France was 'blind' to Rwanda genocide

[Eldorado]

France bears "heavy and overwhelming responsibilities" over the 1994 Rwanda genocide, a report by French historians says, but they found no evidence of French complicity.

The expert commission presented the report to French President Emmanuel Macron. The report said France had been "blind" to genocide preparations.

At least 800,000 people died when ethnic Hutu extremists massacred minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The team studied French official files.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56536659

[Eldorado]

France ‘did nothing to stop’ Rwanda genocide, report claims

France “bears significant responsibility” for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 because it remained “unwavering in its support” of its allies even though officials knew the slaughter was being prepared, a report commissioned by Kigali claims.

It follows the publication last month of a separate inquiry into the same events commissioned by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

Guardian report

[+and-then]

IIRC, the U.S. did precious little, either.  Our president was too involved in banning "assault weapons"...

[Jon the frog]

Depiction of France during the Rwanda genocide:

[Tom1200]

I'm certainly no expert in the politics and tensions of this region, and I accept that France might have taken different decisions (but what, and what they would have achieved I cannot suggest), but - to what extent were the armed Hutu militias actually responsible?  (You know - the men who hacked 800,000 people to death with machetes, who raped 500,000 women.)  It looks very much like the commission was set up to reach a certain conclusion, rather than dispassionately review the evidence. 

15 people spent two years sifting through Government documents looking for something... and after the equivalent of three decades of searching they have been forced to concede that there is no evidence of French complicity. 

Imagine what the international response would have been if France had sent in thousands of peacekeeper troops: they would be slated as colonialists, imperialists, belligerents, racists.  Or if France had pulled out all personnel and equipment and the massacre had proceeded as planned (by the ruling Hutus, not the French) and even got worse?  Did the commission consider issues such as these, or was its remit just to find fault?  Même les Français méritent un procès équitable...