Genocides in history

Genocide is the mass killing of a group of people, as defined by Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical , racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." [http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide] ] Significantly, this definition of genocide under international law does not include repression against political or economic groups.

The preamble to the CPPCG not only states that "genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world", but that "at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity".

Determining what historical events constitute a "genocide" and which are merely criminal or inhuman behaviour is not a clear-cut matter. In nearly every case where accusations of genocide have circulated, partisans of various sides have fiercely disputed the interpretation and details of the event, often to the point of promoting wildly different versions of the facts. An accusation of genocide is certainly not taken lightly and will almost always be controversial. The following list of genocides and alleged genocides should be understood in this context and cannot be regarded as the final word on these subjects.

Alternative meanings of genocide

Much of the debate about genocides revolves around the proper definition of the word "genocide." The exclusion of social and political groups as targets of genocide in the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" legal definition has been criticized by some historians and sociologists, for example M. Hassan Kakar in his book "The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982"M. Hassan Kakar " [http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft7b69p12h&brand=eschol Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982] University of California press © 1995 The Regents of the University of California.] argues that the international definition of genocide is too restricted,M. Hassan Kakar [http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft7b69p12h&chunk.id=d0e5195&toc.cock depth=1&toc.id=d0e5195&brand=eschol 4. The Story of Genocide in Afghanistan: 13. Genocide Throughout the Country] ] and that it should include political groups or any group so defined by the perpetrator and quotes Chalk and Jonassohn: "Genocide is a form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group so defined by the perpetrator."Frank Chalk, Kurt Jonassohn "The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies", Yale University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-300-04446-1]

According to R. J. Rummel, genocide has 3 different meanings. The ordinary meaning is murder by a government of people due to their national, ethnic, racial, or religious group membership. The legal meaning of genocide refers to the international treaty, the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide". This also includes nonkillings that in the end eliminate the group, such as preventing births or forcibly transferring children out of the group to another group. A generalized meaning of genocide is similar to the ordinary meaning but also includes government killings of political opponents or otherwise intentional murder. It is to avoid confusion regarding what meaning is intended that Rummel created the term democide for the third meaning. [ [http://www.Hawaii.edu/powerkills/GENOCIDE.HTM Domocide versus genocide; which is what?] ]

Timeline of genocides and alleged genocides

Before 1490

Adam Jones explains, in his book "Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction", that people throughout history have always had the ability to see other groups as alien; he quotes Chalk and Jonassohn: "Historically and anthropologically peoples have always had a name for themselves. In a great many cases, that name meant 'the people' to set the owners of that name off against all other people who were considered of lesser quality in some way. If the differences between the people and some other society were particularly large in terms of religion, language, manners, customs, and so on, then such others were seen as less than fully human: pagans, savages, or even animals. (Chalk and Jonassohn, "The History and Sociology of Genocide", p. 28.)"Adam Jones References p. 3, footnote 4]

Jones continues by saying that the less a people have in common with another group the easier it is for the aliens to be defined as less than human and from there it is but a short step to an argument that says if they are a threat, then they should "be eliminated in order that we may live (Them or us)."Adam Jones p.3 footnote 5 cites Helen Fein, "Genocide: A Sociological Perspective", (London: Sage, 1993), p. 26] But after making this assessment Jones continues "The difficulty, as Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn pointed out in their early study, is that such historical records as exist are ambiguous and undependable. While history today is generally written with some fealty to 'objective' facts, most previous accounts aimed rather to praise the writer's patron (normally the leader) and to emphasize the superiority of one's own gods and religious beliefs."Adam Jones References p. 3]

Scholars of antiquity differentiate between gendercide in which males were killed, but the children (particularly the girls) and women were incorporated into the conqueror's society, Jones notes that "Chalk and Jonassohn provide a wide-ranging selection of historical events such as the Assyrian Empire’s root-and branch depredations in the first half of the first millennium BCE, and the destruction of Melos by Athens during the Peloponnesian War (fifth century BCE), a gendercidal rampage described by Thucydides in his 'Melian Dialogue'."Adam Jones References p. 5]

