Rwanda lawsuit for French troops
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4272437.stm
Six Rwandan citizens have filed a lawsuit in France accusing French soldiers of complicity in genocide.
The Paris army tribunal - the only court that can try French troops for crimes committed abroad - will decide whether to take up the complaint.
The suit was filed against unnamed defendants by lawyers of the six, who survived the 1994 massacres.
Some 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus, died during the Rwandan genocide.
According to the plaintiffs - five men and one woman - French troops allowed Rwandan troops and Hutu extremists to enter camps where Tutsis had sought refuge.
UN-mandated French troops had been deployed to south-western Rwanda to create safe havens for minority Tutsis.
"From our point of view, these facts can be seen as complicity genocide as there was an actual participation by French troops in operations against a specific ethnic group," said lawyer Antoine Comte.
Mr Comte said witnesses had reported seeing French troops putting Tutsis in helicopters and throwing them out.
France, which supported Rwanda's former Hutu-led government, denies any responsibility.
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