The French government on Wednesday ordered the opening up of significant state archives concerning the genocide in Rwanda, on the 27th anniversary of the start of the slaughter that still casts a shadow over France. The archives concern the work of former president Francois Mitterrand and his prime minister Edouard Balladur between 1990 and 1904 when the genocide began, according to a statement issued in France’s official journal which publishes government decrees. Many of the documents – which include diplomatic telegrams and confidential notes – were sources for a long-awaited report by historians published late last month over France’s role in the genocide. The genocide saw around 800,000 people slaughtered, mainly from the ethnic Tutsi minority, between April and July of 1994.
SOURCE: EWN