Alain Destexhe

Alain Destexhe
Senator
In office 2003 – June 2011
Personal details
Nationality	Belgian
Residence	Brussels
Alma mater	University of Liège
Website	www.destexhe.be

Alain Destexhe is a Belgian liberal politician. He was elected senator for the Francophone electoral college in 2003, and again in 2007.^[1] Destexhe is a member of the liberal Reformist Movement and represents Belgium in the World Economic Forum. He was awarded the Prize of Liberty by Nova Civitas. Alain is also a member of the AWEPA Governing Council.^[2]

1 Early life
2 Literary achievements
3 Controversies
4 Notes
5 External links

Early life

Alain Destexhe graduated in Medicine from the University of Liège. Later he graduated in International Affairs from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris.

Literary achievements

In 2005, he gained national success by publishing Wallonie, la Vérité des Chiffres ("Wallonia, the Truth of the Figures" in French), a leaflet in which he exposed the disastrous economical situation of Wallonia.

He has also published a book dealing with the Rwandan Genocide. His book deals mainly with historical antecedents leading up to the mass killings in 1994 and who was to blame for this tragical event. Afterwards, his analyses of that era have been used in many parliamentary enquiries and investigation commissions.

Controversies

He openly attacked the Canadian general Roméo Dallaire, the military leader of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda, at a conference held in 2004. He stated that Dallaire failed to protect his troops and cost the lives of ten Belgian Blue Helmet soldiers in UN service. He directly and personally blamed Dallaire for the deaths of the Belgian soldiers, and launched an unprovoked attack on him at the tenth anniversary of the genocide. He asserted, in front of the assembled international press, that Dallaire had been declining to meet with the widows of the killed Belgian soldiers. When Dallaire commented that he had received no communication from any of the widows or from Destexhe on the subject, Destexhe responded that he had been trying to contact Dallaire but didn't know where to find his address. The exchange can be see in the CBC documentary Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire
During the 2007 election campaign, he made a propaganda "007 Destexhe" film in which he openly attacked the alleged corruption and cleptocracy within the ruling Socialist Party.

Notes

^ "Belgische Senaat" (in Dutch). Belgian Senate. http://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=/index_senate&MENUID=11200&LANG=nl. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
^ http://www.awepa.org/index.php/en/about-us/organisational-structure/governing-council.html

External links

Mouvement Réformateur Official Webpage

Persondata
Name	Destexhe, Alain
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death