Wednesday August 22 4:22 PM ET

Papers Show U.S. Knew of Rwanda Genocide Early On

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newly declassified U.S. documents on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda show U.S. officials knew early on who was behind the slaughter and they avoided using the term ''genocide'' because it could have obliged them to intervene.

The hundreds of pages of material, released this week by a research group at George Washington University called the National Security Archive, show the United States was aware of the scope of the killings very early on.

``Until now we could only speculate as to what U.S. officials knew about the genocide or what they were arguing in closed diplomatic forums,'' William Ferroggiaro, director of the National Security Archive, said on Wednesday.

The United Nations (news - web sites), the United States, Belgium as the former colonial ruler of Rwanda, France, the Catholic Church and a host of others have come under attack for not doing enough to prevent the killings, and of unwittingly contributing to the massive death toll of 800,000.

Most of those killed were ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates who were hunted down by Hutu extremists in an orgy of killing set off by the death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana when his plane was shot down on April 6, 1994.

Former President Bill Clinton, in a visit to Rwanda in 1998, came close to an apology when he acknowledged the world community ``did not do as much as we could and should have done to try to limit what occurred'' in Rwanda.

Ferroggiaro said the documents, which he unearthed over five years, showed three weeks into the killings, the United States had pinned down one of main coordinators of the genocide as Col. Theoneste Bagosora, a cabinet director in Rwanda's Ministry of Defense.

One State Department cable to U.S. embassies said Prudence Bushnell, then the No. 2 official for African matters at the State Department, telephoned Bagosora on April 28 to urge him to end the killings and telling him credible witnesses reported Rwandan military complicity in the massacres.

``NOTHING WAS DONE HIGHER UP''

``This document is evidence of the awareness of the perpetrators at the apex of the killing and of some initiative by mid-level U.S. officials but nothing was done higher up,'' said Ferroggiaro.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) commissioned a report, published in December 1999, on the events leading to the genocide that accused the world body of being timid, disorganized and misguided and failing to intervene once the massacres began.

Several countries were cited for not reacting to reports on the genocide and the United States had delayed a small U.N. peacekeeping force because of its debacles in Somalia in 1993.

In response to the latest news on the U.S. papers, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan had noted for years that ''there was no intervention in Rwanda not because of a lack of information but because of a lack of political will.''

A memorandum written by Bushnell hours after Habyarimana's plane was shot down warned of a ``strong likelihood'' of widespread violence. ``Our strategy is to appeal for calm in both countries (Rwanda and Burundi),'' wrote Bushnell to then Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

Bushnell told Christopher an armed forces delegation had informed the United Nations the military would take power ''temporarily.'' In addition, she said the military was ``very resistant'' to working with Rwanda's then interim Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyamana, who was later murdered along with the 10 U.N. Belgian peacekeepers trying to protect her.

Several of the documents debate whether and at what point the word ``genocide'' could be used to describe the killings. Christopher finally authorized using ``genocide'' on May 21, 1994, but officials waited another three weeks before using it publicly.

One Pentagon (news - web sites) ``discussion paper'' written on May 1, 1994, warned that State Department lawyers were concerned about using the term because it could commit the United States to action. The 1948 Genocide Convention imposes a general duty on states to ``prevent and to punish'' genocide.

``Be careful, Legal at State was worried about this yesterday -- Genocide finding could commit USG (U.S. Government) to 'do something','' said the document.

Documents also show the United States refused to ``jam'' Hutu extremist radio broadcasts inciting the killings because of the costs involved and concern with international law.

One document points to early warning signs of killings, which Ferroggiaro said was circulated to Western embassies.

A fax sent by then U.N. commander in Rwanda's capital Kigali, Canadian Maj. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, on Jan. 11, 1994, warned of arms caches, a plot to assassinate Belgian U.N. peacekeepers and Rwandan members of parliament and the existence of lists of Tutsis to be killed.

Dallaire's request to raid the caches was denied and he was instead ordered to tell the Rwandan president what he knew.

The hundreds of pages of unclassified documents form the basis of an investigation in September's edition of The Atlantic Monthly magazine, headlined ``Bystanders to Genocide.''

-- Anonymous, August 22, 2001