This off-shot was that the U.S. State Department pressured the UN against intervening in the 1994 Rwandan genocide Even as the graphic violence dominated the world press, the U.S. government was refusing to acknowledge that a genocide had taken place. African leaders including South African President Nelson Mandela considered the formation of the ACRI as a cynical attempt by the U.S. to improve its image following the Rwandan genocide. The United States which had been willing to mobilize the United Nations to stop ethnic cleansing in European Bosnia has ensured that the UN did not send troops to end the Rwandan genocide in 1994.