Rwanda
has opened a formal investigation into the alleged role of 20 French
officials in the 1994 genocide
The Rwandan
government accuses France of complicity in the genocide. The French
officials are accused of supporting the Hutu nationalist government,
which carried out the mass killing of an estimated 500,000 to
1,000,000 Rwandans, mainly from the Tutsi ethnic group. Paris denies
the allegation.
"The
inquiry, for now, is focused on 20 individuals whom, according to
information gathered so far, are required by the prosecution
authority to explain or provide clarity on allegations against them,"
said Rwanda's prosecutor general Richard Muhumuza. He added that the
probe would enable prosecutors to decide "whether the
concerned individuals should be formally charged or not."
Muhumuza
said that he had contacted the French government and that full
cooperation was expected.
The Rwandan
genocide began following the shooting down of a plane carrying former
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. Burundian
President Cyprien Ntaryamira was also killed in the plane crash. They
were both ethnic Hutus. After the crash, Hutus who were in majority,
were incited to commit acts of ethnic violence against Tutsis.
France's
Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on November 16 that it was
"a disgraceful lie" to say that the French army took
park in genocide. Relations between the two countries have gone
through ups and downs since the genocide. In 2014, Rwandan President
Paul Kagame repeated accusations that French troops were both
accomplices and "actors" in the massacre.
In October,
Paris re-launched an inquiry into the shooting down of Habyarimana's
plane to hear testimony from a former general who accuses Kagame of
being behind the attack. The Rwandan government has rejected the
claims, saying it is an attempt by France to cover up its role in the
genocide.
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