Genocide in Rwanda

            The country of Rwanda used to be under the control of the Belgians. While they were in power they distinguished one of the two ethnic groups as superior based on physical traits. This "superior" group is called the Tutsis, and the "lesser" of the two groups is the Hutu. The Hutus created the majority in the country but the Tutsis held most of the power because of the favour that the Belgians showed them. After Rwanda gained independence, civil conflict between these two groups became rampant. The two groups began targeting specific figure heads of the enemy and publically declaring the people who managed to kill these targets. Since the Hutus were the majority, most of the casualties were Tutsi. In 1993, the UN tried to intervene by sending a small force of soldiers to the country. However, in 1994, the Rwandan President's plane was shot down. The Hutu's blamed the Tutsis for this incident and mass killings broke out throughout the entire country. In total about 800,000 people were killed, 90% of them Tutsis.
           During the violence, the UN was effectively paralyzed because their mission was labelled as "peacekeeper". This prevented them from taking any real action against the violence that was taking place. Does this make the UN responsible for the murders? Could have the UN done anything even if they had been able to intervene? In my opinion, the hatred between the Tutsis and Hutus was so deep that it wouldn't have mattered if outside forces came to quell the violence. It was still going to happen.

The genocide in Rwanda claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and left a nation divided and shattered.

Former Yugoslavia

             The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed in 1992 under the leadership of a Serbian Ultranationalist named Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic believed that in something that he called "ethnic cleansing". This was basically the expulsion of non-Serbs from the Serbian territory. He used the term "ethnic cleansing" because it seemed more socially acceptable than just saying that Serbs were killing non-Serbs, but in reality, that was exactly what was going on. Non-Serbs were harassed and abused. Some of their basic rights were taken away like their right to associate or their right to travel. For so long, Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats, and Bosnian Muslims lived together peacefully but now there was so much hatred between them that many centres of culture were destroyed.

The UN did attempt to stop the killings by sending in peacekeepers. However, they were under orders to remain neutral in order to be able to supply areas with humanitarian aid. This did very little to stop the mass killings that were going on. Should the UN have done more to stop the killings? Is it the UN's fault that the massacre went on so long or could nothing have stopped the hatred between cultural groups? In all about 6 million Slavs were killed, and Slobodan Milosevic was sentenced to 33 years in jail.

The coloured area shows what territory was under control of the Former Yugoslavia. The smaller idividual colours show the new territories that the Former Yugoslavia was broken up into.

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

As the Second World War was coming to an end, the United States government began to fear the loss of life that would result from an invasion into Japan. A way to avoid this would be found but it had consequences of its own. This new idea was to drop atomic bombs onto cities in japan. These bombs would have catastrophic effects and would kill thousands of people in only a few seconds. The President of the USA had the final decision and it was to drop the bombs. They were dropped on August 6, 1945 and about 140,000 Japanese people were killed, nearly all of them were civilians. As well, survivors of the blast would suffer from the radiation that was given off of the bombs and many more would die in later years.

Many people wondered if it was the right decision to kill innocent people in order to end the war sooner. Some people had warned the president of the power of the bombs and suggested that the United States instead show the Japanese how powerful the bombs were to scare them instead of just dropping them without warning. Many people died during the blast but it was predicted that millions of lives were saved from the war ending when it did.

The picture of the mushroom cloud (atomic bomb) is an image of both death and deliverance.

The Halocaust

The Holocaust is probably the most well-known genocide of all time. It occurred during World War II and took the lives of around 6 million Jewish people. The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of the Jewish people. This was carried out by the Nazi party; the governing party of Germany during the Second World War. The Nazi party used the hatred of the Jewish people (anti-Semitism) to help them come into power. The country took the Jewish people and either worked them to death or killed them because they were unfit to work. They established hundreds of concentration camps or death camps to carry out their plan of the annihilation.

