Murakoze, Mr. Sarkozy?
A certain quiet came over Kigali on Thursday afternoon as many ceased their normal activities and gathered around television screens in shops and pubs throughout the city. Everyone wanted to see and hear the important event being broadcast. No, it was not a football match; the onlookers were too earnest for that. Instead, people from all walks of life were watching a live simulcast of the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the first French head of state to visit Rwanda in more than 25 years.
A certain quiet came over Kigali on Thursday afternoon as many ceased their normal activities and gathered around television screens in shops and pubs throughout the city. Everyone wanted to see and hear the important event being broadcast. No, it was not a football match; the onlookers were too earnest for that. Instead, people from all walks of life were watching a live simulcast of the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the first French head of state to visit Rwanda in more than 25 years.
The visit comes just three months after Rwanda reestablished its diplomatic ties with France. The two countries parted ways in 2006 after French judge Louis Brugière claimed that Rwandan President Paul Kagame was involved in shooting down the plane of the former President Juvenal Habyarimana. At least eight of Kagame’s associates are still under indictment in France for the alleged crime.
In 2008, the independent Mucyo commission issued a report that accused France of being aware of preparations for the genocide and helping to train ethnic Hutu militia killers. The report also blamed France for direct involvement in killings and named 33 senior French military and French officials, asking for their prosecution. While that report was praised by scholars around the world, it was also largely viewed – because of the timing – as a possible quid pro quo, in response to the French indictments.
But today France is two presidents removed from the time of Francois Mitterrand, once quoted as saying of Rwanda, “In such countries, genocide is not too important…” Understandably, France wishes to detach itself from the so-called Françafrique thuggery associated with the period of Mitterand’s rule and generations of French rulers before him. Now Rwanda is the new star of Africa, on pace to become one of the sub-continent’s few middle-class countries and even the technology hub of East Africa. Just as important, today France – with its newer president – is in much need of Rwanda and its strategic location near the vast mineral reserves of the region.
So, much like individuals, nations have come here to repent and reconcile, not so much from seeing the light as from feeling the heat. But the light of history is shining brighter than ever on France and its dealings with the region.
Recently, Serge Farnel, a Parisian engineer with affection for Rwanda, has been producing a documentary where he painstakingly interviews and re-interviews – with rigorous questions – perpetrators of the 1994 slaughter. Through his over 100 hours of footage, it has come to light that French soldiers were almost certainly in Bisesero, Rwanda, as early as May of 1994, even though the French government has said this is impossible. These perpetrator witnesses recall the French soldiers giving special instructions to the militia to help them find, identify and kill families hiding in the bush.
Anne Jolis of the Wall Street Journal quotes some of these former killers:
“I tell you as I saw it,” says Fidèle Simugomwa, a former Hutu-extremist militia chief during the Rwandan genocide, as he sits for an interview with Serge Farnel. “The French soldiers were standing on the hill, and firing down at the Tutsi… We had a sign so the French didn’t shoot at us – [we had] leaves on.”
So Rwanda and France have a lot of discussing and rectifying to do. For his part, Sarkozy wrote in the visitor’s book at the National Genocide Memorial, “In the name of the people of France, I pay my respects to the victims of the genocide against the Tutsis.”
He later went on to say, “What happened here obliges the international community – including France – to reflect on the errors which prevented us from foreseeing, or stopping, this appalling crime… There was a serious error of judgment, a sort of blindness, when we didn’t foresee the genocidal dimensions of the government. Errors of assessment and political mistakes were made here, and they led to absolutely tragic consequences. What happened here is a defeat.”
While powerful in tone, these words were not the apology many had hoped for and were far from his country accepting responsibility for or admitting involvement with the genocide. They were not even on the level of the apologies presented in the past by Kofi Anan and Bill Clinton. But when looked at in context and when compared to France’s previous stance, this is widely seen as a milestone in the effort to bring about an accurate reckoning of history and improving France’s relationship to the area.
Théodore Simburudali, president of the Ibuka association for genocide survivors, was reported as saying that although many survivors and victim’s families wanted an apology from France, Thursday was not the day to demand it.
When Sarkozy was elected in 2007, he promised a “rupture” with his country’s past role in Africa. Perhaps rupture is too strong a word. “Ripple” is more like it, but the change is welcome all the same. Rwandans are nearly unanimous in welcoming a rekindling of ties with France, especially if it opens the door for historians to do their work outside of a political tit for tat struggle. Many feel this is just the beginning of a long process that will bring about truth, reconciliation and greater prosperity for both countries.
Speaking about this shift, Sarkozy said he hoped the future would enable the two countries to “turn an extremely painful page” on a past fraught with mutual distrust. “Off the back of all these mistakes […] we are going to try to build a bilateral relationship.”
Posted by The Rwanda Focus
on Mar 29 2010. Filed under Opinion.
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