Never Again

“Never Again”

These words were famously spoken by Elie Wiesel, a man who has come to symbolize the Holocaust. Mr. Wiesel has been an adamant speaker for genocide prevention and human rights, his call to “never again” allow a genocide to occur has unfortunately been ignored by the rest of the world.

The term genocide is a 20th century term, it was first used during the Nuremberg trials after WWII. “The term "genocide" did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group (ushmm.org). In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder, including the destruction of the European Jews. He formed the word "genocide" by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing (ushmm.org).

The invention of the term however does not mean the invention of genocide as an act. The Holocaust I would argue was not the first genocide of the twentieth century, Armenia which hasn’t been officially recognized as a genocide suffered massive killings by the Turks during WWI. Although the U.S. and other western countries refuse to use the term genocide to describe this catastrophe , many scholars have written and talked about it in terms of a genocide (http://www.armenian-genocide.org/).

With the creation of the ICC , the term genocide has been a touchy subject for the international community. When and where to use the term has troubled politicians and been a source of controversy for world leaders. During the Rwandan genocide the United States under Bill Clinton refused to use the word at first when describing the mass killings of the Tutsi’s by the Hutu’s. Instead Clinton’s administration chose to ignore these events and allow the murder of 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days (http://www.rwanda-genocide.org/).

For an event to be called a genocide it must meet certain criteria as outlined by the United Nations after WWII. It defines genocide as

[G]enocide 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.

Since WWII and the words “never again,” 5 genocides have taken place. Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, and the Congo. Except for the case of Bosnia, the international community has chosen to ignore these catastrophes and allow genocide to take place. Today in Darfur a genocide continues to happen under the eye of many Western countries (http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/background).

Sudan is one of the most volatile countries in the world. It is run by a man who has sponsored the killing of his own people, who has sponsored islamic terrorist groups including Osama Bin Laden, who has funneled billions of government dollars into his own pocket, and who is wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity. Since independence Sudan has been in a state of chaos. After independence a Civil War broke out between the north and the south that continued on and off until 2005. This war claimed the lives of millions of people and divided the country into the Islamic north which runs the country and the christian south which has been yearning for independence. The country is also home to Darfur , the first genocide of the 21st century and has been involved in numerous conflicts and wars including the Congo Civil War, the Chad conflict, and the LRA massacres (http://www.enoughproject.org/).

In three short weeks Sudan has the potential to explode into an even bigger disaster , a Second Civil War. It was agreed upon in the peace deal in 2005 that Southern Sudan would be given the chance to vote for independence on January 9th, 2011. For the last year Southern Sudan has been preparing for the this vote that will most certainly allow independence if everything goes according to plan. However this is Sudan and nothing has went according to plan. The South have what the north wants, oil, the hold almost 80 percent of Sudan’s oil fields which allow Bashir and the Sudanese government to make massive amounts of money. The sell this oil to the French, Chinese, and Russians all who indirectly fund the Darfur genocide. Although I could explain this in much more detail , here is the quick version...

Sudan sells oil to Russia , France, and China...This money goes into the pocket of Bashir, with this money he buys weapons from these same countries. He uses these weapons to fund the Janjaweed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3613953.stm), who go into Darfur’s villages and rape, kill, and burn their people.

Without these oil fields the government in Khartoum will get significantly weaker. The concern with many human rights activists and government officials is that the vote will either be compromised through violence and intimidation by the north or if the South do indeed get a fair election and vote for independence a war will break out between the north and the south over control of those oil fields. The U.S. has been trying to be proactive , even offering to take Bashir off the state sponsored terrorism list if he allows Souther Sudan’s independence. However nothing will be certain until January 9th and I believe there is little in the way of stopping Bashir from unleashing another attack on the South. So how we (human kind) prevent another genocide and actually allow “Never Again” to come to fruition. John Prendergrast and Jeff Millington have outlined a detailed plan on how to prevent another Civil War (http://www.enoughproject.org/publications/lessons-past-reflections-us-efforts-bring-peace-sudan).

Its unfortunate but I don’t believe the world is taking these warnings seriously, they have a tendency to ignore what is happening in Africa, Rwanda and The Congo being to prime examples. So we wait till January 9th and instead of being pro active the world will allow violence and mass killings to occur before they say Never Again.