The Old Testament not only describes the genocides of Amalekites and Midianites but justifies them through references to the word of God.Adam Jones References p. 3, footnote 4] Jones quotes Jerusalem-based Holocaust Studies Professor Yehuda Bauer: "As a Jew, I must live with the fact that the civilization I inherited ... encompasses the call for genocide in its canon."Adam Jones References p. 4, note 6, citing Bauer, "Rethinking the Holocaust", (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 41]

Ben Kiernan, a Yale scholar, has labeled the destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War (149–146 BC) "The First Genocide". Quoting Eric Margolis, Jones observes that in the 13th century the Mongol horsemen of Temüjin Genghis Khan were genocidal killers ("génocidaires") who were known to kill whole nations leaving nothing but empty ruins and bones. [Jones References, p.4 note 12 Eric s. "Margolis War at the top of the World, the struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet" (New York, Routledge, 2001) p.155]

1490 to 1914

Americas

From the 1490s when Christopher Columbus set foot on the Americas to the massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee by the United States militia, the indigenous population of the Western Hemisphere may have declined by as many as 100 million.Staff. [http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryAmerican/NativeAmerican/?view=usa&ci=0195085574 A review] of "American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World" (by David Stannard), on the website of Oxford University Press (the publishers)] In Brazil alone the indigenous population has declined from a pre-Columbian high of an estimated 3 million to some 300,000 (1997). [ [http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0006/brazil.html '500 Years of Brazil's Discovery'] ] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4392805.stm Brazil urged to protect Indians] ] Estimates of how many people were living in the Americas when Columbus arrived have varied tremendously; 20th century scholarly estimates ranged from a low of 8.4 million to a high of 112.5 million persons. This population debate has often had ideological underpinnings. Robert Royal writes that "estimates of pre-Columbian population figures have become heavily politicized with scholars who are particularly critical of Europe and/or Western civilization often favoring wildly higher figures." [Jennings, p. 83; [http://www.youdebate.com/DEBATES/rush_indian_population.HTM Royal's quote] ]

Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/smallpox_01.shtml Smallpox: Eradicating the Scourge] ] After first contacts with Europeans and Africans, some believe that the death of 90 to 95% of the native population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases such as smallpox and measles. [ [http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html The Story Of... Smallpox] ]

Determining how many people died as a direct result of armed conflict between native Americans, and Europeans and their descendants, is difficult as accurate records were not always kept.

In his book "American Holocaust", David Stannard argues that the destruction of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, in a "string of genocide campaigns" by Europeans and their descendants, was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. [David Stannard (1992). "American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World", Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508557-4. "During the course of four centuries - from the 1490s to the 1890s - Europeans and white Americans engaged in an unbroken string of genocide campaigns against the native peoples of the Americas." ( [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/Pestilence_AH.html p.147] ). " [It] was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world."( [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/Prologue_AH.html Prologue] )] While no mainstream historian denies that death and suffering were unjustly inflicted by a number of Europeans upon a great many American natives, most scholars of the subject maintain that genocide, which is a crime of intent, was not the intent of European colonization. Historian Stafford Poole wrote: "There are other terms to describe what happened in the Western Hemisphere, but genocide is not one of them. It is a good propaganda term in an age where slogans and shouting have replaced reflection and learning, but to use it in this context is to cheapen both the word itself and the appalling experiences of the Jews to mention a major victim of this century." [Stafford Poole, quoted in Royal, Robert "1492 and All That: Political Manipulations of History". Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1992. p. 63.]

