Sarkozy in Rwanda


Feb 25th, 2010 9:56 AM UTC
By Chris Scott

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in Rwanda today after meeting with President Paul Kagame. This is the first time a French president has visited the country in 25 years.

According to the Washington Post:

The trip is also the first by a French leader since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. It aims to cement diplomatic ties that were restored in November, three years after they broke down because of the arrest warrants that accused those close to Kagame of a role in the presidential assassination that sparked the genocide.

Sarkozy was met at Kigali’s airport by Rwanda’s prime minister and then visited the main genocide museum in the tiny, mountainous central African country. Afterward Kagame welcomed Sarkozy at his official residence.

France and Rwanda have sparred for years over an alleged French role in the genocide, in which 500,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis but also moderate Hutus, were massacred in frenzied killing led by radical Hutus.

TAGS: France, President Kagame, Rwanda

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