France slams 'unacceptable' Rwanda genocide claims: ministry

5 hours ago

PARIS (AFP) — France on Wednesday accused Rwanda of making "unacceptable accusations" by alleging Paris played an active role in the 1994 genocide, but said it was still determined to mend damaged ties with Kigali.

A 500-page report released Tuesday in the Rwandan capital alleged that France was aware of preparations for the genocide, and that the French military in Rwanda contributed to planning the massacres and actively took part in the killing.

It names 13 senior politicians and 20 military officials as responsible raises the prospect of Rwandan legal action against them.

"This report contains unacceptable accusations made against French political and military officials," French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters.

The spokesman cast doubt on the "objectivity" of the Rwandan commission that produced the report, which was explicitly asked to "gather evidence showing the implication of the French state in the genocide carried out in Rwanda in 1994."

Nadal added that France had not received the report through "official channels".

Initially on Tuesday the French government had refused to comment on the report, before referring reporters back to a general statement of policy from February 2007.

On Wednesday the French foreign ministry suggested France would not let the report further sour relations between Paris and Kigali, which severed diplomatic ties in November 2006 over the question of responsibility for the genocide.

"Our determination to build a new relationship with Rwanda, moving beyond our difficult past, remains intact," said its spokesman Nadal.

He highlighted a meeting in December between President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, and a visit to Kigali by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner as steps towards warming ties.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Rosemary Museminali told a press conference Tuesday that the report should not undermine diplomatic ties with France.

"This report is an important step of which France should be happy," she said. "For diplomacy, it is a very good basis, the relation between Rwanda and France should be based on the truth".

But the Rwandan government reaffirmed Wednesday it hoped legal proceedings would be opened against those accused in the text.

"The government has asked the courts to use this report. We hope that legal proceedings will follow," said Information Minister Louise Mushikiwabo.

The main Rwandan association of genocide survivors, IBUKA, also urged France to prosecute citizens accused in the report.

The 100-day killing spree in the central African nation left around 800,000 people dead, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, according to the United Nations.

France had military advisors present in Rwanda in the period leading up to the genocide. It later took the command of Operation Turquoise, a humanitarian mission deployed towards the end of the killings, from June to August 1994.

Paris has acknowledged making "mistakes" in Rwanda but denies any responsibility for the genocide.

Former French foreign minister Alain Juppe, one of the 13 named politicians who also include the late French president Francois Mitterrand, accused Kigali of an "unacceptable" attempt to rewrite history.

Juppe, who was head of French diplomacy from April 1993 to May 1995, referred AFP to a text published on his Internet blog early this year in which he denounced Rwandan efforts to incriminate Paris.

"In the past few years, we have seen an insidious attempt to rewrite history. It aims to turn France from an involved party into an accomplice to the genocide," Juppe wrote in January. "It is an unacceptable falsification."

"During my time as head of French diplomacy, we did everything we could to help the reconciliation of Rwandans," he wrote.

France and Rwanda severed diplomatic ties in 2006 after a top French judge accused Kagame and his entourage of involvement in the April 1994 killing of president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, whose death sparked the genocide.

In July, Kagame threatened to indict French nationals over the genocide if European courts did not withdraw arrest warrants issued against Rwandan officials.

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