France Orders Declassification of Confidential Documents Related to the Rwanda Genocide

Seems to contain content about French government responsibility in the Rwanda genocide
President Kagame: "Shows that France has the will to move forward"

French President Emmanuel Macron [Photo by Reuters]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] The French government has released diplomatic and military confidential documents to the public on the 27th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan Tutsi genocide.

According to AFP on the 7th (local time), the ?lys?e Palace, the French presidential office, ordered the opening of diplomatic cables and confidential documents created between 1990 and 1994. These documents are known to contain information regarding the French government's responsibility in the Rwandan genocide, which resulted in 800,000 deaths.

Earlier, President Emmanuel Macron had launched a fact-finding committee in 2019 to investigate whether the French government bore any responsibility for the Rwandan genocide.

The investigation committee concluded that France was "involved with a regime that incited racial massacres" during the Rwandan genocide and bore "heavy and serious responsibility," including insufficient efforts to stop the massacre.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame welcomed the release of the related diplomatic documents but pointed out that "the efforts by certain French government officials to conceal responsibility for decades have caused serious harm."

However, President Kagame evaluated that "this (the release of diplomatic documents) marks a change" and "shows that French leaders also have the willingness to move forward by properly understanding what happened."

Previously, in Rwanda on April 6, 1994, the plane carrying the Hutu president from the majority ethnic group was shot down and crashed, which was used as a pretext for the Hutu side to carry out indiscriminate massacres against the minority Tutsi ethnic group for about 100 days.

After the genocide ended, Rwanda accused the French military of involvement in the Tutsi genocide, leading to disputes over responsibility with the French government. Subsequently, diplomatic relations between the two countries were completely severed from 2006 to 2009.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.