Human Rights Activist Alison Des Forges Dies in Buffalo Plane Crash

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/further/human-rights-activist-alison-des-forges-dies-buffalo-plane-crash

Human Rights Activist Alison Des Forges Dies in Buffalo Plane Crash

by Abby Zimet


Historian Alison Des Forges, 66, a prominent human rights advocate who documented genocide in Rwanda, was one of 50 people killed in Thursday's Continental Airlines crash near Buffalo. Kenneth Roth, president of Human Rights Watch, said Des Forges, "epitomized the human rights activist - principled, dispassionate, committed to the truth and to using that truth to protect ordinary people."

For her award-winning book, "Leave None To Tell the Story, Des Forges spent four years interviewing victims and organizers of the 1994 genocide that killed some 800,000 people in 100 days. Des Forges argued that the genocide was not a spontaneous eruption of ancient tribal hatreds but a carefully orchestrated effort by the government that seized power in Rwanda in 1994.

Des Forges was also an authority on human rights violations in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and had testified as an expert witness at many genocide trials. She worked as a senior adviser to Human Rights Watch's Africa division.

[SidDithers]

1. Thanks for posting that...

Here's today's article in The Toronto Star, including comments from both Romeo Dallaire and Louise Arbour.
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/587678

Dallaire:

"She made us look beyond tribalism and go to the depths of justice and seek the real reasons how human beings can create such destruction," he said in a phone interview with the Star yesterday.

"It is because of people like her and the depth of her investigative skills and the ethical strength of her research that we have confidence that the true stories do come out ... She did outstanding work in being a canary in the mine regarding the Rwanda genocide."

Arbour

"It's hard to have the proper words to describe what a wonderful woman she was – a wonderful human rights defender," Arbour said. "She was one of the very best, the top scholar on Rwanda, a terrific person. Her book on the genocide was seminal."

Sid