first acknowledged France\u2019s failure<\/a> to heed warnings of impending massacres in Rwanda.<\/p>\nMacron has said Paris and its Western and African allies did not have the will to halt the genocide, though he has stopped short of issuing a formal apology.<\/p>\n
\u2018Requires real courage\u2019<\/p>\n
Speaking at the ceremony, Kagame hailed France\u2019s efforts to assume its share of responsibility, and praised Macron for his \u201ccourage and humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrance was not alone in falling short, far from it,\u201d said Kagame, who had long accused France of \u201ccomplicity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany other countries did so as well, but none has gone as far as France in setting the record straight and accepting its part in the tragedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cConfronting historical responsibilities requires real courage because it generates a fierce opposition by those with a case to answer,\u201d Kagame said.<\/p>\n
![\"Rwanda's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AFP__20260602__B4RM8AB__v1__HighRes__FranceRwandaPoliticsGenocideMemorial-1780429041.jpg\")
Rwanda\u2019s President Paul Kagame delivers his speech during the inauguration of a new memorial honouring victims of the Rwandan genocide, in Paris, France, June 2 [Sarah Meyssonnier\/Pool via AFP]<\/p>\n
When the genocide against the Tutsis occurred in 1994, France had been a long-standing backer of Rwanda\u2019s Hutu-dominated government, leading to decades of tensions between the two countries, including a break in diplomatic ties between 2006 and 2009.<\/p>\n
A commission set up by Macron and led by historian Vincent Duclert concluded in 2021 that France had been \u2060blinded by its colonial attitude to events leading up to the genocide \u2060and bore a \u201cserious and overwhelming\u201d responsibility \u2060for failing to foresee the slaughter.<\/p>\n
However, it said there was no evidence that Paris was complicit in the killings.<\/p>\n
\u2018Part of France\u2019s public history\u2019<\/p>\n
Duclert said the unveiling of the monument was a \u201cpowerful\u201d step. \u201cThe genocide against the Tutsi is now fully part of France\u2019s public history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The French courts, acting on the principle of universal jurisdiction to try the most serious crimes committed worldwide, have convicted several Rwandans for their part in the massacre.<\/p>\n
In May, France\u2019s judiciary ordered the resumption of an almost two-decade investigation into accusations that the widow of late Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, who has lived in France since 1998, was involved in the genocide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Macron, who has acknowledged French \u2018responsibility\u2019 in the genocide, called the memorial a reconciliation \u2018milestone\u2019. Published On 2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[493,36,73,5,10563,6,30,8330],"class_list":["post-29649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-africa","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-genocide","tag-news","tag-paris","tag-rwanda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"(From](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AFP__20260602__B4RR8RL__v2__HighRes__FranceRwandaPoliticsGenocideMemorial-1780429045.jpg\")
Rwanda\u2019s President Paul Kagame, Rwanda\u2019s First Lady Jeannette Kagame and France\u2019s President Emmanuel Macron view the monument, dubbed \u2018The Archive\u2019, in Paris, France on June 2 [Sarah Meyssonnier\/Pool via AFP]<\/p>\n