GENOCIDE - WHY REMEMBERING IS IMPORTANT

[Yervant1]

GENOCIDE - WHY REMEMBERING IS IMPORTANT

 

The New Times (Kigali) Rwanda

April 07, 2013

 

by Stephen Rwembeho

 

The Genocide week in Rwanda is characterized by a complexity of issues

like elsewhere in the world. It sets an experience that provokes a

debate whether people need to remember the genocide or not.

 

Genocide is remembered in all villages where it happened for obvious

reasons. If you burry your father and forget him, you will never

have to tell his grandchildren, and this will ridicule you. We are

told stories by typical events and whether we want or not we shall

keep on experiencing the ills left by the genocide both the survivors

and perpetrators.

 

Therefore, there are inevitable commemorations all over communities

where Genocide occurred. The Genocide commemorations are not unique

to Rwanda, but the whole world where it occurred.

 

For example, every year on April 24, people of Armenian descent

organise blood drives and picket Turkish embassies to celebrate special

church services to commemorate the anniversary of the 1915 arrest of

several hundred prominent Armenians in Constantinople. The arrests

were the beginning of the Genocide in which an estimated 1.5 million

Armenians were slaughtered by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923.

 

However, they find themselves in similar circumstances that Rwanda

faces - of some people who do not want to remember. Reasons for fear

to remember remain the same in both cases. This is one utterance

reacting to the yearly commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

 

The Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day of 27 January is the

anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and

extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, seen as a powerful symbol

of the horrors of the Holocaust. Holocaust Memorial Day is about

commemorating all of the communities that suffered as a result of the

Holocaust and Nazi persecution, and demonstrating that the Holocaust

is relevant.

 

The day provides a focus through the national and local events and

activities for people to think about the continuing repercussions of

the Holocaust and more recent Genocides on our society. Remembering

is as important as that.

 

However, critics claim that the Holocaust is too old to be remembered

now as other crimes have overtaken it.

 

If someone wants to honour the victims of holocaust, war etc, then

they should do so in their own private way. 'National memorial' days

just drag up the past and do not necessarily look to the future,

holocaust critics claim.

 

Similar negative criticism does not spare the Genocide against the

Tutsi either.

 

And what do Rwandan critics on the commemoration of the 1994 Genocide

against the Tutsi say?

 

Rwandans have mixed reactions with some against, others for and those

who do not care about the Genocide at all.

 

Whatever the line one takes, the fact is that we cannot afford to live

with hate. People have to be reminded about this. Genocide Memorial

Days should influence behaviour changes today. We need to put it in

context of all suffering. Everyone should remember in their own way.

 

Lectures given in the days of commemoration must be able to

contextualize the issue of hatred and Genocide in Rwanda.

 

The Holocaust Memorial Days for example aim to remember all victims

of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution and reflect upon those affected

by more recent atrocities in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo and

to educate about the dangers of anti-Semitism, racism and all forms

of discrimination.

 

Ultimately, the day aims to restate the continuing need for vigilance

and to motivate people, individually and collectively, to ensure that

the horrendous crimes, racism and victimization committed during the

Holocaust are neither forgotten nor repeated, whether in Europe or

elsewhere in the world.

 

While teaching about the Genocide in Rwanda, similar enlightenments

must be brought to surface in all discussions.

 

Comparative studies and explanations are essential and ignorance

about other world genocides does not provide a clear cut explanation

of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

 

For example, the massacre of the Armenians in Turkey in 1915-23,

the Holocaust of the Jews in Hitler's Germany, the mass killing of

Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, etc, must give us reflective examples as

we forge a new world without Genocide.

 

The unfortunate part of it is that very few people have the concern,

the will and ability to take the comparisons down to earth and use them

in the context of Rwanda. Those few, therefore, should come in to help.

 

Is there any unique Genocide?

 

The answer is YES! Any Genocide has its own uniqueness and it is

wrong to portray any Genocide as the same as others. This kind of

understanding will allow you to refute that the Holocaust should be

regarded as the only unique genocide to have happened on planet earth.

 

If you want you would also regard the Genocide in Rwanda as unique,

because the uniqueness in the Tutsi Genocide was evident. For example,

the speed with which it was carried out and the relationship between

the victims and the killers make it an extremely unique Genocide. But

the problem should not be in the degree of uniqueness but the context.

 

Remembering is very important in as far as the concept of evil

deterrence is concerned.

 

It gives us the benchmark of our morality as a society and the

ability to say no to evil. It is one of the steps in the long chain

of procedures to de-poison the Rwandan psyche and psychologically

rehabilitate the dehumanized psyche of the survivors.

[Yervant1]

ORIGIN OF TWO HUMAN RIGHTS CONCEPTS

Genocide Awareness and Prevention

Alan Whitehorn, ABC-CLIO.com, November 2013

The mass slaughter of the Armenians was... instrumental in the birth
of two important human rights concepts: "crimes against humanity"
and "genocide."

... A hallmark of the Armenian Genocide was the long forced marches
into inhospitable mountains and deserts. Without sufficient food,
water or shelter, many perished through hunger, thirst, exposure and
disease (typhus, dysentery and pneumonia). Others were the targets
of marauding gangs that robbed, raped, and tortured the civilian
deportees. Countless numbers were victims of brutal mass killings. In
October, cattle cars were used to ship thousands of Armenians into the
desert. In total, approximately a million and half Armenians would die.

Ongoing accounts of the killings and atrocities were reported by
foreign embassy officials, missionaries and the world press. The
allied governments of Britain, France, and Russia issued a formal
diplomatic warning on May 24, 1915. They noted the "crimes against
humanity" being committed by the Young Turk regime against the Armenian
people. The Entente allies warned that the guilty officials would
be punished. The postwar Ottoman courts martial, however, were not
very effective. Subsequent Turkish governments denied the genocide,
despite overwhelming documentary evidence.

The largest number of killings took place primarily in 1915 and 1916,
but continued for several more years, even after World War I. Today,
all that remains of historic Armenia is a tiny landlocked stated based
on the Eastern fragment from the former Russian Empire/Soviet Union.

The Armenian Genocide of 1915 became an important precedent for later
genocides such as the Holocaust. The Armenian Genocide reveals the
enormously destructive effect of ethnic and religious intolerance and
arbitrary violent state power. The indifference of bystanders enabled
dictatorial leaders to pursue their plan to eradicate an ethnic and
religious minority. Those who survived endured great hardships and were
scattered in a global diaspora. Today only a very small portion of the
Armenian people is left in its historic lands in what is now Turkey.

The Armenian Genocide is a reminder of the risks of not learning the
lessons of history, the dangers of genocide denial, and the long-term
negative consequences of allowing perpetrators to go unpunished. These
were contributing factors to subsequent genocides. The knowledge of
past genocides, such as the Armenian case, is key to understanding
and preventing future genocide. The mass slaughter of the Armenians
was, however, instrumental in the birth of two important human rights
concepts: "crimes against humanity" and "genocide."

http://www.keghart.com/Whitehorn-HR-Concepts