Can Genocide Be Prevented?
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2022
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
Last week, Russian troops withdrew from Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Ukrainians returning to the city discovered the horrific aftermath. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, more than three hundred civilians in the city were killed. Investigators have found evidence of torture, rape, beheading, dismemberment, and the intentional burning of corpses. A mass grave was dug to accommodate the bodies. Zelensky has referred to the massacre as evidence of genocide. Philip Gourevitch, a New Yorker staff writer, has written for the magazine about the genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia. He joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss his past reporting, why the “never again” discourse around genocides has failed to prevent them, and whether further war crimes in Ukraine are inevitable.
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| 0:47.7 | This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and guests about politics. |
| 0:54.1 | It's Thursday, April 7th. |
| 0:56.2 | I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of The New Yorker. Last week, Russian troops withdrew |
| 1:02.1 | from Boucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Ukrainians began returning to the |
| 1:08.2 | city over the weekend, and immediately photos and videos of the horrific aftermath of the Russian occupation started to emerge. |
| 1:17.5 | According to President Volodyear Zelensky, more than 300 civilians in the city were killed. |
| 1:24.0 | Investigators have found evidence of torture, rape, beheading, and dismemberment, and the |
| 1:29.9 | intentional burning of corpses. |
| 1:32.7 | Ukrainian forces have dug a mass grave to accommodate the bodies. |
| 1:37.4 | Zelensky has referred to the massacre in Buccia as evidence of genocide. |
| 1:42.4 | This week marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the Bosnian War, |
| 1:47.0 | which led to a genocide that killed more than 100,000 people, most of them Bosniaks. And today is the |
| 1:53.6 | 28th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide, which killed close to a million people, |
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