During the first few days of the genocide, France launched Amaryllis, a military operation involving 190 paratroopers, assisted by the Belgian army and UNAMIR, to evacuate foreign expatriates from Rwanda.[205] The operation was later described by Gerard Prunier as a "disgrace," as the French and Belgians refused to allow any Tutsi to accompany them; those who boarded the evacuation trucks were forced off at Rwandan government checkpoints, where they were killed.[206] The French also separated several expatriates and children from their Tutsi spouses, rescuing the foreigners but leaving the Rwandans to likely death.[206] The French did, however, rescue several high profile members of Habyarimana's government, as well as his wife, Agathe;[206] in some instances, French troops used UNAMIR vehicles, without the permission of General Dallaire.[207] The French abandoned their embassy in Kigali, in the process shredding hundreds of documents containing details of their relationship with the old regime.[208]
In late June 1994, France launched Opération Turquoise, a United Nations mandated mission to create safe humanitarian areas for protection of displaced persons, refugees, and civilians in danger; from bases in the Zairian cities of Goma and Bukavu, the French entered southwestern Rwanda and established the zone Turquoise, within the Cyangugu-Kibuye-Gikongoro triangle, an area occupying approximately a fifth of Rwanda.[209] Radio France International estimates that Turquoise saved around 15,000 lives,[210] but the timing of the invasion, with the genocide coming to an end and the RPF's ascendancy, led many Rwandans to interpret Turquoise primarily as a mission to protect Hutu from the RPF, including some who had participated in the genocide.[211] The French remained hostile to the RPF, and their presence temporarily stalled the RPF's advance in southwestern Rwanda.[212]
A number of inquiries have been held into French involvement in Rwanda. In 1998, following pressure from French magazine Le Figaro,[213] and the former president of the organisation Survie, the French government launched the French Parliamentary Commission on Rwanda.[213] The commission's report accused France of errors of judgement, including the development of "military cooperation against a background of ethnic tensions, massacres and violence,"[214] but it concluded that France did not bear direct responsibility for the genocide itself.[214] In 2006, following a report by a French judge accusing the RPF of killing President Habyarimana, and the severing of relations between Rwanda and France,[215] Rwanda launched its own inquiry into French involvement in the genocide.[216] This report, released in 2008, accused the French government of knowing of preparations for the genocide and helping to train the ethnic Hutu militia members; it accused 33 senior French military and political officials of involvement in the genocide, including then-President Francois Mitterrand, his Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, and Foreign Minister Alain Juppé.[217][218][219] Relations between the countries were restored in late 2009,[220] but as of 2014, President Kagame continues to accuse France of a "direct role in the preparation of the genocide."[210]
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