Скачать или смотреть KENYA: UN CHIEF ADMITS UN INACTIVE AT PREVENTING RWANDA GENOCIDE

(5 May 1998) English/Nat
U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday blamed a lack of military might and political backing for the failure to prevent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
He said that U-N members refused to provide sufficient support to prevent the slaughter.
Annan was in Kenya as part of an eight nation tour of central Africa.
Annan has been under fire recently for his role in the Rwanda crisis.
He was in Nairobi for talks to end the 15-year civil war in southern Sudan, but he responded to lingering questions about U-N inaction during the Rwanda genocide.
Hutu extremists killed more than 500-thousand people, mostly Tutsis.
A recent article in the New Yorker Magazine said that Annan had been warned in January 1994 of Hutu plans to carry out the slaughter which began in April that year.
Annan admitted a share of the responsibility for what followed.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It was a failure of all of us. It was a collective failure. We all failed re: Rwanda."
SUPER CAPTION: Kofi Annan, U-N Secretary General
Annan has been criticised for not being forceful enough in his response to the warning given on January 11, 1994 of Hutu plans for the mass killings.
The senior U-N military officer on the ground in Rwanda, Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, told Annan he was preparing a raid on a weapons armoury within 36 hours.
But Annan overruled him, citing restrictions in the Security Council mandate authorising
the peacekeeping force.
Annan downplayed the accusations saying that prominent members of the U-N Security Council with significant interests in the area weren't willing to intervene.
These countries were the U-S, France and Belgium - but all showed a lack of support when the Security Council members were briefed in February 1994.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"There was lack of political will, not a lack of information."
SUPER CAPTION: Kofi Annan, U-N Secretary General
The issue has gained new attention following President Clinton's trip to the region in April and the four-year anniversary of the genocide.
Clinton apologised for not intervening, and promised there would not be a repeat of that passivity.

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