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\nBrussels, April 27, 2007 (FH) \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s craziness to accuse the RPF of having provoked the 1994 massacres,\u201d Colette Braeckman said during her testimony at the Court of Assises which must try the Rwandan Major Bernard Ntuyahaga specifically for the murder of ten Belgian Blue Helmets in Kigali on April 7, 1994.
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\nThe Soir journalist was heard as a background witness. \u00a0The previous day, the writer-journalist Pierre Pean spoke of a \u201ctension strategy\u201d of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). \u00a0Another background witness, Joseph Matata explained that \u201cthe Hutus were allowed to massacre because it was known that the RPF would later benefit.\u201d \u00a0\u201cHow is it morally imaginable that RPF soldiers deliberately allowed their families who lived in Rwanda to be sacrificed?\u201d Colette Braeckman asked.
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\nAccording to her, Matata has \u201cbecome more a defender of Hutu rights than a defender of human rights.\u201d \u00a0Regarding Pean, the journalist and close to President Francois Mitterand who confided his desire for him to \u201clavish praise on France and the President\u201d in his book on Rwanda.\u201d \u00a0She also criticized an insufficiency of sources.
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\nInvited to name sources on the assassination of the Blue Helmets, she responded, \u201cI spoke about it with other Blue Helmets who were still at Kigali airport when I arrived. \u00a0They heard, as did others, the communications of the ten paras. \u00a0Also, at this time there is also a report made by the Belgian military on these acts,\u201d she explained.
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\nStating her \u201cinnermost belief,\u201d Braeckman explained \u201cif the companions of the Blue Helmets intervened, they could have saved a part of the 10. \u00a0And if the Belgian repatriating Silver Back forces also intervened, they could have stopped the massacres\u201d thus recalling the UNAMIR (United Nations)\u2019 weakness and the inaction of the international community at the time of the genocide. \u00a0Casting doubt on the credibility of Braeckman\u2019s work, Mr. de Temmerman, Bernard Ntuyahaga\u2019s lawyer told the jurors, \u201cShe\u2019s a novelist. You will decide.\u201d
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\nThen, the historian Jean-Pierre Chretien recalled \u201cthe operationalization of the opinions in the media such as that of Radio-Television Libre Des Milles Collines (RTLM) and the Kangura newspaper. \u00a0The media, added the CNRS emeritus researcher took on an anti-Belgian nature after October 1993. \u00a0\u201cThere was effectively a campaign,\u201d he said.
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\nNew incidents marked the hearing. \u00a0The president Gerard scolded Temmerman during a cross-examination of the background witnesses. \u00a0The latter left the hall in protest, and the president had to allow his two assistants to stand in.
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\nAlso, Mr. Jean-Paul Dumont, lawyer for one of the Rwandan civil parties, strongly attacked Marc Uyttendaele, lawyer for the families and the Belgian state. \u00a0\u201cIt shocks the Rwandan victims that the Belgian state had the boldness to stand as a civil party and even more that the lawyers Marc Uyttendaele and Laurent Kennes are absent,\u201d he decried.
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\n\u00a9 Hirondelle News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Brussels, April 27, 2007 (FH) \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s craziness to accuse the RPF of having provoked the 1994 massacres,\u201d Colette Braeckman said during her testimony at the Court of Assises which must try the Rwandan Major Bernard Ntuyahaga specifically for the murder of ten Belgian Blue Helmets in Kigali on April 7, 1994. \u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-18690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n