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 ethnic 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 genocide in which ethnic Hutus set about
targeting and killing around 800,000 Tutsis, but accused the Rwandan
government of seeking revenge in the Liberation daily.
Kigali has meanwhile indicated it will approach the French
judiciary for assistance.
'I will contact my counterpart Rachida Dati,' Rwanda's Justice
Minister Tharcisse Karugarama was quoted as saying by France's
nouvelobs.com website Wednesday.
If there were to be difficulties in cooperating with France,
Rwanda could also turn to the United Nations International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda, he said.
'We are not concerned with revenge, but that the truth about the
genocide is known and that justice is served,' Karugarama said.
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 are listed in the
commission's report, which accused French soldiers of being directly
involved in the 1994 genocide in the East African country.
The 500-page document also contains allegations against former
French prime minister Edouard Balladur and the foreign minister Alain
Juppe.
During the genocide, ethnic Hutu militias killed an estimated
800,000 people within about three months.
Most of the victims were from the Tutsi minority, but moderate
Hutus were also among the dead.
The government-appointed commission of inquiry into the genocide
had spent two years probing France's alleged role through interviews
with survivors and witnesses of the genocide.
The Rwandan government on Tuesday said it would make public the
document it has had since late last year.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame had the previous week spoken of
'strong evidence' of French involvement in the genocide.
In 2006, a French judge accused Kagame of involvement in the
killing of Rwanda's president Juvenal Habyarimana in early April
1994.
The Hutu leader's death was regarded as the trigger for the
genocide.
Relations between the two counties have since been strained.
France has in the past acknowledged 'political errors' in its
dealings with the Hutu regime, but denied allegations of involvement
in the genocide.
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