Talk:Rwandan Patriotic Front
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What's with this name? "Rwandese Patriotic Front" gets 1,980 Google hits. "Rwandan Patriotic Front" gets 7,410 hits. The word "Rwandan" be itself gets 246,000 hits while "Rwandese" (a term I had never heard until now) gets 35,900. RickK 05:01, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC)
I was suprised as well. My guess is that much of these hits are from Wikipedia and their mirrors since that's what most of the "Rwandan Patriotic Front" are linked to, but I can guarantee with a good deal of certainty that the proper name is "Rwandese" and not "Rwandan". I am in the middle of reading the biography of Romeo Dallaire, the UN General in charge during the genocide, and I also peeked at a few papers from some International studies schools. Just to make sure I went to the official Rwandan website http://www.gov.rw/government/president/index.html. The Paul Kagame profile confirms it as well. I'd put my money on the first hand accounts over google any day. Dostal 05:24, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Having since read a good deal more about Rwanda I am suprised by the number of incidents of seeing "Rwandan Patriotic Front". This is at least enough to make me second guess the name, but I still don't think it's worth changing at this point. Both the Rwandan website and Romeo Dallaire are pretty credible sources for "rwandese". So if anyone can find decisively one way or another which name it is please let us know! Dostal 22:26, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)
- As far as I know, the accepted English adjectival form seems to be Rwandan: of course, for the name of an institution/organization, we should use the formal name.
Is it possible this is an issue of translation from French? I know the RPF is largely English-speaking, but "Front" is a odd name to use in English for a political group, and "Rwandese" sounds a lot like "rwandais". Idle speculation. --Saforrest 21:50, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We WIll be Killed With Our Families, the definitive account of the genocide, also uses Rwandese. I imagine that people using Rwandan, just assume it is correct because it sounds right. --TuesdayMush 10:32, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
As examples among many current sources of "Rwandan Patriotric Front" as the phrase in current English usage, please see Human Rights Watch and Global Security Rwandan War pages on the "Rwandan Patriotic Front." Review the first comment in this section which was questioning the use of the word Rwandese not Rwandan (it was changed after that comment). Given the adjective Rwandan for Rwanda (of Rwanda) and the people of Rwanda (Rwandans--used throughout the article on Rwanda and Rwandan Genocide) and Rwandese as a more old-fashioned adjective for the people of Rwanda (including some important organizations), news reports currently tend to use "Rwandan" for "RPF" not "Rwandese." As the Google statistics suggest, Rwandan Patriotic Front is current usage in news accounts and general (not specialized) literature about the group. The current usage Rwandan Patriotic Front does seem to be an issue of current translation of the word Rwandais, which does have one or the other translation "Rwandan" and "Rwandese" throughout much of the literature. The earlier change was simply a matter of consistency within Wikipedia, where the word Rwandan seems to be more commonly used in descriptions of subjects relating to Rwanda, and thus it is more likely that a person using Wikipedia, who is searching for RFP would choose the words Rwandan Patriotic Front (or RFP) as search terms. (This is not a matter of "popularity" but rather of actual prominence of current usage; e.g. Human Rights Watch. The tribunals are a different matter and they tend to refer to "Rwandese" rather than "Rwandans" (e.g., UN).) Google does not have a problem finding Rwandan Patriotic Front for those who use those search terms; over 7,000 hits mentioned above is still a lot of hits. This is the English-language version of Wikipedia and the translation is most current English usage. (I have Dallaire's book too; that's not the current usage among most people who discuss the RPF.) --NYScholar 18:14, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] POV
The role of French troops after the events of Feb 8th were limited to the evacuation of 67 europeans and americans, trapped in the town of Ruhengeri, in combat zone. In addition, some troops were present for instruction role to FAR and were never involved in any combat with the FPR, but they were there for a very long time.
Although the French forces in Rwanda were not invovled in actual combat operations against the RPF, they did intend to stop it's advance by putting their forces in the way of the RPF. If you read Romeo Dallaire's book about the the genocide then you will see that there were at least two occasions on which the French forces and soldiers from the RPF came very close to engaging one another due to the French atempt to advance further towards Butare than they were meant to. The french had also provided weapons to the FAR throughout the genocide and trained members of the interahamwe prior to the 6th of April. They also engaged the RPF in their 1993 offensive in order to stop the rebels from taking the capital. [who wrote this? and when? Signature?]
