Communist deputy for Val-de-Marne from 1988 to 2007, he became known in the year of his election to the National Assembly for having initiated the creation of the French Parliamentary Information Mission on Rwanda, known as ” Quilès Mission.” All his life he demanded clarification on the responsibility of Paris in the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda.
By Jean-François DUPAQUIER
Jean-Claude Lefort, born December 15, 1944 in Paris, died on the 19th of cancer. This lifelong communist activist spent his childhood and youth in Bagnolet, in Seine-Saint-Denis, in a modest environment. His father, a worker, had joined the Spanish Republicans in the International Brigades and his mother was a caretaker in a school1.
Member of the national office of the Young Communist Movement of France and, since 1964, of the French Communist Party, from 1971 to 1979 he was the private secretary of Georges Marchais, general secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF). In 1983 he became the secretary of the Val-de-Marne federation of the Party, one of its most powerful federations – it had 30,000 members at the time.
A member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly for three legislatures, he participated in numerous international negotiations and was involved in many issues. In 1998, he proposed the creation of a “Commission of Inquiry into the Share of French Responsibility in the Genocide Perpetrated in Rwanda”. Vice-President of what was ultimately the Parliamentary Information Mission on Rwanda, he disagreed with the final conclusions of the Mission’s report and refused to be its co-author.
In memory of the fight against fascism in Spain, he was co-founder of the Association of Friends of Combatants in Republican Spain (Acer), with José Fort and François Asensi. Thanks to his prerogatives within the Foreign Affairs Committee, he recovered part of the archives of the International Brigades deposited in Moscow1.
Since 2007, Jean-Claude Lefort has been honorary president of Appui Rwanda, an association supporting survivors of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 19944. In May 2009, he was elected president of the Association France-Palestine Solidarité (AFPS), following the movement’s 2nd congress. He is the coordinator of the National Committee to Support Salah Hamouri, who became his son-in-law in 20141.
Jean-Claude Lefort left the French Communist Party on January 19, 2024, “with extreme pain”, following a dispute with its general secretary Fabien Roussel.
It was in 1998 that Georges Kapler and his partner, director Anne Lainé, met Jean Claude in Ivry, at the home of a mutual friend. He had just been elected deputy in the tenth constituency of Val de Marne, a position he retained until 2007.
As such, he had proposed the creation of a “Commission of inquiry into the share of French responsibilities in the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda”. This commission of inquiry unfortunately did not see the light of day, leaving room for a parliamentary information mission on Rwanda. The powers of this mission were significantly more limited than that of a commission of inquiry – no obligation to appear for the witnesses cited, no criminal prosecution…
He nevertheless became the vice-president of this Parliamentary Information Mission on Rwanda chaired by Paul Quilès. A hard worker, Jean-Claude Lefort found himself in disagreement with the conclusions of the Mission, refused to be a co-author, and was the only MP to refuse to approve them.
“This dive into the abominable, with its considerable collection of information and testimonies gathered from survivors of the genocide, French military and political figures, as well as a working trip to Rwanda, put this convinced humanist to the test,” says Anne Lainé.
She specifies: “In 2003, it was obvious to us to ask him to be the Honorary President of the Appui Rwanda association, which, until a few months ago, was a center of assistance to the victims of the Tutsi genocide and their children and which kept the memory of the genocide alive by regularly organizing cultural events. The members of Appui Rwanda will remember a man of exemplary courage and integrity.”
Jean-Claude Lefort was notably supported by the communist journalist Jean Chatain (1942-2019), “an essential witness” his former newspaper, L’Humanité, would recall.
Despite the timidity and contradictions of the Communist Party on the French military intervention in Rwanda, Jean-Claude Lefort was able to note that his initiative to clarify the responsibility of the Elysée in the genocide of the Tutsi continued to progress until “Duclert Report” documenting in 2021 “the heavy and overwhelming responsibility” of Paris.
A tribute will be organized by the municipality of Ivry-sur-Seine this Saturday, June 29, at 10:30 a.m., Parvis de l’Hôtel de Ville, Esplanade Georges Marrane
We extend our condolences to his daughter Elsa Lefort-Hammouri, his son-in-law Salah Hammouri and his grandchildren as well as to the facilitators of Appui-Rwanda.
