Kwibuka25: Macron receives Friday Representatives of IBUKA France

As Rwanda enters the commemoration on Sunday of the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide Against Tutsi, French President Emmanuel Macron is to receive Friday morning at the Elysee representatives of the association Ibuka France, which has been working for years for the “support for survivors” and Memory”.

Macron could also unveil Friday the composition of a “group of researchers” to examine the French archives on the period of the Genocide and before Genocide.

Ibuka France, founded in 2002, is the French counterpart of Ibuka (“Remember “), the main organization of survivors of the genocide against Tutsi.

“Ibuka – Memory, Justice and Support for the survivors” is an NGO working “for the memory of the genocide committed against Tutsi in Rwanda, the justice towards the persons responsible for genocidal crimes and the support for the survivors.

Interviewed by AFP before this meeting at the Elysée, Marcel Kabanda president of Ibuka France, said “It’s good that a President of the Republic is interested in us, especially in the context of the commemoration of this 25th anniversary, which is a positive sign”.

“We hope that this meeting will reflect a desire for change” in the attitude of the French state, in particular on the “taking into account of this memory” and towards “more investment in the search for genocide suspects and truth “he said.

For Mr. Kabanda, one must “have the courage to open the famous boxes of archives”. “It must show everything…,” he said.

Among the most disputed points are the extent of military assistance provided by France to the regime of Rwandan Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana from 1990 to 1994 and the circumstances of the attack that cost the life of the same President on 6 April 1994, triggering of the genocide.

Invited very formally by his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, Mr. Macron will be the great absent of the commemoration ceremonies of the genocide in Kigali Sunday. He finally declined the invitation, citing scheduling problems.

The president will send to the commemorations MP Hervé Berville, a Rwandan Tutsi orphan adopted by a French family in 1994