Many commentators and historians have heavily blamed the United Nations, and specifically Kofi Annan, for a level of apathy regarding the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia which was tantamount to complicity in the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. This has been true across much of the political spectrum, including the liberal Philip Gourevitch in the New Yorker magazine, who wrote the definitive book on the Rwanda genocide, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.

Annan ignored a letter notifying him that a genocide was occurring and that, as head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, this was his responsibility to prevent. Nevertheless, the New York Times cultural section today does not mention Annan in an article reviewing an upcoming movie about Rwanda, Hotel Rwanda. Instead, the New York Times uses an interview with Anthony Lake, American National Security adviser during the Clinton years, to exlusively blame America for the massacre. Not only does the article not mention Annan's and the UN's role in the genocide, it also does not even castigate the perpetrators. In the New York Times, only America bears responsibility for the horror.

Contrast this treatment, with an op—ed in today's Wall Street Journal written by a UN Peacekeeping official, which focuses blame exactly where it belongs: The UN and Kofi Annan.

Ed Lasky   12 20 04