Isère
Isère ( , ; frp, Isera; oc, Isèra, ) is a landlocked department in the southeastern French region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.''Gendarmerie Nationale''. He authored several books about his military career, touching sensitive political subjects of the Mitterrand era.
Barril was a gendarme until 1995. He was the second officer of the
GIGN
The GIGN ( ; ) is the elite police tactical unit of the National Gendarmerie of France. Among its missions are counterterrorism, hostage rescue, surveillance of national threats, protection of government officials, critical site protection (suc ...
Special Forces unit for 10 years, before being involved in the creation of the
Counterterrorist
Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...
Cell of the Élysée during François Mitterrand's first mandate from 1981 to 1988. Since then, he has led several
private security companies
A private security company (PSC) is a business entity which provides armed or unarmed security services and expertise to clients in the private or public sectors.
Overview
Private security companies are defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta ...
. He has been in the centre of controversies for his role in Africa, particularly in
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
during the
Rwandan genocide
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...
in 1994 during which extremist
Hutu
The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the prin ...
s mass exterminated hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Tutsis
The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic grou ...
and moderate Hutus.
Military career
Barril was second officer of the GIGN from 1974 to 1982, as aid to ''commandant''
Christian Prouteau
Christian Prouteau (born on the 7 April 1944) is a French officer of the ''Gendarmerie Nationale''. He was involved in the organisation of the GIGN and the GSPR.
Biography
Prouteau graduated from Saint-Cyr, the French army's officers' schoo ...
. In late 1979, he was dispatched to
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
to help the Saudi government quell the
Grand Mosque Seizure
The Grand Mosque seizure lasted from 20 November 1979 to 4 December 1979, when extremist militants in Saudi Arabia calling for the overthrow of the House of Saud besieged and took over Masjid al-Haram, the holiest Islamic site, in the city of M ...
, an uprising at Islam's holiest shrine in Mecca that was led by fundamentalist preacher
Juhayman al-Otaibi
Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaybi ( ar, جهيمان بن محمد بن سيف العتيبي; 16 September 1936 – 9 January 1980), was a Saudi terrorist and soldier who in 1979 led the seizure of the Great Mosque of Mecca, Saudi Arabia' ...
. Barril was interim commander of the GIGN in 1982-1983, while commandant Prouteau was organising the GSPR, a presidential security unit. Barril claims to having "arrested 115 people, being involved in the surrender of 61 madmen, neutralised 17 armed people without using weapons, and freed over 450 hostages."
After a car bomb explosion near a restaurant in Rue Marbeuf in Paris on 22 April 1982, Barril and Prouteau were involved in the creation of the Counterterrorist Cell of the Elysée, along with Prouteau.
Barril was involved in several famous affairs, such as the so-called "
Irish of Vincennes
The "Irish of Vincennes" affair (french: Affaire des Irlandais de Vincennes; also known as the Vincennes Three, or Irishmen of Vincennes, although one of the arrestees was not a man) was a major political scandal which occurred in France during the ...
" and the Elysée wiretap scandal. Although rumors suggest Paul Barril has been convicted, his police record is clean and shows no signs of conviction.
Private security business
After the "Irishmen from Vincennes" affair, in 1984, Barril created the company ''Epsylon'' in Paris.
He also leads a company called SECRETS (for "''Société d'Etudes de Conception et de Réalisation d'Equipements Techniques de Sécurité''", "Society for Study, Design and Implementation of Technical Security Equipment" which offers security interventions in foreign countries.
In 1988, Barril organised an "action group" around President
Félix Houphouët-Boigny
Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was the first president of Ivory Coast, serving from 1960 until his death in 1993. A tribal chief, he wo ...
in
Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
.
Rwanda
Barril was involved in Rwanda during the first half of the 90s. He went to
Kigali
Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...
right after the plane ferrying president
Juvénal Habyarimana
Juvénal Habyarimana (, ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who served as the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed ''Kinani'', a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".
An ethn ...
was shot down, as the genocide started. Barril stated that he acted as a councilor to Habyarimana. He was contacted in 1989 for a reorganisation of the Rwandan intelligence services. Other sources refer to an audit of the Rwandan army in 1990.
