Administrative justice is “incompetent” to judge the French State.

The administrative court of Paris rejected on Thursday, November 14, a request presented by victims of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, which sought to condemn the French State for its alleged complicity in the tragedy that occurred in 1994, considering “incompetent”.

The issue in this dispute was whether the facts incriminated constituted “acts of government”who benefit from total jurisdictional immunity, generally for reasons of diplomacy, internal or external security or acts of war.

The administrative court ruled in this direction, considering “which is not competent since the decisions and actions of the French State between 1990 and 1994 with respect to the Rwandan State, then the United Nations, cannot be separated from the development of France’s international relations ».

The plaintiffs demanded 700 million euros

Signed by around twenty victims or witnesses of the genocide and two associations, Ruandais Avenir and the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda, the request, the first before the administrative justice system, was presented in April 2023.

The French state “could prevent this genocide: not only did he do nothing, but his political, diplomatic and military support for the Hutu extremists was continuous before, during and after the genocide they committed”stated the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Serge Lewisch, during the October 24 hearing.

The plaintiffs, who demanded compensation of 700 million euros, accused Paris in particular of not having reported “the 1975 military assistance treaty to a genocidal government of Rwanda”.

They are the former secretary general of the Elysée Hubert Védrine and several soldiers, in particular Admiral Jacques Lanxade, chief of the General Staff of the armed forces in France in 1994. The latter, according to the plaintiffs, “He exceeded his powers”.

A consultation based on the Duclert report

The request also referred to the French operation “Turquoise”, carried out under a UN mandate, which was subject to a blanket dismissal by the criminal justice system in October 2023, challenged by the civil parties, who appealed.

In this criminal investigation, the civil parties accuse France of “complicity in genocide” for having, according to them, consciously abandoned the Tutsi civilians sheltered in the hills of Bisesero for three days, allowing the massacre of hundreds of them to take place by the genocides, from June 27 to 30, 1994.

The administrative request was also based on the report of a commission of historians chaired by Vincent Duclert, based on the analysis of French archives, which concluded that the responsibilities “heavy and overwhelming” from France. However, the Duclert report ruled out any “complicity” French genocide. According to the UN, the massacres in Rwanda left more than 800,000 dead between April and July 1994, mainly among the Tutsi minority.