the Mitterrand Institute asks Emmanuel Macron to “remove the ambiguity” on his position

The head of state believed that France “could have stopped the genocide (…) with its Western and African allies”, but “did not have the will”.

The François Mitterrand Institute denounced, Monday April 8, a “hazardous communication” from the Élysée on the question of France’s role in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, asking Emmanuel Macron to “remove ambiguity” on its position.

In a video broadcast on Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tutsi genocide, which left at least 800,000 dead, French President “assume everything and exactly” the speech delivered on May 27, 2021 in Kigali, in which he recognized the “responsibility” of France in the massacres. However, the Elysée had seemed to go beyond a few days earlier: the head of state believes that France “could have stopped the genocide (…) with its Western and African allies”but “did not have the will”the French presidency reported on Thursday.

“What could France have done more or better?”

Words then interpreted as a further step in the recognition of France’s responsibilities in the genocide, but which Emmanuel Macron did not use on Sunday. “This hazardous communication, as well as the absence of a clear denial, is likely to create confusion about the President’s position”estimated Jean Glavany who heads the François Mitterrand Institute, president in 1994. The international community “let us all down” during the Tutsi genocide, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Sunday on the 30th anniversary of the genocide.

“If, as his advisors report, the President of the Republic judges that France, with its allies, could have stopped the genocide but did not have the will, we urge him to answer the following questions “explained the Institute. “What more or better could France have done? Is it deliberately ignoring the desire of François Mitterrand and Édouard Balladur to engage it, even alone, in a humanitarian operation aimed at saving lives, as well as than the efforts that Alain Juppé made in May and June 1994 to obtain the vote of the Security Council?”, questions Jean Glavany in particular. Contacted Monday by AFP, the Élysée specified that “the President of the Republic very clearly reiterated his position which has not changed since the speech he gave on this subject in Kigali on May 27, 2021.”