The French president has named a commission to investigate France's role in the 1994 killings. More than 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were murdered in a genocidal campaign by militias loyal to the government.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/B. Curtis
Advertisement
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday announced the creation of a commission tasked with investigating France's role in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
The presidency tapped several historians and researchers for the commission, saying they "will be tasked with consulting all France's archives relating to the genocide … in order to analyze the role and engagement of France during that period."
"The goal is to deliver a report which will be published in two years time … and will be accessible to all," the presidency said. "It will scientifically evaluate, on the basis of archives, the role that France played in Rwanda from 1990 to 1994."
Former President Francois Hollande had declassified presidential archives on the subject in 2015, but researchers complained that only a fraction of these documents went public and that a thorough account of France's potential involvement had not emerged.
French President Emmanuel Macron became the first to meet with an association of survivors of the genocideImage: picture-alliance/AP Images/P. Wojazer
Genocide
Relations between France and Rwanda have been under immense strain since the genocide. Rwandan authorities have partially blamed the French government for the massacres over its support of the Hutu-led government.
In 1994, some 800,000 people — the majority of them ethnic Tutsis — were slaughtered by Hutus. The genocide began as a backlash to the death of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu moderate, in a plane crash. Hutu moderates who refused to join the pogrom were also at risk.
Although France had troops stationed in Rwanda at the time as part of a UN mandate, they did not intervene until June, two months after the genocide had started.
Several suspected war criminals, wanted for trial in Rwanda, also later sought refuge in France.
France had repeatedly denied any involvement until former French President Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledged in 2010 that his country had made "serious errors of judgement." France had "a sort blindness when we didn't foresee the genocidal dimensions of the government," Sarkozy said at the time.
Meanwhile, Macron became on Friday the first French president to meet with representatives of the biggest association of survivors of the Rwandan genocide.
Macron has also been lauded by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who said his approach represented "a change from the neo-colonial positions of the past."
The announcement coincides with events in Rwanda commemorating the killings, 25 years on. Macron had ruffled feathers in Rwanda by saying that he could not attend this year.
Rwanda's genocide began on April 7, 1994. It was a mass slaughter that shocked the world. At the time the international community — above all France and the UN — failed to come to the aid of victims.
Image: Timothy Kisambira
A signal to extremists
On April 6, 1994, unidentified attackers shot down a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana as it was about to land at Kigali airport. President Habyarimana, his Burundian counterpart and eight other passengers died in the crash. The next day organized killings began. Massacres continued over the course of three months, and nearly 1 million Rwandans lost their lives.
Image: AP
Targeted killings
After the assassination of the president, Hutu extremists attacked the Tutsi minority and Hutus who stood in their way. The murderers were well-prepared, and targeted human rights activists, journalists and politicians. One of the first victims on April 7 was Prime Minister Agathe Uwiringiymana.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Foreign nationals rescued
While thousands of Rwandans were being killed every day, Belgian and French special forces evacuated about 3,500 foreigners. On April 13, Belgian paratroopers rescued seven German employees and their families from Deutsche Welle's relay transmitting station in Kigali. Only 80 of 120 local staff members survived the genocide.
Image: P.Guyot/AFP/GettyImages
Appeals for help
As early as January 1994, UNAMIR commander Romeo Dallaire wanted to act on information he had received about an "anti-Tutsi extermination" plot. The warning he sent to the UN on January 11, later known as the "genocide fax," went unheard. And his desperate appeals after the genocide began were rejected by Kofi Annan, who was Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations at the time.
Image: A.Joe/AFP/GettyImages
Hate media
The Mille Collines radio station (RTLM) and Kangura, a weekly magazine, stoked ethnic hatred. In 1990, Kangura published the racist "Hutu Ten Commandments." Mille Collines radio, which was known for its pop music and sports programs, fueled the genocide by urging Hutu civilians to hunt down and kill Tutsis. Director Milo Rau devoted his film "Hate Radio" to these appalling broadcasts (photo).
Image: IIPM/Daniel Seiffert
Refuge in a hotel
In Kigali, Paul Rusesabagina hid more than 1,000 people in the Hotel Des Mille Collines. Rusesabagina had taken over the position of the hotel's Belgian manager, who left the country. With a great deal of alcohol and money, he managed to prevent Hutu militias from killing the refugees. In many other places where people sought refuge, they were not able to escape the slaughter.
Image: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/GettyImages
Massacres in churches
Churches were no longer sanctuaries. About 4,000 men, women and children were murdered with axes, knives and machetes in the church of Ntarama near Kigali. Today, the church is one of the country's many genocide memorials. Rows of skulls, human bones as well as bullet marks in the walls are a reminder of what happened there.
Image: epd
France's role
The French government maintained close ties to the Hutu regime. When the French army intervened in June, it enabled soldiers and militiamen responsible for the genocide to flee to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and even take their weapons with them. They still pose a threat to Rwanda today.
Image: P.Guyot/AFP/GettyImages
Streams of refugees
During the genocide, millions of Rwandan Tutsis and Hutus fled to Tanzania, Zaire and Uganda. Some 2 million of them went to Zaire alone. These included former members of the army and perpetrators of the genocide, who soon founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a militia that is still terrorizing the population in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo today.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Capture of the capital
On July 4, 1994, rebels from the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) patrolled the area around the Church of the Holy Family in Kigali. By that time, they had liberated most of the country and routed the perpetrators of the genocide. However, human rights activists also accused the rebels of committing crimes, for which no one has been held accountable to this day.
Image: Alexander Joe/AFP/GettyImages
End of the genocide
On July 18, 1994, the RPF's leader, Major General Paul Kagame, declared that the war against the government troops was over. The rebels were in control of the capital and other important towns. Initially, they installed a provisional government. Paul Kagame became Rwanda's president in the year 2000.
Image: Alexander Joe/AFP/GettyImages
Lasting scars
The genocide went on for almost three months. The victims were often slaughtered with machetes. Neighbors killed neighbors. Not even babies and elderly people were spared, and the streets were strewn with corpses and body parts. It's not only the physical scars on the bodies of the survivors that remind Rwandans of the genocide. A deep trauma also remains.
