France rejects Rwanda genocide accusations against its soldiers

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 07, 2004

France rejects Rwanda genocide accusations against its soldiers

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Wednesday rejected the accusations against French troops in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, saying they were "totally scandalous and unjust".

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French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Wednesday rejected the accusations against French troops in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, saying they were "totally scandalous and unjust".

The comments of Alliot-Marie came as Rwanda marked the 10th anniversary of the genocide.

"I am shocked to know that some ones criticized their action," the defense minister said.

"Even if French soldiers were, unfortunately, unable to prevent all the massacres ... they nevertheless made it possible that there was not a total genocide," she said.

French soldiers acted totally in line with the United Nations' mandate and "They truly did all they could to prevent an even more dramatic situation," she said.

The Rwanda genocide was sparked by the assassination of the ethnic Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, on April 6, 1994, whose plane was shot down as it came in to land at the airport in Rwandan capital Kigali.

During the 100-day frenzy in the tiny Great Lakes nation, some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias.

France sent a 2,500-strong military-humane force "Turquoise" to the country at the moment of the ethnic massacre to create a humane zone in southern Rwanda.

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