Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda (Human Rights Watch Report, March 1999)

Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda (Human Rights Watch Report, March 1999)
This is a thoroughly exhaustive (and exhausting) resource into the history of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. When this was going on, I remember hearing bits and pieces in news reports, but not enough to appreciate the gravity. In the span of 100 days, close to 1 million people were massacred by their friends, neighbors, and countrymen.

When you look back at was considered news at the time, you're left scratching your head. What surprised me the most about the situation was the callousness that the rest of the world displayed at 800,000 deaths in 100 days. Once the genocide started, there was probably precious little that could have been done; what's surprising is that precious little may have been all it took to prevent it. When the Clinton administration takes pains to address the events as 'acts of genocide', you're left wondering what the motivator might have been. The whole event left the world superpowers looking stupid and the UN a pointless entity.

And how do 'acts of genocide' differ from actual genocide? Who makes that determination? Genocide classification carries a great deal of responsibility to the world and the United States who, over and over again, say 'Never Again'. Clinton had no problem rushing to Bosnia and bombing the Chinese Embassy.