UPDATE- France's Macron honors victims of 1994 Rwanda genocide

ADDS MORE REMARKS, BACKGROUND; OTHER EDITS

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - France played a role and bears political responsibility for the 1994 Rwandan genocide of ethnic Tutsis, said the French president in the African country on Thursday.

“Standing here today, with humility and respect, by your side, I have come to recognize our responsibilities” in the genocide, said Emmanuel Macron, speaking at a genocide memorial in the Rwandan capital Kigali, the final resting place of over 250,000 genocide victims.

In his speech, Macron asked genocide survivors for forgiveness, but fell short of offering an apology.

He added that France must recognize the suffering inflicted on Rwanda through its silence.

Macron arrived in the East African country Thursday morning, the first French leader to visit Rwanda since then-President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2010 visit, and admitted to "serious mistakes" and a “form of blindness” on France’s part during the genocide.

Macron, who was received by Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, said he had visited Rwanda to “recognize our responsibility.”

-History, complicity

Rwanda has long accused France of complicity in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.

Macron's visit followed the release of two reports this year detailing France’s role in the genocide.

A Rwandan government report released in April said the French government bears significant responsibility for enabling a foreseeable genocide in Rwanda.

“French officials armed, advised, trained, equipped, and protected the Rwandan government, heedless of the [then-President Juvenal] Habyarimana regime’s commitment to the dehumanization and, ultimately, the destruction and death of Tutsi in Rwanda,” the report said.

In March, a French commission appointed by Macron said France was “blind” to the coming genocide and downplayed the country’s role as an accomplice to the genocidal operation.

Regardless, Macron on Thursday again claimed that France "was not complicit" in the genocide.

Speaking later at a joint press conference with Macron, Kagame hailed the French leader’s speech at the memorial site as “more valuable than an apology.”

Ahead of the visit, Macron tweeted: “As I take off for Kigali, I have a deep conviction that over the next few hours we will be writing together a new page of our relationship with Rwanda and Africa.”

In the genocide, between April 7 and July 15, 1994, an estimated one million people, mainly from the Tutsi ethnic community and moderate Hutus, were killed over the span of 100 days.

After Rwanda, Macron is due in South Africa, where he will hold talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa about the fight against Covid-19 and its impact on the global economy.