France played active role in 1994 genocide in Rwanda: report

Among those named in a report by a Rwandan investigation commission were former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and late President Francois Mitterrand. Â

Kigali has previously accused Paris of covering up its role in training troops and militia who carried out massacres that killed some 800,000 people and of propping up the ethnic Hutu leaders who orchestrated the slaughter.

The latest allegations from Kigali came on Tuesday with the publication of the report by an independent Rwandan commission set up to investigate France's role in the bloodshed.

The 500-page report alleged that France was aware of preparations for the genocide, contributed to planning the massacres and actively took part in the killing.

"French forces directly assassinated Tutsis and Hutus accused of hiding Tutsis... French forces committed several rapes on Tutsi survivors," said a justice ministry statement released after the report was presented in Kigali.

"The French support was of a political, military, diplomatic and logistic nature," Reuters quoted the statement.

"Considering the gravity of the alleged facts, the Rwandan government asks competent authorities to undertake all necessary actions to bring the accused French political and military leaders to answer for their acts before justice," it added.

An official at the French Foreign Ministry told Reuters that the French government had not yet received any official communication from Kigali and so could not comment.

Attached to the report was a list of 33 accused French political and military officials.

As well as Mitterrand and Villepin, others listed include then foreign minister Alain Juppe, a senior figure in current President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, then Prime Minister Edouard Balladur and Hubert Vedrine, both still senior politicians.

The release of the report comes against a backdrop of tense relations between France and Rwanda.

In November 2006, Kigali severed diplomatic ties with France after French investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere accused Kagame and his entourage of involvement in the death of the then president, Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu.

Habyarimana’s plane was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994, sparking the genocide.

In July, Kagame had threatened to indict French nationals over the genocide if European courts did not withdraw arrest warrants issued against Rwandan officials.