In 2003, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez urged Latin Americans to not celebrate the Columbus Day holiday. Chavez blamed Columbus for leading the way in the mass genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish. [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3184668.stm |title=Columbus 'sparked a genocide' |accessdate=2006-10-21 |date=October 12, 2003 |publisher=BBC News]

United States of America

Authors such as the Holocaust expert David Cesarani have argued that the government and policies of the United States of America against certain indigenous peoples constituted genocide. David Cesarani states that "in terms of the sheer numbers killed, the Native American Genocide exceeds that of the Holocaust". [David Cesarani, "Holocaust: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies", Routledge, 2004. (p. 381)] He quotes David E. Stannard, author of "American Holocaust", [David E. Stannard, "American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World", Oxford University Press, 1993.] who speaks of the "genocidal and racist horrors against the indigenous peoples that have been and are being perpetrated by many nations in the Western Hemisphere, including the United States..." [David Cesarani, "Holocaust: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies", Routledge, 2004. (p. 380–381).] He continues "Stannard was angered by what he perceived as a double standard in the United States towards 'worthy' and 'unworthy' victims. While Americans readily acknowledge the Nazi crimes against the Jews, he wrote, they continued to 'turn their backs on the even more massive genocide that for four grisly centuries... was perpetrated against the "unworthy" natives of the Americas.'" [Cesarani, "Holocaust: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies", p. 380.] Cesarani also writes of Stannard's and Ward Churchill's suspicion that the "ignorance of the Native American genocide was partly due to the enormous attention devoted to the Holocaust [in the United States] . Added to these cultural and political trends in the United States was the seemingly never-ending crisis in the Middle East... much of the debate over uniqueness, therefore, seems to be an overt product of partisan politics." [ Cesarani, "Holocaust: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies", p. 389–390.]

Michno estimates 21,586 dead, wounded, and captured civilians and soldiers for the period of 1850–1890 alone. [Michno, "Encyclopedia of Indian Wars" Index. ]

In "God, Greed, and Genocide: The Holocaust Through the Centuries", Grenke quotes Chalk and Jonassohn with regards to the Cherokee Trail of Tears that "an act like the Cherokee deportation would almost certainly be considered an act of genocide today". [Arthur Grenke, "God, Greed, and Genocide: The Holocaust Through the Centuries, New Academia Publishing", 2005. (p. 161).] The Indian Removal Act of 1830 led to the Trail of Tears. About 17,000 Cherokees — along with approximately 2,000 black slaves owned by Cherokees — were removed from their homes. [Carter (III), Samuel (1976). "Cherokee sunset: A nation betrayed: a narrative of travail and triumph, persecution and exile". New York: Doubleday, p. 232.] The number of people who died as a result of the Trail of Tears has been variously estimated. American doctor and missionary Elizur Butler, who made the journey with one party, estimated 4,000 deaths. [Prucha, "Great Father", p. 241 note 58; Ehle, "Trail of Tears", pp. 390–92; Russel Thornton, "Demography of the Trail of Tears" in Anderson, "Trail of Tears", pp. 75–93.]

Argentina

The Conquest of the Desert was a military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s, which established Argentine dominance over Patagonia, which was inhabited by indigenous peoples, leaving 1,300 indigenous dead. [ Carlos A. Floria and César A. García Belsunce, 1971. "Historia de los Argentinos" I and II; ISBN 84-599-5081-6.]

Jens Andermann has noted that the contemporary sources on that campaign indicate that it was a genocide by the Argentine government against the indigenous tribes. [ [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/llc/subjects/span_lat_amer/span_lat_amer_staff/ja Andermann, Jens] . [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/ibamuseum/texts/Andermann02.htm Argentine Literature and the 'Conquest of the Desert', 1872-1896] , Birkbeck, University of London. "It is this sudden acceleration, this abrupt change from the discourse of 'defensive warfare' and 'merciful civilization' to that of 'offensive warfare' and of genocide, which is perhaps the most distinctive mark of the literature of the Argentine frontier."] Others perceive the campaign as intending to suppress specifically those groups of aboriginals that refused to submit to the white government and carried out attacks on the white and mestizo civilian settlements. [Rock, David. "State Building and Political Movements in Argentina, 1860-1916". Stanford University Press, 2002. Pages 93-94.] This recent argument – usually summarized as "Civilization or Genocide?" [ [http://qollasuyu.indymedia.org/es/2005/05/1952.shtml "Civilización o genocidio, un debate que nunca se cierra"] by Cacho Fernández – Qollasuyu Tawaintisuyu Indymedia es icon] – questions whether the Conquest of the Desert was really intended to exterminate the aborigines.

