Rwanda: Cliinton apology: Former US Prez apologizes for 'personal failure', Rwanda's genocide

Former US President Bill Clinton apologized for his 'personal failure' regarding the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in a visit to Kilgali regarding HIV/AIDS relief projects. The outside world was ineffective to prevent the slaughter of 800,000 people, which the UN addressed with too little too late, as testified by the Canadian General of the UN Force, Romeo Daillaire.

On a brief visit to look at HIV/AIDS projects in the central African country, Clinton laid a wreath at a museum commemorating victims of the 100-day massacre by extremists from the Hutu majority which took place during his presidency.

"I express regret for my personal failure," he said before touring the museum, which features graphic images of people being decapitated and bodies twitching on the road.

It's important that Clinton made this gesture. As, I recall the situation at the time, however, the period in US politics in relation to Black Africa was determined by a stance of total nonintervention, as strenuously advocated by the Congressional Black Caucus. No one expected the outbreak of stupendous violence that raged while the Hutu leadership sawt the decimation of the politically-dominant Tutsi tribes-people who had been privileged all thru the French colonlial period in the country's history. - Owlb