In Rwanda, French President Emmanuel Macron asks for forgiveness over genocide

President Emmanuel Macron looks at the images of genocide victims on display during his visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Pic/AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron said he recognises that France bears a heavy responsibility in the 1994 genocide in the central African country.

Macron solemnly detailed how France had failed the 800,000 victims of the genocide but he stopped short of an apology.

France "was not an accomplice" in the genocide but ended up siding with Rwanda's "genocidal regime" and bore an "overwhelming responsibility" in the slide toward the massacres, the French leader said, speaking Thursday at the genocide memorial in the capital, Kigali.

"France has a role, a history and a political responsibility in Rwanda. It has a duty: That of looking history in the face and recognising the suffering that it inflicted on the Rwandan people by favoring silence over the examination of truth for too long," Macron said.

When the genocide started, "the international community took close to three months, three interminable months, before reacting and we, all of us, abandoned hundreds of thousands of victims". France's failures contributed to "27 years of bitter distance" between the two countries, he said. "I have to come to recognise our responsibilities," Macron said.

In 1994, Hutu extremists killed mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them.

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