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August 2, 2023 French

Les rebelles bénéficieraient du soutien de l'armée ougandaise

Card Number 1278

Number
1278
Author
Isnard, Jacques
Date
17 février 1993
Ymd
19930217
Uptitle
Rwanda:selon les services de renseignement français
Title
Les rebelles bénéficieraient du soutien de l'armée ougandaise
Pages
5
Size
133475 bytes
Pages nb.
2
Source
Type
Article de journal
Language
FR
Comment
The best proof that Jacques Isnard gets his information from the French intelligence services is that he writes it at the top of his article. There is more, he makes himself the spokesperson. Relating the denial of the Quai d'Orsay concerning the participation of French troops in the fighting, one would expect to read an objective point of view, that of the World, or of a somewhat independent body. No, Isnard confirms the denial by giving the point of view of the intelligence services, pretending to believe that it is a guarantee of objectivity. He continues further: "The intelligence services are convinced...", "these same analysts come to the conclusion...". It is really taking the reader for a naive to want him to believe that this kind of service is a thousand miles from manipulating information and opinion. Isnard will confirm our doubt when it is agreed, on June 23, 1994, that the French troops actually took part in the fighting. When we also know that in terms of intelligence services, it is the DGSE which mixes (with the brilliance we know from it since the Greenpeace affair) intelligence and action (meaning secret actions, coup of hands), the reader has reason to worry about the drift of the newspaper Le Monde. Faced with this accusation of participation in the fighting, what is the best repartee for these secret services? This is of course to relaunch the thesis of foreign interference, in this case Uganda's support for the RPF. This is the horse Isnard rides. Five times in the same article Isnard gives his source, the intelligence services. Clearly, they are the ones who prepared the article for him. Isnard even has the honesty to put quotation marks and to write in italics when he quotes them (there are thus six quotes). They are even the ones who admit that France provided two artillery batteries. Isnard tripped over the facts: while he endorsed the denial of the Quai d'Orsay and the intelligence services, he spoke for the year 1991 of French air support. If that isn't direct participation in the fighting! In February 1993, there are two companies totaling 300 men, plus an Operational Assistance Detachment (DAO). Isnard tells us that he is in charge of the investigation. However, operational assistance means assistance in operation or during operations. As there is conflict at this time, this DAO is done on the battlefield. Decidedly, Isnard gives us all the elements to demonstrate that he is being manipulated. This inventory that Isnard made on February 17, 1993 of France's military support for the Rwandan dictator, he will wait until June 23, 1994, the eve of Operation Turquoise, to resume it. In 1994, when the genocide broke out with the April 6 attack, the newspaper Le Monde and Isnard in particular failed to mention France's military support. Admittedly, at the end of 1993, the bulk of the forces left or were supposed to leave, but the aid in military equipment and ammunition did not stop. The reader who has not read this article of February 17, 1993 or has forgotten it will have to wait until June 23, 1994, the date on which the genocide was consummated, to be informed of France's military support for the killers. Comparing the figures given in the two articles, we notice discrepancies. Is it 300 or 450 paratroopers, seven or 20 million in annual aid in the early 1990s? We understand that Jacques Isnard's method consists in minimizing at the time, and recognizing the facts later. If that's not called intox... Let us note with regard to this evaluation of the French commitment that Catherine Simon, in an article of another invoice of February 27, 1993, writes: "France, whose four hundred nationals, are henceforth 'protected' by a few seven hundred French soldiers, continues to wrap itself in a curious silence...". So is it 300, 450 or 700 French soldiers? The reader of the World will not know. Where are the personal reflections of the journalist, where is the confrontation of this information with other sources, other newspapers? We search for them in vain. If there are "analysts" in the intelligence services, Isnard does not analyze, he transmits. Where is the analysis of the World vis-a-vis this article of command? Perhaps there, in this afterword in bold... But is it a weighted analysis, confronting this article whose source appears to be outside the World? None of this, but oh my surprise, this point of view of the newspaper is more like propaganda. One proof, among others, that Le Monde disseminates ethnic ideology, can be found in this postscript. So why is Uganda supporting the RPF rebels? The explanation is ethnic. The members of the RPF are for the most part "of Tutsi ethnicity", already mentioned in the article and, revealingly, the current Ugandan head of state Museveni "is of banyanchole (an ethnic group close to the Tutsis)". Another reason is however given, that of Museveni's debt to his former officers of Rwandan origin who helped him in the guerrillas to seize power. But this in no way contradicts the thesis of an ethnically based alliance. A particularly worrying indication is found in the use of quotation marks in the sentence, still in the same postscript, "The Rwandan 'refugees', who form the bulk of the RPF troops...". Is this insinuating that these are so-called refugees, driven rather by an unquenchable thirst for domination, thus denying the killings that began in the years 1959-60? This kind of process recalls a certain propaganda, 50 years back. Le Monde succeeded Temps. Thus, in this afterword, Le Monde in no way contradicts, does not counterbalance the article by Jacques Isnard, but it supports with its authority the ethnic explanation of the African conflicts. This thesis of a highly ideological nature is at the origin, we have unfortunately known since, of the 1994 genocide.