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Did Israel arm Rwanda during the 1994 genocide?

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  • Did Israel arm Rwanda during the 1994 genocide?

    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/did-israel-arm-rwanda-during-1994-genocide-518122380

    Did Israel arm Rwanda during the 1994 genocide?
    By Michal Zak
    Friday 16 January 2015


    According to UN officials, 800,000 men, women and children were
    massacred in Rwanda in the space of 100 days in 1994, the fastest
    genocide in human history. Several countries, including Albania and
    Uganda, provided arms to the Forces Armées Rwandaises (the former
    Rwandese Armed Forces) who perpetrated crimes against humanity during
    the genocide, despite a UN embargo on the sale of weapons to the
    central African nation.

    In 2004, Yair Auron, an Israeli historian at Israel's Open University,
    called for a probe into Israel's arms sales to Rwanda during April of
    1994. Auron, who has spent over 20 years researching Israeli attitudes
    towards the genocide of other peoples, claimed he had photographs and
    documents showing that Israeli arms dealers provided Rwandan forces
    with bullets, rifles and grenades captured from Egypt during the 1973
    Arab-Israeli war. Israel has denied the claims.

    In 2014 a request by Auron and human rights attorney Eitay Mack that
    Israel's Ministry of Defence make public files on arms exports to
    Rwanda in 1994 was denied on the grounds that revealing the
    information might `harm Israel's state security and foreign
    relations'.

    Last week Auron told a district Tel Aviv court: `To send arms to a
    country where genocide is taking place is like sending arms to Nazi
    Germany during World War II. We provided arms to Serbia during the
    embargo, and we provided arms to the Rwandan government, which was
    committing murder.'

    MEE's Michal Zak spoke to Professor Auron about his ongoing
    investigation and the Israeli authorities response.

    When did you first think that Isreal had sold arms to Rwanda during
    the 1994 genocide?

    I first heard it from an Israeli photographer. He was in Rwanda eight
    times and he saw the weapons. When I asked him if top leaders were
    involved in the arms deal, he said yes. When I said, that means
    [Yitzhak] Rabin and [Shimon] Peres, he told me: `You said it, I
    didn't. And if you publish it anywhere, I will say that I don't know
    you.' I started to look for more evidence. In our petition we rely,
    among other sources, on an Amnesty International report that was
    published in 1995.

    The report gives details about the weapons that were loaded at Ben
    Gurion airport. The list included mostly small arms that Israel
    captured in the Arab-Israeli war in 1973, as well as Soviet and
    Chinese weapons that were loaded in Tirana, Albania. The arms were
    loaded in Israel and in Albania under the supervision of Israeli
    officers. Later on when attorney Mack and I prepared the petition we
    came across additional information that verified our suspicions.

    To your knowledge, did the Israeli government know it was selling
    weapons that could be used in genocide?

    There was tension in Rwanda as early as January of 1994. Several of
    the world's most powerful states imposed international arms control
    regulations and on May 17 1994 there was a UN embargo. Israel breached
    the embargo, as did Russia, Belgium, South Africa, France, Spain and
    others. Many of the planes that transported the shipments were
    British. The last license to export arms was issued by the Israeli
    Ministry of Defense in October 1993, about half a year before the
    massacres began.

    But some of the shipments were sent between May and July (during the
    massacres). According to the documents of the Rwandan Ministry of
    Defence, seven shipments of light ammunition arrived from Israel via
    Albania between April and July of 1994 for use of the militias that
    committed the massacres.

    I must add that the Israelis were also the first to send a military
    hospital to Rwanda in July of 1994. The medical staff did a remarkable
    job. But while the government was responsible for this great act of
    humanitarian aid, it was also responsible for supplying arms to the
    government Hutu forces.

    What did you think would happen if you publicised Israel's involvement
    in the genocide?

    I was interviewed on the news on Israeli TV in 2004 on the tenth
    anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. The anchorman introduced the item
    using Holocaust terminology, which in Israel is rarely used to
    describe anything but the Holocaust. He said that when the genocide in
    Rwanda took place the `world was silent.' I added that Israel was part
    of the world that was silent, and that there are even claims that we
    supplied some of the weapons. I concluded the interview saying that if
    the claims are true, these are genocide crimes.

