View Video | Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal

Beth Lyons
speaks on ...

definitions of genocide

Transcript

0:00

My own view is that the word genocide implies that there was a plan, that it wasn’t a spontaneous act. It wasn’t a spur – it was, it, it was a planned action. That is the thesis of Alison Des Forges in the Prosecution’s office, and I should say, having read judgments and been involved in two cases, I have never seen any evidence of a plan on the part of those who are accused to commit genocide.

0:38

And I want to say that, because genocide is loosely used. That is not at all to mitigate the horrors or the tragedies faced by all of the people, but I think genocide connotes in large part also an emotional reaction.

0:59

I believe that under some systems, there was a plan, you know. I think in the case of Germany there was a plan against all of the peoples that were murdered. And (_), in the apartheid regime planned, and they documented apartheid. There has been no documentation provided by the prosecution as proof of a plan.