Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Politics of genocide
by Gaby Rado, ITN / CHANNEL 4 - January 26, 2001
Posted: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 00:48 am CST

It was, perhaps the defining event of the twentieth century: the Nazi Holocaust, which wiped out six million Jews and up to five million others. Yet controversy still looms over plans to remember those atrocities which horrified the world.

Britain - which marks its first Holocaust Day tomorrow - is now grappling with the politics of genocide. Should victims of the Armenian massacre in 1915 be remembered?

And what should be the emphasis on modern day crimes against humanity, like Rwanda and Bosnia?

Here's our Foreign Affairs correspondent Gaby Rado:

Remembering the unimaginable horror so that it will never happen again. This'll be the first Holocaust Memorial Day in Britain... but the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz isn't being marked without a few rows.

The original plan to call it International Genocide Day was changed, and debate raged on which OTHER terrible events of the century should be remembered.

Rosa Khederian, Armenian massacre survivor: "After they killed my father and my mother, they put my hand in the fire, the Turks. So that, let them don't know me, I was a baby of two and a half years - look." HAS the world ignored the killing of one and a half million Armenians eighty years ago?

That was certainly the message from protesters gathering this afternoon outside the Home Office in London. They're angry that what THEY consider Ottoman Turkish genocide of Armenians from 1915 onwards is not being given enough prominence in tomorrow's commemoration.

When the French Parliament voted to recognise the massacres AS "genocide" only a few days ago, Turkey was furious enough to recall its Ambassador in Paris and threaten economic measures against France. Turkey, which denies the scale of the killing, IS, of course, a useful NATO ally for the West.

Helen Fein, Institute for the Study of Genocide: "It certainly focused on the holocaust, but to, refused it to occupy the Armenian genocide. Is this a new relevation, or was it Hitler in 1939, who said when justifying plans to slaughter Polish civilians -- "the world only talks of success, who remembers the Armenians?".

The Israeli state, risen from the ashes of the Holocaust, has great claims on the world's conscience.

But, fifty years on, as its conflict with Palestinians escalates, are WE guilty of excusing the way Israel behaves towards its neighbours because we remember how the Jews suffered?

Is the state of Israel somehow ALWAYS going to be a special case, because of its tragic birth in genocide? Has the UN - harsh in enforcing its resolutions against Iraq and Yugoslavia - given Israel special consideration?

David Schneeweiss, Israeli Embassy Spokesman: "I don't think we are forgiven very much at all. I don't see any double standards. If there are any, they often work the other way around. We are held to account very closely. If the British media and the media around the world, civil rights organisations, governments, -- Israel is kept on its toes by the rest of the world watching us very, very closely. I would add, actually, that we keep ourselves on our toes. We have a free press. We have an independent judiciary. We have a very, very vocal debate in our society about all the things."

And have we learnt anything from the memory of the Holocaust?

Shockingly enough, the past decade was the first since the Second World war in which the terrible world "genocide" re-appeared in the headlines as a running news story - and more than once. Less than seven years ago, extremist Hutus turned against their fellow Rwandan citizens the Tutsis. The few peacekeepers who WERE present were pulled out in a hurry - and the West arguably ignored obligations laid down in international law.

Geoffrey Robertson QC, author Crimes Against Humanity: "In fact, Britain was the worst holocaust denier when it came to Rwanda. Rwanda was a case where 900,000 people were killed in a genocidal bloodbath in 12 weeks. For those 12 weeks, John Major's government pretended that genocide did not exist. It lied in effect, and why? In order to prevent the Genocide Convention, which requires states to take action once they acknowledge genocide, from coming into effect."

The moral balance shifted later, when the post-genocide Rwandan Government sent troops into neighbouring Congo... partly to wreak vengeance on Hutus. It justified the violence which followed by saying "You didn't protect us before - we have to do it ourselves."

The suffering of Bosnians in the early Nineties was quickly labelled "genocide" by their leaders - it became clear one of their objectives was to SHAME the West into military intervention. The word itself became a potent weapon. Such recent events are ALSO supposed to be remembered tomorrow:

The sobering thought for tomorrow's memorial is that the shadow of genocide still has to haunt us, because it has not disappeared from the world. Its images may be abused and over-used - but our consciences need them nevertheless.

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