France rejects legitimacy of Rwandan genocide commission available later (Roundup)

Aug 6, 2008, 13:46 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 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.