The Armenian Genocide Source: The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute What is the Armenian Genocide? The extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and the surrounding regions during 1915-1923 is called the Armenian Genocide. Those massacres were masterminded and perpetrated by the government of Turkey during this time. Why was the Armenian Genocide perpetrated? When World War I erupted, the Turkish government hoped to save the weakened Ottoman Empire. The plan was to create an enormous Ottoman Empire that would spread to China, include all the Turkish-speaking nations of the Caucasus and Middle Asia, intending also to assimilate all the ethnic minorities of the empire. The Armenian population became the main obstacle standing in the way. Besides, the constitution restored after the Revolution of 1908 promised equal rights to all citizens of the Ottoman Empire. Armenians enthusiastically embraced this opportunity, however the change of status of previously deprived Armenians increased the hostility of the Turks towards Christians. The genocide was a means to suppress this the social and cultural development of Armenians, as well as to seize Armenian wealth. The Young Turks used World War I as a suitable opportunity for the implementation of the Armenian genocide, although it was planned in 1911-1912. How many people died in the Armenian Genocide? There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire before the First World War. Approximately one and a half million Armenians were killed from 1915-1923. The remaining part was either forced to convert to Islam or exiled.

Armenians are marched to a nearby prison by Turkish soldiers. The crucifixion of Christian girls in Malatya in 1915 was described in the book Ravished Armenia (1918). “When we drew close to the city we passed along the road that countless other exiles had walked before. At the side of the road, in ridicule of the Crucifixion and as a warning to such Christian girls as lived to reach Malatya, the Turks had crucified on rough wooden crosses sixteen girls Each girl had been nailed alive upon her cross, great cruel spikes through her hands and feet. Only their hair, blown by the wind, covered their bodies.

The Cambodian Genocide

Why the world should not forget Khmer Rouge and the killing fields of Cambodia

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In 1976, the Khmer Rouge turned a high school into a torture, interrogation and execution center called S-21. Of the 14,000 people known to have entered, only seven survived.

Entire families of the “traitors” were killed.

Along with intellectuals and traitors, other ethnic groups such as Chinese

and Vietnamese living in Cambodia were also killed.

The Rwandan Genocide

Source: United Human Rights Council

In 1994, Rwanda’s population of seven million was composed of three ethnic groups: Hutu (approximately 85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%). In the early 1990s, Hutu extremists within Rwanda’s political elite blamed the entire Tutsi minority population for the country’s increasing social, economic, and political problems. Through the use of propaganda, the president, at the time increased divisions between Hutu and Tutsi. The Hutu remembered past years of oppressive Tutsi rule, and many of them not only resented but also feared the minority. On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying the president, a Hutu, was shot down. Violence began almost immediately after that. Under the cover of war, Hutu extremists launched their plans to destroy the entire Tutsi civilian population. Tutsi and people suspected of being Tutsi were killed in their homes and as they tried to flee at roadblocks set up across the country during the genocide. Entire families were killed at a time. Women were systematically and brutally raped. It is estimated that some 200,000 people participated in the perpetration of the Rwandan genocide. In the weeks after April 6, 1994, 800,000 men, women, and children perished in the Rwandan genocide, perhaps as many as three quarters of the Tutsi population. At the same time, thousands of Hutu were murdered because they opposed the killing campaign and the forces directing it.

This is the testimony of Xavier, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide (1994).

My father was killed in the genocide, and my mother disabled. There are five children in my family. During the genocide, I

witnessed many people being killed in my town, Nyanza. We ran and hid in the bush, in the forest, in the river and in sorghum fields. We hid any place that could hide us from death; many Tutsis were

killed and few survived.

My mother was a Hutu. She was the one who travelled to Nyanza to buy medicine for my wounds. She was not threatened because

she had a Hutu identity card. For days I hid at the home of my mother’s brother. However, the situation was dangerous and I soon returned to my hiding place in a sorghum field. I hid there until the

end of the genocide.

The Bosnian Genocide Source: endgenocide.org

In 1980, the various ethnic groups and republics inside the country of Yugoslavia sought independence and the country spiraled out of control. Serb nationalism was fueled as Slobodan Milosevic rose to power in 1987. Milosevic used nationalist feelings to his advantage, making changes to the constitution favoring Serbs, creating a military that was 90 percent Serbian, and extending his power over the country’s financial, media, and security structures. He stoked ethnic tensions by convincing Serbians that other ethnic groups posed a threat to their rights. In June 1991, the Yugoslav army, largely composed of Serbs, invaded Croatia under the guise of trying to protect ethnic Serb populations there. They carried out mass executions of hundreds of Croat men, burying them in mass graves.

