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| - Tensions have eased between France and Rwanda since a March report acknowledged Paris was "blind" to the 1994 genocide in the east African nation, and bears overwhelming responsibility for the bloodshed. As Emmanuel Macron makes the first trip to Rwanda by a French president since 2010, here is a timeline of troubled relations between the two countries. Rwanda's Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana calls for help from France and former colonial power Belgium to fight off Ugandan-based rebels from the mainly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led by current Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Paris sends troops in October, officially to protect its embassy and citizens. But France also secretly helps train the Rwandan army. On April 6 Habyarimana is killed when his aircraft is shot down over Kigali. The next day the genocide begins. From April to July 4 around 800,000 people are killed, mostly from the Tutsi minority, along with some moderate Hutus. The Tutsis are accused by the Hutu-dominated regime of colluding with the RPF, which had entered northern Rwanda from Uganda in 1990. Some 500 French paratroopers evacuate more than 1,000 French citizens and foreigners. In June, the United Nations gives France the green light for Operation Turquoise, a military operation in Rwanda with humanitarian ends. The RPF accuses France of seeking to save the Hutu regime and those responsible for the slaughter. Some 2,500 French soldiers secure a humanitarian zone in the southwest, effectively hindering the RPF's advance but also allowing fleeing genocide suspects to hide. On July 4 the RPF seizes the capital Kigali, ending the genocide. A French parliamentary mission exonerates France from involvement in the genocide in December, but says it bears some responsibility due to strategic errors and "institutional dysfunction". Rwanda insists France is guilty of genocide crimes. A French judge recommends President Kagame be prosecuted by the UN-backed tribunal trying Rwanda's genocide suspects for suspected participation in Habyarimana's assassination. He signs nine arrest warrants for Kagame's aides. Rwanda breaks off diplomatic relations with France. Ties are not restored until November 2009. French president Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledges France made mistakes during the genocide. But he stops short of apologising during the first visit to Rwanda by a French president since the bloodbath. In September 2011 Kagame makes his first official visit to France. A French court sentences a former Rwandan army captain to 25 years in prison in the country's first trial linked to the genocide. In July 2016 two former Rwandan mayors are sentenced in France to life terms. Twentieth anniversary commemorations of the genocide are held in Kigali in April 2014 without a French representative. Kagame again accuses France of "participating" in the genocide. President Emmanuel Macron hosts Kagame in Paris in May 2018, saying the normalisation of relations is under way but "will no doubt take time". In December French judges drop a long-running investigation into Habyarimana's killing, ending a major source of tension with Kagame. In March 2021 a historical commission set up by Macron concludes that France was "blind" to preparations for the massacres, and bears "serious and overwhelming" responsibilities over the genocide. Kagame welcomes the report as an important step and says he is ready for a new phase in ties with France. In April Macron's office opens archives on the genocide. A report commissioned by Kigali says France "was an indispensable collaborator in building the institutions that would become instruments of the genocide. "And still, it has not yet acknowledged that role or atoned for it," the report stated. On May 17 Kagame says that Rwanda and France have a "good basis" to create a relationship: "We are in the process of normalisation." Macron announces he will visit Rwanda in late May. burs-jmy/fg/np/wai
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