Post at Kigali from May 1993 to April 1994, the diplomat published “say the inexpressible” after three decades of silence.
Interview by
As a French ambassador in Rwanda from May 1993 to April 1994, Jean-Michel Marlaud experienced a crucial period which goes from the signing of the Arusha agreements, intended to put an end to the civil war which opposed the ‘Rwandan army at the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR), a politico-military movement made up of Tutsi from Uganda, at the start of the Tutsi genocide, which will make a million dead in the spring of 1994. Before telling his memories in the book To say the inexpressible, published at the end of September, the diplomat had never expressed himself publicly on this subject.
twenty-eight years after leaving Kigali, you publish your memories. Why do it now?
Two elements led me to express myself after almost three decades of silence. This speaking first followed up following the decision of the President of the Republic to create a commission responsible for taking over all the archives of the time to try to determine the share of responsibility of France in Rwanda. Even if I do not totally agree with the conclusions of this commission of historians [which recognizes “a set of heavy and overwhelming responsibilities” of Paris in the genocide, but no complicity], it seemed to me that marked a new step and that it allowed to look at what happened with more serenity.
The second factor is that all the archives have become accessible, which allowed me to take up all the elements and in particular the diplomatic telegrams sent or received by the embassy. This did not profoundly modify my approach, because I had kept fairly precise memories of this too tragic period for us to forget it, but it allowed me to specify my memories.
The Duclert report mentions the existence of a direct line between the private staff of François Mitterrand in Paris and the French soldiers in Kigali. This parallel chain of command dismissed you de facto of the decision -making process. What did you feel when discovering this?
I was surprised. I was indeed not aware of the presence of this line. Its existence is abnormal, because any exchange must go through the ambassador. There are always direct links between the ministries in Paris and their representatives on the ground. At the time, the Internet did not exist. Today, dozens of emails are exchanged every day between the commercial attaché, the defense attaché or the internal security attaché and the authorities based in Paris, without the ambassador being aware. The important thing is that if a subject must be brought to his attention, he is.
You have 79.04% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.