Clinton Hears Horrors Of Rwanda

After hearing the tragic stories of genocide survivors, President Clinton said Thursday the world did not act quickly enough when the horrors of the 1994 massacre in Rwanda began to emerge. "Never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence," Mr. Clinton pledged.

"All over the world, there were people like me sitting in offices who did not fully appreciate the depth and the speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror," Mr. Clinton said.

The Clinton administration has said the international community failed to stop the Hutu extremists from killing up to 1 million minority-group Tutsis and Hutu moderates in the worst genocide since the Nazis killed 6 million Jews in World War II.

He noted the fine line between peace and war elsewhere in the world: in Bosnia, between Arabs and Israel, between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

Earlier, a grim-faced President Clinton listened intently as six survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide told him how they lived to tell the tale. One woman, scarred from machete cuts, lost nine members of her family to the Rwandan genocide. Another watched as her house was looted, her parents and siblings killed. One man hid among bloodied corpses.

Listening to Josephine Murebwayire, Clinton sat in horror, mouth open, a pained expression on his face.

Murebwayire lost nine members of her family in the 90-day massacre, she said, meeting with Mr. Clinton in an airport during his three-hour stop in Rwanda.

"They took us outside and gave us machete cuts until almost everyone was dead," she said. "I had machete cuts on my head, my teeth were taken out, and my legs were also cut. My six children, my husband, and two brothers were all killed there."

Mr. Clinton, his voice thick with emotion, thanked her for her story.

Gloriosa Uwimpuhwe said her mother, father and four siblings were killed.

"Two groups of men came to where we were, armed with guns and grenades and machetes," she said. "There was a woman who had come to visit us and 10 or 12 of the men raped her. They tied up my sister and mother and looted everything in the house and went away.

"Men came back and killed my mother and father where they were hiding with a neighbor. Two of my sisters and two of my brothers were also killed."

Venuste Karasira, whose right hand was cut off, told Mr. Clinton he survived by hiding among the dead, "I swim in their blood to survive."

"The cries of the people in agony were everywhee. They took us to a hill. Some were killed along the way. We accepted our fate to die," he told Mr. Clinton, whose face tensed. "The next morning, among the crying of the dying, among the blood, they brought us to the hospital, and we survived."

Before hearing their stories, Mr. Clinton shook hands with each of the survivors, who didn't show much emotion themselves.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is accompanying the president on his 12-day tour of six African nations, heard the horror stories alongside her husband.

Written by Sonya Ross
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