Barril was also present in Kigali on 7 and 27 April 1994. Rumour has it that after Juvénal Habyarimana was assassinated, his widow,
Agathe Habyarimana
Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, ''née'' Kanziga (born 21 January 1942 in Karago, Gisenyi prefecture, Western Province, Rwanda) is the widow of former President of Rwanda Juvénal Habyarimana and former First Lady of Rwanda from 1973 until 1994. Ka ...
, hired Barril, via SECRETS company, to investigate the case. Barril declared to journalists of ''
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'' and ''
France 2
France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews.
Since 3:20 CET on 7 ...
'' that he was in possession of the black boxes of the plane and promoted the thesis that the FPR (
Rwandan Patriotic Front
The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF–Inkotanyi, french: Front patriotique rwandais, FPR) is the ruling political party in Rwanda. Led by President Paul Kagame, the party has governed the country since its armed wing defeated government forces, winn ...
), led by the
Tutsi
The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic grou ...
Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame (; born 23 October 1957) is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who is the 4th and current president of Rwanda since 2000. He previously served as a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Uganda-based rebel ...
, was involved in the attack.
At the same time, on 20 May 1994, Barril was hired by the Hutu temporary government to recover a US$1.65 million payment made for canceled weapon imports.Parlementary Report, pp. 257-258 and annex 10, pp. 575-581.
Notes
Bibliography
* Paul Barril, ''Missions très spéciales'',
Presses de la Cité
Presses de la Cité is a French publishing company founded in 1943 by Sven Nielsen, the son and grandson of booksellers, who came to Paris in 1924. Before becoming a publisher, Nielsen specialised in exporting French books.
In 1988, with its me ...
, Paris, 1984.
* Paul Barril, ''Guerres secrètes à l'Élysée'',
Albin Michel Albin may refer to:
Places
* Albin, Wyoming, US
* Albin Township, Brown County, Minnesota, US
* Albin, Virginia, US
People
* Albin (given name), origin of the name and people with the first name "Albin"
* Albin (surname)
;Mononyms
* Albin of ...
, Paris, 1996.
* Paul Barril, ''L'enquête explosive'',
Flammarion Flammarion may refer to:
* Camille Flammarion (1842–1925), French astronomer and author
* Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion (1877–1962), French astronomer, wife of Camille Flammarion
* Flammarion engraving by unknown artist; appeared in a book by C ...
, Paris, 2000.
* Paul Barril, ''Les archives secrètes de Mitterrand'', Albin Michel, Paris, 2001.
*
Alison Des Forges
Alison Des Forges (née Liebhafsky; August 20, 1942 – February 12, 2009) was an American historian and human rights activist who specialized in the African Great Lakes region, particularly the 1994 Rwandan genocide. At the time of her death, s ...
, ''Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda'', New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999, 789 pages.
* Alison Des Forges ''Aucun témoin ne doit survivre'', Karthala, Paris (version française de l'ouvrage précédent)
* Patrick de Saint-Exupéry, ''L'inavouable, la France au Rwanda'', Les Arènes, Paris.
* Laure Coret et
François-Xavier Verschave
François-Xavier Verschave (28 October 1945, in Lille – 29 June 2005, in Villeurbanne) was primarily known as one of the founders of the French NGO '' Survie'' ("Survival"), over which he presided since 1995, and as coiner of the term ''Françafr ...
(Sous la direction de), ''L'horreur qui nous prend au visage - Rapport de la Commission d'enquête citoyenne'', édition Karthala,
*
Benjamin Sehene
Benjamin Sehene (born 1959) is a Rwandan author whose work primarily focuses on questions of identity and the events surrounding the Rwandan genocide. He spent much of his life in Canada and lives in France.
Sehene was born in Kigali to a Tuts ...
Yaroslav Trofimov
Yaroslav Trofimov is a Ukrainian-born Italian author and journalist who serves as chief foreign-affairs correspondent at ''The Wall Street Journal''. Previously he wrote a weekly column on the Greater Middle East, Middle East Crossroads, in ''The ...