French arms, war and genocide in Rwanda

Abstract

France is now the world's second largest armsexporter, and the largest supplier of weapons to thedeveloping world. The record of France's involvementin Rwanda from 1990 to 1994 has motivated the NGOlobby within France to subject French governmentpolicy – towards the developing world in general, andon arms supplies in particular – to unprecedentedscrutiny. Accordingly, the level and volume ofcriticism of French involvement in Rwanda resulted inthe first ever parliamentary commission to scrutiniseFrench military activity overseas, although this andother official inquiries stopped short of identifyingarms supplies as instrumental in exacerbating theRwandan crisis. A consideration ofFrench arms supplies to Rwanda can offer a template bywhich to measure the nature and degree of France'ssupport for the Habyarimana regime which planned, andthe Sindikubwabo interim government which oversaw, the1994 genocide in that country. Moreover, French armssupplies after France's own and the UN's arms embargodemonstrate how a process of unchecked militarisationmay involve the supplier as well as the supplied inillegality.