OMNI GENOCIDE
NEWSLETTER #1, JANUARY 8, 2013. Compiled
by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace and Justice.
My blog:
War Department/Peace Department
Newsletters
Index:
National/International
Days
Contents #1 Jan. 8, 2013
Genocide Convention
Al-Ani and Castellino, Genocide in Iraq
US and International Criminal Court
Nazi Gypsies Genocide
Hedges: Hiroshima , Nagasaki
Goldhagen, Worse Than War, Book and Film
Film on Reconciliation in Rwanda
Semantha Power’s Book America
Johnstone: Against War to Prevent or Stop Genocide
Sam Totten vs. Genocide
Book: Interviews with Rwanda
Book: Darfur
Book: Nuba Mountains
PGEF: Post-Genocide Educational Fund
Alison Des Forges, Genocide in Rwanda
Alice Walker on Rwanda , Congo
UN International Justice Day, ICC , USA
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Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (relevant
links)
Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the U.N. General Assembly on 9 December 1948.
Entry into force: 12 January 1951.
List of parties to the Convention (UN status report), Nations that are NOT party to the Convention (this website)
Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the U.N. General Assembly on 9 December 1948.
Entry into force: 12 January 1951.
List of parties to the Convention (UN status report), Nations that are NOT party to the Convention (this website)
Having considered the declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946 that genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world,
Recognizing that at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity, and
Being convinced that, in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge, international co-operation is required,
Hereby agree as hereinafter provided:
Article I: The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.
Article IV: Persons
committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be
punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public
officials or private individuals.
Article V: The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance
with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect
to the provisions of the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide
effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts
enumerated in article III. Article VI: Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.
Article VII: Genocide and the other acts enumerated in article III shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.
The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.
Article VIII: Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.
Article IX: Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.
Article X: The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall bear the date of 9 December 1948.
Article XI: The present Convention shall be open until 31 December 1949 for signature on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any
The present Convention shall be ratified, and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
After 1 January 1950, the present Convention may be acceded to on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any
Article XII: Any Contracting Party may at any time, by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, extend the application of the present Convention to all or any of the territories for the conduct of whose foreign relations that Contracting Party is responsible.
Article XIII: On the day when the first twenty instruments of ratification or accession have been deposited, the Secretary-General shall draw up a proces-verbal and transmit a copy thereof to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in article XI.
The present Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.
Any ratification or accession effected, subsequent to the latter date shall become effective on the ninetieth day following the deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession.
Article XIV: The present Convention shall remain in effect for a period of ten years as from the date of its coming into force.
It shall thereafter remain in force for successive periods of five years for such Contracting Parties as have not denounced it at least six months before the expiration of the current period.
Denunciation shall be effected by a written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Article XV: If, as a result of denunciations, the number of Parties to the present Convention should become less than sixteen, the Convention shall cease to be in force as from the date on which the last of these denunciations shall become effective.
Article XVI: A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any Contracting Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General.
The General Assembly shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request.
Article XVII: The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall notify all Members of the United Nations and the non-member States contemplated in article XI of the following:
(a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions received in accordance with article XI;
(b) Notifications received in accordance with article XII;
(c) The date upon which the present Convention comes into force in accordance with article XIII;
(d) Denunciations received in accordance with article XIV;
(e) The abrogation of the Convention in accordance with article XV;
(f) Notifications received in accordance with article XVI.
Article XVIII: The original of the present Convention shall be deposited
in the archives of the United Nations.
A certified copy of the Convention shall be transmitted
to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States
contemplated in article XI.
Article XIX: The present Convention shall be registered by the
Secretary-General of the United Nations on the date of its coming into force.
Text: U.N.T.S. (United
Nations Treaty Series), No. 1021, vol. 78 (1951), p. 277.The Genocide Convention in 35 languages
Kofi Annan's April 7, 2004 Action Plan to Prevent Genocide On the 10th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide In Rwanda, Annn announced his Action Plan and announced the future appointment of a Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention.
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Start reading Genocide in Iraq on your Kindle in under a minute.
