Ibuka “Remember”, one of the main umbrella organisation for genocide survivors on Wednesday welcomed the decision by French officials to add a new first ever impressive monument built to to honour Genocide victims in the French capital Paris.
It is expected that the monument will be erected in Paris after tendering process which is planned by the end of May.
The site where the monument is to be ereted is located on the Left Bank of the river Seine not far from the foreign ministry, the French presidency said in a statement issued last week.
Marcel Kabanda, president of the Ibuka France said that with this decision, the new memorial site will be across the water from another monument to hinor the victims of the mass killings of Armenians during first World War
According to Kabanda, the idea [with the new monument] is much about paying tribute to genocide victims and the sign that France [Government] now recognises its history.
Rwanda has accused France of complicity in the mass killings – a charge repeatedly denied by Paris.
Twenty-nine years after the genocide, both France and Rwanda are making attempts to set the record straight on what happened during the genocide against Tutsis
In 2021, President Paul Kagame said that Rwanda and France are on the path to restore friendly ties with a series of events taking place in that direction.
After years of tensions, a commission of historians appointed by Macron in 2021 returned a damning indictment of France’s role in the bloodshed.
It said France had been “blind” to preparations for the genocide and bore “serious and overwhelming” responsibility, findings the French government accepted.
The commission found no proof, however, of French complicity in the bloodshed.
Vincent Duclert, who led the historians’ commission, said the new memorial would allow “recognition of the extreme importance of the 1994 catastrophe” and highlight France’s “responsibility”.
The newly restored ties between Rwanda and France are built on truth, Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Paul Kagame said in May 2021.
President Macron said that since 2017, the two countries have, despite the historical challenges that existed, worked together to revive bilateral ties, adding that significant progress has since been made.
Going forward he committed that France will accelerate the efforts to bring to justice fugitives responsible for the Genocide against the Tutsi who have found safe haven in France.
Rwanda has recently commended the French judiciary for its recent decision to refer Dr Sosthène Munyemana, alias “Butcher of Tumba”, to the courts of law during a trial which is set to open in November this year.
Dr. Jean-Damascène Bizimana, Rwandan minister of of National Unity and Civic Engagement said that in 1994, the suspected murderer was one of those who coordinated and implemented the Genocide perpetrated against
the Tutsi in Tumba Sector (Huye) in particular and in the former Butare prefecture in general.
CU/abj/APA