•HCON 87 IH 
ing Paul Rusesabagina, who is credited with saving over 
1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus who took shelter at 
the Mille Collines hotel in Kigali; 
Whereas despite General Dallaire’s assertion that he could 
halt the genocide with 5,000 well-equipped troops and a 
robust mandate, the United Nations Security Council re-
duced UNAMIR’s strength from 2,548 to 270 on April 
21, 1994; 
Whereas while calls to neutralize Radio Mille Collines were 
growing, the State Department Legal Advisor’s Office re-
portedly issued a finding against radio jamming in May 
1994, citing international broadcasting agreements and 
the United States commitment to free speech; 
Whereas in response to irrefutable evidence of mass slaughter 
and mounting pressure by some Member States and de-
termined human rights advocates, including the late Ali-
son Des Forges, the United Nations Security Council fi-
nally recognized that ‘‘acts of genocide may have been 
committed’’ in Rwanda and authorized the deployment of 
6,800 peacekeeping troops with a mandate to protect ci-
vilians on May 17, 1994; 
Whereas the troops associated with UNAMIR II did not ar-
rive until after the genocide had been halted; 
Whereas, on July 4, 1994, the RPF/A, led by General Paul 
Kagame, captured Kigali and formed an interim govern-
ment of national unity on July 17, 1994; 
Whereas, over the course of just 100 days, an estimated 
800,000 people were killed in Rwanda and over 
2,100,000 refugees, including members of the Hutu-led 
government, fully armed contingents of the Armed Forces 
of Rwanda (ex-FAR), Interhamwe militia, and other 
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•HCON 87 IH 
genocidaires poured into neighboring Zaire, Burundi, and 
Tanzania; 
Whereas the effects of the genocide in Rwanda were profound 
and far-reaching, and the continued presence of ex-FAR/ 
Interhamwe militias in eastern Democratic Republic of 
Congo, formerly Zaire, remains a major source of re-
gional instability; 
Whereas, in March 1998, former President Clinton expressed 
his regret for failing to take action to halt the forces of 
genocide in Rwanda, stating, ‘‘[a]ll 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’’; 
Whereas, on April 7, 2004, as world leaders gathered in 
Kigali to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 
Rwandan genocide, former United Nations Secretary- 
General Kofi Annan declared to the United Nations 
Human Rights Commission that reports of ethnic cleans-
ing from the Darfur region of western Sudan had left 
him with ‘‘a deep sense of foreboding’’; and 
Whereas given its own tragic experience in 1994, Rwanda re-
sponded to warnings of genocide in Darfur by commit-
ting, with support from the United States, three battal-
ions to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and 
its successor, the United Nations-African Union Mission 
in Darfur (UNAMID) with explicit orders to protect civil-
ians: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress— 
(1) solemnly observes the 15th anniversary of 
the Rwandan genocide, which claimed the lives of an 
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•HCON 87 IH 
estimated 800,000 people over the course of just 100 
days; 
(2) remembers those who were lost in this 
senseless campaign of mass slaughter and expresses 
sincere condolences to the families of the victims; 
(3) honors the heroic actions of those who 
sought to draw attention to and stop the genocide; 
(4) recognizes that despite countless pledges of 
‘‘never again’’, the forces of genocide have again 
been unleashed in Darfur, Sudan; 
(5) commends the commitment of Rwandan 
peacekeepers who have taken effective action to pro-
tect civilians in Sudan; and 
(6) urges all responsible nations to uphold the 
principles of the Convention on the Prevention and 
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and seek to 
halt genocide wherever it may occur. 
Æ 
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