France and the Rwandan genocide: the NGO Survie worries about the state of the investigation

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In France, a little over a year ago, Emmanuel Macron created a commission of historians responsible for shedding light on the role of France in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. This commission, which will make its final report in a year ago, in April 2021, has just published an interim report. A note that already raises the concern of the association Survie.

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This commission of historians has access to the archives of the Presidency of the Republic, Matignon, the Quai d'Orsay and the Ministry of the Armed Forces.

The interim note published on Tuesday contains no revelation. In this progress document, we find above all details on his working method. But it notes already raises the concern of the association Survie , as explained to us by one of its members, Francois Granner, co-author of the book The French State and the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, joined on the phone by Pierre Firtion .

" I find that it gives a bad signal on the ability to advance research on the role of France in Rwanda. When they (the authors) recall the context in their text on the three French military interventions in Rwanda, they could have just factually recalled what happened and possibly recalled that there are differences of opinion on the subject. And what we find quite worrying is that they already unilaterally take up the Mitterrandian point of view.

For example, in April 1994, at the very beginning of the Tutsi genocide, the French army evacuated French nationals. And then, in 1998, there was a parliamentary mission which examined the subject and which noted, which verified well, that one of the reproaches which was made against the French army, it is that France has welcomed extremist Hutu dignitaries and the army did nothing to protect the Tutsis who were chased and threatened with death by the killers. Even Tutsis were turned back by the French army. So that has already been approved by the deputies.

So why, in its presentation text, the Duclert commission says that the French have evacuated Tutsi and Hutu Rwandans? So that poses a lot of questions about what the final report will actually be able to do. Is he really going to be free from political influence? "

►The president of this commission of historians, Vincent Duclert , is the guest this Thursday morning of RFI. In particular, it responds to the concerns raised by the Survie association.

Listen here: France and the Rwandan genocide: " Exploring the national archives to shed light "

► Read also : Unveiled, the composition of the genocide commission remains decried

[ANALYSIS]
Role of France and genocide of Tutsis in #Rwanda: we publish a decryption of the intermediate note of the commission of historians mandated to excavate the archives 🇫🇷 and denounce "a disturbing orientation of the Duclert commission" ⤵️https: // t .co / MWLr2iZxyk

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