Rwanda: the Council of State authorizes a researcher to access the archives of F. Mitterrand

Photos of victims donated by survivors of the genocide are on display at the Memorial. © REUTERS / Baz Ratner

Text by: RFI Follow

In France, the Council of State authorized Friday June 2 a researcher to consult the archives of former President François Mitterrand on Rwanda.

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France is regularly singled out for its controversial role during the Tusti genocide in 1994.

The highest French administrative jurisdiction estimated that this researcher, François Graner, had "a legitimate interest to consult these archives to feed his historical research and thus to clarify the debate on a question of public interest".

The Mitterrand archives are covered by a protocol which does not provide for their general opening to the public until 2055.

► Read also : France and the Tutsi genocide: the commission of historians on the job 

But the Council of State therefore ordered the French Ministry of Culture to open, within three months, access to these archives to this researcher.

A decision welcomed by François Graner, director of research at the CNRS and author of several books on the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, joined by telephone by Pierre Firtion , from the Africa service of RFI.

“ This is very, very good news. After five years of procedures, the Council of State definitively ends this procedure, taking up all our arguments on its own. He says that we are completely legitimate to participate in the public debate, to have access to the archives, to know what governments have done on our behalf.

And so it is a fundamental decision which is very important, both for the consultation of these archives, which will be authorized to me within three months, and more generally, for the whole debate on the role of France in Rwanda and even for the debates in general which concern citizens and access to archives.

We hope that this decision will set a real precedent on the merits, to make a lot of progress. In the immediate future, this should allow me to have access to a real and fairly complete archive, which allows me to do the work of historians, serene and in depth  . ”

► Also listen : France and the Tutsi genocide: "Exploring the national archives to shed light"

► Also to listen: On theGenocide in Rwanda, "part of the archives of the DGSE has been declassified" (François Graner invited Africa in the morning)

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  • Rwanda
  • France
  • History
  • François Mitterrand

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