I dont see any or much divergence.

However, I take “exception” (of some kind) to the following sentences in Chossodovsky’s article:

[1] While part of these purchases had been financed by direct military aid from France, the influx of development loans from the World Bank’s soft lending affiliate the International Development Association (IDA), the African Development Fund (AFD), the European Development Fund (EDF) as well as from Germany, the United States, Belgium and Canada had been diverted into funding the military and Interhamwe militia.

The problem is that he suggests the Interahamwe militia was a state organized militia. It was not, in my understanding, to date.

[2] Large quantities of machetes and other items used in the 1994 ethnic massacres –routinely classified as “civilian commodities” — had been imported through regular trading channels. 24

The suggestion is that these were used by and for the HUTU militias and Hutu government and it may be that they actually were acquired to be used for the benefit, or by, the RPA. Its a big question.

[3] According to NBR records of import invoices, approximately one million machetes had been imported through various channels including Radio Mille Collines, an organization linked to the Interhamwe militia and used to foment ethnic hatred. 25

Sure, but Radio Muhabara — run by the RPF — also fomented ethnic hatred. So the picture Chossodovsky paints is one that maintains the idea that there was a Hutu (Habyarimana) government conspiracy, which there was not, according to all evidence, though there was an RPF/US conspiracy (to commit genocide).

[4] The records of the NBR nonetheless confirm that the Habyarimana government used World Bank money to finance the import of machetes which had been routinely classified as imports of “civilian commodities.” 27

In fact, machetes WERE civilian commodities. There is a leap her to the suggestion that these machetes were imported for mass murder, premeditate mass murder, but everyone in Rwanda owned a machete — they are civilian commodities — so I would question whether the noted imports were for sales, for business only, or for the attributed “genocide” . Its not as simple as Chossodovsky suggests, though maybe he has the evidence to back up the claim. I don’t honestly know. I do know there’s a huge question here and he seems to gloss over it taking the standard HUTUS CONSPIRACY TO GENOCIDE line of the US propaganda system.

Chossodovsky’s only foiotnote, number 28, shows that tehse imports were in 1991 or before. So that would substantiate MY analyses (which comes from my discussions and explorations with so many others). These were not planned for genocide and are not evidence of genocide planning but probably routine business dealings involving govt officials (who had a lock on virtually all markets just as the RPF does today).

[5] This account remained open and accessible to the former regime (in exile), two months after the April 1994 ethnic massacres.31

The “former regime” was decapitated on April 6, 1994, and the “in exile” elements were very disorganized and disenfranchised.

[6] The misappropriation of World Bank money was not mentioned. Instead the Habyarimana government was praised for having “made genuine major efforts– especially in 1991– to reduce domestic and external financial imbalances, eliminate distortions hampering export growth and diversification and introduce market based mechanisms for resource allocation…” 34, The massacres of civilians were not mentioned; from the point of view of the donors, “nothing had happened”. In fact the World Bank completion report failed to even acknowledge the existence of a civil war prior to April 1994.

I consider the above sentences, culminating in the final conclusion, inaccurate, or out of a greater context, since the Habyarimana government was deeply criticized from 1991 onwards for its involvement in its own war. So the context is a bit off.

[6] In 1995, barely a year after the 1994 ethnic massacres. Rwanda’s external creditors entered into discussions with the Tutsi led RPF government regarding the debts of the former regime which had been used to finance the massacres.

Again, Prof Chossodovsky seems to credit the “former government” of Habyarimana (who was dead) with conspiracy to commit genocide and all ethnic massacres are attributed (by Chossodovsky) to a Hutu power structure which didnt exist.

He makes two mistakes (or omissions) in the context of his excellent economic arguments / analyses and doesnt at all address these important points: [a] the IMF imposed SAPs of 1988-1992 caused massive disaffection and suffering that, combined with RPF attacks in the north and massive displacement of civilians, led to HUTU civilians fighting back against the RPF from April to July 1994; [b] When he says taht “defense expenditure continued to grow” he seems to blame the Habyarimana government for taking a defensive position against the US/UK/Israeli/Uganda backed offensives that were wrecking Rwanda. He doesnt mention, I dont see, that the Habyarimana government was also under a strict arms embargo by the UN (and NAto etc) but the RPA and Uganda were not under any kind of embargo or limitation. These points are important to understand the 1994 violence, but Prof Chossodovsky jumps straight into Congo from this section.

