Opinion

France must apologise for Rwanda genocide

By Evarist Kagaruki

The recent tour of Rwanda by President Nicolas Sarkozy – the first of its kind by a French Head of State since the 1994 genocide – seems to have smoothened relations between the two countries. Diplomatic relations between Kigali and Paris have remained sour for many years because of endless recriminations. The French accused President Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of shooting down a plane which killed then Rwandan President Juvenal Habyalimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi in April 1994. The incident is believed to have triggered the genocide in which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were hacked to death.
Paris also accused the Kigali leadership of genocide crimes. President Kagame was himself a target of such accusation which he called preposterous and inconsequential. In 2006 a French anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere issued an indictment against Kagame and a number of his lieutenants. These include Rwanda’s Chief of Protocal, Rose Kabuye, who was arrested on November 19, 2008 by German authorities (no doubt under the directions of the French government), a move which precipitated the Paris-Kigali hostilities. Days later, they set her free but without dropping the charges against her.
The counter-accusation from the Rwandan government was that France played a “significant” role in the genocide by training the extremist Hutu militias – the Interahamwe – to exterminate Tutsis. President Kagame still wants all French officials implicated in the genocide by the Mucyo Commission to be brought to justice. The suspects named in the commission’s report included the late French President Francois Mitterand and his son Christopher. Others are former Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, former premier Dominique De Villepin and 30 other high-ranking French officials that Kigali wanted to see indicated and prosecuted.
Skeptics of the unfolding new relationship between France and Rwanda think that unless two crucial issues are resolved, there could still be problems on the diplomatic front. One is the ongoing investigation on what really happened during the genocide, which President Kagame insists should be finalized to establish the truth about the French's involvement. The outcome of the investigation could have a negative effect on the Franco-Rwanda rapprochement.
And the other issue is a demand by the Kigali regime that the French justice system should apprehend and extradite (or bring to book) all genocide fugitives hiding in France. Already, in the wake of Sarkozy’s visit to Rwanda, French authorities have pounced on one of the most prominent of such figures, Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the late Rwandan leader. In a symbolic gesture of response to Kigali’s demand, she was arrested but later released on bail. Whether she will be prosecuted (in France) or extradited to Rwanda to face trial at home, remains to be seen.
The leadership in Kigali is anxiously waiting to see what happens next after Agathe’s arrest (and release). Kagame is also keen to see that other genocide suspects residing in France are apprehended. Unless that happens, the Rwanda-France relations are destined to remain fragile. But what perhaps concerns many Rwandans is the failure of the French to own up and apologise for their wrongs in Rwanda during the genocide.
The absence of such apology could erode the confidence and mutual trust necessary for the new relationship between the two countries to work without suspicions from either side. Political pundits think that an unambiguous public apology from Paris could be an incentive to Rwandans to forgive, put the past behind them and move forward. In that sense, they say, an opportunity was lost when Sarkozy deliberately failed to utter that miraculous five-letter word “SORRY” when he was in Kigali – a word that would have made a big difference.

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