Painstaking efforts to heal the deep divisions between France and Rwanda over French actions during the Rwandan genocide have been severely set back by an angry diplomatic dispute on the 20th anniversary of the massacres, reports The Financial Times.
Kigali barred France’s ambassador from attending the genocide commemorations in the Rwandan capital on Monday in response to Paris’s decision to cancel the planned participation of the French justice minister in protest at published remarks by Paul Kagame, Rwandan president.
Mr Kagame accused France in an interview with Jeune Afrique magazine, published in France, of having played a “direct role in the preparations for the genocide . . . and in its execution”.
The allegation infuriated the political establishment in Paris, which has always denied any involvement in the 1994 mass killing of Tutsis and Hutu moderates by the then Hutu regime – although it has acknowledged serious errors of judgment in the actions of French diplomats and forces on the ground at the time.
Alain Juppé, foreign minister at the time, called on President François Hollande to “defend the honour of France” against Mr Kagame’s remarks.
A statement from Mr Hollande acknowledged the genocide happened despite “the world knowing and not preventing it”. But he made no reference to the allegations of French culpability.
Read more of this report from The Financial Times.