Suchergebnisse

Genocidal tendencies that exist today are due to the embrace of realpolitik and the glorification of the state. Unrestrained nationalism can only lead to mass killing with conviction and pure heart. Genocide is the commission of specific acts with intent to destroy, wholly o r in part, a national ethnic, racial o r religious group. There are many cases of genocide today which the U.S. ignores because it makes anti‐Sovietism the centerpiece of I t s foreign policy. International law is not enough to prevent genocide. Natural law and the judgements at Nuremberg as well are not sufficient. The problem is one of individuals who must reduce their loyalty to the state as the dominant imperative of political life. Only then will realpolitik be controlled.

A review essay on books by (1) Robert Gellately & Ben Kiernan (Eds), The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge U Press, 2003); (2) Samantha Power, "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide (London: Flamingo, 2003); & (3) Martin Shaw, War and Genocide: Organized Killing in Modern Society (Cambridge: Polity, 2003).

Considers the lessons learned from the Rwandan genocide on its tenth anniversary. The new Rwandan Constitution is geared toward addressing the social damage, the danger to peace and stability posed by an ideology of ethnic exclusiveness, the question of justice for those who committed crimes of genocide, and aid provision to genocide survivors. The inaction and impotence of the United Nations in 1994 is noted, along with the role of the mass media and external forces in the genocide.

A critique of the proclamation by the US government that recent events in Darfur qualify as "genocide." It is acknowledged that, following the letter of the 1948 Genocide Convention, these events do, indeed, seem to represent genocide. However, in practice, the term has generally been used in more extreme cases than the majority of cases that could be justified by the Convention alone. Determining that a genocide has occurred in Darfur responded to a range of pressure groups who, it is claimed, subscribe to an "interventionist narrative" that falsely imagines the US is normally responsible for putting an end to genocide and that it can and should continue to do so. This determination also serves an ulterior motive of attacking Muslim Arabs who are seen as terrorists, while imposing an Arab-African dichotomy that is particularly inaccurate in Darfur. Because of the external imposition of this dichotomy, conflict between people labeled according to it may worsen.

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic East is discussed. Some 75% of those suffering religious persecution are Christians. Adapted from the source document.

IF WE ACCEPT COLIN POWELL'S ASSURANCE THAT GENOCIDE HAS BEEN COMMITTED IN SUDAN'S DARFUR REGION, THEN DON'T WE HAVE A LEGAL OBLIGATION TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT — OR IS THIS ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE ALTOGETHER?

There are few parallels to the human holocaust that took place in Burundi in
1972 in the wake of a tortuous competitive struggle between the country's two
major ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. Scarcely noticed (let alone
understood) by public opinion anywhere, the killings are conservatively estimated
to have caused between 80,000 and 100,000 deaths. Approximately 3.5 percent of the
country's total population (3.5 million) were physically wiped out in a period of
a few weeks. In comparative terms this is as if England had suffered a loss of 2
million or the United States about 8 million people. To speak of "selective
genocide" in describing the outcome of such large-scale political violence seems
scarcely an exaggeration.