François Graner is the research leader at CNRS, France's national center for scientific research, and tells the French newspaper Le Monde about the latest documents.

- They confirm the picture from previous material I have had access to, says François Graner to Le Monde.

- That French decision-makers, led by President Mitterrand and a small group of soldiers in his vicinity, pursued a policy that involved support for Hutu extremists before, during and after the genocide in Rwanda.

Rwanda - France's sphere of interest

In connection with the genocide in Rwanda, 800,000 people were killed, most of them civilians belonging to the Tutsi ethnic group.

Rapes of women were systematic.

The massacres of the Tutsi population took place between April and June 1994. About two million people fled to neighboring countries.

Behind the genocide was the Hutu nationalist government and Hutu extremist militias that are also believed to have been behind the assassination of Hutu nationalist President Juvénal Habyarimana, which was used as an excuse to launch attacks on the Tutsi population. 

For France, Rwanda was considered to belong to their sphere of interest in Africa and in 1990 the country had sent troops to support Habyarimana against Tutsi rebels based in the English-backed neighbor Uganda. 

- The French support has always taken place with full awareness of what was going on in Rwanda and played a role in the crimes that were then committed, says François Graner. 

Minister questioned - was hit back

As early as 1992, France became aware of ethnic attacks.

The military at the scene sent home reports: 

"Ethnic massacres have been carried out by militias close to the incumbent regime (…) and the presence of our troops near the area where these massacres have taken place may raise questions," General Christian Quesnot wrote in a note to French President Socialist Francois Mitterrand. 

Despite a 1993 peace treaty banning arms trade with the warring parties, France continued to sell arms to the Hutu regime.

When the French defense minister questioned the French presence in Rwanda, he was rebuked by the French prime minister and by the president, who said a withdrawal would mean "a loss of prestige" for France in the region.

Research leader François Graner does not mince words: 

- The French authorities have had total insight into what happened in Rwanda and they knew about the preparations for a genocide.

They must be seen as complicit in a genocide.