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Clinton knew of rwandan genocide plan { April 23 1994 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=43611DB2-323D-4CA5-8D5E0CC7AB59EF85http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=43611DB2-323D-4CA5-8D5E0CC7AB59EF85
Declassified Documents Show Clinton Administration Knew of Rwandan Genocide Plan
Alex Belida
Pentagon
31 Mar 2004, 21:47 UTC
Newly-released, declassified documents show senior U.S. government officials were well-informed about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, even though they failed to use the word publicly to justify not intervening to halt the bloodshed.
Just two weeks after the start of the killings in Rwanda 10 years ago, senior Clinton administration policymakers were told by the Central Intelligence Agency that what was happening in the tiny Central African country was genocide.
The word appears in the CIA's April 23, 1994 National Intelligence Daily, a top secret intelligence summary delivered to senior U.S. policymakers.
Three days later, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research provided more detail. It noted some Hutu extremists were speaking of a "final solution" to eliminate all Tutsis. It went on to say "the butchery shows no sign of ending."
Despite this and other information flowing into Washington, the Clinton administration waited until late May to publicly acknowledge that what it termed "acts of genocide" were taking place in Rwanda.
It took then Secretary of State Warren Christopher until early June 1994 to finally use the word "genocide."
Other declassified documents released by the independent National Security Archive of George Washington University show the administration deliberately sought to avoid using the word genocide. Officials feared, in the words of one declassified Pentagon paper, that it "could commit the U.S. government to actually do something" under international law - something the Clinton administration wanted to avoid.
Alison Des Forges, an authority on the 1994 Rwandan genocide with the organization, Human Rights Watch, told VOA the U.S. position was inexcusable. "A genocide should demand an investment of resources, a level of concern beyond other crises in the world," she said.
The administration felt it was militarily overextended elsewhere in the world and that there were no compelling American interests in Rwanda. It also wanted to avoid any repetition of the bloody experiences of U.S. peacekeeping troops in Somalia.
The Clinton administration later apologized to the Rwandan people for its failure to do more. In 1998, President Clinton traveled to Kigali and met survivors of the genocide. He said the international community did not act quickly to prevent the massacres. Mr. Clinton also said the international community must bear its share of responsibility for the tragedy.
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