Rwanda and France could be on course to end a feud that has existed between the two countries over the past 21 years after the European country agreed to declassify documents in its possession related to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Twenty-one years after the killings that paralysed the country, President Francois Hollande declared that France would make public the record in its archives regarding the genocide as a sign of goodwill on his country’s side to be accountable and transparent as a way of facilitating remembrance.

Rwanda said the move will finally reveal France’s role in the killings. 

However, given the murky history of France in Rwandan affairs, authorities in Kigali have cautiously welcomed the decision, which they said may provide answers to many unanswered questions on the events that led up to the genocide and what happened during the 100 days of killing.

In private, Kigali officials maintain that as long as France refuses to accept responsibility and apologise for complicity in the 1994 genocide, relations between the two countries will remain frosty.

READ: What next as Kigali-Paris diplomatic row deepens?

READ: Rwanda, France relations remain frosty

Kigali has expressed reservations that the most vital documents implicating France in the genocide could have been removed or altered over the past two decades.

“France has not changed its policy [towards Rwanda]. What we have had over the last few years are individual efforts, which are also largely motivated by internal politics. Until we see them accept their role in the genocide, there will be no progress,” a diplomat in the Kigali government told The EastAfrican on condition of anonymity.

“We do not know the content of the archives but there are many unanswered questions. It is politics at play. We don’t know what happened to the cockpit voice recorder and the black box of the plane in which president Juvénal Habyarimana was killed,” he said.

While in 2004 the United Nations said it had found the aircraft black box thought to contain vital evidence on the plane crash that killed then presidents Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, it kept disappearing and re-appearing and ultimately vanished.

A 2010 report by a Rwandan investigative commission known after its lead author, Jean Mutsinzi, as the Mutsinzi Report, documented and directly implicated the French government, then led by Francois Mitterrand, in the genocide, accusing it of sponsoring Rwanda’s genocidal regime.

Kigali also accuses France of frustrating justice after the genocide by harbouring key perpetrators of the genocide, including Agathe Habyarimana — the assassinated president’s widow, currently in Paris, despite numerous extradition calls by Kigali.

However, Minister for Justice and Attorney General Johnston Busingye said while the declassification may have come a “little too late”, it could answer some unanswered questions, even though that would entirely depend on the documents that are released.

“The announcement is a welcome one but questions remain on how and what has been declassified. We definitely wait to see how it has been done and what sort of documents have been declassified and from there we will analyse them and make comments after,” Mr Busingye said.

But Paris has continued to brush aside the accusations levelled against the then government of Francois Mitterrand by the Rwandan government, leading to a diplomatic standoff.

Last year, during the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the genocide, President Paul Kagame strongly criticised France for its alleged role called on Paris to come clean about it.

His statements did not go down well with Paris, which stopped a delegation that was led by the justice minister from travelling to Kigali to take part in the events on April 7. In retaliation, Rwanda blocked the French ambassador Michel Flesch from attending the event at Amahoro National Stadium. The incident escalated enmity between Rwanda and France.

According to sources, the documents include minutes from secret defence meetings and files from advisors to Mr Mitterrand relating to the genocide in Rwanda.

Report by Edmund Kagire and Berna Namata