    I was sure that by the time I got home from the studio I would be
    flooded with phone calls and emails from political figures and others
    who would be concerned, furious or sceptical about this revelation.
    But there was silence. No one reacted. I confront this kind of denial
    again and again from the most responsible, moral people. This includes
    academics, politicians and friends who say to me: `It is not
    possible¦there could not have been arms sales.' Or I am told that I
    have `gone too far by accusing Rabin and Peres.'

    What is your motivation - what do you hope to achieve?

    We want to expose the sources that were connected to the sales because
    selling arms during an embargo is a crime against humanity. If the
    International Criminal Court was doing its job, it would have been
    possible to persecute Israel, France and others. We chose to petition
    the Israeli courts using the Freedom of Information law, giving every
    Israeli citizen and resident the right to obtain information from a
    public authority. Our motivation is moral. These actions are against
    international law and it is important to expose what happened. We are
    not so naive as to believe that we can stop arms sales completely.

    Attorney Mack is determined to increase transparency and public
    supervision on arms sales which, needless to say, would be bad for
    business, harming Israel's economic interests and presumably
    explaining the state's resistance. He adds that if we want to prevent
    these evils in the future we need to expose and confront dark chapters
    of our past. His aim is to make sure that the law concerning
    supervision on arms sales is implemented. The law forbids arms sales
    to countries with an arms embargo. In addition he is advocating a new
    law that will forbid Israel to sell arms to countries with massive
    human rights violations.



    Can you elaborate on Israel's involvement in Serbia?

    Israel sold weapons to Serbia during the civil war (1991-1995), after
    the UN embargo was declared in 1991. In 1992, while Milosevic was
    being described by many as the new Hitler of Europe, Israel opened an
    embassy in Serbia. Acts committed by the Serbs during the war were
    later defined as genocide and ethnic cleansing. When the prime
    minister of Serbia visited Israel in 2014, both the Serbian and the
    Israeli leaders failed to mention this dark chapter in their
    relations, as if it had never happened. We are petitioning the state
    in this case as well. We want the dates, details, documents and names
    of people who were involved. We know that very high officials were
    involved.

    Do you think that speaking up now can decrease future killing?

    Since 2012 Israel sold billions of dollars worth of arms to
    Azerbaijan, even though there is an EU and a de facto US embargo on
    Azerbaijan. There are close relations between the two countries.
    Azerbaijan supplies 40 percent of Israel's oil and is eager to buy its
    military technologies. Israel justifies arming Azerbaijan because it
    borders Iran and there is military `logic' to having a strong ally on
    the border with Iran. But at the same time Azeri officials are saying
    openly that these arms are required for potential use against Armenia
    in their effort to regain the `occupied lands' taken by Armenia in the
    war over Nagorno-Karabakh. In 2014 the Azeri president tweeted (!)
    that the Armenians are barbaric, that Azeris need to regain all the
    territories, and that they are ready for battle since they acquired
    the necessary weapons. So the real danger is that these weapons may
    encourage the Azeri government to start a conflict with Armenia. As a
    result of the incitement, Auron and Mack call upon the Israeli
    Ministry of Defence to freeze export licenses to Azerbaijan.

    It is not easy to take your own country to court. Can you elaborate on
    your reason for trying?

    For over 25 years I have been researching the attitude of Israel
    toward genocide of other peoples. I see it as crucial to teach other
    genocides and I hope that Israel will acknowledge the Armenian
    genocide despite diplomatic pressure from Turkey. It is important to
    me to challenge the academic and popular discourse that differentiates
    the Holocaust from other genocides. I am appalled by cynical use of
    the Holocaust. For example, going back to Rwanda, in 1994 when the
    genocide began the government of Israel issued a statement that the
    Jewish people, who were victims themselves, cannot remain indifferent
    to such atrocities. This statement was issued after the shipment of
    weapons was already on its way! I see this struggle as a mission. My
    motivation is the Holocaust, but my commitment is to the truth. We
    must never manipulate our memory of the Holocaust victims. It is hard
    for me to say this, but I believe that what I have described here is a
    desecration of this memory.

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