Rwandan lives were just pawns in geopolitical games, Kagame says during 27th commemoration of Genocide

By The Inspirer staff writer

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has welcomed the report on the role and engagement of France in the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. The report was produced by a Commission formed in April 2019 at the request of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Kagame was on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, speaking from Kigali while officiating the launch of the 27th commemoration of the genocide against Tutsi in 1994 – Kwibuka27.

The report by a commission of experts led by historian Vincent Duclert was released last month, March 2021.

The commission was tasked with studying all France’s archives relating to the Genocide in order to analyse the role and engagement of France from 1990 to 1994.

“Recently, a commission of historians appointed by the French government released a detailed report after reading official archives that had remained secret,” President Kagame said.

The report, Kagame said, shows that President Mitterrand and his closest advisers knew that a genocide against Tutsi was being planned by their allies in Rwanda. Despite that knowledge, the president decided to continue supporting them, because he believed this was necessary for France’s geopolitical position.

“Rwandan lives were just pawns in geopolitical games,” he observed.

“We welcome this report because it marks an important step toward a common understanding of what took place. It also marks a change, it shows the desire, even for leaders in France, to move forward with a good understanding of what happened, and we welcome this,” he said.

Rwanda will also have a word to say [about the report] in the near future, maybe around the third week of this month, Kagame added.

“The findings we have in our hands, based on the work that has been done by people who were commissioned to do that in parallel to what was being done in France — the findings go in the same direction. The important thing is to continue working together to document the truth. This is the truth,” he stated.

The decades-long effort by certain French officials to cover up their responsibilities has caused significant damage, the president declared.

Wrong accounts, and harbouring genocide suspects

According to Kagame, history was falsified by promoting the lie of the so-called double genocide, including with the Mapping Report.

He asserted that fraudulent court cases were launched in Europe against Rwandan officers and officials, while genocide suspects were granted safe haven, and Rwanda’s extradition requests refused.

“And this was not just in France; it’s just because I was talking about the report. Even in other capitals of those developed countries, we know of cases that have gone on for close to 15 years,” he said.

“There are places where there are about 4-5 genocide suspects, the files are very clear. We talked to the country hosting them, we begged them. We said, the case files are ready, they are here, can you please give them to us for trial” he asked.

The answer to that, he said, was no, with reasons being put forward by those countries including that they have no extradition treaty with Rwanda, and don’t trust Rwanda’s courts and laws.

“Okay, we said fine. We needed your trust, but you don’t want to give it to us. Fine. So can you try them in your courts? Because if you have a problem with our courts, you don’t have problems with your own courts. And even after that request, they still have excuses for not acting. And it continues, and goes on and goes on,” the President exposed.

“At the same time, these are the people who have all kinds of blame to level against us. We say, but why don’t you do it? Are you not ashamed of protecting genocide suspects, covering up for them for any reason? You don’t want me to try them, so why don’t you try them? It’s the same people who question the use of ‘Genocide against Tutsi,’” he remarked.

He said that while it is not Rwandans who invented the word genocide, rather some other people long before Rwanda’s own tragic situation, somebody says,  they don’t want to accept ‘Genocide against the Tutsi’ because peacekeepers died, foreigners died, Hutus died, everybody was killed.

“Look, even if you thought those were the facts, how does this stop you from isolating this case and treating it the way it should be treated? And then you can come up with your own list of other cases to deal with. I don’t doubt these people’s capacity or logic or anything. No, it’s something else,” he said.

“It’s like saying, let’s not try this guy for the crimes he committed. Let’s deal with how he got to this court. So we have a long way to go,” he analogised.

He indicated that when these genocide suspects are granted safe haven and extradition requests are refused, it has a direct consequence, “and we have seen a massive increase in genocide denial and revisionism, which will take years to reverse.”

“Well-known publishers release books accusing the RPF [Rwanda Patriotic Front] itself of having masterminded the genocide in order to take power. What is even more disturbing, is that too many people who know better prefer to stay out of it by keeping quiet,” Kagame said.

Meanwhile, France said Wednesday, April 7, 2021, that its President Macron decided to open archives related to Rwanda covering the period from 1990 to 1994, which is a period when the Genocide against the Tutsi was highly planned and committed.

The archives in question include those examined, for about two years, by the above-mentioned commission of experts led by historian Vincent Duclert for about two years.