7/28/21
Today, our guest speaker was Mitra Kalelkar, MD. She is a forensic pathologist, and former Deputy Chief Medical Examiner - Cook County. 
Her presentation focused on her 20 day experience in 1996 as part of the United Nations investigation of the 1994 Rwandan genocide which resulted in over 500,000 people killed, primarily ethnic Tutsi and Batwa by the dominant Hutu. The UN established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to try high level members of the government and armed forces.
Prior to her involvement with the investigation, her knowledge of Rwanda consisted of reading Gorillas in the Mist. The investigation involved excavation of mass graves, and preforming hundreds of autopsies in temporary morgues to determine the cause of death, and, if possible, identifying the dead. The victims were clubbed or macheted to death.