"The French public has already realised what many people already knew and has come to realise the historical truth," on France's role in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda without this causing a "crisis of memory," says Vincent Duclert, who headed a commission of historians that highlighted France's "heavy and overwhelming responsibilities". As we prepare to commemorate the 30th anniversary of this tragedy, which claimed more than 800,000 lives, the historian even sees it as "a relief" in the face of this "great scandal of the Fifth Republic". But he still refuses to comment on the possible complicity of the French state, preferring to leave that task to the courts. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES