Genocide's harrowing cost

Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Columnist

Christiane Amanpour is a passionate teacher who picks difficult topics. She is so commanding that you want to enroll.

In CNN's Scream Bloody Murder, she takes up perhaps the hardest subject of all: genocide. In this two-hour documentary, which debuts at 9 p.m. Thursday, Amanpour examines how the world has frequently fallen short since the Holocaust.

This program looks at atrocities in Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. She balances the horror by focusing on stirring figures who spoke out.

Father Francois Ponchaud told of the Khmer Rouge's mass executions in Cambodia. Peter Galbraith, then a staffer in the U.S. Senate, tried -- and failed -- to get Congress to punish Iraq after Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.

Richard Holbrooke, then a private citizen, pushed the Clinton administration to halt the Bosnian Serbs. The United States acted three years later.

Romeo Dallaire, commander of United Nations peace-keeping troops in Rwanda, warned of disaster. He didn't receive help, and still seems shaken by the tragedy.

Mukesh Kapila, formerly the U.N.'s top official in Sudan, took the Darfur disaster to the media. Professor Eric Reeves has rallied the world via the Internet. Read more >>>>>