Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has acknowledged during a trip to Rwanda that Paris and the international community made “mistakes” in failing to prevent the 1994 genocide there, informs Aljazeera.net Friday.
Sarkozy comments came after talks in Kigali with Paul Kagame, his Rwandan counterpart, in the first visit to the country by a French president in 25 years.
France and Rwanda have sparred for years over an alleged French role in the genocide, in which 500.000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis but also moderate Hutus, were massacred in frenzied killing led by radical Hutus.
Rwanda’s government and genocide survivor organizations have often accused France of training and equipping the armed groups and former government troops who led the genocide.
In a news conference following the talks with Kagame, Sarkozy said: “What happened here requires the international community, including France, to reflect on the errors that prevented it from foreseeing and stopping this horrible crime.”
