A commission that spent almost two years exposing France’s role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide concluded that Friday reacted too slowly to estimate the scale of the terror, which left more than 800,000 dead, but cleared the country of involvement in the massacre.
The report said France was carrying “heavy and overwhelming responsibility” in the operation that led to the killings, which mainly claimed victims of Rwanda’s ethnic minority in Tutsi. Persistent claims that France under then-President Francois Mitterrand did not do enough to stop the genocide have damaged the Franco-Rwandan relationship since the 1990s. As a result, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the 15-member Commission in May 2019 to highlight what happened in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994.
Officials at Macron’s office said the inquiry was not just about improving relations with Rwanda but with the entire African continent, as other countries also have questions about what France was doing at the time.
According to the Commission’s report, France was doomed to fail in its “political, institutional, intellectual, ethical (and) moral” responsibilities, according to Macron officials. But the report says researchers found no evidence that French weapons were delivered to Rwanda after the genocide began. It also rules out allegations of wrongdoing by Operation Turquoise, a French-led military intervention in Rwanda that has been accused of being a failed attempt to support the Hutu-led government in Rwanda. The report further ruled out any “complicity in the genocide” of the French and said there was no evidence of an intention to carry out genocide measures.
The report found “malfunctions in the process of estimating the situation” and the French government and military decisions that followed. But the Commission made it clear that their report did not try to pamper individuals. It is unclear whether the report will succeed in improving relations between France and Rwanda, and in particular, satisfies Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Macron hoped the document would allow a catharsis, allowing France to rest claims that had been simmering for more than a quarter of a century.
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