The White House said on Thursday that Former President Clinton will lead a U.S. delegation to Rwanda this weekend to remember the 30th anniversary of a devastating genocide in the country.
A conflict between different ethnic groups in Rwanda turned into genocide in 1994, leading to the deaths of 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi Rwandans over roughly four months.
During the conflict, the U.S. government did little, mainly focusing on evacuating Americans and providing $500 million for aid. Documents from that time show that the U.S. hesitated because of the failed mission in Somalia in 1993, known as the “Black Hawk Down” incident, where 18 U.S. soldiers died.
Clinton, who was president at the time, later expressed regret about his government’s inaction.
“I don’t think we could have stopped the violence completely, but I think we could have reduced it,” he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2012. “And I regret it.” told The New York Times in 2012. “And I regret it.”
“If we’d gone in sooner, I believe we could have saved at least a third of the lives that were lost… it had an enduring impact on me,” he later told CNBC in 2014.
Classified documents released in 2004 revealed that the Clinton administration was aware of Hutu plans for a genocide of Tutsi people before the ethnic conflict began.
Clinton will be accompanied by Ambassador to Rwanda Eric Kneedler, and senior State Department official Mary Catherine Phee, White House aide Casey Redmon, and USAID official Monde Muyangwa as part of the delegation to Rwanda.
