As
UN Spins
Genocide,
Operation
Amaryllis
Replayed in
CAR, Araud
Echo
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 15 --
At Tuesday's
UN press
conference
ostensibly
about the
Rwanda
genocide of
1994, no
questions were
taken around
what
actually
happened then.
France's
Operation
Turquoise,
which helped
the genocidaires
escape into
Eastern Congo,
was not
addressed.
Nor
was the
shorter but
even more
telling
Operation
Amaryllis,
conducted
by France in
Rwanda during
the crucial
six days
between April
8 and
April 14,
1994.
French troops
swept in from
Gabon and
Bangui --
ironic, that
-- and
evacuated not
only French
nationals but
also the
close
associates of
the genocidaires,
such as the
wife of
genocide
leading
president
Habyarimana.
The
French troops
used UN
vehicles of
the UNAMIR
mission,
echoed just
last
Friday to some
by the
participation
of UN vehicles
for the
MONUSCO
mission in
demonstrations
in Eastern
Congo
celebrating
the
false rumor of
the death of
Rwanda's
president.
French
Colonel Jean
Balch's
assessment --
which in
fairness we
note the
French
parliamentary
report claimed
was strictly
personal --
was that
"there was
nothing to
hint at a RPF
victory at
that moment,
the
FAR
[government,
pro-genocide]
resisted quite
reasonable the
thrust
of the
Inkotanyi
[RFP]." Assemble
Nationale,
Enquete Tome 1,
Pg.
263.
This,
some say,
found an echo
as recently as
June 12, 2013,
when France's
current
Permanent
Representative
to the UN
Gerard Araud
told the
Assemble
Nationale, "Cette
région
est le théâtre
de jeux
géopolitiques
complexes
propres à
l’Afrique et
dont souffrent
surtout les
populations
civiles. Le
Rwanda – qui
est un peu la
Prusse de la
région –
poursuit son
avancée face à
une RDC
totalement
incapable et
inepte"
-- that is,
calling Rwanda
"the Prussia
of the
region." Click
here for that.
Despite
talk
of "lessons
learned," with
quotes such as
this and the
current
leadership of
UN
peacekeeping,
it is unclear
what the UN
has
learned, no
matter how
many events on
genocides it
holds and
tightly
controls.
On
January 14,
the first
question was
given
automatically
to the United
Nations
Correspondents
Association, a
group whose
leadership
reported
little for
example during
the slaughter
in Sri Lanka
in 2009. Then
UNCA
screened a Sri
Lanka
government
film denying
war crimes,
and
tried to
censor
critical Press
coverage of it.
(Under the
questioner,
Pam Falk of
CBS, UNCA has
reformed
nothing, not
even pledging
not to
try to get
journalists
thrown out of
the UN and to
function, in
essence, as
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.)
In
the mere three
UN-wide
questions
before
Dallaire's
remarks --
Gulf
media, AFP and
finally Inner
City Press --
the question
about France
once
again taking
sides, in
December 2013
in Central
African
Republic
was deferred
until next
Monday.
It
can be rightly
be concluded,
including in
light of Ban
Ki-moon's post
Sri Lanka
failure
"Rights Up
Front" plan,
that little
has
been learned
at or about
the UN. The
censors'
circle of
self-congratulations
continue. For
now. Watch
this site.
, 
