Could the US Government have prevented the Rwanda Genocide Research Paper

Could the US Government have prevented the Rwanda Genocide - Research Paper Example While an initial misunderstanding of the situation contributed to a sluggish response, warning signs of an impending catastrophe were evident prior to April 1994. As early as 1992 there was evidence that genocide was in the planning stages, negating Western claims that the genocide was not predictable. From November 1993 to January 1994 there were more signs and signals that something terrible was about to transpire. In December 1993, Romeo Dallaire received information from various sources that something was about to occur, including: a letter from high-ranking Rwandan military officials warning of planned massacres; a press release from a bishop stating that guns were being disseminated to civilians; intelligence reports recording secret meetings detailing plans for coordinating attacks on Tutsis, opponents of Hutu power, and UN peacekeepers. Additionally, the killing of Tutsis was being encouraged while anti-Tutsi sentiment was being disseminated in newspapers and over the airwave s (Carlsson et al., 10-12). Perhaps the most famous warning of genocide came from Dallaire himself, who sent a cable to UN headquarters in New York on January 11, 1994. However, the contents of the so-called genocide fax fell on deaf ears. Despite these warnings, countries still feigned indifference when the genocide began. Regardless, international community and particularly the US were relatively well  ­informed of the conditions in-country prior to the outbreak of genocide (Burkhalter ‘The 1994 Rwandan Genocide’ 45) During the genocide the US impeded actions within the UN that would have facilitated an international response, namely by "raising one objection after another to various Security Council proposals to upgrade UNAMIR" (Burkhalter ‘A Preventable Horror’ 20). Okbazghi Yohannes, an international relations scholar, notes that, "The Clinton