France rejects legitimacy of Rwandan genocide commission

Aug 6, 2008, 10:25 GMT

Nairobi/Paris - Paris has again rejected the legitimacy of a commission - set up by the Rwandan government to look into the mass killing of the Tutsi minority in 1994 - which has accused France of participating in genocide, French news reports said Wednesday.

Paris planned to investigate the accusations made Tuesday of active participation in the Tutsi genocide, but accused the Rwandan government of seeking revenge in the Liberation daily.

In 2006, a French judge accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of involvement in the killing of the then president Juvenal Habyarimana in the spring of 1994.

The French Foreign Ministry confirmed Wednesday that it was waiting for the conclusions of the commission and that it would examine them in detail once it had the final text.

The French Defence Ministry reiterated its doubts about the 'impartiality' of the commission first expressed in 2007.

The Rwandan accusations are not new: when they were first presented they even named French politicians like former president Francois Mitterand and former premier Dominique de Villepin.

Thirty-three military officers and politicians were listed in Tuesday's report, which accused French soldiers of being directly involved in the 1994 genocide in the East African country.