13th December, 2017
The Rwandan Government has called for an investigation into alleged French complicity in the country’s 1994 genocide in a published a report on Wednesday.
A U.S. law firm helped to investigate and put together a report.
The firm alleged that France helped with arms and provided safe harbour for Rwandan perpetrators of the genocide, knowing full well that ethnic Tutsis were being targeted.
The report “exposes a damning summary of conduct by French officials in Rwanda during the 1990s and thereafter,’’ said Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwandan minister for foreign affairs.
“We agree with the report recommendation that a full investigation into the role of French officials in the genocide is warranted,’’ she said.
The government has submitted the report to the French side, she added, “with a view toward better collaboration with French authorities in the pursuit of truth, justice and accountability regarding the Genocide against the Tutsi.”
Key findings in the report are that France “facilitated the flow of weapons’’ into Rwanda, allowed “genocidaires’’ to meet at the French Embassy, obstructed attempts to bring genocide-accused to justice, and failed to declassify documents from the era.
A French parliamentary commission inquiry into the role of French officials, which found no evidence of wrongdoing, was not transparent, the law firm’s report found.
The Rwanda genocide in 1994 saw an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed during a 100-day period.