Video Shows Rwandan Peacekeepers Shooting Protesters in Mali

Secret footage shows a Rwandan policeman in the blue helmet of a United Nations peacekeeper in Mali earlier this year carefully take aim at a civilian protester, squeeze the trigger and shoot. The videotape, taken by a Chinese U.N. peacekeeper who was also at the scene of the violent demonstration, was part of the evidence presented in a U.N. inquiry into the incident which resulted in the Rwandan contingent going home. Three sources said they had seen the video of the Jan. 27 demonstration in Gao, part an unstable region of northern Mali, occupied in 2012 by separatist Tuareg rebels and al Qaeda-linked Islamists before a 2013 French intervention. The video was not mentioned when the United Nations announced the inquiry's overall conclusions last month, which found that members of a U.N. police unit "used unauthorized and excessive force" that killed three protesters.