French President
Visits Rwanda
French
President Nicolas Sarkozy has paid a visit to Rwanda asking that
those responsible for the 1994 genocide should be found and
punished, including any who might be residing in France.
Sarkozy's trip, the first by a French head of state in 25 years,
came despite French arrest warrants for eight people close to
Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Sarkozy says after visiting the country's main genocide museum:
’’What happened here is unacceptable. What happened here
requires the international community, including France, to
reflect on the errors that prevented it from foreseeing and
stopping this horrible crime.’’
France and Rwanda have sparred for years over an alleged French
role in the genocide, in which 500,000 people, mostly
ethnic Tutsis but also moderate Hutus, were massacred in
frenzied killing led by radical Hutus.
Apportioning blames
A French advocacy group for Rwandan genocide survivors says
France is a ‘haven’ for genocidaires, and it has filed 16
lawsuits against people living in France whom it accuses of a
role in the killings.
’’ We want those responsible for the genocide to be found and
punished. There is no ambiguity about it,’’ Sarkozy
said. ’’Are there any in France? The justice system must
decide.’’
Collective responsibility
Rwanda's government and genocide survivor organizations have
often accused France of training and arming the militias and
former government troops who led the genocide. In 1998, a French
parliamentary panel absolved France of responsibility in the
slaughter.
Sarkozy reiterated a message he has made in the past about
collective responsibility, including that of France. He said
there had been ‘serious errors of judgment’ about the killings
and that there had been ‘a form of blindness when we didn't see
the genocidal aspect of the government of the president who was
assassinated.’
The trip aims to cement diplomatic ties that were restored in
November, three years after they broke down because of arrest
warrants that accused nine people close to Kagame of a role in
the presidential assassination that sparked the genocide.
Sarkozy on Wednesday stopped in Gabon, then made an unscheduled
stop in Mali, where he met with a French aid worker released by
al-Qaida's North Africa offshoot this week after almost three
months in captivity.
In Mali, Sarkozy thanked President Amadou Toumani Toure for his
efforts to free hostage Pierre Camatte.
The Mali court decision to convict the four suspects on arms
charges and sentence them to only nine months behind bars —
which they had already served, resulting in their release —
angered Mali's neighbors, Algeria and Mauritania, who worried it
would encourage terrorists in the region.
Associated Press/Yinka
