"BURUNDI YES WE CAN"

Nicolas Sarkozy is a brave man forconfronting France’s own demons regarding its role in the 1994 Rwandagenocide, when Hutu militias slaughtered more than 800,000 Tutsis inthe space of just a hundred days. In an official visit to Kigaliyesterday, the president made the first admission of guilt bya senior French politician over his country’s role during the genocide,breaking a long-standing code of silence on the matter, and opening upa huge can of worms. At a news conference, Sarkozy told reporters:

There was a serious error of judgment, a sort of blindness, whenwe didn’t foresee the genocidal dimensions of the government. Errors ofassessment and political mistakes were made here, and they led toabsolutely tragic consequences.

But Sarkozy did not go far enough in his comments, and was carefulnot to offer a direct apology to the victims of the genocide forFrance’s own role. As The Guardian reports:

But, keeping to the line normally held by Paris, he refused totake the opportunity to apologise for “political errors” by hiscountry.” We are not here to have fun, to fiddle with vocabulary,” hesaid. “What happened here is unacceptable and what happened here forcesthe international community, including France, to reflect on themistakes that prevented it from anticipating and stopping this terriblecrime.”

Today Sarkozy, who came to power in 2007 promising a “rupture”with his country’s past role in Africa, stayed silent when a tour guideat the national history museum in Kigali evoked the responsibility ofthe French in front of a photograph caption reading: “France played arole in arming and training the Rwandan military forces.” Neither didthe president react when the guide said of Kofi Annan, the former UNsecretary general: “Him, he asked for forgiveness.”.

There remains tremendous anger in Rwanda over France’s culpability, fury which even drove the Francophone country to join the British Commonwealth in 2009 and adopt English as its official language. And with good reason. In 2008 the Rwandan government published a damning reportaccusing France of direct complicity in the genocide. Indeed, it ishighly doubtful that the perpetrators of the mass killing would haveescaped without French largesse. As I wrote at the time:

The Sarkozy administration should acknowledge and apologise forthe role played by François Mitterrand’s government in providing safehaven for the Hutu militias responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide,the darkest episode of modern African history. The mass exterminationin the killing fields of Rwanda must never be repeated, and it isimportant that the French government take responsibility for any partFrench officials played in protecting and even arming those who carriedout the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis.

The French are often the first to lecture the world on human rights,or condemn the use of force by other powers, but fail to acknowledgethat their own foreign policy has often in the past been implementedwith a callous disregard for human suffering.

President Sarkozy should not only apologise for France’s shamefulrole in the Rwanda slaughter and its aftermath, but urge his country’spolitical establishment to come clean over the whole affair, opening upthe archives to reveal the full extent of France’s activities inRwanda. He should also welcome a fully independent inquiry to interviewkey civil servants, politicians, military officers and witnesses, toonce and for all put to rest the ghosts of French intervention in oneof the most brutal episodes of the 20th Century.