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CHANCE TO PROTEST GENOCIDE
By Reza Jalali http://pressherald.mainetoday.com
Assyrian International News Agency
April 18 2007
April, as T.S. Eliot's "cruelest" month, is a teaser. While
burdening us with high winds, cold rain, floods and snowfall, its
very presence on the calendar promises us the arrival of the warmer
days and greenery.
April is also when the world commemorates genocides of the past by
remembering the victims of the Armenian massacre, the Holocaust and
the mass killing of Cambodians and Rwandans, among others.
In 1944, the term "genocide" was coined by a jurist named Raphael
Lemkin by combining the Greek word "genos" (race) with the Latin word
"cide" (killing). The term is defined by the United Nations as 'the
mass killing of a group of people committed with intent to destroy,
in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."
A Toll In The Millions
Since the massacre of the Armenians, followed by the slaughter of
innocent Jews in Europe during the Holocaust, millions of others,
including Cambodians, Rwandans, Bosnians, Kurds and Sudanese, have
lost their lives.
In other cases, entire communities of people have vanished, sometimes
in a matter of months. In all, the total number of those killed in
genocides in the 20th and early 21st centuries could be 260 million
people.
Generally, genocides begin by dehumanizing the soon-to-be victims.
The state-sponsored propaganda portrays "the other" as the enemy.
Once the larger population, who in ordinary times could never see
themselves or their societies as accomplices in a one-sided slaughter
of civilians, buys into the propaganda the atrocities would become
a reality.
In Germany, the campaign to eliminate the entire Jewish population
of Europe started with a simple boycott of Jewish shops and ended in
the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Cambodia's Khmer Rouge ("Red Khmers") killed approximately 1.7
million people -- more than 20 percent of its own population --
in just four years.
In the case of the Kurds, the West's silence in the face of Saddam
Hussein's barbaric efforts to destroy Kurdish communities in northern
Iraq and the ongoing cultural genocide of Kurds in Turkey has been
deafening to Kurds and their friends everywhere.
In April 1994, Rwandans slaughtered between 800,000 to 1 million
people, mostly from the Tutsi tribe, and many thousands of moderate
Hutus.
Paul Rusesabagina, nicknamed the "ordinary hero" for his actions in
saving 1,200 Tutsis and Hutu moderates by giving them shelter inside
the hotel he managed in Kigali, writes;
"Eight hundred thousand lives snuffed out in 100 days. That's 8,000
lives a day. More than five lives per minute. Each one of those lives
was like a little world in itself. Some person who laughed and cried
and ate and thought and felt and hurt just like any other person,
just like you and me. A mother's child, everyone irreplaceable."
Sadly, genocide has occurred with such regularity in the recent past
that the often-chanted "Never Again" might as well be changed to
"Again and Again."
But to fight such darkness, one must remain not only vigilant but
hopeful. Rightly, it has been said it is better to light a candle
than to curse the darkness.
It's A Local Issue
Here in Portland, now home to thousands of refugees and immigrants,
with some who are survivors of past and current genocides, the issue
remains real and part of our existence.
Some of us have managed to turn our fears into hope, by working hard
to raise the public awareness about this heartache of our times,
and create opportunities to raise our collective voices on behalf of
those who have been silenced.
One such opportunity will take place on April 22 at Monument Square.
We are inviting all those who are weary of the violence in our world
to gather to remember those whose voices have been broken.
We hope by attending the vigil and lighting a candle we could let
the world know the silenced victims are not forgotten.
We could also hope for a day when the word "genocide," added in
1944 to the English language, could be retired to the dusty pages of
obsolete dictionaries.
By Reza Jalali http://pressherald.mainetoday.com
Assyrian International News Agency
April 18 2007
April, as T.S. Eliot's "cruelest" month, is a teaser. While
burdening us with high winds, cold rain, floods and snowfall, its
very presence on the calendar promises us the arrival of the warmer
days and greenery.
April is also when the world commemorates genocides of the past by
remembering the victims of the Armenian massacre, the Holocaust and
the mass killing of Cambodians and Rwandans, among others.
In 1944, the term "genocide" was coined by a jurist named Raphael
Lemkin by combining the Greek word "genos" (race) with the Latin word
"cide" (killing). The term is defined by the United Nations as 'the
mass killing of a group of people committed with intent to destroy,
in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."
A Toll In The Millions
Since the massacre of the Armenians, followed by the slaughter of
innocent Jews in Europe during the Holocaust, millions of others,
including Cambodians, Rwandans, Bosnians, Kurds and Sudanese, have
lost their lives.
In other cases, entire communities of people have vanished, sometimes
in a matter of months. In all, the total number of those killed in
genocides in the 20th and early 21st centuries could be 260 million
people.
Generally, genocides begin by dehumanizing the soon-to-be victims.
The state-sponsored propaganda portrays "the other" as the enemy.
Once the larger population, who in ordinary times could never see
themselves or their societies as accomplices in a one-sided slaughter
of civilians, buys into the propaganda the atrocities would become
a reality.
In Germany, the campaign to eliminate the entire Jewish population
of Europe started with a simple boycott of Jewish shops and ended in
the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Cambodia's Khmer Rouge ("Red Khmers") killed approximately 1.7
million people -- more than 20 percent of its own population --
in just four years.
In the case of the Kurds, the West's silence in the face of Saddam
Hussein's barbaric efforts to destroy Kurdish communities in northern
Iraq and the ongoing cultural genocide of Kurds in Turkey has been
deafening to Kurds and their friends everywhere.
In April 1994, Rwandans slaughtered between 800,000 to 1 million
people, mostly from the Tutsi tribe, and many thousands of moderate
Hutus.
Paul Rusesabagina, nicknamed the "ordinary hero" for his actions in
saving 1,200 Tutsis and Hutu moderates by giving them shelter inside
the hotel he managed in Kigali, writes;
"Eight hundred thousand lives snuffed out in 100 days. That's 8,000
lives a day. More than five lives per minute. Each one of those lives
was like a little world in itself. Some person who laughed and cried
and ate and thought and felt and hurt just like any other person,
just like you and me. A mother's child, everyone irreplaceable."
Sadly, genocide has occurred with such regularity in the recent past
that the often-chanted "Never Again" might as well be changed to
"Again and Again."
But to fight such darkness, one must remain not only vigilant but
hopeful. Rightly, it has been said it is better to light a candle
than to curse the darkness.
It's A Local Issue
Here in Portland, now home to thousands of refugees and immigrants,
with some who are survivors of past and current genocides, the issue
remains real and part of our existence.
Some of us have managed to turn our fears into hope, by working hard
to raise the public awareness about this heartache of our times,
and create opportunities to raise our collective voices on behalf of
those who have been silenced.
One such opportunity will take place on April 22 at Monument Square.
We are inviting all those who are weary of the violence in our world
to gather to remember those whose voices have been broken.
We hope by attending the vigil and lighting a candle we could let
the world know the silenced victims are not forgotten.
We could also hope for a day when the word "genocide," added in
1944 to the English language, could be retired to the dusty pages of
obsolete dictionaries.