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Genocide in Iraq : The Case Against the UN Security Council and
Member States
Abdul Haq al-Ani (Author), Tarik al-Ani (Author), Joshua Castellino (Foreword)
Book Description
March 1, 2013
Imposing sanctions on Iraq Iraq offers a
comprehensive coverage of Iraq Iraq
had risen to become--before 12 years of total sanctions were globally
enforced--the most progressive and developed Arab nation in the Middle East . It then contrasts that rising nation to the
devastated remains left in the aftermath of sanctions, which nonetheless was
yet to endure, in 2003, the full force of the American "shock and awe”
invasion. The book explains why, in modern times, imperialist powers felt it
was necessary to occupy Baghdad Iraq
as at the heart of both Sunni and Shi'a theology, arguing it was this very
centrality of Iraq , which
far outweighs the significance of Arabia in socio-economic, religious and
geostrategic dimensions, that at the same time makes Iraq Iraq Iraq
US AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
Wikipedia: “The United States Indonesia , and China.[2]”
1.
USA and the ICC
www.iccnow.org/?mod=usaicc
2.
USA for the International
Criminal Court
www.usaforicc.org/
Today, 119 countries have ratified the Court's treaty, and
the Court is taking on ... The International Criminal
Court embodies core U.S.
German Gypsy
Memorial Opens To Honor Nazi's Roma Victims In Berlin 's
Tiergarten Park
Follow:
Germany, Genocide, Video, German Gypsies, German Gypsy
Holocaust, Germany
Roma, Germany
Roma Holocaust, Germany Wwii
Memorial, Gypsy
Memorial, Roma
Holocaust, Roma
Memorial, Wwii, World News
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck inaugurated the memorial at an official ceremony in
Panels detailing the Nazis' persecution of the minority surround the memorial, which is located across the road from the Reichstag,
Gypsies were subjected to racial discrimination from the early days of Nazi rule. Before
It's not clear exactly how many Gypsies were killed during the Holocaust. Estimates range from 220,000 to more than 500,000.
Their fate drew little attention as post-World War II Germany began to come to terms with the Nazis' crimes, primarily focusing on the slaughter of some 6 million Jews.
Only in 1982 did West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt publicly declare that Sinti and Roma "were persecuted for reasons of race. These crimes constituted an act of genocide."
Plans to build the
"Unfortunately it is too late now for many survivors of the Nazi terror," said Zoni Weisz, a Gypsy who recalled escaping deportation to Auschwitz from the Westerbork transit camp in the
"But for the few who can see this today, and for their families, this memorial is in my eyes a kind of redress," he said at the inauguration ceremony. Weisz's mother and two younger siblings were killed at the
The head of
"In
The minority faces discrimination in
Weisz said that "society has learned nothing, almost nothing – otherwise we would be treated in a different way now."
"I hope that, with the inauguration of this memorial, what I call the forgotten Holocaust will no longer be forgotten and will get the attention it deserves," he added.
Merkel stressed the need to protect minorities, which she said "enrich the diversity of
"Let's not beat about the bush – Sinti and Roma often suffer from marginalization, from rejection ... Sinti and Roma have to fight for their rights even today," she said. "So it is a German and European duty to help them in this, wherever and within whatever country's borders they live."
The Gypsy memorial's opening follows the unveiling in 2005 of
A further memorial is planned to victims of the Nazi program of euthanasia of the mentally ill and others deemed "unworthy of life."
International Holocaust Remembrance Day & Combat Genocide
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Dear
friend,
We
at Combat Genocide are pleased to commemorate with all of
humanity the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Today we mark 68 years
after the liberation of Auschwitz, also known in Hebrew as “planet Auschwitz ”, one of the most horrific worlds ever created
by man.
As
members of the Combat
Genocide Association a
Jewish yet universal organization, we have dedicated the past seven years to
educating and teaching thousands of teens and adults around Israel
Unfortunately, the majority of the
Israeli public knows little about the genocides that have occurred before and
after the Holocaust.
The Jewish spirit weakens due to the lack of interest in the cruel fate of
other nations. The result of this is seen in the attitude of Israel towards refugees from the genocide in Sudan
We
have labored over three years formulating the "Bill
of Treatment and Responsibility for Asylum Seekers and Refugees". We hope our new government will
pass this bill. We also hope that it will officially recognize the Armenian
genocide. We look forward to any assistance you could give us in these efforts.
We
are very concerned about the torture camps in the Sinai where Ethiopian,
Eritrean, Sudanese, and other immigrants and refugees, are kidnapped. During
their kidnapping they suffer abuse, which includes beating, electrocution,
severing of body parts and possibly harvesting of body organs. During these
horrendous events in the last two years, approximately 4000 human beings have been slaughtered.
