Answer:
i was googling the answer but then i found this without a response so i guessed :p
Answer:
<u>Government officials downplayed the severity of the crimes committed.</u>
<u>Explanation:</u>
Remember, it was a question asked by a journalist to a US state department press conference in which the US spokeswoman Christine Shelley avoids applying the term "genocide" to the what was happening in <em>Rwanda</em>. Despite the fact that there had been an ethic cleansing of the Tutsi tribe, with more thousands of dead bodies on the streets. Thus, government officials initially showed a lack of admittance to the severity of what was happening in Rwanda.
What the person above me said^ ;)
