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Rwanda, France relations remain frosty

Saturday July 05 2014
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Rwanda's President Paul Kagame (right) and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Relations between the two countries have remained strained for the past twenty years. Photo/FILE

The enmity between Rwanda and France continues to fester 20 years after the 1994 genocide, despite several attempts to reconcile them.

As Rwanda marked 20 years of liberation last week, debate raged on in Paris on whether France should open the “genocide archives” — and for the first time allow the world to see the role it played during the genocide; meanwhile, in Kigali, President Paul Kagame ruled out a quick fix to the strained relations.

He said that the problems between Kigali and Paris could not be resolved in meetings, insisting that, as long as France refused to accept responsibility and apologise for complicity in the 1994 genocide, relations between the two countries would remain frosty.

“If the problems between Rwanda and France were to be resolved by meetings, then by now we would have resolved all of them. But it seems it’s not just meetings that resolve problems. I think more needs to be happening,” President Kagame told journalists.

The meetings have not addressed the root cause of the ongoing disagreements, which in principle are about France’s complicity in the genocide.

The two countries have cut diplomatic ties on several occasions over the past two decades over the issue.

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

According to President Kagame, while Rwanda has been sincere about talking over the problems and opening a new page, the French have remained “defensive” and “in denial.”

In France, in the course of a debate themed: Rwanda: Reflections on the last genocide of the 20th century, François Leotard, who was the French minister of defence during the genocide period, said he would support a move to make some of France’s genocide archives public to clarify his country’s position.

Mr Leotard said he was proud of France’s “intervention and achievements” during the military operation dubbed Operation Turquoise and that there was nothing to apologise for. But President Kagame asked why it took the French so long to discuss opening of the archives, which have remained secret for 20 years.

Recent meeting

In May, President Kagame met French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius in Libreville, Gabon, a month after his remarks on the French role in the genocide angered Paris, prompting a French government delegation to cancel a trip to Kigali to take part in the 20th commemoration of the 1994 genocide.

During the meeting in Gabon, according to a government statement, President Kagame and Mr Fabius discussed the state of bilateral relations and “agreed to step up exchanges and hold more regular consultation at the level of ministers of foreign affairs in order to improve dialogue.”

Since November 2009, Rwanda and France have tried to repair damaged relations but these attempts have been hampered by a series of events mainly stemming from remarks and accusations from Kigali levelled at the French government and former officials.

During the forum — organised by the RBF-France-Forum de la Memoire (Remembrance Forum), a French civil society group — Mr Leotard did not come close to admitting French involvement and complicity in the genocide.

READ: No reconciliation yet as fresh claims made of France’s role in genocide

But his former colleague and also a former minister of foreign affairs, Bernard Kouchner, who appeared on the same panel, said that France may have committed “political mistakes” but these did not amount to abating the genocide.

The debate, which took place in the country’s Senate, left anti-genocide activists in France dissatisfied and angry. Alain Gauthier, a leading activist, said the public debate fell short of bringing out Paris’s role in the genocide.

READ: Genocide: Even French activists are denouncing France

Rwanda’s anger at Paris seems unrelenting, despite attempts by France to court its former African ally into friendly relations.

In one of the most recent developments, the government repossessed French-owned prime land in the city centre that was formerly occupied by the French Cultural Centre. The historical facility is currently being demolished by the City of Kigali.

The demolition came after the French proved reluctant to develop the prime land by constructing a new high rise facility in line with the Kigali City Masterplan.

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