Kigali: A day after Rwanda accused 33 senior French individuals of being part of the Genocide planning mechanism, Paris and some suspects are not taking any of that, RNA reports.
Number two on the list of politicians - former Foreign Minister Allain Juppé, told the BBC that the report was a ‘falsification’ that is completely unacceptable.Mr. Juppé, now mayor of Boudreaux said during his tenure as head of French diplomacy (1993-1995), he did put so much effort in the ‘reconciliation of Rwandans’.
The report says on April 27 1994 – as the massacres rolled on, Rwandan foreign Minister Jerome Bicamumpaka with other officials were hosted in Paris by Mr. Juppé and Bruno Delaye (Number 7) – former head of the African Affairs to President Francois Mitterrand.
This as the report puts it, amounted to ‘diplomatic support’ for a Genocidal government. The Rwandan delegation is also said to have met with Prime Minister Edouard Balladur (1993-1995) – (Number 6).
Mr. Jerome Bicamumpaka was nabbed in Cameroon on April 6 1999 and transferred to the UN Tribunal on Rwanda in Tanzania. His case that started in 2003 is still going on.
According to the findings compiled over a period of two years, the U.S. and Belgian governments had actually refused to give the Rwanda delegation visas to the U.N headquarters.
The French foreign affairs ministry said on Wednesday that Rwanda was making "unacceptable accusations" in a report alleging that the country’s politicians and military played some role in the 100-day Tutsi mass killings.
"This report contains unacceptable accusations made against French political and military officials," foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters in Paris.
France’s foreign ministry refused to comment on a new report claiming Paris played an active role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, calling the findings neither independent nor legitimate.
The 500-page report unveiled in Kigali on Tuesday by government represented by the Justice and Information Ministers points fingers at France for preparing the Genocide, contributed to planning the massacres and actively took part in the killing.
Questioned on the report’s conclusions, the French defence ministry referred reporters to its official position as set out in a February 9, 2007 statement, which claimed the inquiry had "no guarantee of independence or impartiality", according to The Times.
The original statement had declared that "France assumes full responsibility for its actions in Rwanda in 1994, especially those of its armed forces", the South African daily reported on Wednesday.
The French statement reiterated support for the International Criminal Court but said the Rwandan inquiry had no "independence or impartiality" because its stated remit was to "gather evidence of the involvement of the French state" in the Rwandan Genocide.
The inquiry also had "no legitimacy nor competence" to conduct interviews on French soil because it had broken off diplomatic relations with France in November 2006. This was in reference to the fact that the members of the probe team were not allowed visas to travel to France as part of their work.
Foreign and European Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner acknowledged France did have some "mistakes" in Rwanda but denies any responsibility for the killing spree.
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