(AGN) – French President Emmanuel Macron in a meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame acknowledged that France bears partial responsibility for the Rwandan genocide. A historic confession that could mark a watershed moment in the fragile relations between the two countries.
France ignored warnings of a genocide in 1994 and bears “overwhelming responsibility in a spiral that ended in the worst,” he said. The country “was not an accomplice” in the genocide, he insisted, but ended up siding with Rwanda’s “genocidal regime” in the slide toward the massacres. Macron was speaking at a memorial for victims of the genocide in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital.
“Only those who went through that night can perhaps forgive,” he said.
Failure by the international community to intervene during the mass slaughter has left a scar on relations between France and other Western powers and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was born into a Tutsi family.
For France to gain the trust of Rwandans, observed a writer for The Conversation, the country has to commit itself to combatting genocide ideology and denial. A great start would be the arrest and extradition of Rwandans who participated in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was the country’s first leader to visit Rwanda following the genocide. He blamed “political errors” for the country’s inaction at the time. Relations deteriorated again under president François Hollande who minimized France’s involvement prior to and during the genocide.
Macron, as president, has sought to improve relations with Rwanda. He ordered an examination of France’s responsibility and a report released in March concluded that the country bore responsibilities for the 1994 events but was not complicit in the crimes.
Some of the report’s contents were echoed by Macron on Thursday.
While failing to deliver an apology, Kagame said he welcomed the French leader’s words as “the truth” and “something more valuable than an apology.”
Kagame’s decades in power have been marked by a stifling of any opposition, often on grounds that dissenters are genocide deniers or would-be instigators of another genocide.
An ongoing case against Paul Rusesabagina, the famed hero of the Hollywood film “Hotel Rwanda,” has resurfaced many of the post-genocide period’s grievances. Rusesabagina is accused by the government of financing rebels tied to genocide perpetrators and attempting to overthrow Kagame. His family asserts that the charges against him are politically motivated. w/pix of E. Macron and P. Kagame
By Lisa Vives / GIN
