French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France and its allies could have stopped the 1994 Rwanda genocide but lacked the will to do so, a strong declaration ahead of the African country’s 30th anniversary of the slaughter that left over 800,000 people dead.
Macron’s office said in a statement that the French president will release a video on social media on Sunday as Rwanda marks the solemn commemoration of the genocide.
In the video, Macron says that “France, which could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, lacked the will to do so.”
And they could have done the same in Palestine… They just don’t have the will. History is repeating itself.
Macron will recall that when the genocide started, “the international community had the means to know and to take actions” based on the knowledge about genocides that had been revealed by survivors of the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust
Is the speechwriter tone-deaf, or are they intentionally making an ironic point about the current international genocide situation?
Now they have the opportunity to stop another one, but lack the will to do so.
This is not the time for reflection and regret. It is the time to inaction, you need at least 20 years for reflection and regret.
Oh our hands were tied. What could we do. We couldnt anger Israelis. God forbid
Macron then rolled up his sleeves and tucked a cigarette pack in the left side and said “and if I was there on 9/11…”
France played a big role in the Rwandan genocide tho.
TIL, thank you.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France and its allies could have stopped the 1994 Rwanda genocide but lacked the will to do so, a strong declaration ahead of the African country’s 30th anniversary of the slaughter that left over 800,000 people dead.
Macron’s office said in a statement that the French president will release a video on social media on Sunday as Rwanda marks the solemn commemoration of the genocide.
In 2021 during a visit to the central African country, Macron acknowledged France’s “responsibility” in the genocide that left over 800,000 people dead, mainly ethnic Tutsis and the Hutus who tried to protect them.
Since he was first elected in 2017, Macron notably commissioned a report about France’s role before and during the genocide and decided to open the country’s archives from this period to the public.
Macron will reaffirm that “France stands by Rwanda and the Rwandan people, in memory of the one million children, women and men martyred because they were born Tutsi,” according to his office.
In recent years, France has also increased efforts to arrest genocide suspects and send them to trial.
The original article contains 385 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 50%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
France could have stopped their own genocides.
Just slightly short of saying “we still don’t care about brown and black people getting Genocided”.
