Some people were expecting Mr. Sarkozy to offer a clear apology, but he has only said that mistakes were made. The “mistakes” he refers to are failing to realize what was going on in this country and practical shortcomings during Operation Turquoise led by France under a UN mandate. His declarations were more like a reflection of a feeling of inefficiency rather than genuine regret. Of course, France is not the only one responsible for what happened in Rwanda.Rwanda was a German colony from the 1890s, and it became a Belgian dependency following Germany’s defeat in the Great War. Belgian involvement was far more direct than Germany’s, and the Belgian authorities decided to make the Tutsi minority the pillar of their colonial rule. By their policies they thus contributed to reinforcing the rift between the two communities. Following independence in 1962, domestic tension grew every year. This was first seen as a classic power struggle, then as a civil war, then a regional conflict in which neighboring Tanzania and Uganda played important roles. Then, the genocide occurred.
The calls to the United Nations to play a more active role in order to stop the killings and restore order were rejected mainly because of the US’s objections. Finally, France agreed to conduct a military intervention. However, it couldn’t stop the killings, which continued even in the zone supposedly controlled by the French army. After the genocide, many recalled that for a long time France had provided the Hutu militias with extensive military and diplomatic support, and President François Mitterrand was accused of not taking too seriously what was happening in Rwanda. As of today, everyone agrees that these mass killings constitute genocide and that several foreign powers contributed to it by their actions or by their passivity. Nevertheless, even the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda couldn’t go as far as indicting foreign actors and has tried only the Rwandan criminals.
During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union were in a serious fight aimed at expanding their influence in Africa. In the aftermath of the Eastern Bloc’s fall, local African actors got the opportunity to pursue their own policies, free from pressure from the superpowers. However, this power vacuum encouraged former colonial states, especially France and the UK, to try to re-establish their influence in this geography. This effort was particularly felt in Rwanda, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Somalia and Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, these powers have used different methods. For example, the UK prefers to contribute economically to reinforce regimes considered close to London, and it chooses to leave the military dimension to the US. Instead, France chooses to be more visible; it wants to be militarily active and has benefited from some other European countries’ support in balancing the US or China’s influence. In that sense, sometimes as a partner; sometimes as a rival of other great powers, France has actively contributed to creating the regional atmosphere allowing many massacres to take place. That’s why admitting only a few “mistakes” will probably not be enough to escape from recognizing what happened as a genocide.
