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The government of Rwanda has welcomed a report by a team commissioned by the French government to probe the latter's role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
This is according to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign affairs on Friday, March 26, just a few hours after the report was received by the French President.
President Emmanuel Macron finally received the report from a team of researchers and historians he tasked two years ago to look into archives of France’s actions in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, reports say.
In April 2019, Macron appointed a panel of experts to probe France’s actions in Rwanda during the Genocide, a subject that, for long, hindered relations between Rwanda and France.
At the time, the French presidency said the commission of eight researchers and historians, led by Prof. Vincent Duclert, was to consult all France’s archives relating to the genocide” in order to “analyse the role and engagement of France during that period”, from 1990 to 1994.
"The Government of Rwanda welcomes the report of the Duclert Commission, which represents an important step towards a common understanding of France’s role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi," stated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It added: "An investigative report commissioned by the Government of Rwanda in 2017 will be released in coming weeks, the conclusions of which will enrich those of the Duclert Commission."
Overwhelming responsibility
By and large, the Duclert Commission's report, among others, concludes that France bears heavy and overwhelming responsibilities over the 1994 Genocide but makes no mention of any evidence of French complicity.
The 1,200-page report which appears to absolve France of complicity in the massacres where more than one million people died, concludes that the European country, led by the François Mitterrand during the Genocide, was "blind" to preparations of the massacres.
The report says that nothing in the archives consulted proves France's complicity but it notes that for a long time France was involved with a regime that encouraged racist massacres.
According to the report, France, however, remained blind to the preparation of a Genocide by the most radical elements of this regime.
The French government's complicity, however, is not news as is documented in various reports and books by French authors.
France is accused of aiding the genocidal regime in Rwanda at the time and having a direct hand in the Genocide.
jkaruhanga@newtimesrwanda.com
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