Bill Clinton Quotes
We came here today partly in recognition that we in the United States and the world community did not do as much as we could have and should have done to try to limit what occurred.
See {598187} for Clinton’s earlier discovery of the extent of his administration’s insufficient action.
William Clinton, 42nd President of the United States (Democrat, AR), Apology Speech, Kilgali Airport, Rwanda, March 1998
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Other leaders of the time also didn’t comprehend what was happening. See Dole {599943}. Later, Clinton apologized to the Rwandans. See {598255}.
The possibility of intervention in the affairs of other counties even if there is no U. S. national interest involved, was not new when the George W. Bush administration sent troops to Somalia and Bill Clinton bombed Serbia. There were appeals made “to our sympathies” and there were serious atrocities. But these modern Presidents were just following the policy clearly stated by Theodore Roosevelt in 1904.
There was reluctance throughout the government to avoid using “the G word.” See {41333}
The General’s plan was not accepted by the UN and the participating governments. The genocide was not abated.
His view, that America had no vested interest in Rwanda, was the prevailing thinking of the Republicans who controlled Congress and many of the Democrats as well. President Clinton considered intervention in Rwanda, but decided against it given all the opposition and little time to educate the American public to a different position. The result was the genocide in Rwanda where over 500,000 Tutsis were exterminated by the Hutus. Clinton, several years later not only admitted that he made a political and moral mistake, but officially apologized to Rwandan Tutsis who remained alive. He had intervened very successfully in Kosovo to prevent more murder of ethnic Muslims and was given a hard time politically by his opposition even though the brilliant effort cost no American lives. The United States and the UN, all bearing guilt for doing little in Rwanda, did help to set up the mechanism for the trials of the worst murderers and at least many of the most guilty were brought to justice.
The genocide when the Hutu tried to exterminate the Tutsis might have been curtailed with large nation intervention, but that would have interfered in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. Two important principles were in conflict. The rights of the Tutsi minority and the traditional prohibition of interfering in the internal affairs of another country. In this and many situations to follow, ranging from Darfur to Zimbabwe, the realization that the traditional prohibition against internal interference has to trump the most egregious violations of human rights.
This speech was given on the Armenian murders, (the word genocide had not yet been coined), in Turkey
- Born: August 19, 1946
- Nationality: American
- Profession: 42nd American President
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Clinton was previously Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992, and the Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III – he changed to his stepfather's name at age 15.
