The French government has declared that April 7 will be a date on which, every year, they commemorate the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Information to this effect is carried in a May 13 decree which indicates that the French government has moved to declare that every year, on April 7, a commemoration ceremony will be organised in the capital, Paris. April 7 marks the day when the Genocide was set in motion by an extremist regime, then backed by France. The killings that last for 100 days claimed more than a million lives. It is further noted that a similar ceremony can be organized in each department at the initiative of the prefet, a regional administrator under the French local government system. French Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, was tasked by President Emmanuel Macron to take charge of the execution of this decree, which will be published in the official gazette of France. The new development in Paris comes following the move last month by President Emmanuel Macron to appoint a team of researchers and historians to look into archives of France’s actions in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide, a move then received with mixed reactions, in Kigali. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
