*ARCHIVE RELEASES US DOCUMENTS ON RWANDAN GENOCIDE*

[Michael Pugliese]

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National Security Archive Update, August 20, 2001


*ARCHIVE RELEASES US DOCUMENTS ON RWANDAN GENOCIDE*


http://www.nsarchive.org/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/press.html


Washington, D.C., August 20 - 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.

The documents are available at the following URL:
http://www.nsarchive.org/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/press.html