PARIS: France’s Court of Cassation yesterday, Wednesday, September 9, 2026, upheld the dismissal of the case against French soldiers in an investigation into possible “complicity in genocide” in the massacres of Tutsis in Bisesero, in western Rwanda, in 1994.
The organizations Survie, Ibuka, FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), LDH (Human Rights League) and Licra, together with six survivors, accused the French soldiers of knowingly abandoning Tutsi civilians who had taken refuge in the hills of Bisesero, allowing hundreds of them to be massacred by Hutus over a period of three days, from June 27 to 30, 1994. France was present in Rwanda at the time through Operation Turquoise, which had a humanitarian mandate.
During the investigation, five soldiers who were in Rwanda at the time of the events were placed under the status of assisted witness, which is more favorable than that of a person formally charged.
Names of genocide victims at the Bisesero Memorial, in western Rwanda, December 2, 2020. (SIMON WOHLFAHRT / AFP)
(1) No intention “to facilitate the commission of crimes against Tutsi civilians”
In December 2024, the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal rejected the allegations of “complicity in genocide” against them, upholding the general dismissal issued in October 2023 by investigating judges and rejecting requests for additional hearings, notably those of former Élysée Secretary-General Hubert Védrine and historian Vincent Duclert. The civil parties then appealed to the Court of Cassation.
In its ruling issued on Wednesday, France’s highest criminal court held that “it was not for the soldiers present on the ground to act without having received a specific order from their chain of command, namely the Ministry of Defence.”
The judges “further noted that no evidence demonstrated an intention on the part of these officers to facilitate the commission of crimes against Tutsi civilians,” adding that the three-day delay before the rescue operation was due to “the clarification of a situation that remained unclear at the time.” They also noted that the force commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Rémi Duval was too small to conduct a secure intervention.
(2) A “genuine presumption of guilt” for twenty years
As for the highest-ranking officer, General Jean-Claude Lafourcade, commander of Operation Turquoise in 1994, the judges held that “he sought to obtain additional information in order to decide whether to take action and that doubt remains as to his knowledge of what was taking place.”
“After twenty years of legal proceedings, all judicial decisions have unanimously affirmed that there is no criminal liability on the part of the soldiers of Operation Turquoise for the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis,” said Pierre-Olivier Lambert and Emmanuel Bidanda, lawyers representing the soldiers, describing the decision as having “historic significance.” “We will be particularly vigilant to ensure that this judicial truth is not undermined,” they added, referring to the soldiers who had suffered from a “genuine presumption of guilt.”
“After more than two decades of investigations marked by hundreds of witness interviews and the examination of thousands of documents, including many declassified records, it has been established that no criminal liability can be attributed to the French army or its soldiers,” General Lafourcade said, welcoming the decision while deploring “twenty years of media and political persecution.”
(3) The genocide claimed 800,000 lives, according to the UN
“It is high time that the French soldiers of Operation Turquoise, now cleared, be able to take pride in what they accomplished in Rwanda in 1994,” he added, stressing that “France was the only major country to intervene to put an end to the genocide.”
Contacted by AFP, the civil-party organizations had not immediately responded.From April to July 1994, the genocide claimed 800,000 lives, according to the United Nations, including Tutsis and Hutus killed by the Rwandan Armed Forces and the Interahamwe, the extremist Hutu militias.
Source: franceinfo with AFP
This World,
Mwalimu Hakizimana Maurice is a teacher, a translator-interpreter, and a writer based in Paris, France.
Professor Hakizimana Maurice is the author of the book “UTABA AMATEKA NTABONA ITAKA” (Editions Scribes).
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