France discontinues Rwanda genocide investigation

French judges have discontinued their long-running investigation into a deadly 1994 attack on a former Rwandan president, which sparked genocide in the African country.

A French legal source told media outlets on Wednesday that the investigation was stopped on December 21 due to a lack of evidence.

Seven people close to Rwandan President Paul Kagame were charged in the inquiry. In October, French prosecutors had requested a halt to the probe because of insufficient evidence against the seven suspects.

The investigation began in 1998. After a closure interval it reopened in 2016 before hitting a series of legal obstacles the following year.

The Rwandan genocide began following the shooting down of a plane transporting former President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was also killed in the plane crash. They were both ethnic Hutus.

After the crash, Hutus who were in majority, were incited to commit acts of ethnic violence against Tutsis. Habyarimana’s assassination triggered 100 days of bloodshed that left thousands of people dead, mostly members of the Tutsi minority.

In 2009, a Rwandan inquiry found Hutu extremists, who viewed Habyarimana as too willing to compromise with Tutsis, responsible for the assassination. A report from ballistic experts in 2012 also suggested that the missiles used in the attack were likely fired from a camp held by Habyarimana's own presidential guard.

Relations between the two countries have gone through ups and downs since the genocide.

The Rwandan government accuses France of complicity in the crime. French officials are accused of supporting the Hutu nationalist government, which carried out the mass killing of an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans.

President Kagame has time and again repeated accusations that French troops were both accomplices and "actors" in the massacre.

In 2016, Rwanda opened a formal investigation into the alleged role of 20 French officials in the genocide.

PressTV-Rwanda opens probe into French role in genocide

"The inquiry, for now, is focused on 20 individuals," Rwanda's prosecutor general says.

The Rwandan government has rejected France's claims, saying it is an attempt by the French government to cover up its role in the genocide.

France, which supported the Hutu regime under its controversial policy of seeking influence in post-independence Africa, has admitted it made mistakes but insists it never had a role in the massacre. 

In September, France admitted that it instigated a "system" that led to torture during Algeria's independence war in the 1950s and 1960s. 

PressTV-Macron admits systematic torture in Algeria war

France has finally admitted that it instigated a “system” that led to torture during Algeria’s independence war.

President Emmanuel Macron sparked controversy on the campaign trail last year by declaring that France's colonization of Algeria was a "crime against humanity."

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