Ties With France: Kagame Welcomes France ‘Change’ On Rwanda As Archives Opened

Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Wednesday signalled he was
ready for a new phase in ties with France after a landmark report
acknowledged French responsibility over the 1994 genocide, as Paris
ordered the opening of key archives.

The 27th anniversary of the start of the slaughter — an event
that still casts a shadow over France — was marked by conciliatory
moves on both sides to heal long-troubled relations.

The report, handed by French historians to President Emmanuel
Macron last month, “marks an important step toward a common
understanding of what took place,” Kagame said in Kigali.

“It also marks the change, it shows the desire, even for leaders
in France, to move forward with a good understanding of what
happened,” said Kagame in his first reaction to the report.

The archives to be opened by France concern the work of former
president Francois Mitterrand between 1990 and 1994 when the
genocide began, according to a statement by the French
presidency.

Also to be opened are those of the prime minister at the time,
Edouard Balladur, in accordance with his own wishes, it added.

Many of the documents — which include diplomatic telegrams and
confidential notes — were sources for the long-awaited report by
historians handed to Macron.

All the documents cited in the report will also be declassified
and made public, the presidency said.

The decision is part of Macron’s “committment” to create
conditions favourable to help better understand France’s role in
Rwanda, it said.

– ‘Cover-up’ –
The genocide saw around 800,000 people slaughtered, mainly from the
ethnic Tutsi minority, between April and July of 1994.

The commission concluded that France bears overwhelming
responsibilities over the genocide and was “blind” to preparations
for the massacres.

It said there had been a “failure” on the part of France under
Mitterrand, while adding there was no evidence Paris was complicit
in the killings.

Macron ordered the report after years of accusations France did
not do enough to halt the massacres and was even complicit in the
crimes.

The issue has poisoned relations between France and Rwanda under
Kagame, a former Tutsi rebel who has ruled the mountainous nation
in Africa’s Great Lakes region since the aftermath of the
genocide.

Kagame and his wife Jeannette earlier lit a remembrance flame at
the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where every year commemorations are
held to mourn the dead.

The genocide between April and July 1994 began after Rwanda’s
Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana, with whom Paris had cultivated
close ties, was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali on
April 6.

The report said France under Mitterrand adopted a “binary view”
that set Habyarimana as a “Hutu ally” against an “enemy” of Tutsi
forces backed by Uganda.

France had been “involved with a regime that encouraged racist
massacres,” although there was no evidence that it had any
“willingness” to join in the genocide itself.

Kagame said a parallel investigation carried out by Rwandan
authorities would release its own findings this month, saying the
conclusions “go in the same direction” as the French report.

But he criticised “the decades-long effort by certain French
officials to cover up their responsibilities”, saying it had caused
“significant damage”.

“The important thing is to continue working together to document
the truth,” Kagame said.

– ‘Half measures’ no use –
The historian Vincent Duclert who chaired the historial commission
told the Mediapart news site that he believed France now needed to
apologise for its policies in Rwanda, which were characterised by
“great violence and a very colonialist superiority”.

The Elysee has said it hoped the report would mark an
“irreversible” reconciliation process between France and Rwanda,
which Macron has said he wants to visit this year.

Welcoming the Duclert report, the French foreign minister at the
time, Alain Juppe, acknowledged it had highlighted the failures of
the government.

“We did not act in the way we should have done,” he wrote in Le
Monde, saying France had not understood that “half measures” were
of no use in the face of a genocide.

“We lacked understanding of what genocide was and the need to
act without delay to stop the massacres with all the determination
that was possible,” he said.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Wednesday signalled he was
ready for a new phase in ties with France after a landmark report
acknowledged French responsibility over the 1994 genocide, as Paris
ordered the opening of key archives.

The 27th anniversary of the start of the slaughter — an event
that still casts a shadow over France — was marked by conciliatory
moves on both sides to heal long-troubled relations.

The report, handed by French historians to President Emmanuel
Macron last month, “marks an important step toward a common
understanding of what took place,” Kagame said in Kigali.

“It also marks the change, it shows the desire, even for leaders
in France, to move forward with a good understanding of what
happened,” said Kagame in his first reaction to the report.

The archives to be opened by France concern the work of former
president Francois Mitterrand between 1990 and 1994 when the
genocide began, according to a statement by the French
presidency.

Also to be opened are those of the prime minister at the time,
Edouard Balladur, in accordance with his own wishes, it added.

Many of the documents — which include diplomatic telegrams and
confidential notes — were sources for the long-awaited report by
historians handed to Macron.

All the documents cited in the report will also be declassified
and made public, the presidency said.

The decision is part of Macron’s “committment” to create
conditions favourable to help better understand France’s role in
Rwanda, it said.

– ‘Cover-up’ –
The genocide saw around 800,000 people slaughtered, mainly from the
ethnic Tutsi minority, between April and July of 1994.

The commission concluded that France bears overwhelming
responsibilities over the genocide and was “blind” to preparations
for the massacres.

It said there had been a “failure” on the part of France under
Mitterrand, while adding there was no evidence Paris was complicit
in the killings.

Macron ordered the report after years of accusations France did
not do enough to halt the massacres and was even complicit in the
crimes.

The issue has poisoned relations between France and Rwanda under
Kagame, a former Tutsi rebel who has ruled the mountainous nation
in Africa’s Great Lakes region since the aftermath of the
genocide.

Kagame and his wife Jeannette earlier lit a remembrance flame at
the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where every year commemorations are
held to mourn the dead.

The genocide between April and July 1994 began after Rwanda’s
Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana, with whom Paris had cultivated
close ties, was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali on
April 6.

The report said France under Mitterrand adopted a “binary view”
that set Habyarimana as a “Hutu ally” against an “enemy” of Tutsi
forces backed by Uganda.

France had been “involved with a regime that encouraged racist
massacres,” although there was no evidence that it had any
“willingness” to join in the genocide itself.

Kagame said a parallel investigation carried out by Rwandan
authorities would release its own findings this month, saying the
conclusions “go in the same direction” as the French report.

But he criticised “the decades-long effort by certain French
officials to cover up their responsibilities”, saying it had caused
“significant damage”.

“The important thing is to continue working together to document
the truth,” Kagame said.

– ‘Half measures’ no use –
The historian Vincent Duclert who chaired the historial commission
told the Mediapart news site that he believed France now needed to
apologise for its policies in Rwanda, which were characterised by
“great violence and a very colonialist superiority”.

The Elysee has said it hoped the report would mark an
“irreversible” reconciliation process between France and Rwanda,
which Macron has said he wants to visit this year.

Welcoming the Duclert report, the French foreign minister at the
time, Alain Juppe, acknowledged it had highlighted the failures of
the government.

“We did not act in the way we should have done,” he wrote in Le
Monde, saying France had not understood that “half measures” were
of no use in the face of a genocide.

“We lacked understanding of what genocide was and the need to
act without delay to stop the massacres with all the determination
that was possible,” he said.