FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLL

Hypocrites

Because the Genocide Convention obliges countries to stop any genocide from occurring anywhere, and because the U.S. Government was still smarting from its failure in Somalia, the Clinton Administration refused to label the carnage that was occurring in Rwanda a "genocide." Organizations like Amnesty International also failed in this regard, while Human Rights Watch led the way in calling this horror what it was, a genocide. Eventually, the Clinton Administration said that what may have been occurring were "acts of genocide" but State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelley when asked how many acts of genocide it takes to make a genocide replied that, "We try as best as we can, to accurately reflect a description in particularly addressing that issue…" Journalist Philip Gourevitch writes that, "assuming that the above exchange took about two minutes, an average of eleven Tutsis were exterminated in Rwanda while it transpired." (We wish to inform you…, pp. 152-153)