He also minimizes his discussion of how the RPF/UPDF/US attacked
the Hutu (mostly Hutu but not only) refugee camps in Eastern Zaire. This is a huge issue regarding the “exile regime” — and the massive genocide against unarmed women and children (again, mostly but not only HUTUS) committed with US support.

[7] The civil war in Rwanda was a brutal struggle for political power between the Hutu-led Habyarimana government supported by France and the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) backed financially and militarily by Washington. Ethnic rivalries were used deliberately in the pursuit of geopolitical objectives. Both the CIA and French intelligence were involved.

While the above is clearly true, it is also decontextualized and thus in part false. You simply cannot compare the reaction of the Habyarimana government to the offensives of the RPF/UPDF/US/UK faction as Michel does.In my opinion.

(well, actually, he says something like this a few paras onwards).

[8] This information was withheld from the United Nations: “it was not until the genocide was over that information was passed to Maj.-Gen. Dallaire [who was in charge of UN forces in Rwanda].” 46

We cannot trust anything Dallaire said, since evidence suggests he served RPF interests (and US interests) — and, of course, Canadian interests. Has Michel mentioned Canada yet?

Generally Prof Chossodovsky has a great article here, and I will send him (and others) an email to see my comments.

Jumping to the chase, I’m hoping to get your reaction to what this excerpt encapsulates: “From the outset of the Rwandan civil war in 1990, Washington’s hidden agenda consisted in establishing an American sphere of influence in a region historically dominated by France and Belgium.”

Here’s the head and lead paras of a piece that recently showed up in my Inbox, which presents the warcrimes/violence in the Uganda/Rwanda/eastern DRP as the result of “interimperialist rivalry” between the US State and US economic interests on the one, and European/French same on the other. As I read Prof. Chossudovsy’s analyis, and it’s possible I’ve missed something, Belgium and the US are on opposite sides in this “game”. I wonder if you might be able to clarify what seems to me to be a divergence between his analysis and your own?
Thank you for taking the time, & thanks for all your stellar reporting.
/////
The US was behind the Rwandan Genocide: Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africa
16 Years Ago. 7 April 1994 By Michel Chossudovsky

URL of this article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18540 Global Research, April 7, 2010

This text is in part based on the results of a study conducted by the author together with Belgian economist Pierre Galand on the use of Rwanda’s 1990-94 external debt to finance the military and paramilitary.

THE CIVIL WAR in Rwanda and the ethnic massacres were an integral part of US foreign policy, carefully staged in accordance with precise strategic and economic objectives.
From the outset of the Rwandan civil war in 1990, Washington’s hidden agenda consisted in establishing an American sphere of influence in a region historically dominated by France and Belgium. America’s design was to displace France by supporting the Rwandan Patriotic Front and by arming and equipping its military arm, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA)

From the mid-1980s, the Kampala government under President Yoweri Musaveni had become Washington’s African showpiece of “democracy”. Uganda had also become a launchpad for US sponsored guerilla movements into the Sudan, Rwanda and the Congo. Major General Paul Kagame had been head of military intelligence in the Ugandan Armed Forces; he had been trained at the U.S. Army Command and Staff College (CGSC) in Leavenworth, Kansas which focuses on warfighting and military strategy. Kagame returned from Leavenworth to lead the RPA, shortly after the 1990 invasion.//////SNIP
(publication info snipped from above: Originally written in May 2000, the following text is Part II of Chapter 7 entitled “Economic Genocide in Rwanda”, of the Second Edition of The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order , Global Research, Montreal, 2003. This text updates the author’s analysis on Rwanda written in 1995… published in the first edition of Globalization of Poverty, TWN and Zed Books, Penang and London, 1997. SNIP)

It is a waste of time to try to appeal to Washington, D.C. reps, leaders. We must take over the reins of power somewhere, some place that wields great influence. And there must, then, emanate a feral howl along the lines that Arundhati Roy has been pleading for. That HOWL, if it came from a Governor of California, would have a shot at changing history. Particularly if it were accompanied by “instructions” on how citizens could — for the first time — FORCE their disingenuous representatives to walk the talk, do the right thing.

Blessings in solidarity. I cannot thank Keith enough.
Love, The Ox