We
acted against it in several ways:
1. We have approached The Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the
leaders of the Egyptian Intelligence in a request to bring down the torture
camps )attached please find our letter.
(
2. We have requested and received custody of four Christian
Ethiopian girls survivors of torture camps, and who were held at the detention
center.
3. We have given lectures to thousands college students, thousands
high school students and thousands of IDF soldiers on this subject.
This
coming March, 650 youth movement members are going on a journey to uncover the
routes of the Zionist revolution, the Holocaust, and heroism in Poland Warsaw we will commemorate 25
years of youth journeys to Poland
We
would also like to be in contact with organizations, researchers, activists and
academics involved in the struggle against genocide, especially to bring to
justice the Sudanese president who was indicted by the ICC for the crime of
genocide.
Wishing
you a good year, and a meaningful Memorial Day.
Uriel
Levy
Director of the Combat
Genocide Association, Israel
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HIROSHIMA , NAGASAKI
“The Science of Genocide” By Chris Hedges
Posted on Aug 6, 2012, Truthdig
On this day in 1945 the United States Hiroshima ,
and three days later over Nagasaki Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
“In World War II Auschwitz and Hiroshima Hiroshima
The atomic blasts, ignited in large part to send a message to the Soviet Union , were a reminder that science is morally
neutral. Science and technology serve the ambitions of humankind. And few in
the sciences look beyond the narrow tasks handed to them by corporations or
government. They employ their dark arts, often blind to the consequences, to
cement into place systems of security and surveillance, as well as systems of
environmental destruction, that will result in collective enslavement and mass
extermination. As we veer toward environmental collapse we will have to pit
ourselves against many of these experts, scientists and technicians whose
loyalty is to institutions that profit from exploitation and death.
Scientists and technicians in the United States Soviet Union had a nuclear arsenal of similar
capability.) By 1963, according to the Columbia
University professor Seymour Melman,
the United States could
overkill the 140 principal cities in the Soviet Union
more than 78 times. Yet we went on manufacturing nuclear warheads. And those
who publicly questioned the rationality of the massive nuclear buildup, such as
J. Robert Oppenheimer, who at the government lab at Los
Alamos , N.M. , had overseen the
building of the two bombs used on Japan
“What are we to make of a civilization which has always regarded
ethics as an essential part of human life [but] which has not been able to talk
about the prospect of killing almost everyone except in prudential and
game-theoretical terms?” Oppenheimer asked after World War II.
Max Born,
the great German-British physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in
the development of quantum mechanics, in his memoirs made it clear he
disapproved of Oppenheimer and the other physicists who built the atomic bombs.
“It is satisfying to have had such clever and efficient pupils,” Born wrote,
“but I wish they had shown less cleverness and more wisdom.” Oppenheimer wrote
his old teacher back. “Over the years, I have felt a certain disapproval on
your part for much that I have done. This has always seemed to me quite
natural, for it is a sentiment that I share.” But of course, by then, it was
too late.
It was science, industry
and technology that made possible the 20th century’s industrial killing.
These forces magnified innate human barbarity. They served the immoral. And
there are numerous scientists who continue to work in labs across the country
on weapons systems that have the capacity to exterminate millions of human
beings. Is this a “rational” enterprise? Is it moral? Does it advance the human
species? Does it protect life?
For many of us, science has supplanted religion. We harbor a naive
faith in the godlike power of science. Since scientific knowledge is
cumulative, albeit morally neutral, it gives the illusion that human history
and human progress also are cumulative. Science is for us what totems and
spells were for our premodern ancestors. It is magical thinking. It feeds our
hubris and sense of divine empowerment. And trusting in its fearsome power will
mean our extinction. For MORE: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_science_of_genocide_20120806
GOLDHAGEN, BOOK AND
FILM
The first major
documentary to explore the phenomenon of genocide and how we ...
goldhagen.com/worse-than-war-the-film -
goldhagen.com/worse-than-war-the-film -
Jan 3, 2010 ...
