French Banned From Rwanda Memorial

Representatives from around the world attended a memorial marking the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide on Monday—except for France. The French ambassador to Rwanda says he was barred from the ceremony, and that the country's president, Paul Kagame, accused France of complicity in the planning of the mass slaughter. The Rwandan genocide, in which extremist members of the majority Hutu group slaughtered 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days, began in 1994. In 2006, a French judge rekindled animosity between the countries when he declared that Kagame should be investigated regarding the shooting down of the Rwandan presidential jet in 1994, which many see as the event sparking the genocide.