Common Factors that to Cause Genocide - Essay Example

Discuss the explanations for genocide/What differences and similarities are in these explanations/What common factors seem to cause genocide or at least create Millions οf innocent people have lost their lives. It has happened all over the world to many different kinds οf people; from Bangladeshis to Jews and from Armenians to the Hutu. Many circumstances affect the final out come οf the great loss οf people, from revolution to colonization to an ethnically diverse society. People are persuaded to do such brutal actions. Several actions have been taken to prevent genocide and the rise οf another Hitler. The word is new the crime is ancient. Polish scholar Raphael Lemik, in 1933 created the term genocide from the Greek word genos, meaning race, and Latin term for killing cide. Lemiks proposed word and definition are recognized in the 1948 convention. The 1948 convention defines genocide as, any οf the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a certain group οf people, such as: killing members, causing mental or bodily harm, imposing measures to prevent birth, or taking children to another group forcibly. In addition to genocide itself, the convention says that planning, attempting, and inciting genocide are also punishable acts. Some acts were left out οf the convention such as deliberate destruction οf political groups and forcible assimilation into the culture οf choice. Persons that commit genocide or any οf the acts are to be punished no matter their social status. Persons that commit the genocidal acts are to be tried by an acknowledged tribunal in the area in which the crime occurred. Genocide according to Lemick, does not always occur by mass killings; the destruction οf essential foundations οf the group is like exterminating them, they will no longer have an identity and therefore not be referred to as previously named. (Howard Ball, page 96-98) Many ethnic groups have suffered genocide around the world. The Armenian genocide was done by the Turks. It broke out several times for different reasons. The first genocide done by Sultan Abdul Hamid (1876-1909) was to preserve a state structure, which kept the Christian Armenians in the Ottoman Empire submissive and unable to resist tyrannical rule. The second major genocide was done by the Young Turks party (1908-1914), it was to bring about fundamental and major changes in the status and create a new frame which did not include the Armenians. Hitlers Final Solution was concentrated on the Jews by Nazi Germany. Hitler said "Aryan" Germans were a superior race whose nation was ruined by racially unwanted groups such as the Jews. The nazi "solution" was mass murder οf Jews around the world; it took place (1939-1945) in many countries in Europe and anywhere else the Nazis gained control of. In the racial purification they persecuted and killed handicapped people. Gypsies, Soviet prisoners οf war, Polish intellectuals, homosexual men, Jehovahs Witnesses, and Germans οf African Heritage. From 1975-1979 between one and two million people perished in Cambodia, ruled by the Khmer Rouge, communists led by Pol Pot. Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, Brother Number One, or Pol Pot first executed the leaders οf the old regime, emptied cities, forced people into communes, and started social engineering; the regime killed enemies and slowly saw enemies everywhere. The genocide stopped after Vietnamese invasion less than four years later. Genocide also took place in the small country Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1990s. After Bosnias declaration οf independence from Yugoslavia, a three-year war took place between the countrys Serbian, Croatian, and Muslim ethnic groups. In response to the independence οf Bosnia Milosevic attacked the Capital city Sarajevo. The capital along with the country mostly Muslims was hopelessly outgunned, they began to round up Muslims in scenes similar to those οf Nazi Germany in World War Two. The Serbs called the secret camps, mass killings, and destruction οf mosques and historic architecture in Bosnia ethnic cleansing. After three years the United States and the United Nations stopped the conflict. The African country Rwanda is made up οf the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority. Genocide took place in Rwanda in 1994 and lasted for one hundred days; the Tutsi were targeted for the extermination. The killers did not want to merely expel the Tutsis out οf the country, they had been allowed to leave in 1959 and did not leave, the same mistake was not going to happen again. Many Hutu against the genocide were slaughtered as well. United Nations helped to end the conflict about one year later. Ordinary men in genocides, kill innocent people that lived alongside them for many reasons. There are two major factors, indoctrination and propaganda. In all genocidal societies, there are training programs that make the people hate the targeted group. Ordinary people go along with the propaganda since it is the norm everyone goes by in the state they are in. The second factor is dehumanization, the press, posters, radios, films, and plays all make the targeted group seem like demons in the mind οf the average citizen. When an enemy like this is denied humanity and is constantly called vermin for instance, the ordinary men eventually see them as worthless. Khmer Rouge soldiers said, "to allow you to live is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss". Most οf the soldiers in genocidal societies have no problem murdering and taking away innocent people. (Howard Ball, page 98-100) Diversity οf people and beliefs in a society provide the necessary conditions for genocide; this has occurred in most οf all the genocides including: India on partition, Bangladesh, and Rwanda and Burundi. Most οf the societies in the world today are plural or diverse societies, they are only more prone to genocide if there has or are persistent cleavages between racial, ethnic, or religious groups. There is generally inequality in politics as in South Africa or practical inequality, as in Northern Ireland, where Protestants succeed in political, domination. Political inequality is connected with economic discrimination; this goes with employment, wages for jobs, and access to production for businesses. Inequality also goes into education, and human rights. These structural conditions make genocide more probable. Similar people start to aggregate and this makes it easier for conflict to move, a local disturbance may start a chain οf events like demonstrations, police reprisals, terrorism, and political confrontations. With a long history οf struggle, the dominant group will remember past injustice and atrocity, this will get emotions up and would go on to destructive violence. Many plural societies do not go into subjective reactions and a chance to keep a destructive conflict. Colonization is a major creator οf plural societies; colonization and decolonization are both associated with genocidal massacres. The colonization and revolution οf Algeria are among the bloodiest conflicts in the history οf colonization. (Leo Kuper, page 57-83) Genocides cannot take place without the efforts οf many people. There are three conditions-psychological, cultural, and political-by which the genocide is made possible. In the cultural condition the perpetrators may have been taught that they are more superior to the victims, which may work as a justification for the crimes. Mechanisms are carried for the perpetrators not to feel guilt, pain, or empathy. The basic psychological condition is having strict obedience to the authority, following orders is higher than your own consideration. The men do not see themselves as responsible for the crimes, they only consider themselves as instruments used by the officials in power. Works Cited Ball, Howard., Prosecuting War Crimes and Genocide - Hardcover, 300 pages, University Press Οf Kansas (1999) Kuper, Leo., The Prevention οf Genocide (1985) Read More