Bosnia came next in April 1992. Following their independence, Serbian forces attempted to eliminate the Bosniaks. Snipers hid in the hills and shot at civilians as they tried to get food and water. Mass executions, concentration camps, rape and sexual violence, and forced displacement were all extremely prevalent. In July 1995, Serb forces, led by General Ratko Mladic, descended upon the town of Srebrenica. Mladic expelled 25,000 women and children from the town, while his forces tried to hunt down approximately 15,000 Bosniak men who had tried to escape. Up to 3,000 were killed, either by gunshot or by decapitation, while trying to escape. Many Bosniaks sought refuge at a UN base in nearby Potocari, but were not safe there for long. Serb forces caught up with them by the afternoon and the next day, buses arrived at Potocari to take them away, again separating the children and women from the men. Serb troops forced United Nations peacekeepers to hand over their uniforms and helmets so that they could use them to lure civilians out of hiding and trick them into thinking they were headed to safety. At the end of the four day massacre, up to 8,000 men and teenage boys had been killed, and many women were subject to torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. Thousands were buried in mass graves. In order to conceal their crimes,

Serb forces dug up the original graves of many victims and moved them across a large piece of territory. There were clear indications that an attack at Srebrenica was being planned, yet the international community did not equip the peacekeeping forces there with the support necessary to protect the thousands who either lost their lives or were terrorized. The atrocities committed at Srebrenica are considered to be the worst on European soil after the Holocaust.

The Yazidi Genocide

I.S. Yazidi attacks may be genocide, says UN

Source: BBC (March, 2015)

Jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group may have committed genocide and war crimes against the minority Yazidi community in Iraq, the UN says.

In a new report, it says IS had "the intent... to destroy the Yazidi as a

group." Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled villages in northern Iraq amid IS advances last summer. Many were killed or captured and enslaved. Yazidis follow an ancient faith that jihadists regard as devil worship. The report, commissioned by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, was based on more than 100 interviews with survivors of attacks in Iraq between June 2014 and February this year. Among the atrocities it says were perpetrated against the Yazidi community by IS (also known as ISIL), were:

o the "brutal and targeted" killing of hundreds of men and boys in Nineveh province, northwest of Baghdad, in August 2014;

o the rape of girls as young as six; o the abduction of women "as spoils of war"; o the forced separation of families, with boys as young as eight

taken to be trained as IS fighters. o

The reports adds: "In some instances, villages were entirely emptied of their Yazidi population." A statement by the OHCHR says: "One witness described how two ISIL members sat laughing as two teenage girls were raped in the next room. "A pregnant woman, repeatedly raped by an ISIL 'doctor' over a period of two-and-a-half months, said he deliberately sat on her stomach. "He told her: 'This baby should die because it is an infidel; I can make a Muslim baby'. "

The plight of the Yazidi population was brought to international attention when IS captured the town of Sinjar in August 2014. Thousands of residents, mainly Yazidis, were forced to flee. Many were trapped on nearby Mount Sinjar, which was surrounded by IS fighters. Airstrikes led by the Unites States, and an offensive led by Kurdish peshmerga forces, helped break the stranglehold on Mount Sinjar.

The Bangladesh Genocide

The mass killings in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1971 were the most concentrated act of genocide in the twentieth century. In an attempt to crush forces seeking independence for East Pakistan, the West Pakistani military

regime unleashed a systematic campaign of mass murder which aimed at killing millions of Bengalis, and likely succeeded in doing so.

In national elections held in December 1970, the Awami League won an overwhelming victory across Bengali territory. On February 22, 1971 the

generals in West Pakistan took a decision to crush the Awami League and its supporters. It was recognized from the first that a campaign of genocide would be necessary to eradicate the threat: “Kill three million of them,” said President Yahya Khan at the February conference, “and the rest will eat out

of our hands.” (Robert Payne, Massacre [1972], p. 50.)

On March 25 the genocide was launched. The university in Dacca (Dhaka) was attacked and students exterminated in the hundreds. Death squads

roamed the streets of Dacca, killing some 7,000 people in a single night. It was only the beginning. “Within a week, half the population of Dacca had fled, and at least 30,000 people had been killed. Chittagong, too, had lost half its population. All over East Pakistan people were taking flight, and it was estimated that in April some thirty million people [!] were wandering

helplessly across East Pakistan to escape the grasp of the military.” (Payne, Massacre, p. 48.) Ten million refugees fled to India, overwhelming that

country’s resources and spurring the eventual Indian military intervention. (The population of Bangladesh/East Pakistan at the outbreak of the

genocide was about 75 million.)

Article “Genocide” Source: Anthony Mascarenhas of The Sunday Times (June 1971)

ABDUL BARI had run out of luck. Like thousands of other people in East Bengal, he had made the mistake the fatal mistake-of running within sight of a Pakistani army patrol. He was

24 years old, a slight man surrounded by soldiers. He was trembling, because he was about to be shot. “Normally we would have killed him as he ran,” I was informed chattily by Major Rathore, the G-2 Ops. of the 9th Division, as we stood on the out­skirts of a tiny village near Mudafarganj, about 20 miles south of Comilla. “But we are checking him out for your sake. You are new here and I see you have a squeamish stomach.” “Why kill him?” I asked with mounting concern. “Because he might be a Hindu or he might be a rebel, perhaps a student or an Awami Leaguer. They know we are sorting them out and they betray themselves by running.” “But why are you killing them? And why pick on the Hindus?” I persisted. “Must I remind you,” Rathore said severely, “how they have tried to destroy Pakistan? Now under the cover of the fighting we have an excellent opportunity of finishing them off.”

“…… we were told to kill the hindus and Kafirs (non-believer in God). One day in June, we cordoned a village and were ordered to kill the Kafirs in that area. We found all the village women reciting from the Holy Quran, and the men holding special congregational prayers seeking God’s mercy. But they were unlucky. Our commanding officer ordered us not to waste any time.”

Confession of a Pakistani soldier