France-Rwanda: "Do not expect the slightest repentance from me!" Says ex-Prime Minister Édouard Balladur

Audio 15:39

Edouard Balladur, former French Prime Minister (1993 - 1995), on April 14, 2021 in the studios of France Media World.

© RFI / France24

Text by: Marc Perelman |

Christophe Boisbouvier Follow

|

Video by: Marc Perelman |

Christophe Boisbouvier Follow

19 min

RFI exclusivity - France 24. Despite the Duclert report on France's responsibilities in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, former Prime Minister Édouard Balladur does not want France to apologize.

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In an exclusive interview with RFI and France 24, the former French Prime Minister Édouard Balladur affirms that he “does

 not agree at all

” with the conclusions of the report submitted on March 26 by historian Vincent Duclert on the role of France in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 - a report according to which Paris bears "

heavy and overwhelming responsibilities

".

He protests against the fact that France is accused, while no country or the UN has intervened to prevent the massacres. 

If he admits that France " 

did not do everything well

" and that he " 

would have been happy if

[the humanitarian operation Turquoise]

was done more quickly

 ", Édouard Balladur, who was Prime Minister of France of April 1993 to May 1995, affirms not to share the “ 

wounds 

” nor the “ 

regrets 

” expressed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, Alain Juppé, in a column published on April 7 in Le Monde.

“ 

Everyone reacts with their own character

 ,” he adds with a touch of perfidy.  

He said he did not know who shot down the plane of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994 - the trigger for the genocide of the Tutsis -, while adding that some, in the circles of French power at the time, quickly accusing the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of Paul Kagame to justify an intervention in favor of the Hutu regime. 

Right-wing Prime Minister Édouard Balladur;

who cohabited at the time with the leftist president François Mitterrand, insists on the fact that, in spite of the pressures of 

hawkish “

pressure groups 

” around François Mitterrand, he prevented France from embarking on a “ 

colonial expedition

 ” in favor of a “ 

government responsible for genocide

 ”.

He said in this regard that the French president was hesitant about the approach to follow and that it was he, Édouard Balladur, who finally convinced him that only a military intervention for humanitarian purposes, limited in time and space , was possible.

You were restrictive, and you were right,

 " François Mitterrand would have told him then. 

Édouard Balladur vigorously defends the action of the French soldiers in Operation Turquoise.

He denies the information in the Duclert report according to which, in July 1994, he wanted to intern by the French soldiers the members of the genocidal government who had taken refuge in the zone controlled by France in the south-west of Rwanda.

He specifies that France did not have a mandate to do so. 

Asked about the fact that many Rwandans today expect an apology from France, he replied: " 

Ask other countries, but not France, because France has done something, while the United States and Belgium did nothing.

 "And Édouard Balladur proclaimed:" 

Do not expect the slightest repentance from me!

 "

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