People have held a rally in the French capital, Paris, demanding that justice be done to the French soldiers who are accused of committing widespread rape against refugees during the Rwandan genocide almost two decades ago, Press TV reports. The protesters staged the rally as the French army is being sued for alleged mass rapes against Rwanda refugees, who the French soldiers were meant to protect during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. The complaint against the soldiers charges that the soldiers at French-run refugee camps singled out Tutsi women and raped them repeatedly. Neither the Rwandan women nor the soldiers have been publicly identified; however, the victims have already testified in court. The court battle has dragged on for over a decade. The Rwandan genocide began following the shooting down of a plane carrying former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was also killed in the plane crash. They were both ethnic Hutus. After the crash, Hutus, who were in majority, were incited to commit acts of ethnic violence against Tutsis. The genocide of 1994 lasted approximately 100 days and is thus called the “100 Days of Hell.” Some 800,000 people were killed during the massacre. France has repeatedly denied involvement in the 1994 genocide, despite findings by Rwanda’s MUCYO commission of inquiry in 2008 that revealed that France had trained the militias that carried out the killings. Source: presstv.ir |
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