萨科奇总统将访问卢旺达

Nicolas Sarkozy will travel to Rwanda next month to pay the first visit by a French president to Kigali since the 1994 genocide, Rwandan officials say.

卢旺达官员称，法国总统尼古拉·萨科奇下月将要访问卢旺达首都基加利，这是法国自1994年种族灭绝事件以来的首次访问。

Frence's foreign minister visited Kigali shortly after ties were restored

Rwanda's foreign ministry made the announcement after the new French ambassador presented his credentials信任状，证书.

The states severed ties in 2006 after a French judge said President Paul Kagame helped spark the genocide, while Rwanda accused France of arming Hutu胡图族 militias民兵，义勇军.

In just 100 days, some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate适度的，中等的 Hutus were slaughtered.

'Common history'

Rwanda and France agreed to restore relations in November, three years after investigative judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere accused nine Tutsi officials of being behind the murder of President Juvenal Habyaremana.

The shooting down of his plane on 6 April 1994 triggered the mass killings of minority Tutsis by extremist Hutu militias.

The Tutsi-led government of Mr Kagame had already accused France of backing and arming groups held responsible.

Earlier this month, a Rwandan government enquiry concluded that Hutu extremists within Habyaremana's own inner circle核心集团 had planned his assassination months beforehand and that France was not involved.

However, it noted that French military officials stationed in Rwanda as part of a military agreement with the government had access to the plane wreckage残骸，失事.

The enquiry said French officials had disappeared with the aircraft's flight recorder and debris碎片，残骸 from the missiles fired at it.

During a recent visit by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to Kigali, his Rwandan counterpart said the two countries had to move forward together.

"We have a common history. We have had difficulties. We are ready to discuss them and move on," Louise Mushikiwabo said.

The resumption恢复，重新 开始 of ties came on the same weekend as Rwanda was admitted to the Commonwealth, an association of mainly former British colonies.

In 2008, the government decided all education would be taught in English instead of French.