France Blamed As Rwanda Marks Genocide Date

France's representative at a commemoration to mark the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide yesterday left early after accusations that France was partly responsible for the tragedy.

Renaud Muselier, the deputy foreign minister, left the Rwandan capital, Kigali, sooner than expected because "accusations that are grave and contrary to the truth have been made against France", the foreign ministry said.

The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, pointed a finger of blame during his speech, saying that the French "consciously trained and armed" government soldiers and militias who carried out the killings of more than half a million people 10 years ago, and "knew they were going to perpetrate a genocide".

He accused the French of preparing a "strategy to protect the killers and not protect the victims".

Mr Kagame lit an eternal flame at the main memorial site while women held up pictures of their lost loved ones and choirs sang.

Earlier yesterday, France's defence minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, said French troops did all they could to halt the genocide. Accusations that France was partly to blame were "totally scandalous".

"Even if French soldiers were, unfortunately, unable to prevent all the massacres ... they nevertheless made it possible that there was not a total genocide," he told France-Info radio. "They truly did all they could to prevent an even more dramatic situation," he said, dismissing allegations against France as "unfounded and scandalous".

France's President Jacques Chirac and officials at the foreign ministry observed a minute of silence yesterday in memory of the victims.

Mr Kagame said last month that his government planned to investigate the role that French troops and other foreigners allegedly played in the 1994 genocide. He singled out France then for helping leaders of the slaughter escape.

France had ties to the regime of extremists from Rwanda's Hutu majority that carried out the genocide, and its soldiers helped to train the Rwandan army. But French officials have repeatedly denied that France aided or directed Hutu forces that slaughtered Tutsis.

"Time will write history with the greatest possible objectivity," Mr Muselier said on France-2 television. "Each must assume his responsibilities." He had joined EU and US officials and African leaders at the commemoration.