 |
|
Scholar
Alain Destexhe, author of Rwanda and Genocide
in the 20th Century, argues that "the term genocide
has progressively lost its initial meaning and is becoming
dangerously commonplace," since under the Geneva Convention
it should be used only to describe "a premeditated criminal
act with the intention of destroying an ethnic, national
or religious group targeted as such." Destexhe believes
that mass murder of political opponents by an army, for
example, is not genocide and that there have been only three
"genuine" genocides in the 20th century: " ... that of the
Armenians by the Young Turks in 1915, of the Jews by the
Nazis, and, in 1994, of Tutsis by Hutu racists." His arguments
are excerpted on a FRONTLINE site about Rwanda, Valentina's
Nightmare.
In contrast, Samantha Power, the director of the
Human Rights Initiative at the Kennedy School of Government
and author of a book on the American responses to genocide
since the Holocaust, argues that "Genocide has occurred
so often and so uncontested in the last 50 years that
an epithet more apt in describing recent events than the
oft-chanted 'Never Again' is in fact 'Again and Again.'"
Although she agrees that the word genocide has "lost salience,"
Power sees the massacre of 2 million Cambodians -- a case
in which an ethnic group was not singled out for destruction
-- as a terrible example both of genocide and the rest
of the world's unwillingness to intervene to stop it.
The FRONTLINE site The World's Most Wanted Man
features an
article by Power.
A
Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, by
Samantha Power, is reviewed in Foreign Affairs. Power's book chronicles numerous
instances of international genocide in the 20th century
and the failure of the international community, led by
America, to intervene. Former U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations Richard Holbrooke reportedly bought 45 copies
of the book and gave one to U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan.
The term genocide is translated and defined in 70 languages
on the Web site of Prevent
Genocide International, a nongovernmental organization
created in 1998 to link people around the world in concerted
action against new occurrences of genocide. This Web site
helps educate visitors about the crime of genocide, provides
information on legal avenues for protection and prosecution,
and highlights global and local campaigns.
Other advocacy groups include the International Campaign
to End Genocide, http://www.genocidewatch.org/internationalcampaign.html,
a project of Genocide Watch, based in Washington, D.C.
It monitors news reports and provides a detailed monthly
report on incidents of ethnic, national, racial and religious
violence worldwide. The Web
Genocide Documentation Centre, compiled by Dr.
S.D. Stein of the University of the West of England, is
a continually updated resource for information about the
major genocides and mass killings of the 20th century,
from Kosovo to Cambodia to the Jewish Holocaust to Rwanda.
A very useful portal, it provides access to primary materials
about the worst massacres of our time.
In July 1998, 120 nations voted to adopt a treaty for
the creation of the International
Criminal Court, an independent body accorded powers
to investigate and prosecute individuals accused of war
crimes and genocide. Seven nations, including the United
States, voted against it. In July 2002, the International
Criminal Court came into existence after more than 60
nations ratified the Rome Statute dealing with genocide.
A good report from the BBC on the International Criminal
Court can be found here.
For
an example of another kind of international tribunal at
work, check the Web site of the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, created by the
United Nations Security Council in 1995, The site has
news updates on the case, extensive legal documents and
a legal library with extensive holdings, much of which
has bearing on the issue of genocide.
return
to Cambodian genocide links
|
|
|
