in Rwanda, University of Antwerp": "It is not excluded that the Rwandan Patriotic Front takes power in Kigali. This would cause a generalized civil war of which the Tutsi would be the main victims. And in this In this case, it is not only Rwanda that would see a Somali scenario emerging, but it would probably be the whole sub-region, certainly in Burundi, and perhaps even eastern Zaire".
- For the time being, the UN seems completely incapable of preventing such a scenario. Discredited with both parties, his calls for a truce are totally ignored. Tonight the people of Kigali can expect neither recourse nor help from the international community.
- Children were able to escape these fights: orphans who had been gathered in Kigali. Some were to be adopted by French families and given the events, their return was hasty.
- This Polish nun is reassured: the 94 children of her orphanage located at the gates of the Rwandan capital are safe and sound, accommodated since last night in this reception center of France Terre d'Asile in the Paris suburbs. All evacuated urgently to escape the slaughter. This nurse recounts the passage of the looters to the orphanage. "Jeanne, orphanage nurse from Masaka": "An extremist group wanted to enter to look for some people and kill them".
- Three Rwandan staff members were killed on the spot. But none of the orphans who belong to the two ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi, were mistreated. Sister Edith, who has already had a hundred children adopted by French families over the past few years, remains optimistic despite everything.
- The majority should therefore return once calm has returned. But 15 children are being adopted. His future family, who had already taken the steps several months ago, saw him here for the first time. The war precipitated their meeting but it is not sure that they will be able to adopt it immediately.