France and the Tutsi genocide: the commission of historians on the job

Text by: Pierre Firtion Follow

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. Before submitting its report in a year, this commission , who has access to a whole set of archives, gave an interim note to the President of the Republic on April 5. No revelation in this progress document, especially details on his working method.

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It is a work at the same time complex and colossal which began seven months ago: the examination and the analysis of an incalculable number of archives. The goal ? Shedding light on the role of France in Rwanda at the time of the genocide of the Tutsis in 1994. This titanic work is led by the research commission on the French archives relating to Rwanda and to the genocide of the Tustsis - its exact title - created on 5 April 2019 by Emmanuel Macron. This structure, composed of fifteen members, is to report on the subject in April 2021.

Presidential archives, funds from the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Defense, the DGSE: the commission is supposed to have access to almost everything. " We actually have access to all these archives," confirms to RFI Vincent Duclert, the president of the commission . The attorney Madame Bertinotti has given her agreement for access to all of the presidential funds (by François Mitterrand) relating to the subject, and therefore there is the possibility of a global investigation. And it is important, because the global survey makes it possible to understand processes. It makes it possible to reconstruct chains of decisions and that makes it possible to do a real historical work ”.

A note that gives "bad signals" according to the Survival association

For the researcher, " the priority " is thus " to exhaust all the French archives ". Does he not fear that certain documents will be hidden from him? " It is not at all in the culture of archivists to hide archives," he answers a bit irritated. We have to be clear about this. We are looking for possibly missing archives, but there, I think that everyone has an interest in making all of the archives accessible to the commission and that the commission gives itself the means to dispose of all these archives. It’s everyone’s interest . ”

Last September, the commission therefore began this titanic work. In the space of seven months, she carried out 909 consultation sessions in four archive services, as detailed in an interim note given to the President of the Republic on April 5. In this 29-page document, the commission describes the way it operates and specifies the means at its disposal. Her budget of 300,000 euros ensures, she explains, “ material autonomy ”. And if it is housed at the Ministry of the Armed Forces, it says it works " independently ". Some of the archives are classified, its members have individual access rights and exemptions.

No revelation therefore in this note on the role of France in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994. The document nevertheless gives rise to concern about "Survival" . The association believes, in a press release, that this document gives " bad signals". It is shocking, explains Patrice Garesio, co-president of Survie, that in its historic preamble, this progress note presents as positive the role of France in Rwanda, sometimes in contradiction with what has already recognized the Mission of parliamentary information from 1998. "

" A researcher's job is still to trust the documentation first," answers Vincent Duclert. If we start with preconceived ideas, we will not get there , adds the researcher who shows a certain determination: "Survival" may perhaps decide to overwhelm us with criticism, this will not prevent us from continuing in our methodology, which is effectively to exhaust the archival resource and therefore to bring out all the documents, elements which will support a discourse of truth ”.

The commission in Rwanda in October

To do so, Vincent Duclert intends to increase the number of specialist hearings and field trips. The commission thus plans to go to Rwanda in October " to work in the archives , specifies the president of the commission, and also to go on the ground of Operation Turquoise and in the north of Rwanda, where the fighting took place between the fighting units of the RPF and the Rwandan armed forces, so as to know the topography, the constraints ”.

In order to prepare for this trip, the researcher went to the site in February with Sylvie Humbert, also a member of the commission. " We met a certain number of researchers," he says, " because the aim was to question the presence of French archives in the Rwandan funds. It was a work of methodological precaution and also of explanation towards the Rwandan colleagues, of the work of this research commission ”.

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