Genocide Concept Formation

Name:______Per:_____

Part 1: Use the classroom map or an Atlas of World History from the back bookshelf to identify Armenia, Ukraine, and Rwanda.

Examples of Genocide

Example 1: Armenia
In 1915, under the cover of the war, the Ottoman government resolved to expel Turkey's Armenian population (at the time about 1.75m) entirely. The Young Turks expected Turkish Armenians to conspire with pro-Christian Russians (their enemy) against them. Their plan included deportation to the deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia (now Iraq). Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were driven out of their homes and either massacred or force-marched into the desert until they died. The German ambassador to Turkey wrote home: 'The government is indeed pursuing its goal of exterminating the Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire'. Between 1915 and 1923 the western part of historic Armenia was emptied of Armenians.
Orders to begin the operation were sent to every police station, to be carried out simultaneously at the same time on the same day: April 20, 1915. Once it had begun, the perpetrators kept in touch by telegraph. They also made use of the Istanbul- Baghdad railway: the new line had already been laid as far as the Syrian Desert. Tens of thousands of Armenians were packed into railway wagons and sent down the line into the desert, where they were left without shelter, water or food. Many of the workers laying the railway were Armenian, and thought they would escape; their turn for the death trucks came in 1916. The death toll is reliably estimated to be over a million. Those who did not die fled to the Middle East, Russia or the USA.
Example 2: Ukraine
In 1932, the Communists of the Soviet Union sought to reduce Ukrainian influence and targeted Ukraine with a policy of seizing foodstuffs. Collectivization, or the extraction of agricultural products, had been a policy of the past, but never to this extent. This policy came at a time of agricultural decline because of droughts and bad crop yields. The extractions after the harvest of 1932 resulted in the outbreak of mass starvation, worsened by increased and intensified food seizures by Soviet officials. The famine affected Ukrainians and minorities living in Ukraine: Cossacks, Soviet Germans, and others. The famine reached its height in the spring of 1933. At the same time, the nationally minded wing of the Communist Party of Ukraine was purged, and often its members were arrested as spies and wreckers. All manifestations of Ukrainian cultural distinctiveness were suppressed. The study of Ukrainian history disappeared for a generation. Even the spelling rules of the Ukrainian language were changed in order to bring the language closer to Russian. Between 2.2 million and 3.5 million people died in Ukraine as a result of the famine.
Example 3: Rwanda
During the early 1990s in Rwanda, the economic situation worsened and the incumbent president, Juvenal Habyarimana, began losing popularity. At the same time, Tutsi refugees in Uganda - supported by some moderate Hutus - were forming the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Their aim was to overthrow Habyarimana and secure their right to return to their homeland. Habyarimana chose to exploit this threat as a way to bring dissident Hutus back to his side, and Tutsis inside Rwanda were accused of being RPF collaborators.
In August 1993, after several attacks and months of negotiation, a peace accord was signed between Habyarimana and the RPF, but it did little to stop the continued unrest. When Habyarimana's plane was shot down at the beginning of April 1994, it was the final nail in the coffin. Exactly who killed the president - and with him the president of Burundi and many chief members of staff - has not been established. Whoever was behind the killing its effect was both instantaneous and catastrophic.
The presidential guard immediately initiated a campaign of retribution. Leaders of the political opposition were murdered, and almost immediately, the slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus began. Within hours, recruits were dispatched all over the country to carry out a wave of slaughter.
The early organizers included military officials, politicians and businessmen, but soon many others joined in the mayhem. Encouraged by the presidential guard and radio propaganda, an unofficial militia group called the Interahamwe (meaning those who attack together) was mobilized. At its peak, this group was 30,000 strong. Soldiers and police officers encouraged ordinary citizens to take part. In some cases, Hutu civilians were forced to murder their Tutsi neighbors by military personnel. Participants were often given incentives, such as money or food, and some were even told they could appropriate the land of the Tutsis they killed.
On the ground at least, the Rwandans were largely left alone by the international community. UN troops withdrew after the murder of 10 soldiers. Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days.

