The French Leave, Snubbing the UN Military Commander

Hours ahead of a midnight deadline, without fanfare or ceremony, French forces moved out of the controversial southwestern Rwandan “humanitarian protection zone” on Sunday, August 21st, 1994. I was the only reporter there, having flown down to the southwestern border town of Cyangugu by helicopter with the UN military commander in Rwanda. I filed this report:

The French commander accompanied by the last contingent of French soldiers in Rwanda left the border town of Cyangugu by plane without making any sort of parting statement. In fact, General Jean-Claude Lafourcade and the last French unit departed before the commander of UN military forces in Rwanda arrived for what was to have been a low key but nonetheless official change of command ceremony.

The UN commander, Canadian Major-General Guy Tousignant at first appeared stunned to find no French soldiers on hand for his arrival. But he later professed there was no slight, merely a timing mix up.

Ethiopian forces have now taken over security responsibilities around Cyangugu where as late as Saturday evening armed and uniformed soldiers of the ousted Hutu-led Rwandan government moved about freely.

The Ethiopian commander said the departing French took with them an estimated three hundred members of the former government’s security forces --- fresh evidence of the close collaboration between French authorities and the forces responsible for the genocide in Rwanda.

As the French left, several thousand Rwandans congregated at the main border crossing point from Cyangugu to Bukavu in Zaire (Congo). Zairean authorities have closed the frontier there and fired into the air to persuade the refugees to move back further into Rwanda.

The gunfire forced the helicopter that carried the UN military commander (and this reporter) to Cyangugu to climb to a higher altitude to get out of the possible range of Zairean bullets.

Despite the closure of the main crossing point from southwestern Rwanda into Zaire (Congo), there was no mass panic among the estimated ten thousand or so mainly Hutu refugees still congregated at the bridge over Lake Kivu marking the frontier on Sunday.

But one aid worker said some of the Rwandans were so apparently desperate to escape, they even tried to swim across the southern tip of the lake.

Later Sunday, the Zaireans (Congolese) opened another nearby border crossing point just south of the town of Cyangugu. UN officials said they apparently were trying to avoid further refugee congestion in Bukavu itself.

Back in Kigali the next day (Monday, April 22, 1994), UN military officials declined comment on France's decision to take along some 300 security personnel of the ousted Hutu-led Rwandan government when French forces withdrew from the southwest of the country:

UN military spokesman Major Jean-Guy Plante says French actions during their controversial two-month so-called humanitarian mission in Rwanda are none of the UN’s business and he refuses to comment on their decision to withdraw from the southwest with members of the ousted Rwandan government’s security forces.

“It is their decision, their problem. This is not for the UN to comment on that at all.”

Those defeated Rwandan forces in uniform and carrying weapons had been visible in the southwestern French zone as late as Saturday evening, even manning a road-block in the town of Cyangugu. Major Plante says since the French departure and the start of patrols by replacement UN peacekeepers from Ethiopia, no one has been spotted with guns roaming about the area.

Nevertheless UN observers in the region say there is still continued bandit activity by some of those linked to Hutu extremists and the UN military spokesman makes clear the UN will not permit the movement of armed individuals in the zones.

“We will not tolerate people walking around or driving around with weapons.”

For the time being, senior officials of Rwanda's new Tutsi-installed government say they are prepared to leave security in the southwest in the hands of the United Nations and keep their own soldiers out.

But influential Rwandan Defense Minister and Vice President Paul Kagame, in an interview with several journalists, says that restraint will only last as long as the UN troops in the former French zone are able to suppress any activities by former government forces.

So far the departure of the French has not triggered any reported major security problems. Major Plante describes the overall situation in the southwest as calm and says he is optimistic.

But he says UN authorities aren't taking anything for granted and will be monitoring the situation closely.

More than one million Hutu refugees fearful of reprisals at the hands of Rwanda's new government flooded the southwest during the French intervention. Thousands fled into neighboring Zaire (Congo) ahead of the French pullout, claiming they did not trust the United Nations to protect them. But aid workers say the overall number involved in the exodus has not been as great as that in earlier Rwandan refugee surges.