Australia

The Black War refers to a period of conflict between the British colonists and Tasmanian Aborigines in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in the early years of the 1800s. The conflict resulted in the almost complete obliteration of the Tasmanian Aboriginal population, though there are presently many thousands of individuals descended from Tasmanian Aborigines. The Tasmanians, estimated at 8,000 people in 1803, were reduced to a population of around 300 by 1833, although much of this has been attributed to the effect of diseases to which they had no natural immunity (including smallpox and syphilis). [ [http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s746130.htm Historian dismisses Tasmanian aboriginal genocide "myth"] ] Estimates of the total number of Tasmanian deaths at the hands of European settlers vary, with some estimates ranging as low as 118 in the period from 1803 until 1847. [ [http://www.adelaideinstitute.org/Dissenters/windschuttle.htm Our history not rewritten but put right. Accusations of genocide have been based on guesswork and blatant ideology. SMH, 24 November 2002] ]

The "war" was never officially declared and this has led to variations in its dating. Some date the conflict to the very beginning of European settlement on the island in 1803. The conflict was most intense during the 1820s, which is the period most commonly referred to as the Black War. The conflict is generally seen to have ended in the 1830s, after the unsuccessful Black Line and the subsequent relocation of Aborigines to Flinders Island.

Australian historians are split as to whether this was a genocide, this is often to do with if the "the term 'genocide' only applies to cases of deliberate mass killings of Aborigines by European settlers, or whether the term 'genocide' might also apply to instances in which many Aboriginal people were killed by the reckless or unintended actions and omissions of settlers." [http://www.hyperhistory.org/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=364&op=page#arti Debates on Genocide - Part One Debates on 'Genocide' in Australian History] , Australian Government Department of Education Science and Training]

China

During the mid-nineteenth century, the Muslims and the Miao people of China revolted against the Qing Dynasty,most notably in the Dungan revolt (1862-1877) and the Panthay rebellion 1856-1873) in Yunnan. The Manchu government committed genocide to suppress these little known revolts, [Levene, Mark. Genocide in the Age of the Nation-State. I.B.Tauris, 2005. ISBN 1845110579, page 288] [Giersch, Charles Patterson. Asian Borderlands: The Transformation of Qing China's Yunnan Frontier. Harvard University Press, 2006. ISBN 1845110579, page 219] [Dillon, Michael. [http://www.hsais.org/2essay0405_4.htm China’s Muslim Hui Community] . Curzon, 1999. ISBN 0700710264, page xix] killing a million people in the Panthay rebellion, [Damsan Harper, Steve Fallon, Katja Gaskell, Julie Grundvig,Carolyn Heller, Thomas Huhti, Bradley Maynew, Christopher Pitts. LonelyPlanet China. 9. 2005. ISBN 1740596870] Gernet,Jacques. A History of Chinese Civilization. 2. New York: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1996.ISBN 0521497124 ] several million in the Dungan revolt andfive million in the suppression of Miao people in Guizhou. A "washing off the Muslims"(洗回 (xi Hui)) policy had been long advocated by officials in the Manchu government. [Jonathan N. Lipman, "Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China (Studies on Ethnic Groups in China)", University of Washington Press (February 1998), ISBN 0295976446.]

