Discours du Président Emmanuel Macron au mémorial de Gisozi à Kigali

Macron, Emmanuel

27 mai 2021

20210527

Discours du Président Emmanuel Macron au mémorial de Gisozi à Kigali

DiscoursDuPresidentMacronAgisozi27052021.pdf

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Présidence de la République (fr)

Discours

FR

Visiting Kigali, the president of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech at the Gisozi genocide memorial. In a serious tone, he denies on the one hand the involvement of France in the genocide against the Tutsi: " The killers who haunted the marshes, the hills, the churches did not have the face of France. She was not an accomplice. The blood that was shed did not dishonor her weapons or the hands of her soldiers ". But on the other hand, he allows himself the error, the awkwardness: " France did not understand that, by wanting to prevent a regional conflict or a civil war, it was in fact staying alongside a genocidal regime ”. Its recognition of the responsibility of France is balanced by a declaration of good intentions: “ By ignoring the warnings of the most lucid observers, France took on an overwhelming responsibility in a process which ended in the worst, even though it was seeking precisely to avoid it ”. The argument rings false: “ In Arusha, in August 1993, France believed, alongside the Africans, to have wrested peace. [...] Its efforts were laudable and courageous. But they were swept aside by a genocidal mechanism which did not want any hindrance to its monstrous planning ”. The establishment of the interim Government by Colonel Bagosora in close collaboration with the French Ambassador Jean-Michel Marlaud contradicts these good intentions and on the contrary proves that France has played a decisive role in this genocidal mechanism. The President also resorts to the argument of the responsibility of the international community, omitting the fact that France has used its seat as a permanent member of the Security Council to abuse the United Nations by pretending to recognize the genocide and by allowing its perpetrators to flee. Finally, we can give credit to the French President for this sentence: " By standing, with humility and respect, by your side, today, I come to recognize the extent of our responsibilities ". He recognizes " a debt to the victims after so many past silences ".