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Evidence of Inaction
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A National Security Archive Briefing Book
Edited by William Ferroggiaro
August 20, 2001
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Today the National Security Archive publishes on the World
Wide Web
sixteen declassified US government
documents detailing how US policymakers chose to be “bystanders”
during the genocide that decimated Rwanda in 1994. The documents
include those cited in the new investigative account, “Bystanders
to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy Happen”, by
Samantha Power, in the September 2001 issue of The Atlantic Monthly.
Power’s account is the result of a three-year investigation
involving more than 60 interviews of US policymakers and scores of interviews
with Rwandan, European and United Nations officials. It also draws
on hundreds of pages of recently declassified US government documentation
obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the National
Security Archive’s William Ferroggiaro. The documents demonstrate
what US officials knew about the genocide, what options were considered,
and how and why they chose to avoid intervening in the slaughter.
The documents published today show that:
Contrary to later public statements, the US lobbied the UN for a total
withdrawal of UN forces in Rwanda in April 1994;
Secretary of State Warren Christopher did not authorize officials to use
the term “genocide” until May 21, and even then, US officials waited another
three weeks before using the term in public;
Bureaucratic infighting slowed the US response to the genocide;
The US refused to “jam” extremist radio broadcasts inciting the killing
because of costs and concern with international law;
US officials knew exactly who was leading the genocide, and actually spoke
with those leaders to urge an end to the violence.
Ferroggiaro, who is the Director of the Archive’s Freedom of Information
Project, said “Until now, we could only speculate as to what US officials
knew about the genocide or what they were arguing in closed diplomatic
forums. Samantha Power’s account lays bare the motivations and perspectives
of US officials; the documents provide essential evidence of official inaction
in the face of the slaughter in Rwanda in 1994.” Ferroggiaro heads
the Archive’s effort to obtain the declassification of all relevant US
policy documentation on the Rwandan genocide.
Go to the Documents
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