France

In 1986 Reynald Secher wrote a controversial book entitled: "A French Genocide: The Vendée", in which he argued that the actions of the French republican government during the revolt in the Vendée (1793–1796), a popular Royalist uprising against the Republican government during the French Revolution, was the first "modern" genocide. Secher, Reynald. "A French Genocide: The Vendée", University of Notre Dame Press, (2003), ISBN 0268028656.] Secher's claims, in addition to his political and religious affiliations, caused a minor uproar in France amongst scholars of modern French history, as mainstream authorities on the period—both French and foreign—published articles refuting Secher's claims (see below). In the rebellion, initially the Vendée rebels gained the upper hand, so on August 1 1793 the Committee of Public Safety ordered General Jean-Baptiste Carrier to carry out a pacification of the region. The Republican army was reinforced and the Vendéan army was eventually defeated. Under orders from Committee of Public Safety in February 1794 the Republican forces launched their final "pacification" (the "Vendée-Vengé" or "Vendée Avenged")—twelve columns, the "colonnes infernales" ("infernal columns") under Louis-Marie Turreau, were marched through the Vendée, and, according to Secher, killed both rebels and civilians indiscriminately. [ [http://www.newoxfordreview.org/reviews.jsp?did=0504-gardiner The Heart of Darkness: How Visceral Hatred of Catholicism Turns Into Genocide] ] [ [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Wars_Of_The_Vendee Wars Of The Vendee] ] When the campaign dragged to an end in March 1796 the estimated dead, both Republican and Royalist, numbered between 117,000 and 500,000, out of a population of around 800,000. [ [http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft2h4nb1h9&doc.view=content&chunk.id=d0e1419&toc.depth=1&anchor.id=0&brand=eschol Three State and Counterrevolution in France by Charles Tilly] ] [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=950DE1DC123AF93AA35754C0A96F948260 "Vive la Contre-Revolution!"] ] [McPhee, Peter [http://www.h-france.net/vol4reviews/mcphee3.html Review of Reynald Secher, A French Genocide: The Vendée] , H-France Review Vol. 4 (March 2004), No. 26.]

Secher's allegation of genocide, Claude Langlois (of the Institute of History of the French Revolution) derides as "quasi-mythological".Claude Langlois, « Les héros quasi mythiques de la Vendée ou les dérives de l'imaginaire », in F. Lebrun, 1987, p. 426–434, et « Les dérives vendéennes de l’imaginaire révolutionnaire », AESC, n°3, 1988, p. 771–797.] Timothy Tackett of the University of California summarizes the case as such: "In reality... the Vendée was a tragic civil war with endless horrors committed by both sides—initiated, in fact, by the rebels themselves. The Vendéeans were no more blameless than were the republicans. The use of the word genocide is wholly inaccurate and inappropriate." [Voir l'intervention de Timothy Tackett, dans "French Historical Studies", Autumn 2001, p. 572.] Hugh Gough (Professor of history at University College Dublin,) considers Secher's book an attempt at historical revisionism that is unlikely to have any lasting impact. [Hugh Gough, "Genocide & the Bicentenary: the French Revolution and the revenge of the Vendée", ("Historical Journal", vol. 30, 4, 1987, pp. 977–88.) p. 987. ] Peter McPhee roundly criticizes Secher, including the assertion of commonality between the functions of the Republican government and Communist totalitarianism. McPhee does this by pointing to what he considers to be a number of dubious assumptions and flawed methodology on Secher's part.Peter McPhee, [http://www.h-france.net/vol4reviews/mcphee3.html a review] of Reynald Secher, "A French Genocide", published in H-France Review Vol. 4 (March 2004), No. 26.] Other scholars who have published against Secher's thesis include: Julian Jackson (professor of history modern at the University of London), [Stefan Berger, Mark Donovan, Kevin Passmore (dir.), "Writing National Histories—Western Europe Since 1800", Routledge, Londres, 1999, 247 pages, contribution by Julian Jackson. ( [http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/staff/jackson.html jackson biography] published by QMUL ),] and professors of modern history and related fields François Lebrun of the University of High-Brittany-Rennes II, [François Lebrun, « La guerre de Vendée : massacre ou génocide ? », "L'Histoire", Paris, n°78, May 1985, p.93 to 99 et no. 81, September 1985, p. 99 to 101.] and of the University of Paris, I-Pantheon-Sorbonne, Paul Tallonneau [Paul Tallonneau, "Les Lucs et le génocide vendéen : comment on a manipulé les textes", éditions Hécate, 1993] Claude Petitfrère, [Claude Petitfrère, "La Vendée et les Vendéens", Editions Gallimard/Julliard, 1982.] and Jean-Clément Martin. [Voir Jean-Clément Martin, "La Vendée et la France", Le Seuil, 1987.]

