The official also stated that Macron would claim that “France, which could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, did not have the will” to do so.
According to the presidency on Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron feels that France and its allies in Africa and the West “could have stopped” the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 but lacked the will to stop the killing of an estimated 800,000 people, the majority of whom were ethnic Tutsis.
Macron will highlight that “when the phase of total extermination against the Tutsis began, the international community had the means to know and act” in a video message that will be released on Sunday to commemorate the genocide’s 30th anniversary, according to a French presidential official who wished to remain anonymous.
#BREAKING President Macron believes France, allies ‘could have stopped’ 1994 Rwanda genocide: presidency pic.twitter.com/oUsB0RVHO3
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 4, 2024
According to the president, the world had already witnessed genocide in the past thanks to the Holocaust in World War II and the mass murder of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during World War I.
The official also stated that Macron would claim that “France, which could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, did not have the will” to do so.
Instead of traveling to Kigali this Sunday to join Rwandan President Paul Kagame in commemorating the genocide, the president will be represented by Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne.
In 2021, Macron acknowledged France’s “responsibilities” in the genocide and stated that only the survivors could bestow “the gift of forgiveness” during a visit to Rwanda.
However, he did not offer an apology, and Kagame—the leader of the Tutsi uprising that put an end to the genocide—has long maintained that a more forceful declaration is required.
In 2021, a historical commission appointed by Macron also declared that France had failed in its role as the country of leaders under Francois Mitterrand, but it also stated that there was no proof Paris was involved in the murders.
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