As early as the first colonies in 1500, there was debate amongst the settlers if it was best to kill all the natives, or to capture them and to put them to work as slaves. (Stannard, cited in Relle & Madras, 48) The Indians were always judged by Western European standards
white." (Katz, Cited in Relle & Madras, 57) Katz concedes that the mere presence of Europeans, for the Indians, constituted in their eyes an act of aggression
Sadly, this word has also become common cultural and political parlance in the vocabulary of America and the world today, given the horrific events that transpired during World War II in Europe, and later, during the 20th century in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. But is the present American nation, long before these chronicled events of recent memory, stained with a similar historical blemish of cultural eradication? Were the words spoken by one English colonist, "the only good savage is a dead savage," (Relle & Madras, 2003) merely hyperbole or representative of the English nation's entire ideology regarding the native peoples of the Americas? David Stannard says yes, what transpired between the colonists and the natives was genocide
Genocide is therefore a moral act, not an act that can only occur in the absence of morality. The commission of genocide is dependent on the collective actions of a large group (Campbell 153)
Colonial Influences on the Rwandan Genocide The Colonial Roots of the Rwanda Genocide During a five-week period, between the second week of April and the third week of May in 1994 (Hintjens 241), close to 800,000 Rwandans were massacred (Storey 366-367)
Colonial Influences on the Rwandan Genocide The Colonial Roots of the Rwanda Genocide During a five-week period, between the second week of April and the third week of May in 1994 (Hintjens 241), close to 800,000 Rwandans were massacred (Storey 366-367)
" Surely, he argued, the death of the Ukrainian kulak women and children, who the Stalin regime purposely sacrificed "is equal to" the death of a Jewish child in the Warsaw Ghetto, dying from the Nazi instigated starvation. Yet, there are those who disagree, such as Conquest (Hollander, 2008: 39), who believe that the Holocaust was the worst case of genocide in modern times, because of the apocalyptic nature of the Nazi "racial utopia," and the total helplessness of the Jews in the face of the attack on their true existence as a people, the sheer amount of the murders, and the "industrial nightmare" of the extermination camps' gas chambers and ovens
Yet, there are those who disagree, such as Conquest (Hollander, 2008: 39), who believe that the Holocaust was the worst case of genocide in modern times, because of the apocalyptic nature of the Nazi "racial utopia," and the total helplessness of the Jews in the face of the attack on their true existence as a people, the sheer amount of the murders, and the "industrial nightmare" of the extermination camps' gas chambers and ovens. Similarly, Evans attests, "There was no Soviet Treblinka, built to murder people on their arrival" (Kiernan, 2008: 486)
The true genocide began in the middle of this year as once again the Arabs were equipped and became a militia that called itself the janjaweed, or "evil men on horseback" to inspire fear. The militia, which included convicted felons, quickly succeeded in their mission by Sudan's President Omar to "eliminate the rebellion" (Lippman, 2007: 201)
These proponents also said that under the Genocide Convention, using the term would lead to an international intervention to halt the violence. Colgan and Booker from Africa Action wrote in The Nation, "We should have learned from Rwanda that to stop genocide, Washington must first say the word" (Straus, 2005) During the Rwandan genocide, a decade previously, the State Department spokespersons in were instructed not to use this "g" word, since as noted internal government memorandum, publicly acknowledging "genocide" might commit the American government to act at a time when President Clinton's administration was entirely unwilling
After the end of the Cold War however, the new historical context imposed a certain restructuring of international law and thus, the notion of humanitarian intervention became available for justifying any possible political and military reactions to the phenomenon of genocide. According to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as "any act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" (Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1951) Despite the fact that such provisions existed during the Cold War years, due to a lack of political will and capability they were rarely taken into consideration
The arguments against a humanitarian intervention to stop the fighting between the Hutu and Tutsi revolved around the implications such actions might have had on the neighboring countries and their undermining of authority in the region, as well as the on the inability to assure security for the UN personnel. (Graybill, 2002) Taking into consideration the failure of the UNSOM I and UNSOM II and the difficult financial crisis of the organization which was dealing with serious lack of funds for the ongoing peace operations, the decision was not to send combat troops in the region
.) but rather on the obligation of the member states to take on such operations" (Russbach, 1994) From a purely political perspective, this strategy is meant to surpass the principle of sovereignty in order to help especially those subject to ethnic cleansing
From this perspective, for most of the 20th century, the UN Charter was the legal basis for decisions taken by democratic countries as it took into consideration the basic "principle of the sovereign equality of all its members." (Schlesinger, 2003, p 296) This automatically determins a refrain for any actions that member states of the UN did not agree upon
Moreover, "In July 2004, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution labeling Darfur" (Strauss, 2005)
This would bolster the status of the ICC, as an effective mechanism for going after those people who commit acts of genocide. (Dworikinb) After Milosevic was taken to the ICC, Charles Taylor of Liberia was arrested and sent to the court, to stand trial for acts of genocide committed during the civil war in Sierra Leon
Where, it is slowly proving to have an impact, in prosecuting those who commit acts of genocide. (Reynolds) Cleary, the various international laws are having an impact upon the way wars are being fought
Yet, the most power country on Earth and the biggest advocate of following these standards is not subject to the court's jurisdiction. (Shah) in many ways, this hypocrisy because of politics is creating increased amounts of tensions
However, the term genocide was not coined until 1944, when a Polish - Jewish lawyer was seeking to find some kind of word that can describe the actions and the policies used by the Nazi's. (Wietz 8 -- 15) This is significant, because the Holocaust would mark a turning point, in how the world would view such actions
"The dead of Rwanda accumulated at nearly three times the rate of Jewish dead during the Holocaust. It was the most efficient mass killing since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," (Gourevitch, 1999, p