Throughout history, some people have tried to label Hitler (the leader of the Nazi party and the ruler or Fuher of Germany) as a "great" leader. They say that he developed infrastructure and education and built a strong sense of national pride. They say that these things make him "great". But how can someone be great if 6 million people were systematically killed by his command? He did build lots of roads and such but he also attempted to exterminate an entire type of people. There is no way that Hitler could be labelled as great.

 
Auschwitz is one of the most infamous concentration camps, mainly because of the gas chambers and furnaces where around 3 million people were murdered.

Famine in Ukraine

Russia controlled the area of Ukraine for a long time and the people there started to get restless. Ukrainians finally tried to declare independence in 1918 but were unsuccessful. After Joseph Stalin came to power, he declared that all of Ukraine's produce, which was very abundant, was to be owned by the state. Many of the farmers or "Kulaks" responded by burning their crops or killing their livestock. They figured that it was better for no one to have it then for the state to take it. Stalin stroke back by shipping the entire wheat crop to Russia to be sold, then he sealed off Ukraine so that nothing could get in or out of the country. The people were without food and had no way of obtaining any. As a result of this famine, 3 million Ukrainians died. 

To this day, Russia still claims that it is not at fault for the disaster that took place. However, many countries including Canada and Ukraine say that this famine was caused by the Russians and was an act of genocide. So were the Russian's to blame? Was it the Kulaks fault for destroying all their means of food production? Was Stalin simply trying to keep order in this country? The fact is that the famine wouldn't have happened if Stalin and his government hadn't sealed off the country and taken all of its food. They might not have meant any harm but mass death and genocide was a result of their actions. 

This is a memorial in the honour of the Holodomor, the Ukrainian famine.

Genocide in Turkey

Before the country of Turkey was created, it was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Even though it was primarily Muslim, there were many Christian Armenians. They had been able to preserve their religion and sense of identity despite living in a foreign land. Since they had not assimilated into the Islamic culture, they often became targets for discrimination. Since they represented their own nation, they had the desire for self-determination and began fighting for it in the late 1800's. They ended up losing this fight and as a result, the Turks killed thousands of them. This was the beginning of the hatred between the Armenians and the Turks. During world war one; this hatred became more extreme as the Turkish nationalism quickly began to look more and more like ultra-nationalism. The final straw was when many of the Armenians sided with the Russians (Turkey's enemy) and the political party that was in power at the time ordered the massacre of the Armenian people. This was the start to the genocide. In all, roughly 1.5 million Armenians were killed. Less than 5% of the Armenian population survived.

At the time, Turkey believed that it was in its country's best interest to eliminate and trace of the enemy within its country. Was this justified? Did it make the country safer? Did it save more lives than what were lost? It would be difficult to argue that the killing of 1.5 million people was justified in anyway or made the country safer. Yes, the Armenians did side with the Turk's enemy, but that doesn't justify genocide.

This picture shows the routes that the Armenians were deported on.

Ultranationalism and crimes against humanity

      

The dictionary definition for Ultra nationalism is the extreme devotion to or advocacy of the interests of a nation, especially regardless of the effect on any other nations. The effect that it has on other nations often becomes hostile and violent. As seen in history, the effect of ultra-nationalism is often genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. Genocide is the killing of members of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. A crime against humanity is the widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population. War crimes are the wilful killing, torture, or inhuman treatment, causing great suffering and intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population or against those who are involved in a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission. This is due to the fact that their view of themselves is so bloated that they believe that their nation is superior to all other nations. Since nearly every nation has some amount of diversity, the small minority ethnic groups often become targets, and are hunted down and eliminated, all this in order to make their own nation seem more powerful. Don’t get me wrong, ultra-nationalism has immense power to unite people under a single cause but very rarely is that cause honourable. Examples of this ultra-nationalism would include the genocide in Turkey, Ukraine, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Nazi Germany and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (there are many more examples of ultra-nationalism, these are just a few). In each case, ultra-nationalism gave way to hatred and ultimately crimes against humanity.