Two new releases deconstruct the decisions and convoluted logic behind the
large-scale destruction of human beings.
www.washingtonpost.com › Arts & Living › Books -
www.washingtonpost.com › Arts & Living › Books -
Goldhagen, Daniel (October 2009). p32,Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the
Ongoing Assault on Humanity. New York
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Goldhagen -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Goldhagen -
FILM, RECONCILIATION IN RWANDA
From: Randall Amster - PJSA
Date: September 10, 2010 9:22:12 AM CDT
To: PJSA Listserv
Subject: [members_pjsa] Info about new film: *Coexist*
Here's information about a film and educational resource PJSA
members
Might find of great interest.
*Coexist* (www.coexistdocumentary.org) is a
forty-minute documentary
about the current situation of forced
reconciliation in Rwanda
bystanders, and perpetrators, and challenges viewers to think
deeply about
their own perspectives on violence, forgiveness, remorse, and
revenge.
The film's target audience is youth and it is apt for adult
viewers.
*Coexist* comes with a five-part Viewer's Guide, which includes a
variety of experiential learning activities and supplemental
resources,
such as a timeline of the genocide. There is also a seven-minute introductory
film to help viewers understand the historical context of the 1994 slaughter.
. . . .the film's director, Adam Mazo, and Learning Director, PJSA
member Mishy Lesser,. . . . how the issues in the film connect to our lives,
and how the film
And Guide can be used as tools for reflection, learning, and
community-based
action for the prevention and interruption of violence.
http://www.coexistdocumentary.org
The PJSA is a
non-profit organization that was formed in 2001 as a result of a merger of the
Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development (COPRED) and the Peace
Studies Association (PSA). Both organizations provided leadership in the
broadly defined fields of peace, conflict and justice studies.
We are dedicated to bringing together academics, K-12 teachers and
grassroots activists to explore alternatives to violence, and share visions and
strategies for social justice and social change. PJSA also serves as a
professional association for scholars in the fields of peace and conflict
resolution studies.
A
Problem from Hell 2002
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation,
search
"A Problem from
Hell": America and the Age of Genocide is a book by Samantha Power,
Professor of Human Rights Practice at Harvard's John
F. Kennedy School of Government, which explores America's understanding of,
response to, and inaction on genocides in the 20th century from the Armenian
genocide to the "ethnic cleansings" of the Kosovo War. It won the J. Anthony
Lukas Book Prize and the Pulitzer
Prize for General Non-Fiction in 2003.Power observes that American policymakers have been consistently reluctant to condemn mass atrocities as genocide or take responsibility for leading an international military intervention. She argues that without significant pressure from the American public, policymakers avoid the term "genocide" altogether. Instead, they appeal to the priority of national interests or argue (without merit, she contends) that a
Contents
[hide]
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Summary
Power begins with an outline of
the international response to the Armenian Genocide
(Chapter 1), and then describes Raphael Lemkin's efforts
to lobby for American action against Nazi atrocities in Her work has been criticized by historian Howard Zinn for downplaying the importance of "unintended" and "collateral" civilian deaths that could be classified as genocidal[2]; and by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky for systematically ignoring genocidal projects sponsored by the United States in Guatemala, in East Timor, and Southeast Asia.[3]
Awards
- Pulitzer
Prize for General Non-Fiction
- Robert F. Kennedy
Book Award
- National
Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction
- Raphael Lemkin
Award (Institute for the Study of Genocide)
References
1.
^ Power, Samantha. A Problem from Hell: America
External links
- A critique of Samantha Power's stand on
genocide: Edward
Herman: Richard Holbrooke, Samantha Power, and the “Worthy-Genocide”
Establishment
- Booknotes
interview with Power on A Problem From Hell, June 16, 2002.
JOHNSTONE’S REPLY TO POWER
Fri Feb 8, 2013 7:38 am
(PST) . Posted by:
"david sladky"
Veterans for Peace
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/01/the-good-intentions-that-pave-the-road-to-war/
R2P and Genocide Prevention
The Good Intentions That Pave the Road to War by DIANA JOHNSTONE
Paris.
Opposing genocide has become a sort of cottage industry in the
Everywhere, "genocide studies" are cropping up in universities. Five years ago, an unlikely "Genocide Prevention Task Force" was set up headed by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former defense secretary William Cohen, both veterans of the
The Bible of the campaign is Samantha Power’s book, "A Problem from Hell". Ms. Power’s thesis is that the U.S. Government, while well-intentioned, like all of us, is too slow to intervene to "stop genocide". It is a suggestion that the
Why has the U.S. Government so eagerly endorsed the crusade against "genocide";?
