Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

What is genos (race or tribe) cide (to kill)?
by Sarah T. Williams - Star Tribune - November 5, 2000
Posted: Tuesday, November 07, 2000 07:08 am CST

The practice of slaughtering whole groups or tribes is as old as humankind. But some scholars say the 20th century was the most murderous of all centuries.

"The noted psychologist William James wrote in 1910, 'History is a bath of blood.' That bath has become an ocean of blood," says Eric Markusen, citing an estimate that 110 million men, women and children were killed in genocidal violence in the first three quarters of the 20th century alone.

Lawyers and scholars argue about what constitutes "genocide," but its definition is being clarified as U.N. war crimes tribunals issue indictments and seek convictions in the most recent violence.

Born of the Holocaust

The term "genocide" was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer who lost dozens of family members in the Holocaust. In his 1944 book "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe," Lemkin, who escaped death by leaving Poland in 1938, combined the Greek word genos (race or tribe) with the Latin word cide (to kill). He defined genocide as "the coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions of culture, language, national feelings, religion, economic existence, of national groups and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group."

After World War II, Lemkin became active in getting the new United Nations to codify genocide as a crime.

The U.N. definition

In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which defines genocide in Article II:

"Genocide 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 to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Critics say the U.N. definition is too narrow. They say, for example, that political groups were left off the list of those that are protected. And they argue that the five actions do not cover all the possible ways and means of destroying a group. Markusen is among those who seek a broader definition. "If there's an attempt to destroy any human group, however it's defined -- whether homosexuals or people in opposition political parties -- then it should be considered genocide."

How many genocides?

Some scholars argue that only one genocide, the Holocaust, occurred during the 20th century. Others say there were three during this period: the 1915 genocide of the Armenians in Turkey, the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Still others say that these and many more genocides have occurred, including the 1904 German massacre of the Herero people of South-West Africa, the 1932-'33 Soviet man-made famine of the Ukraine, the 1965-'66 Indonesian massacre of suspected Communists, the 1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor, the 1971 Pakistani killings in Bangladesh, the 1972 killings of the Hutu in Burundi, the 1975-'79 Khmer Rouge killings in Cambodia and attacks on various indigenous peoples worldwide.

The U.N. international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia have conducted trials of individuals accused of genocide. To date, eight Rwandans have been convicted of genocide, the first such convictions by an international criminal tribunal in history, and 11 Bosnian Serbs have been indicted on charges of genocide.

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