Rwanda / Ukraine / Armenia
Who took the action?
Who was the action against?
What was the nature of the action?
What was the outcome?
What was the reason given for the action?

OVER à

Based on your analysis of Armenia, Ukraine, and Rwanda, what would you say are the three critical attributes, or “active ingredients”, of genocide?

GENOCIDE?

o According to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”

o Looking at this definition, we see that genocide has three active ingredients.

§ Genocide is a deliberate attempt to destroy life.

§ Genocide is systematically planned and carried out.

§ Genocide is directed toward a racial, ethnic, national, or religious group.

Instructions: For each example below, read the information about the event, and then decide if it is an example, or a non-example of a massacre. Write your answer in the space provided. Also, for each scenario write 2 to 4 sentences justifying your answer. Remember: Use the active ingredients as justification for your answer.

Test Case 2: United States
In reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt under United States Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942 allowed military commanders to designate areas "from which any or all persons may be excluded." Under this order all Japanese and Americans of Japanese ancestry were removed from Western coastal regions to guarded camps in Arkansas, Oregon, Oklahoma, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona; German and Italian citizens, permanent residents, and American citizens of those respective ancestries (and American citizen family members) were removed from (among other places) the West and East Coast and relocated or interned, and roughly one-third of the US was declared an exclusionary zone. Almost 120,000 Japanese Americans and resident Japanese aliens would eventually be removed from their homes and relocated.

Is this an example or non-example of genocide? ______

______

Is this an example or non-example of genocide? ______

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Test Case 3: Cambodia
Within days of overthrowing the government in 1975, the Khmer Rouge (communist guerilla organization), under the leadership of Pol Pot embarked on an organized mission: they ruthlessly imposed an extremist program to reconstruct Cambodia (now under its Khmer name Kampuchea) on the communist model of Mao's China. The population must, they believed, be made to work as laborers in one huge federation of collective farms. Anyone in opposition - and all intellectuals and educated people were assumed to be - must be eliminated, together with all un-communist aspects of traditional Cambodian society.
At short notice and under threat of death, the inhabitants of towns and cities were forced to leave them. The ill, disabled, old and very young were driven out as well, regardless of their physical condition: no one was spared the exodus. People who refused to leave were killed; so were those who didn't leave fast enough, and those who refused to obey orders.
All political and civil rights were abolished. Children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced labor camps. Factories, schools and universities were shut down; so were hospitals. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists and professional people in any field (including the army) were murdered, together with their extended families. Religion was banned, all leading Buddhist monks were killed and almost all temples destroyed. Music and radio sets were also banned. Civilian deaths in this period, from executions, disease, exhaustion and starvation, have been estimated at well over 2 million.

Is this an example or non-example of genocide? ______

______

Test Case 4: Sudan
Since early 2003, Sudanese government soldiers and their proxy militia, known as Janjaweed, have fought rebel groups in the western region of Darfur. In a campaign that lasted from 2003 to 2005, at least 200,000 civilians died from violence, disease, and starvation. Since 2003, thousands of women have been raped and more than 2.5 million have been driven from their homes, their villages burned and property stolen.
Although rebel groups have contributed to the region’s insecurity, the Sudanese government bears primary responsibility for the danger to civilians. Government sponsored actions include:
o Backing Janjaweed militias in systematic attacks against civilians from the same ethnic groups as the rebel forces, primarily the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit ethnic groups;
o Bombing civilians from aircraft;
o Committing massive human rights abuses including: murder, rape, and persecution based on race, ethnicity, and religion;
o Impeding international humanitarian access, resulting in deadly conditions of life for displaced people;
o Harassing internally displaced persons.

Is this an example or non-example of genocide? ______

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Adapted from: http://jrmclaughlin.wmwikis.net/Genocide