Peter McPhee says that the pacification the Vendée does not fit either the United Nations' CPPCG definition of genocide or that of Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn ("Genocide is a form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrator") because the events happened in a civil war. So it was not a one-sided mass killing and the Committee of Public Safety did not intend to exterminate the whole population of Vendée as parts of the population were allied to the revolutionary government. However in "Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations" Kurt Jonassohn writes "The reason we consider this a case of genocide is that exterminatory intent was clearly stated in the orders of several generals as well as in the several decrees passed by the government". [Jonassohn, Kurt and Karin Solveig Bjeornson "Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations" p. 208, 1998, Transaction Publishers, ISBN 0765804174.] Further support for Secher come from Adam Jones, who wrote in "Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction" a summary of the Vendée uprising, citing Secher and others, supporting the view that it was a genocide, [Jones, Adam. " [http://www.genocidetext.net/ Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction] ", Routledge/Taylor & Francis Publishers, (2006), ISBN 0-415-35385-8. [http://www.genocidetext.net/gaci_origins.pdf Chapter 1] Section "The Vendée uprising" pp 6, 7.] and Pierre Chaunu, a professor of history at Paris IV-Sorbonne university.Fact|date=October 2007 Other historians have employed the term "genocide" to describe the massacres made during the civil war in the republican camp, such as Jean Tulard. [J. Tulard, J.-F. Fayard, A. Fierro, Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution française, 1789-1799, Robert Laffont, collection Bouquins, 1987, p.1113] Stéphane Courtois, a Director of Research at the CNRS who specializes in the history of Communism, tells of how Lenin compared the people of Vendée to the Cossacks, and expressed joy at subjecting them to the program Gracchus Babeuf, "the inventor of modern Communism", characterized as "populicide" in 1795 against the people of the Vendée. [cite book | last = Courtois | first = Stéphane | authorlink = Stéphane Courtois | title = The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression | publisher = Harvard University Press |year=1999 | pages = p. 9 | isbn = 0674076087] British historian Ruth Scurr states that the actions of the revolutionaries, such as mass executions by grapeshot fired from cannons and group drownings in the Vendée, constitute crimes against humanity that they would today be held accountable for under the European human rights legislation they themselves pioneered. [Scurr, Ruth (2006). "Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution." Metropolitan Books. p. 282 ISBN 0805079874]

Secher attracted further controversy in 1991 with his publication "Jews and Vendeans: From One Genocide to Another", comparing the fate of Royalist Vendeans with Jews in Nazi Germany. [http://www.zundelsite.org/french/rhr/Secher.pdf]

Philippines

In an article, "We Charge Genocide: A Brief History of US in the Philippines", appearing in the December, 2005 issue of "Political Affairs" (an online magazine which bills itself "Marxist Thought Online"), E. San Juan, Jr., director of the Philippines Cultural Studies Center, Connecticut, argued that during the Philippine-American War (1899-1902) and pacification campaign (1902-1913), the operations launched by the U.S. against the Filipinos, an integral part of its pacification program, which claimed the lives of over a million Filipinos, constituted genocide.cite web |url=http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/2274/1/134/ |title=We Charge Genocide: A Brief History of US in the Philippines|author=E. San Juan, Jr. |date=2005 |accessdate=2008-07-26]

