“What Emmanuel Macron says is very true,” welcomes historian Vincent Duclert

While Emmanuel Macron declared that “France could have stopped the genocide” in Rwanda, Vincent Duclert, historian and author of the report of the research commission on the French archives relating to Rwanda and the genocide of the Tutsi, welcomes “a step important” and “a truth”.

“What Emmanuel Macron says is very right”greets Thursday April 4 on franceinfo Vincent Duclert, historian, author of the report of the research commission on French archives relating to Rwanda and the Tutsi genocide.

As the 30th anniversary of this massacre approaches, Emmanuel Macron declared that “France could have stopped the genocide”. The head of state who had already recognized in 2021 the “responsibilities” of France, will speak on Sunday, the anniversary of the massacre of the Tutsi, in a video which will be published on his social networks. “It’s an important step”adds Vincent Duclert, recalling that “France’s place in Rwanda would have allowed it to mobilize the international community, the African countries to which it was close to act while the French soldiers on the ground were ready to carry out operations”.

franceinfo: Is what the Head of State says an additional step, particularly compared to his predecessors?

Vincent Duclert: This is an important step. Already the Kigali speech of May 27, 2021, two months after the submission of our report, Emmanuel Macron brings to Kigali the conclusions of our report on the heavy and overwhelming responsibilities of France in the genocide of the Tutsi, he has a sort of reservation saying that France had done everything to avoid the genocide. It was a sort of concession to the narrative of its predecessors. Today Emmanuel Macron continues the recognition of knowledge. I think it must be linked to his training with Paul Ricoeur [philosophe dont Emmanuel Macron fut l’assistant]. What he says is very important and it will be necessary to check against the full text of the video message from the President of the Republic which will be broadcast on Sunday April 7 in the morning. I think the message will be more important.

What do you understand in this first message that was broadcast?

What he says, and it is the truth, is that France in particular with the alerts of its military agencies, with the work of fact-finding missions including that of the FIDH (International Federation of Human Rights Man) in 1993, with the work of journalists, with information from the UN. There was a mass of knowledge about the genocidal process and the fact that on April 7, 1994 when President [Juvénal] Habyarimana was killed in the attack on his plane, it was clear that a genocide was going to begin. It was possible to qualify him very quickly and that is what Alain Juppé will do [ministre des Affaires étrangères] somewhat alone on May 16, 1994. It was possible to qualify it but also to mobilize the means to stop it.

These means existed and was it possible to use them?

The means existed, I remind you that the day after April 7, France dispatched several hundred special forces to evacuate the nationals, Belgium also sent Belgian paratroopers with a mobilization of troops in Nairobi [Kenya] able to intervene in Rwanda. There are Italian commandos, there are American marines too. There are 2,500 peacekeepers. All these forces could have been used to stop the massacres in Kigali. What Emmanuel Macron says is very right. France was leader in Rwanda and supported at arm’s length this regime that François Mitterrand believed to be legitimate and benefactor while Rwanda was with South Africa, the two nations in Africa which imposed apartheid. The Tutsi were victims of state apartheid.

So France turned a blind eye to what was happening?

There is a sort of systematic willful blindness about the regime. France’s position in Rwanda would have allowed it to mobilize the international community, the African countries to which it was close to act while the soldiers on the ground were ready to carry out operations. They clearly saw that there were massacres of civilians. The French soldiers of 1994 were traumatized by the refusal imposed on them not to act. It is the political level which decides not to intervene because France supported this regime so much and therefore to act against the genocide is to recognize the major fault of French diplomacy. We must do justice to Emmanuel Macron for having refused this narrative and this denial and then we must get the French and the international community to look the truth in the face. This approach to truth is also a respect for the victims who expect the truth before perhaps excuses.