some sixty heads of state and government attended the funeral mass for late french president francois mitterrand paying tribute to his friend and colleague german chancellor helmut kohl was moved to tears. and twenty thirteen moto dum itself was the focus of attention when paris celebrated the eight hundred fiftieth anniversary of its landmark. for the occasion the cathedral was fitted with nine new bells during the french revolution nearly all the previous bells had been melted down and the church ransacked. recent years the bells of notre dame have rung out in memory of victims of terrorism after the paris attacks of november twenty fifteen mourners waited in long lines to honor those killed. after the attack in neeson twenty sixteen not to dominate paris again became a place of mourning. this david briefly what's the next step well on wednesday afternoon the bells of notre dame will ring out for the first time since this tragedy and we also can't forget this sunday is easter sunday a celebration of redemption of rebirth and certainly many christians around the world will see the saving of nur

president francois mitterrand felt he had to support france's main ally in east africa. i was in john christophe michel fons office on october fifth. the phone rang. and i knew right away that hobby ari mana was on the line i mean they talked for four or five minutes. and said well here we go they've gone berserk and could golly thank you before the rebels have reached the capital that wasn't true but that's what how to remount a had told him. to believe it though he said we'll send the guy some troops and it'll all be over in three months. that assessment was a bit premature this is. the force we need to. conclude that it is true. so hard to change their way then went back to. get it out and more. often that enables you to cause. done midge. but it was still somebody's god i want to. know in one thousand nine hundred could gummy had been studying at a military college in the u.s. but returned to rwanda to leave the r.p.s. troops. his new strategy was to move his forces out of open areas where they were exposed to enemy attack and deploy them in the mouth. homo to god i

side in the conflict was losing on june eighteenth one thousand nine hundred for president francois mitterrand issued orders to launch. as a humanitarian measure time is running out he explained at a point in time where seventy five percent of the tutsis were already dead what were france's true intentions in rwanda where the in katon you were on the verge of taking control. you french intention to do. it to. you too must. be. if they had been. was that the film. crew you have fear the time you were making threatening statements saying they would push the french back out of the country. it was very unsettling you're going to have to the french had been assigned the un mandate the immediately established contact with kagami be a political channels but it was right at the beginning of the operation he was informed that france did not intend to reconquer rwanda or oppose him or of the r.p.m. . some of the french soldiers had served in rwanda a number of years earlier and now they were back in the same country except this time they had to assume a very different stance that they had to be impartia

back in one thousand nine hundred four when the genocide began the french government under francois mitterrand the time they'd been very close to the hutu regime there are allegations that the french also arm some of the militia and then french troops at the time that was sent and deployed to try and protect some of the population well again there are allegations of both from historians in rwanda and france that those troops simply just didn't do enough they did too little and many people continued to be killed so it's a very sensitive issue in france and by setting up this commission amount on my call is saying that hopefully more clarity can be shed on exactly what france's role was to show how significant is this move by markov for a french president. it's very significant because french presidents have been so guarded over this very sensitive topic for so long you know in twenty ten nicolas sarkozy admitted that france had made some errors but he really stopped there in twenty fifteen the former french president francois law and opened up the state archives but historians since have said i