President Emmanuel Macron asked Rwanda to forgive France over 1994-genocide role
2 min read
The president of France Emmanuel Macron visited Rwanda on Thursday 27 May 2021. During his visit, he acknowledges France’s role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and asked for forgiveness.
France had continuously been accuse of complicity in the deaths of an estimated 800,000 people in Rwanda thereby causing weak diplomatic relations between Kigali and Paris
It is worthy to note that, since 2010, Emmanuel Macron is the first president to visit Rwanda because of the accusation of France in complicity in the killing of at least 800,000 Rwandans.
As a result, in 2019 French President Emmanuel Macron appointed a commission of historians and researchers to investigate the role of France in the Rwandan Genocide. In March 2021, the Inquiry Panel released its report, which acknowledges that France was partly responsible for the Genocide in 1994.
While speaking at the Gisozi genocide memorial in Kigali alongside the Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the President of France said “I hereby humbly and with respect stand by your side today; I come to recognize the extent of our responsibilities.”
Though the March report pardons France of direct complicity in the Rwandan 1994 Genocide, the report acknowledges that France ought to have foreseen the slaughter and play its role by preventing it given the closed ties with the then-president. The French President said, “France was not an accomplice,” but reiterated that France “has a role, a history and a political responsibility in Rwanda.” “The killers who stalked the swamps, the hills, the churches, did not have the face of France. France was not an accomplice,” Mr Macron reiterated.
It is worthy to note that Rwanda had earlier released its own report which established that France was aware of the preparation of genocide but did not quit its support for the then Rwanda’s President Juvenal Habyarimana
In his speech, Macron said only those who survived the genocide “could perhaps forgive, and so could give us the gift of forgiving ourselves,” He repeatedly said in the native language of Rwanda,”Ndibuka” meaning “I remember.”
Responding to Macron’s speech, the President of Rwanda called his speech powerful and referred to his words as an apology. “They were the truth. Speaking the truth is risky, but you do it because it is right, even when it costs you something, even when it is unpopular,”
At the end of the historic visit, the two leaders are considering reopening the embassy which has been vacant for six years without an Ambassador.
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Berinyuy Cajetan
Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
