Genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda: France has "failed", according to the Duclert report
The historian Vincent Duclert giving Emmanuel Macron the report of the commission he chaired on the role of France in Rwanda in the early 1990s. AFP - LUDOVIC MARIN
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The report of nearly 1,200 pages of the Duclert commission was officially submitted to Emmanuel Macron on Friday.
Two years ago, the French president instructed about fifteen historians, gathered within a commission chaired by historian Vincent Duclert, to examine "
the French archives relating to Rwanda and the genocide of the Tutsi
", between 1990 and 1994. The stated objective of establishing France's role in the Rwandan genocide seems to have been achieved.
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France bears "
heavy and overwhelming responsibilities
" in the events which led to the genocide of the Tutsi in 1994, according to the report's conclusions.
Paris was indeed heavily involved in Rwanda from the 1990s, and "
aligned
" with the country's Hutu regime.
The report notes that “
France has invested a long time alongside a regime which encouraged racist massacres.
She remained blind in the face of the preparation for genocide
”, and“
this alignment with Rwandan power stems from a will of the Head of State and the Presidency of the Republic
”.
The former French socialist president François Mitterrand is therefore clearly singled out, like his inner circle.
The report criticizes the massive arms deliveries to the Rwandan regime.
But in the archives, there is no document attesting to deliveries of weapons after the start of the massacres, according to the researchers.
And for the Élysée, if France has a political, institutional, intellectual, ethical and moral responsibility, it was unable to really understand what was happening at the time.
The Duclert report therefore excludes, according to the presidency, the notion of complicity in genocide.
Because nowhere does he see the intention to participate or to allow the genocide.
The Élysée also affirms that the charges against Operation Turquoise are also dismissed.
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