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Rwanda: United Nations Sorry for Genocide
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The Monitor (Kampala)
30 January 2008
Posted to the web 29 January 2008
Robert Mukombozi
Kigali
THE United Nations has acknowledged its failure to quickly intervene as thousands of Rwandans were killed in 1994 genocide.
The world body said it regretted the mistakes that led to the loss of many innocent lives.
"The Rwandan genocide will haunt us as well as the world's conscience for generations," UN chief Ban Ki-moon told journalists on Tuesday during his visit to Kigali. He laid a wreath over a mass grave, where some 250,000 people were buried.
He also took a swipe at other stakeholders for not playing their part to stem the genocide.
Like his predecessor, Kofi Annan, he says the UN, Security Council, member states and the international media did not pay enough attention to the gathering signs of disaster.
"The 1994 genocide shocked the consciences of the UN, and member Nations have learnt profound lessons from the incident," Mr Ki-moon, who was head of UN peacekeeping at the time of the genocide, during which a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in 100 days said.
A UN peacekeeping force (UNAMIR) was deployed in Rwanda in 1994 but it failed to stop the killing due to the absence of reinforcements, which required a UN Security Council vote.
"This is the saddest chapter in the betrayal of humanity and I will make sure such a horrible incident does not happen again anywhere in the world," he said.
He contributed $10,000 of his personal money to support genocide survivors.
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The UN chief also held talks with President Paul Kagame and several government officials mainly on the state of Rwanda's progress and security in the entire great lakes region especially the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan's war torn Darfur, violence in Kenya and Somalia.
I call on the high officials of the UN not to sit by and watch the situation in Kenya to degerate too far. It's bad now. Please, don't let it get worse. Act quickly. Please
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