French journalist Thierry Cruvellier spoke in Memorial Union Wednesday about the punishment and trials of war criminals in countries such as Rwanda, Cambodia and Lebanon.
Cruvellier's lecture kicked off the Wisconsin Union Directorate's Human Rights Awareness Week.
Cruvellier was the only full-time foreign journalist to cover Rwanda's International Criminal Tribunal, which was formed to prosecute criminals after the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. Cruvellier said justice is never easy to fight for, and every country finds its own political transition after mass genocide.
Rwanda has taken a unique approach by following mass murder with mass justice, which makes it is impossible for the government to punish all guilty parties, Cruvellier said.
""More than 1 million people have in one way or another been prosecuted, which is unbelievable and unprecedented and nowhere to be seen,"" Cruvellier said.
Cruvellier said statements tribunal courts make about their operations often stray from the truth.
""We have to look at these courts for what they do, not for what they claim,"" Cruvellier said.
According to Cruvellier, foreign political context behind tribunal courts inspires the way in which the court acts in Rwanda, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and other countries.
""The courts can hardly do something that the international community behind it is not willing to do,"" Cruvellier said.
Cruvellier said justice can best be attained through the combination of trials, reparations, commissions and removal of state members involved in crime, though the victims will never receive a satisfactory answer.
""What is important to keep in mind is that trial is only a small answer to mass murder,"" Cruvellier said. ""It only achieves very little. It punishes, and that's all it does.""
