“I don’t have anything to add nor to remove from what I said,” Macron added in the pre-recorded video that aired Sunday about the “moment so important and so cruel” of Rwanda’s history.
In 1994, extremists from the Hutu ethnic group launched a killing spree against the Tutsi minority and Hutu moderates, killing around 800,000 people in the landlocked eastern African country.
A 2021 report, led by French historians, found that France bears “heavy and overwhelming responsibility” in what happened, and had been “blind” to genocide preparations. Paris, under President François Mitterrand, supported the Hutu leaders at the time.
Macron’s words fall short of what the French presidency briefed journalists last week on outlining the forthcoming message to Rwanda. In notes seen by POLITICO, Macron was expected to go a step further in recognizing France’s failures to stop the genocide.
“The head of state will remind all that … the international community had the means to know and act … and that France, which could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, did not have the will to do so,” the statement said.
A press officer for the Elysée Palace on Monday told POLITICO there had been “a bungle at the communications team.”
David Turner is a globe-trotting journalist who brings a global perspective to our readers. With a commitment to shedding light on international events, he explores complex geopolitical issues, offering a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
