Belgium rebuffs allegations in book on Rwandan genocide

BRUSSELS, Nov 13 (AFP) - Belgium on Thursday rebuffed allegations in a recently published book describing "atrocious" behaviour by Belgian UN troops at the start of Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

The foreign and defence ministries said they were "astonished" at the criticism in the book by Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, who commanded the UN force in Rwanda at the time.

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"Mr. Dallaire's attacks about Belgium's attitude -- and more specifically about the behaviour of our soldiers on the ground -- does not correspond to reality," they said in a joint statement.

"It is a generalization based on isolated incidents, which has the effect of unfairly casting a shadow on (their) actions," they added.

Foreign Minister Louis Michel and Defence Minister Andre Flahaut said they had written to Canada's ambassador to Belgium "to inform him of (our) reaction. "

Dallaire made his criticisms in a book entitled "Shake Hands with the Devil, " published in French last month.

"They drank while on patrol, fought in bars and constantly had to be detained," said the Canadian general, according to the French version of the book.

More generally he said Belgian troops abandoned him on the ground, leaving him alone with "a crime against humanity which they themselves had involuntarily triggered as colonisers."

"I came to hate a country which had lost its courage to keep fighting. A country which after suffering a few losses turned its back on the fate of 8.3 million Rwandans in danger."

According to figures from the current Rwandan administration, up to a million people were killed over 100 days in 1994, in a government-backed effort to rid the central African country of its Tutsi minority.

In their joint statement the two ministers called Dallaire's comments "out of place and uncalled for," recalling that 10 Belgian soldiers lost their lives "in atrocious conditions."

A Belgian senate inquiry in 1997 accused General Dallaire of failing to help people in danger in relation to the 10 Belgians' deaths. According to Belgian lawmakers, the Canadian officer was informed on the morning of April 7, 1994, of an attack on the Belgian UN troops. But the general passed by the camp where they were encircled without intervening, they said.

In his book, dedicated to 14 soldiers from the UN Rwanda force who died including the 10 Belgians, General Dallaire also makes comments about Americans, French, British and to a lesser extent the United Nations itself.

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