The reason is clear. Since the Holocaust has become the most omnipresent historical reference in Western societies, the concept of "genocide"; is widely and easily accepted as the greatest evil to afflict the planet. It is felt to be worse than war.
Therein lies its immense value to the
The obsession with "genocide"; as the primary humanitarian issue in the world today relativizes war. It reverses the final judgment of the
War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.Instead, war is transformed into a chivalrous action to rescue whole populations from "genocide";.
At the same time, national sovereignty, erected as the barrier to prevent strong nations from invading weaker ones, that is, to prevent aggression and "the scourge of war", is derided as nothing but a protection for evil rulers ("dictators") whose only ambition is to "massacre their own people".
This ideological construct is the basis for the Western-sponsored doctrine, forced on a more or less reluctant United Nations, of "R2P", the ambiguous shorthand for both the "right" and the "responsibility" to protect peoples from their own governments.
In practice this can give the dominant powers carte blanche to intervene militarily in weaker countries in order to support whatever armed rebellions they favor. Once this doctrine seems to be accepted, it can even serve as an incitement to opposition groups to provoke government repression in order to call for "protection".
One among many examples of this cottage industry is a program called "World Without Genocide" at the William Mitchell College of Law in my home town,
Misguided, and above all, misguiding. It is directing the attention of well-intentioned people away from the essential cause of our time which is to reverse the drift toward worldwide war.
Ms. Kennedy blames "genocide"; on the legal barrier set up to try to prevent aggressive war: national sovereignty. Her cure for genocide is apparently to abolish national sovereignty.
For more than 350 years, the concept of "national sovereignty" held primacy over the idea of "individual sovereignty." Governments basically had immunity from outside intervention despite human-rights violations they perpetrated within their borders. The result has been an "over and over again" phenomenon of genocide since the Holocaust, with millions of innocent lives lost in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Congo, Guatemala, Argentina, East Timor — the list is long.In fact, Hitler initiated World War II precisely in violation of the national sovereignty of Czechoslovakia and Poland partly in order, he claimed, to stop human rights violations that those governments allegedly perpetrated against ethnic Germans who lived there. It was to invalidate this pretext, and "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war", that the United Nations was founded on the basis of respect for national sovereignty.
Of course, there is no chance that the
Ms. Kennedy’s lengthens her list by arbitrarily grouping disparate events under the single label of "genocide";, mostly according to their place in the official
But the significant fact is that the worst of these slaughters –
The systematic rounding up, deportation and killing of European Jews took place during World War II. Jews were denounced as "the internal enemy" of
In
The Cambodian slaughter was certainly not the fault of "national sovereignty". Indeed, it was precisely the direct result of the
Some of the bloodiest events do not make it to Ms. Kennedy’s "genocide"; list. Missing is the killing of over half a million members of the Indonesian Communist Party in 1965 and 1966. But the dictator responsible, Suharto, was "a friend of the
But while ignoring over half a million murdered Indonesians, she includes
It is generally overlooked that Srebrenica was a garrison town where the Muslim men in 1995 were not all natives of that originally multi-ethnic town and had been carrying out attacks on surrounding Serb villages. Nor have Western media given much attention to the testimony by Srebrenica Muslim leaders of having heard the Islamist party leader, Alija Izetbegovic, confide that President Clinton had said that a massacre of at least 5,000 Muslims was needed to bring the "international community" into the Bosnian civil war on the side of the Muslims. Those Muslim leaders believe that Izetbegovic deliberately left Srebrenica undefended in order to set up a massacre by vengeful Serbs.
Whether or not that story is true, it points to a serious danger of adopting the R2P principle. Izetbegovic was the leader of a party which wanted to defeat his enemies with outside military aid. The world is rife with such leaders of ethnic, religious or political factions. If they know that "the world’s only superpower" may come to their aid once they can accuse the existing government of "slaughtering its own people", they are highly motivated to provoke that government into committing the required slaughter.
A number of former U.N. peacekeepers have testified that Muslim forces in Bosnia carried out the infamous "Marketplace bombings" against Sarajevo civilians in order to blame their Serb enemies and gain international support.
