France was “blind” to the preparations for the genocide in Rwanda, and was not complicit

France was not complicit in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, but it was largely responsible. This is the conclusion of a commission of inquiry set up by President Macron two years ago to investigate the French role in the genocide. To investigate. The report said France was “blind” to preparations for large-scale massacres.

In the genocide in the East African country in 1994, at least 800,000 people were killed within a few months after a plane carrying President Habyarimana from the Hutu-led government was shot down. According to the researchers, France has failed to prevent the mass killing of the minority Tutsi and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists.

In doing so, experts also point to the central role of the then French president Mitterrand, who had close ties to the Hutu Habyarimana. The former French president is accused of pursuing a failed policy towards Rwanda in 1994. The researchers said that France bears a “serious and sweeping” responsibility in Rwanda.

“Implicated in the system”

At the time of the genocide, French forces with the mandate of the United Nations were in Rwanda. France has always assured that, despite its mistakes, it has saved thousands of people. The investigation now shows that the forces did indeed rescue many, but the process started very slowly.

While Kigali and Paris have sought rapprochement in recent years, relations have been weak for decades. This is partly because Rwanda accuses France of supporting the Hutus and helping those responsible for the genocide escape. Historians have found no evidence of this complicity.

“Is France complicit in the genocide of the Tutsi? If this means that there is a willingness to join the genocide project, then there is no evidence of this in the archives,” the commission said on the basis of official French documents on the crime. Its presence in Rwanda. However, France was involved in a regime that encouraged racist pogroms. “