From the Guardian: “President Bill Clinton’s administration knew Rwanda was being engulfed by genocide in April 1994 but buried the information to justify its inaction, according to classified documents made available for the first time.
“Senior officials privately used the word genocide within 16 days of the start of the killings . . . However, the administration did not publicly use the word genocide until May 25 and even then diluted its impact by saying ‘acts of genocide.’
“Ms Des Forges said: ‘They feared this word would generate public opinion which would demand some sort of action and they didn’t want to act. It was a very pragmatic determination.'”
That’s the trouble with genocide – it’s always such a dratted inconvenience.