How could they do such a horrid thing? Well, if a country’s leader can be willing to "massacre his own people", why couldn’t the leader of a rebel group allow some of "his own people" to be massacred, in order to take power? Especially, by the way, if he is paid handsomely by some outside power –
A principal danger of the R2P doctrine is that it encourages rebel factions to provoke repression, or to claim persecution, solely to bring in foreign forces on their behalf. It is certain that anti-Gaddafi militants grossly exaggerated Gaddafi’s threat to
R2P serves primarily to create a public opinion willing to accept
In December 1992, a Marine battalion landed in
For all its military power, the
Like all the R2P advocates, Ms. Kennedy exhorts us "never again" to allow a Holocaust. In reality there has "never again" been another Holocaust. History produces unique events which defy all our expectations.
But what, people ask me, if something that dreadful did happen? Should the world just stand by and watch?
What is meant by "the world"? The Western ideological construct assumes that the world should care about human rights, but that only the West really does. That assumption is creating a deepening gap between the West and the rest of the world, which does not see things that way. To most of the real world, the West is seen as a cause of humanitarian disasters, not the cure.
Libya marked a turning point, when the NATO powers used the R2P doctrine not to protect people from being bombed by their own air force (the idea behind the "no fly zone" UN resolution), but to bomb the country themselves in order to enable rebels to kill the leader and destroy the regime. That convinced the Russians and Chinese, if they had had any doubts, that "R2P" is a fake, used to advance a project of world domination.
And they are not alone and isolated. The West is isolating itself in its own powerful propaganda bubble. Much, perhaps most of the world sees Western intervention as motivated by economic self-interest, or by the interests of
By crying "genocide"; when there is no genocide, the
DIANA JOHNSTONE is the author of Fools Crusade:
A shorter version of this article appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on January 25.
TWO NEW BOOKS BY SAM TOTTEN
We Cannot Forget: Interviews
with Survivors of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda
Authors: Samuel Totten and Rafiki Ubaldo, with an
Introduction by Samuel Totten
Series: Genocide, Political Violence, Human Rights
Related site: www.templesofmemory.org
During a one-hundred-day period in 1994, Hutu extremists
murdered between half a million and a million Tutsi in Rwanda . The numbers are staggering;
the methods of killing were unspeakable. Utilizing personal interviews with
survivors living in Rwandan cities, towns, and villages, We Cannot Forget
relates what happened during this period and what the victims' lives were like
both prior to and following the genocide.
Through powerful stories that are at once memorable,
disturbing, and informative, readers gain a critical sense of the tensions and
violence that preceded the genocide, how it erupted and was carried out, and
what these people faced in the first sixteen years following the genocide.
An Oral and Documentary
History of the Darfur Genocide
Samuel Totten 2010
Praeger eBook
An unquestionably important, oral-history collection
presents the first-person stories of survivors of the genocide in Darfur, a
region in western Sudan
where the Sudanese government is accused of abetting the murder of an estimated
400,000 persons.
The atrocities in Darfur
are a human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have fled
their homes. In mid-2008, the International Criminal Court filed ten charges of
war crimes, three counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity,
and two charges of murder against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir
is still in office, and the violence against black Africans in Darfur continues.
The genocide in Darfur
erupted in 2003 but its seeds had been planted years before. Following years of
attacks on their villages, livelihoods and persons, as well as political and
economic disenfranchisement by the Government of Sudan, the black Africans of
Darfur rebelled. In retaliation, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had his
troops and an Arab militia, the Janjaweed, carry out a scorched earth policy
that resulted the in killing of noncombatants, men, women, children, and the
elderly. In the process, females of all ages were raped, hundreds of villages
were burned to the ground, and over two million people were forced from their
villages. By mid-2007, estimates of those who had been killed or had perished
due lack of water, starvation, or injuries, ranged from a low of 250,000 to
over 400,000.
This two volume set presents the harrowing stories of
survivors of this genocide, and includes a collection of official documents
delineating the international community's reaction to the crisis in Darfur . The author has interviewed two dozen Sudanese
refugees who fled their homes and made their way to the neighboring country of Chad , recording
their experiences prior to the war, during various genocide events, and
following their escape. Those interviews comprise Volume One. In Volume Two,
the author has selected critical documents issued by the United States ,
the United Nations, and the International Criminal Court, each of which
presents critical insights into how the international community viewed the
scorched earth policy and atrocities and how it reached to such. An Oral and
Documentary History of the Darfur Genocide is an invaluable record of how
easily a powerful government can turn against a country's weaker minorities.
