PARIS (AP) – French government has “significant” responsibility for “allowing predictable genocide”, report commissioned by Rwandan government concludes on France’s role before and during the horror in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed in 1994.
The report, read by The Associated Press, comes amid Rwanda’s efforts to document the role of French authorities before, during and after the genocide, as part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s measures to improve relations with the Central African country. .
The 600-page report says France “did nothing to stop” the massacres, in April and May 1994, and in the years following the genocide tried to cover up its role and even offered protection to some authors.
It will be made public later Monday after its formal presentation to the Rwandan cabinet.
It concludes that in the years leading up to the genocide, former French President Francois Mitterrand and his administration were aware of preparations for the massacres, although they continued to support the government of then-Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, despite the ” warning signs “.
“The French government was neither blind nor unaware of the foreseeable genocide,” the authors stress.
The Rwandan report comes less than a month after a French report, commissioned by Macron, concluded that the French authorities had been “blind” to preparations for the genocide and then reacted too slowly to appreciate the scope of the killings and respond to them. He concluded that France had “heavy and overwhelming responsibilities” in not responding to the drift that led to the massacre that killed mainly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them. Extremist Hutu groups carried out the killings.
The two reports, with their extensive but different details, could mark a turning point in relations between the two countries.
Rwanda, a small but strategic country of 13 million people, is “ready” for a “new relationship” with France, Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta told AP.
“Perhaps the most important thing in this process is that these two commissions have analyzed the historical facts, analyzed the archives that were made available to them, and come to a common understanding of this past,” he said. “From here we can build that strong relationship.”
The Rwandan report, commissioned in 2017 from the Washington law firm Levy Firestone Muse, is based on a wide range of documentary sources from governments, non-governmental organizations and academia, including diplomatic cables, documentaries, videos and news articles. The authors also said they interviewed more than 250 witnesses.
In the years leading up to the genocide, “French officials armed, advised, trained, equipped and protected the Rwandan government, regardless of the Habyarimana regime’s commitment to dehumanization and, ultimately, the destruction and death of Tutsis in Rwanda. “, reports the report. .
The French authorities of the time pursued “France’s own interests, in particular the strengthening and expansion of France’s power and influence in Africa.”
In April and May 1994, in the midst of the genocide, French officials “did nothing to stop” the massacres, according to the report.
Operation Turquoise, a UN-led military intervention that began on June 22, came “too late to save many Tutsis,” the report says.
The perpetrators say they found “no evidence that French officials or personnel were directly involved in the murder of Tutsis during this period.”
This finding echoes the conclusion of the French report that cleared France of the complicity of the massacres, saying “nothing in the archives” demonstrates the “willingness to join a genocidal operation.”
The Rwandan report also addressed the attitude of the French authorities after the genocide.
For the past 27 years, “the French government has covered its role, distorted the truth and protected” those who committed the genocide, he says.
The report suggests that French authorities made “little effort” to prosecute those who committed the genocide. So far, three Rwandan nationals have been convicted of genocide in France.
He also strongly criticizes the French government for not making public documents about the genocide. According to the report, the Rwandan government submitted three requests for documents in 2019, 2020 and this year which the French government “ignored”.
Under French law, documents on military and foreign policy can remain classified for decades.
But things can change, says the Rwandan report, which mentions “hopeful signs.”
On April 7, the day of commemoration of the genocide, Macron announced the decision to declassify and make accessible to the public the archives from 1990 to 1994 that belong to the offices of the French president and prime minister.
“The recent disclosure of documents related to the (French) report … may indicate a step towards transparency,” the authors of the Rwanda report said.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame praised the report commissioned by Macron as “a good thing”, welcoming efforts in Paris to “move forward with a good understanding of what happened”.
Félicien Kabuga, a Rwandan long sought after for his alleged role in supplying machetes to killers, was arrested outside Paris last May.
And in July, a Paris appellate court upheld the decision to end a multi-year investigation into the plane crash that killed Habyarimana and initiated the genocide. That investigation aggravated the Rwandan government because it targeted several people close to Kagame for their alleged role, charges they denied.
Last week, a Rwandan priest was arrested in France for his alleged role in the genocide, which he denied.
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AP writer Rodney Muhumuza contributed from Kampala, Uganda.