MACRON SAYS FRANCE MUST FACE HISTORY OVER RWANDA GENOCIDE

President Emmanuel Macron has said France needs to "recognize the extent of the suffering" caused by its decisions at the time of the Rwandan genocide, during his first visit to the East African nation as French leader, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Macron arrived in Rwanda on Thursday in a bid to normalize relations between the two countries that have been clouded for years over France's actions leading up to the 1994 killings that left an estimated 800,000 people dead.

Militias from Rwanda's Hutu majority killed members of the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus. Macron said that although France wanted to prevent a regional conflict or civil war during international negotiations in August 1993, it had ignored warnings from observers, involuntarily siding with the perpetrators who would commit genocide months later.

In a speech at a memorial for victims of the genocide, Macron added that France had a duty to "face history and recognize the extent of the suffering it inflicted on the Rwandan people." He said the international community let three "endless" months pass before responding to the genocide. Rwandan President Paul Kagame had received Macron upon his arrival.

During a joint press conference with Kagame, Macron said: "We have decided to resume the path of cooperation, of dialogue, without hiding any of the difficulties that our two countries have gone through."

Macron also promised France would provide 500 million euros ($609 million) in development aid to Rwanda between 2019 and 2023, especially for the health, digital technology, and francophone sectors. As a "gesture of solidarity" during the coronavirus crisis, Paris was planning to send vaccine doses to Rwanda and enable capacity to produce them, the French president added.

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