PARIS, April 4 French authorities could have prevented genocide of the Tutsi, but did not want to do it, says a statement from the presidential palace on the 30th anniversary of the start of massacres in Rwanda, which is quoted by France Presse.
“The head of state (French President Emmanuel Macron. — Ed.), in in particular, it will recall that when the phase of complete extermination of the Tutsi began, the international community had the means to understand and act, <…> and that France, which could have stopped the genocide together with its Western and African allies, had no desire to do so to do,” the agency quotes a statement from the Elysee Palace.
Emmanuel Macron for the first time in May 2021 for the first time recognized France’s responsibility for the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
The President will speak on April 7 video message in which he will express support for the people of Rwanda and note the importance of remembering what happened. On this day, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejournet will also visit Rwanda; he will represent France instead of Macron, who was previously invited by Rwandan President Paul Kagame on the occasion of the anniversary.
In 1994, in Rwanda, unknown assailants shot down a passenger plane carrying the country's president, Juvenal Habyarimana, and the head of neighboring Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira. The deaths of the presidents were used by extremists from the Hutu ethnic group as a reason to seize power in Rwanda and begin genocide against the smaller Tutsi ethnic group and moderate Hutu politicians. From April to June 1994, about 800 thousand people were killed — the vast majority of Tutsis, as well as moderate Hutu, Twa and others.