1994 Genocide: Why we shouldn't expect justice from French courts

Editor, Reference is made to the article, “France’s release of Genocide suspect ‘unfortunate’ - Prosecutor General” (The New Times, June 9). Where cases related to the Genocide against the Tutsi are concerned, “courts” in France long ago failed to be institutions of justice and have shown themselves to be nothing but instruments of state against Rwanda, Rwandan victims and survivors of that genocide. They are nothing else other than weapons of genocide-continuation by the French state. This is the only way any reasonable human being can understand such verdicts as those related to Dr Twagira, or previous ones in which the French Cour de Cassation has quashed lower court decisions to extradite Genocide suspects on the risible grounds that genocide was not a crime in Rwanda when the suspects committed the acts for which their extradition was being sought. These decisions reinforce the views that François Mitterrand’s statement that, “In such countries genocide is not such a big deal”, is fully French state policy. It also validates our view that the French establishment, including its courts, is dominated by some of today’s worst sociopaths. There is thus no reason whatsoever for the Prosecutor General of a country with at least a million victims in whose extermination the French state was an active accomplice to express any alleged respect for French courts, even as a mere form of empty protocol. Mwene Kalinda

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1994 Genocide: Why we shouldn't expect justice from French courts