Published: August 6 2008 20:12 | Last updated: August 6 2008 20:12
Rwanda has produced the most detailed account yet of France’s role during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The report released in Kigali follows a four year inquiry. It implicates top officials in the French political and military establishment, including François Mitterand, then president, his son, Jean-Christophe, two former prime ministers and a host of military officers.
Some of the allegations are new. Some have been around for a long time. But the thrust is that Paris gave diplomatic cover and provided military training and arms to Hutu extremists who carried out the slaughter of 1m ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. There are new details of training that French officers gave to the civil defence units that became the Interahamwe militias responsible for leading the massacres. The report suggests that Paris was providing arms well after the atrocities had begun. It also alleges some French personnel participated directly in war crimes. If there is compelling evidence, they should face justice.
Washington, London, the UN and others were guilty of standing by as the ugliest chapter in modern African history was scripted. Paris is being accused of much worse: active complicity in the writing of it.
As could be expected, the French have hit back, describing the allegations as “unacceptable” and questioning the independence of the government appointed committee that carried out the inquiry. There may well be propaganda and exaggeration. The suggestion that French officials knowingly connived in preparations for genocide might not withstand scrutiny.
But there is substance to Rwanda’s accusation that France allowed the conditions for genocide to develop by supporting a client regime even after it started committing war crimes. Paris has still to acknowledge its errors and issue any form of apology to Rwanda – a source of immense grievance to survivors of the massacres. It also explains why Rwanda has felt it necessary to put on record its version of events.
This was the nadir of France’s relationship with client states in Francophone Africa. President Nicolas Sarkozy has almost admitted as much, but he needs to do more. Many leading political figures in France have been outspoken in criticizing Turkey for its failure to examine whether the massacre of Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman empire amounted to genocide. They cite this as a reason Turkey does not belong in the European Union. They need to be honest about their own behaviour in Rwanda.