Rwanda: why Emmanuel Macron ultimately did not say that "France could have stopped the genocide"
Cairo: Hani Kamal El-Din
It’s a misunderstanding more than a backpedal, according to the Élysée. It all starts from a meeting with the press on Thursday April 4, during which an advisor gives details of what the president should say in his video to the Rwandan people, broadcast on Sunday. At this time she mentions the fact that France “could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, but did not have the will”.
In the process, there is excitement: for many, this means that the head of state is preparing to take a further step in recognizing France’s responsibilities in the massacres perpetrated in the spring of 1994. But ultimately , this is not the case: no sentence uttered to this effect in the presidential video broadcast on Sunday.
In this video for the 30th anniversary of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, Emmanuel Macron “assume” his statements from 2021, when he came “recognize” in Kigali “France’s responsibilities” in the massacres. But ultimately don’t go so far as to say that “France could have stopped the genocide […] but didn’t have the will”as the Élysée suggested a few days ago.
The Élysée advisor spoke to franceinfo about a clumsiness on her part during this press briefing, which resulted in a bad interpretation and which does not commit the president, who “stay on his speech” from three years ago. There is therefore no “step forward” of France on Rwanda.
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