Why did the US not intervene to prevent the genocide in Rwanda in 1994?

Why the United States Did Not Intervene

to Prevent the Genocide in Rwanda in 1994

2006

Why the United States Did Not Intervene to Prevent the Genocide in Rwanda in 1994

Rwanda will always be remembered as a twentieth-century story bathed with its own blood and generally characterized by the international community 's callousness to its legitimate cries for help

Rwanda is a small Central African country once colonized by Belgium It is a country of around seven million people composed of two major ethnic groups , the Hutu and Tutsi

. The Hutus outnumber the Tutsis although the latter have dominated the Hutu peasants under the Belgian colonial years . When it gained independence from Belgium in 1962 , it was the Hutus ' turn to take power marginalizing the Tutsis through oppression and violence . From this , the guerrilla army , Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF ) was organized to fight the Hutus . Then came the Arusha Accord , a set of protocols signed by the RPF and then Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana to end the civil war which the latter never implemented . The Arusha Accord was intended to promote power sharing , ensure integration of the rebel and government armies , ease ethnic tensions , and lead to democratic elections ' In October 1993 the first popularly elected Hutu president of neighboring country Burundi , Melchior Ndadaye , was assassinated and ethnic tensions again began to brew in Rwanda

With a delicate ceasefire between Tutsi rebels and the Hutu government the United Nations sent an international peacekeeping force of 2 ,500 troops to preserve the peace threatened by Hutu extremists who viciously opposed sharing power with the Tutsis . The situation worsened in April 1994 . Peace meeting with Tutsi rebels were conducted by Rwandan President Habyalimana and Burundi 's new President , Cyprien Ntaryamira On April 6 , the small jet carrying the two presidents from a meeting in Tanzania was shot down by ground-fired missiles while approaching Rwanda 's Kigali airport . Twenty-four hours later , Rwanda went under a political mayhem as Hutu extremists began slaughtering Tutsis and moderate Hutu politicians for one hundred days

In the name of ethnic cleansing , an estimated 800 ,000 lives were wasted in Rwanda . Not since the Holocaust has killing been more systematically and atrociously carried out . Never was anything of such scale been done with the United States , the remaining acknowledged super power standing outside looking in

In March 1998 , then U .S . President Bill Clinton admitted to Rwandans at Kigali airport that the international community had failed to act to prevent the country 's genocide in 1994 ' and advocated measures to prevent such a tragedy from recurring

There were two often reiterated reasons that sprung out of the United States ' inaction of the Rwanda tragedy : one , that the Clinton administration did not know the scope nor scale of what was happening in Rwanda and two , that there were no American interests involved Proper intelligence was a crucial defense in the Clinton administration 's response or non-response of the Rwanda situation . In to grasp this extremely cautious approach...