Paris (AFP)
MEP Raphaël Glucksmann estimated that the responsibility of the French State and of François Mitterrand in the genocide committed in Rwanda in 1994, as established by the report submitted to Emmanuel Macron on Friday, constituted the "worst scandal of the Fifth Republic ".
Raphaël Glucksmann was caught up in a controversy with former socialist ministers during the 2019 European elections, for comments on the attitude of François Mitterrand before and after this massacre of 800,000 Tutsis by the Hutus.
"Little by little, the truth will prevail and it is an important moment for France: a nation is growing to illuminate the darkest areas of its history", he reacted to AFP after submission of the report.
According to the MEP, this demonstrates "the overwhelming responsibility of the French state and in particular of François Mitterrand who orchestrated and directed political, financial and military support for an extremist, racist regime which was going to commit genocide".
It is therefore for Mr. Glucksmann "the worst scandal of the Fifth Republic".
"We have so linked our destiny to this Rwandan regime that all signals, including outside intelligence, have been ignored, and the existence once established of the genocide was not a priority for France," he said. -he adds.
Bernard Kouchner, former Minister of Humanitarian Action (1992-1993) under the presidency of François Mitterrand, for his part told AFP: "I have not yet read the report but blindness is a good word. They (the French authorities) had all the means to find out what was going on. They did not do it ".
"Overwhelming responsibility", central role of François Mitterrand, little listened to whistleblowers and helpless soldiers on the ground: the report of more than 1,000 pages of the commission of historians, submitted to Emmanuel Macron, draws up a precise and documented picture on France's role in the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda, in 1994.
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