Annan admits U.N. blame over Rwanda

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has accepted institutional and personal blame for the slaughter of 800,000 civilians in the 1994 Rwanda genocide that was initially ignored by world leaders. "The international community is guilty of sins of omission," said Annan, who was head of the United Nations peacekeeping agency at the time and had asked countries to provide troops. "I believed at the time that I was doing my best. But I realised after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done to sound the alarm and rally support," Annan said in a speech on Friday to open the "Memorial Conference on the Rwanda Genocide" to mark 10 years since the massacre.