"The genocide in Rwanda should be considered an embarrassment to the rest of the world that looked the other way
while a million people were slaughtered."
Kerry Zukus
while a million people were slaughtered."
Kerry Zukus
"Rwandan media played a key role in fomenting ethnic divisions and sowing the seeds of mass slaughter in the years leading up to-and the 100 days of-the 1994 genocide."
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Due to ignorance and minimal response from the United States and other Western countries, the genocide received low media coverage in western nations. Economic powers refused to declare the massacre a genocide: instead, the phrase "acts of genocide" was used.
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April 7, 1994: Civil War in Rwanda: ABC, 1994.
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"Never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence"
Bill Clinton "The UN doesn't have any troops. We borrow them from governments. And I recall we approached about eighty governments trying to get troops and they wouldn't give them to us."
Kofi Annan , UN Head of Department of Peacekeeping 1994 |
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"General Dallaire warned that a genocide was coming weeks before it began, yet the world placed its collective fingers in their ears for fear they would have to get their hands dirty preventing and mitigating it, and it would cost money as well."
Kerry Zukus
Kerry Zukus
"My deepest regret from my years in public service is the failure of the US and the International Community to act sooner to halt the crimes in Rwanda." Madeleine Albright "We would have been better off without the UN because all they did was provide false hope and demonstrate that the international community was not going to do anything to protect people."
Tito Rutaremara |
April 29, 1994: Genocide in Rwanda: ABC News.
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State Department Spokesman Christine Shelley Discussing the Situation in Rwanda. April 28, 1994: US State Department.
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"Other countries were very slow to help. The United Nations and other powerful countries such as the United States were hesitant to call it a genocide because the moment you call something a genocide it means that the UN and powerful countries have a legal obligation to help. So while people were being killed the UN and powerful countries were debating what the killing should be called - was it a civil war, a massacre or a genocide? Only after it had ended did they eventually agree it was a genocide and begin to offer help." Cori Wielenga |
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