By RFIPosted on 10-19-2019Modified 19-10-2019 at 00:23

A commission of researchers will look at French archives related to the 1994 events in Rwanda. The names that make up this commission were unveiled Thursday, October 17. But the list is still under fire from critics.

Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of this commission at the beginning of April, at the time of the commemoration of the Rwandan genocide. The officially stated objective is to " analyze the role and commitment of France during this period ".

→ Read also: [Exclusive] Role of France in Rwanda: Macron's letter to the commission

The list has been established (read below). It will be composed of fifteen members: historians, law professors or a section president at the Council of State. People recognized and qualified in their field, certainly. Yet, no specialist in Rwanda, it is always the criticism addressed by the researcher Christian Ingrao who had already launched a petition in April to denounce the exclusion of two experts:

" These people are recognized in their field, the fact remains that a commission working on a genocide that was committed in Rwanda and on the intervention of a foreign power is to count specialists of local contexts, that It is unthinkable to set up this type of commission without someone who speaks local languages. "

Opposite, the president of the commission, Vincent Duclert, assumes the established composition, he says, after exchanges with the Elysee. But for him, the interested parties will undoubtedly know how to seize a new file for them. Especially since this is justified by the purpose of the commission, specifically the role of France and its institutions in the face of the Rwandan genocide. And then " the world of Tutsi genocide specialists in Rwanda is also a cleaved milieu, there are tensions, and I wanted to avoid putting the commission in these divisions sometimes quite sharp ."

But Vincent Duclert affirms it: the specialists of Rwanda are not forgotten so far, they will be consulted. In any case, the work of this commission will lead to a report which should normally be made public in late March or early April 2021.

The members of this commission have been authorized to access all the classified archives on the subject. So considerable resources are allocated to this commission of researchers. This authorization is decided by the executive and can only benefit French researchers. There is a considerable advance on the part of the executive which, I should like to say, no other President of the Republic has consented to do so far. So there is an exchange with the Presidency of the Republic but the names, I have proposed and I fully accept this proposal.

Vincent Duclert: "considerable progress and I assume"

18-10-2019 - By Sébastien Duhamel

Note that Holocaust specialist Annette Wievorka has dropped out of this commission. With our colleagues from La Croix , she explains that it is mainly with regard to the mass of work. " This is to strip all the military, diplomatic, presidential archives of France in Rwanda over four years, it's just considerable, " she said.

■ The composition of the commission

Composition of the French Archives Research Commission on Rwanda and the Tutsi Genocide (1990-1994)

Mr. Vincent DUCLERT, researcher and former director of CESPRA (CNRS-EHESS), teacher at EHESS, Inspector General of National Education, President of the Commission

Mrs Julie D'ANDURAIN, professor of contemporary history at the University of Metz, specialist in contemporary military history

Mrs. Catherine BERTHO-LAVENIR, Professor Emeritus of Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, Inspector General of National Honorary Education, Archivist Paleographer

Mr Thomas HOCHMANN, Professor of Public Law at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne

Mrs Sylvie HUMBERT, Professor of the History of Law at the Catholic University of Lille, specialist in international criminal justice

Mr. Raymond H. KEVORKIAN, research director emeritus at the University of Paris 8, specialist in Armenian genocide, member of the Study Mission in France on the research and teaching of genocide of mass crimes

Mrs Françoise THEBAUD, professor emeritus in contemporary history of the University of Avignon, specialist of the Great War, women and gender

Mr. Christian VIGOUROUX, Section President of the Council of State, former Associate Professor of Public Law at the Universities of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

General Secretariat and mission officers:

Mrs Chantal MORELLE, professor in preparatory classes, doctor in contemporary history, specialist of the Fifth Republic, diplomacy and General de Gaulle

Mr. David DOMINE-COHN, Certified Professor of History and Geography, Specialist in Army Archives and Military Operations

Ms. Isabelle ERNOT, seconded professor of history-geography, doctor of contemporary history, specialist of the Holocaust, member of the Study Mission in France on the research and teaching of genocide and mass crimes

Ms. Christelle JOUHANNEAU, Inspector of Regional Pedagogical Academy-Inspector Trainee, Associate of History and Geography, Specialist in Educational Issues

Mr. Erik LANGLINAY, Associate Professor of History, Doctor of Contemporary History, Specialist in Wartime Organizations

Mr Guillaume POLLACK, certified professor of history-geography, doctoral student, specialist of the archives networks of resistance and the secret services

Sandrine WEIL, PhD student in contemporary history, specialist in image, photo and video resources, member of the Study Mission in France on the research and teaching of genocide and mass crimes

    On the same subject

    Role of France in Rwanda: controversy around the commission of historians

    Rwandan genocide: the experience of the commission of inquiry in Belgium

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