France ‘enabled’ Rwandan genocide: Report
FRANCE bears “significant” responsibility for “enabling a foreseeable genocide,” a report that outlines the French government’s role in the 1994 events, in which an estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered, has found.
The report, commissioned by the Rwandan government, comes amid efforts by Rwanda to document the role of French authorities before, during, and after the genocide, part of the steps taken by France’s President Emmanuel Macron to improve relations with the central African country. The 600-page report says that France “did nothing to stop” the massacres, in April and May 1994, and in the years after the genocide tried to cover up its role and even offered protection to some perpetrators. It concluded that in years leading up to the genocide, former French President Francois Mitterrand and his administration had knowledge of preparations for the massacres – yet kept supporting the government of thenRwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana despite the “warning signs.”
“The French government was neither blind nor unconscious about the foreseeable genocide,” the authors stress.
The Rwandan report comes less than a month after a French report, commissioned by Macron, concluded that French authorities had been “blind” to the preparations for genocide and then reacted too slowly to appreciate the extent of the killings and to respond to them. It concluded that France had “heavy and overwhelming responsibilities” by not responding to the drift that led to the slaughter that killed mainly ethnic Tutsis and the moderate Hutus who tried to protect them. Groups of extremist Hutus carried out the killings.
The two reports, with their extensive even if different details, could mark a turning point in relations between the two countries.
The Rwandan report also addressed the attitude of French authorities after the genocide.
Over the past 27 years, “the French government has covered up its role, distorted the truth, and protected” those who committed the genocide, it says. The report suggests that French authorities made “little efforts” to send to trial those who committed the genocide. Three Rwandan nationals have been convicted of genocide so far in France.
It also strongly criticizes the French government for not making public documents about the genocide. The government of Rwanda notably submitted three requests for documents in 2019, 2020 and this year that the French government “ignored,” according to the report.
Under French law, documents regarding military and foreign policies can remain classified for decades. But things may be changing, the Rwandan report says, mentioning “hopeful signs.”