France's foreign minister has defended his country's stance during the Rwandan genocide on a fleeting visit to the country aimed at improving ties.
Bernard Kouchner said France bore no "military responsibility" but did commit a "political fault" by failing to understand what was happening.
He was speaking at a news conference after talks with President Paul Kagame, who welcomed him as a "good friend".
The 1994 genocide has haunted France's ties with the country.
Rwanda severed diplomatic relations in 2006 amid French allegations that Mr Kagame had been behind the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana in 1994.
That murder sparked the genocide, in which some 800,000 mainly Rwandan Tutsis were killed by majority Hutus.
Mr Kagame, a Tutsi, alleges that France backed Hutu militias in 1994, a charge that Paris has always vehemently denied.
But in a meeting between Mr Kagame and French President Nicolas Sarkozy last December, the decision was made to revive bilateral relations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7211030.stm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment