A requirement of truth

The Turquoise Force is regularly accused of having protected the Rwandan government by acting and of facilitating its escape in July 1994, a charge that is systematically repeated by the media. I denounce an amalgam and a counter truth.

While this government was composed of 21 people, only two members passed through the Turquoise zone from 16 to 17 July before moving to Zaire. These are:

Dr. Theodore Sindikuwabo, Speaker of the National Assembly and Acting President of the Rwandese Republic from 9 April to 19 July 1994 (died in 1998 in Bukavu).
Jerome Bicamumpaka Minister of Foreign Affairs (arrested in 1999, transferred to the ICTR, acquitted of all charges on 30 September 2011 and released.
Two out of twenty-one people do not constitute a “government” but they are mere isolated and uninfluenced individuals, one of whom has been laundered by the ICTR. It is therefore wrong to say that the Rwandan interim government passed through the Turquoise zone.

In addition, the Turquoise Force could not arrest prominent foreign government officials who were still members of the UN Security Council at the time. She had neither the mandate nor the legal capacity.

As the anniversary of the genocide begins, It is important that French journalists, in accordance with their professional ethics charter, implement the principles of this charter by checking the information provided by pressure groups before relay without discernment or hindsight. Otherwise, they participate in a misinformation company.

General Jean Claude LAFOURCADE
Former Commander of Operation Turquoise (Rwanda)

The ASAF expresses its unwavering support to the French soldiers who were engaged in Operation Turquoise in 1994.
It denounces the lies and manipulations of Paul Kagame, tyrant and genocidal, president of Rwanda for a quarter of a century, which unfortunately enjoys the complicity of some French media.

Reissued on the ASAF website: http://www.asafrance.fr
https://www.asafrance.fr/item/opex-turquoise-rwanda-communique-du-general-jean-claude-lafourcade-ancien-commandant.html