Alison Des Forges

摘要

Two plane crashes bookmarked Alison Des Forges's life. The first was nearly 15 years ago, when a luxury jet carrying two African presidents was shot down by missiles over Rwanda. The second was last week, when a cramped commuter plane crashed in icy weather near Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people. The first crash served as the pretext for the swiftest genocide in history. The second silenced its most dogged witness, a tiny American lady with silver hair.rnOn April 6th 1994, Mrs Des Forges was at home in Buffalo. The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were assassinated at 8.20pm that day, which was lunchtime in Buffalo. Twenty minutes later, a friend telephoned Mrs Des Forges from Kigali, the Rwandan capital. "This is it. We're finished," said Monique Mujawamariya, a fellow human-rights monitor.rnMrs Des Forges called her every half-hour, late into the night. She heard her describe steadily more alarming scenes-militiamen going from house to house, pulling people out and killing them. Eventually, they came to Ms Mujawamariya's door. Mrs Des Forges told her to pass the telephone to the killers. She would pretend to be from the White House, she said, and warn them off. "No, that won't work," said Ms Mujawamariya. Then she added:rn"Please take care of my children. I don't want you to hear this." And she hung up.