France has made a wide range of commitments to Rwanda which if implemented could result into a high number of trials and extraditions of genocide suspects as well as improved judicial co-operation between the two countries.

These renewed assurances from Paris, Kigali says, include adequately funding and staffing of a special judicial chamber to try 1994 genocide suspects who live in France.

Kigali had threatened to take legal action against France, accusing it of failure to apprehend and try suspects in the 1994 genocide, to whom it has given a safe haven.

READ: Return of icy relations looms as Rwanda ponders suing France

Rwanda is identifying the right international legal frameworks through which to sue France in order to make it accountable for its actions.

But such a move is bound to derail efforts the two nations have made to mend diplomatic ties, which had soured since 1994 and have only slowly been thawing.

Records held by the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit show France is home to at least 25 genocide suspects, while there are other fresh cases being unearthed.

But politicians in Paris have assured their counterparts in Kigali of meaningful judicial co-operation.

Last week, French judicial officials said they intend to prosecute Capt Simbikangwa Pascal on genocide crime.

The suspect was the Head of Secret Service during the genocide and is among many ex-senior officials in the former Juvenal Habyarimana government who live in France including the former first lady whom Kigali believes must know something related to the planning of the genocide.

READ: Genocide suspect arrested in France

Rwandan prosecutors scorned at the move as window dressing and said Paris should be genuine while dealing with issues of genocidaires on its soil.

However, Justice Minister Tharcise Karugarama says despite the slow pace, his government was happy France is doing something.

Rwandan officials said a number of senior French citizens were involved in “dubious activities” before and during the genocide in 1994.

“Some of these people are on assignments and others in government,” Justice Minister Tharcise Karugarama told The EastAfrican without giving names.

A file by French investigating Judge Jean-Loius Bruguière indicts some senior members of the ruling party over the downing of President Habyarimana’s plane in which some French citizens died. Judge Bruguière’s verdict led to street protests in Kigali in 2006.

Observers say the matter at hand places both Kigali and Paris in a precarious situation.

Kigali says it has evidence against some French officials and needs co-operation from the country’s judiciary to conduct conclusive investigations as to whether these officials were acting in collaboration with others because they could not have managed to do some of the things they did without other powers beyond Kigali.

Despite setting up a special tribunal to try genocide fugitives, saying that extraditing them to Rwanda would contravene their rights, France has not tried a single case – something Rwanda says is “disturbing.”