UPI Poll: United States and Rwanda

WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- U.S. officials could of -- and should of -- done more to stop the genocide in Rwanda, participants in a UPI-Zogby International poll said.

In 1994 at least 500,000 -- and perhaps as many as 1 million -- ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by extremist Hutu militia groups.

The U.S. government refused to call the killings "genocide" but former U.S. President Bill Clinton, in a PBS "Frontline" interview after the disaster, said he believes if U.S. peacekeepers had been ordered to the African country, hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved.

With news of another ethnic-based series of attacks killing thousands in Sudan, 7,562 U.S. residents were asked in a Zogby interactive poll about the U.S. response to the events 13 years ago.

Some 71.1 percent -- 40.6 percent strongly agree and 30.7 percent somewhat agree -- of the participants said the United States could have done more to stop the Rwandan genocide. Another 9.5 percent somewhat disagreed, 8.7 percent strongly disagreed and 10.5 percent said they weren't sure.

Only slightly less percentages said the United States should have done more regarding Rwanda. A total of 69.3 percent -- 41.4 percent strongly agree and 27.9 percent somewhat agree -- U.S. officials should have done more. Also, 10.9 percent somewhat disagreed and 10 percent strongly disagreed the United States should have done more in Rwanda.

The poll was conducted July 13-16. There is a margin of error of 1.1 percentage points.