[olivierduval]

1) Well... you just reminded what EVERY colonial countries did (including the US with its native indian population... but really not limited to). You should have talked about slavery too (without forgiving to mention that selling slaves was part of 'local' business too).

Was France particulary guilty for its colonial actions? It was not worst nor better than ANY other country in ANY other times... It doesn't mean that it's good - and maybe France, as the Declaration des Droits de l'Homme country - should have held higher standards... but truth is: we were not better nor worst than anybody else.

2) Well, I'm happy that you learn geopolitic-101. That's a good beginning. And you'll see that it's "common practice". Actually, that's the basic rules of the games between nations

3) I don't say that France has to be proud because it prefered to "look elsewhere" to keep a geopolitical position. But at least, we're pleading guilty publicly. And we'll be welcoming for others countries to do the same...

[mtphil]

You've missed the point entirely in your rush to assuage yourself that France isn't "uniquely" evil. I never did nor did I ever mean to insinuate that France is somehow unique or uniquely awful in its colonial history. Most colonial histories are horrific to discover. All I did was insist that acknowledging this history is the first step in engaging with France's historical past in good faith.

France's colonial history was appalling, as were many if not all colonial histories, but the article at the heart of this thread was about France's particular postcolonial history in Rwanda, not about other colonial or postcolonial situations involving other countries. And my original response was to contradict someone trying to flatly deny any French culpability whatsoever in the atrocities committed in Rwanda in the 90s. Whatever you're trying to do here with "well sure France was a horrific colonial overlord but so were X, Y and Z" is completely beside the point.