World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, visiting a Rwandan genocide memorial, apologized on Thursday on behalf of the international community for not trying to prevent the 1994 slaughter.
On his first visit to the continent since taking charge of the bank on June 1, Wolfowitz toured a small museum located in a suburb of the Rwandan capital where an estimated 200,000 people were killed in the genocide.
"It's heart-rending what happened here," Wolfowitz said after touring the memorial and laying flowers at a burial site. "It is very clear this could have been prevented and could have even been stopped as it was going on.
"There is not much that we can do about it at this point, but it is important to say we are sorry."
The former Pentagon official is on a four-nation tour of Africa, which he has said will be his first priority as head of the World Bank.
Last weekend the wealthy Group of Eight nations reached agreement on wiping out more than $40 billion in debt owed by 18 countries to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development bank. Wolfowitz emerged as a key player in helping clinch the deal.
Wolfowitz, accompanied by a genocide survivor who lost 74 relatives, examined photographs of victims covering the walls of the museum and listened to some of their stories recounted in a video exhibit.
Extremist Hutus killed 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus who sympathized with them during Rwanda's 100-day genocide, in which the international community failed to intervene.
Tutsi-led rebels under the command of Paul Kagame, now Rwanda's president, stopped the genocide after marching across the country, routing the Hutu forces and seizing power.
Wolfowitz has already visited Nigeria and Burkina Faso this week and will end his trip in South Africa after Rwanda. In Rwanda, he is due to meet Kagame on Friday and tour AIDS clinics.
Additional reporting with Arthur Asiimwe
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