RWANDA: Rwandan gather in southern village of Murambi to commemorate 13th anniversary of the genocide President Paul Kagame blasts France over genocide

Rwanda commemorates 13 years after the genocide at former French Military base in Southern Rwanda, Kagame blasts French. Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Saturday (April 7) said France "should have tasted our wrath" for what he called their complicity in the central African country's 1994 genocide. In the latest salvo in a diplomatic war that saw Rwanda cut ties with France last year after a French judge issued arrest warrants for Kagame's top associates, Kagame used a genocide remembrance ceremony to lash out at Paris. "To remember the genocide is important because genocide is very bad thing, for that I advise all Rwandan who have played a role in genocide as the same to countries who supported genocide to acknowledge their guilt and seek pardon from Rwandans. Without this those countries will do it anyway," he told a crowd of thousands gathered in the southern village of Murambi for the 13th anniversary of the killings. A French foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on Kagame's remarks. Kagame commanded the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a mostly Tutsi rebel group that toppled the Hutu regime largely responsible for the country's 1994 genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered. Rwanda commemorates 13 years after the genocide at former French Military base in Southern Rwanda, Kagame blasts French. Some 270 victims of Murambi were buried in a genocide memorial site where 50,000 people were killed. Murambi was in a zone controlled by the French in the early days of the genocide in a United Nations-sanctioned mission called Operation Turquoise. Paris has always insisted it helped protect people from the advancing Hutu militias known as Interahamwe. But critics and victims say France helped prop up the Hutu government it had long supported -- and that French soldiers aided the killers. "That's not a secret or a rumour, it's a fact," Kagame, a Tutsi, said. "It does not only remind us of the killings that took place here but also provides undisputable evidence of the role of foreigners in the history of genocide." France has always denied any role in the slaughter. Survivors of Murambi said French soldiers who camped there in 1994 played volleyball on a court over a mass grave. "Playing volleyball on top of mass graves clearly shows that the French had not come to save people but rather to kill and even hide evidence," a visibly angry Kagame said. He said France should ask for forgiveness from Rwanda. Saturday marked the start of a week of remembrance. The killings started on the April 6, 1994, but the remembrance this year was held a day later because of the Easter holiday. The national flag will fly at half-mast and recreation facilities like night clubs will remain closed while TV and radio will broadcast programmes about the killings.

ITN Source | April 8, 2007

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