a grievance filed to elucidate the demise of two French troopers through the genocide | EUROtoday

Published on : 04/08/2024 – 22:30

4 minutes

A thriller to resolve. Since Monday April 8, French justice has been seized of a grievance to “elucidate” the demise of two French troopers, René Maïer and Alain Didot, and the spouse of one in every of them, Gilda Didot, in early April 1994, shortly after the outbreak of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.

This grievance towards

The grievance, consulted by AFP, denounces the offenses of conflict crimes, intentional murder and use of cast paperwork.

“Mysterious” circumstances

Thirty years after the occasions, “this complaint aims to establish responsibilities concerning the death of two French gendarmes and the wife of one of them, in Kigali (…) the circumstances of which remain mysterious”, specifies in a Survie press launch, affirming that these three French persons are “potential witnesses” of the assault towards the aircraft of Rwandan Hutu president Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994.

This assault was the set off for the genocide which left greater than 800,000 useless between April and July 1994, primarily among the many Tutsi minority.

Since Sunday, Rwanda marks the thirtieth^e anniversary of the genocide which plunged this small nation into the abyss. The worldwide group had been strongly criticized for its inaction earlier than and through the genocide.

Read additionallyGenocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda: a dive into the horror of historians

At the start of the Nineties, France supported President Habyarimana, a Hutu going through the Tutsi riot of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), based mostly in Uganda and led by Paul Kagame.

After an RPF offensive launched on October 1, 1990, Paris despatched as much as 600 troopers as a part of Operation “Noroit”.

In this context, chief warrant officer Alain Didot, radio mechanic, arrived in Kigali in the summertime of 1992 along with his spouse, Gilda. “Advisor to the FAR” (Rwandan Armed Forces) and guaranteeing “the security of communications at the French embassy”, he had put in a radio station at his dwelling, in keeping with the grievance. It due to this fact “occupies a function that is as central as it is sensitive”.

No post-mortem or investigation

Chief Warrant Officer René Maïer arrived in Kigali in September 1993 as a technical army assistant.

As the massacres started, Chief Warrant Officer Didot was not reachable by radio from April 8 at 2 p.m. He was at dwelling along with his spouse.

“On April 8 at 5 p.m., the Didot couple was reported dead by witnesses,” in keeping with the grievance.

Belgian peacekeepers recovered the stays of the couple and their Rwandan gardener within the backyard of the villa on April 12, then these of René Maïer the subsequent day.

The our bodies of the three French individuals have been repatriated to France after a go to to Bangui (Central African Republic), the place the demise certificates have been drawn up. But these certificates – eight in quantity for the three victims – are faux, the complainants consider: the dates and causes are “variable”, “accidental” demise or by “firearms”.

No post-mortem was carried out and no investigation was carried out into this triple murder.

See additionally“The tragedy of Rwanda is a warning”, Paul Kagame on the genocide towards the Tutsi

“Potential witnesses to the attack”

As “suspicious elements”, the grievance factors specifically to “the synchronicity of these deaths with the attack” towards the aircraft and “a note from the DGSE (which) suggests that the three French people could have been eliminated because they had been witnesses to the attack.

The death of the three French people was nevertheless addressed during the investigations in Paris into the attack against the presidential plane, in which three French crew members died, and which resulted in a dismissal of the case.

The question then arose of the “link” between the attack and the death of the two soldiers who were able to “hear a message revealing the circumstances of the attack” via the radio station, according to the complaint.

“They knew something and we killed them for it,” reacted to AFP M^e Hector Bernardini, lawyer for the plaintiffs with M^e Jean Simon. “To elucidate this mystery is to elucidate the case of the attack on the presidential plane. A few well-informed and prudent people wanted to bury this matter,” he added.

“We hope that, regardless of the plain embarrassments which have surrounded this affair, justice will assist to dispel the grey areas which persist on this quadruple murder and on the attainable French involvement within the assault of April 6, 1994”, declare within the press launch M^e Bernardini and Simon.

With AFP