Features
?24 illustrations
Highlights
Actual stories from Darfur refugees make the horrors of genocide painfully
real
The volume is a work
of historical importance, documenting atrocities that should not be forgotten
The author, a
published expert on genocide and its prevention, was one of the 24
investigators with the U.S. State Department's Darfur Atrocities Documentation
Project in Chad
during the summer of 2004
About the Author:
SAMUEL TOTTEN is a scholar of genocide studies at the University of Arkansas ,
Fayetteville .
He was a Fulbright Scholar in 2008 at the National University of Rwanda during
which he created the Master's Degree in Genocide Studies. His most recent publication
is The Oral and Documentary History of the Darfur Genocide. RAFIKI UBALDO is a
journalist and independent scholar of genocide studies. A survivor of the 1994
genocide against the Tutsi, he has served as an advisor for the implementation
of the Master of Art's Degree in Genocide Studies at the National University of
Rwanda.
Genocide
by Attrition: The Nuba Mountains of Sudan
Few people know much about the government of Sudan 's genocidal attack against the people of
the Nuba Mountains Nuba Mountains Nuba Mountains Nuba
Mountains
LETTER TO
ATROCITIES PREVENTION BOARD ABOUT NUBA PEOPLE
Dear All,
Attached is a letter to the Atrocities Prevention Board APB),
which was initiated by President Obama as part of his administration's focus on
the prevention of genocide and crimes
against humanity. . . .Sincerely
Samuel Totten
Professor Emeritus
 |
PGEF
The Post-Genocide Education Fund
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The ravages of genocide don't end
with the cessation of the killing. Survivors must attempt to pick up their
lives despite profound sorrow and immense losses of loved ones, family
support, homes and material goods.
Due to having lost just about
everything they valued many must start from scratch and do not have the
means to pay for a university education. Ultimately, helping survivors of
genocide obtain a university education helps individuals to get back on
their feet and helps to stabilize their devastated society.
PGEF (The Post Genocide Education Fund) provides funds to enable survivors of genocide, who have the desire and ability, to attain a university education within their own nations.
We do this in conjunction with You. The generous time, attention, and financial resources that you contribute to this collective effort are why it will succeed. We encourage you to learn about PGEF and get involved in and help support our organization.
PGEF has awarded several scholarships to date, and your support is critical to expanding this progam. Since PGEF is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit organization registered in the
Alison L. Des Forges on RWANDA
From SourceWatch
Alison l. Des
Forges (deceased) was
"a consultant at Human Rights Watch and author of Leave None to Tell the
Story: Genocide in Rwanda." [1]
Alison died in 2009 and according
to Kenneth Roth: "The very week of her death, Alison
was corresponding with Hassan Jallow, the chief prosecutor for the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, about the importance of not
ignoring the RPF crimes." [1]
Contents
[hide]
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Background
"Alison Des Forges has
promoted herself as the expert of experts in all the major trials in Arusha as
though she understands Rwandans better than they understand themselves. “Alison
Des Forges behaves as if she is In 1999, International Law In Brief "congratulates human rights advocates Alison L. Des Forges and Gay J. McDougall on their MacArthur "genius grants" announced this week by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation." [3]Also see
Resources and articles
Related Sourcewatch articles
References
- ↑ Kenneth Roth, "A Heroine for Human Rights", Huffington
Post, February 15, 2009.
Alice Walker on Overcoming Speechlessness: A
Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo and Palestine/Israel
As the 2010 Pulitzer Prize
winners are announced, we speak with the first African American woman to be
awarded a Pulitzer Prize for fiction: author, poet and activist Alice Walker.
She was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer for her novel The Color Purple. She
was written many books since then. Her latest, just out, is called Overcoming
Speechlessness.|
2010 UN INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE DAY
Dear J.,
July 17 is International
Justice Day. It celebrates the International Criminal Court (ICC) and all
efforts to end impunity for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It is also time to celebrate our achievements.
Last year on July 17 and since then we asked you to write to
President Obama urging his administration to participate in ICC meetings,
including the recent Review Conference in
Successful
Tell President Obama that this International Justice Day is the
time to finish what he started: complete an integrated
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