In November 1901, the Manila correspondent of the "Philadelphia Ledger" reported:"The present war is no bloodless, opera bouffe engagement; our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up, the idea prevailing that the Filipino as such was little better than a dog...." [quoted in "A People's History of the United States" (1980), Howard Zinn, Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-014803-9]

Gore Vidal, in an exchange of letters in the "New York Review of Books" about the Philippines campaign says, discussing General Bell's own reporting that American troops were responsible for 600,000 dead men, women, and children on the island of Luzon alone, "If this is not a policy of genocide (no dumb letters on the dictionary meaning of the word), it will do until the real thing comes along." [ [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/6787 "New York Review of Books"] , Volume 28, Number 20, December 17, 1981]

It should be noted that total Filipino casualties was at the time and still is a highly-debated, argued, and politicized number. A discussion and analysis of this is contained in John M. Gates, “War-Related Deaths in the Philippines”, "Pacific Historical Review". [ [http://www.jstor.org/pss/3639234 John M. Gates, War-Related Deaths in the Philippines, 1898-1902 The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Aug., 1984), pp. 367-378] ] It is estimated that some 34,000 Filipino soldiers lost their lives and as many as 200,000 civilians may have died directly or indirectly as a result of the war, most due to a major cholera epidemic that broke out near its end. [ [http://www.wooster.edu/History/jgates/book-ch3.html John M. Gates, “War-Related Deaths in the Philippines”, "Pacific Historical Review" , v. 53, No. 3 (August, 1984), 367-378.] ] Another estimate is that between 200,000 and 600,000 Filipinos died during the war with fewer than 5,000 American deaths. More deaths occurred during the pacification program (1902-1913) following the declaration of victory in the war. [ [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566463_4/Spanish-American_War.html Encarta encyclopedia] , Retrieved 08-08-04] One estimate of total Filipino deaths is as high as 1.4 million.

German South-West Africa

The Herero and Namaqua Genocide in German South-West Africa (present-day Namibia) in 1904–1907 is clearly the first organized state genocide as the UN Whitaker report (1985) concluded, the Herero were also the first ethnic group to be subjected to genocide in the 20th century. [cite journal | author=Cooper, Allan D.| title= Reparations for the Herero Genocide: Defining the limits of international litigation | journal= Oxford Journals, African Affairs| date=3 August 2006 | volume=106 | issue=Number 422 | pages=113–126 | url= [http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/106/422/113| doi= 10.1093/afraf/adl005] Eighty percent of the total Herero population and 50 percent of the total Nama population were killed in a brutal scorched earth campaign led by German General Lothar von Trotha.

British Ireland

War of the Three Kingdoms

Towards the end of the War of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651) the English Rump Parliament sent the New Model Army to Ireland to pacify the country and to prevent Royalists loyal to Charles II from using Ireland as a base to threaten England. Initially under the command of Oliver Cromwell and later under other parliamentary generals, the New Model army set about the task with ruthless efficiency. Coupled to the war aim of securing the country for the English Parliament were several other interrelated objectives. Punitive confiscation of the lands of Irish families involved in fighting the parliamentary forces was implemented (there was a similar policy against Royalists in England who fought in the Second English Civil War). This became a continuation of the Elizabethan policy of encouraging Protestant settlement of Ireland, because New Model army soldiers—Protestant to a man and who were owed considerable back pay—could be paid in confiscated Irish lands rather than in cash raised through English parliamentary taxes. [http://www.irish-society.org/Hedgemaster%20Archives/Cromwell_2.htm "To Hell or to Connaught" Oliver Cromwell's Settlement of Ireland] ]

During the Interregnum (1651–1660), this policy was enhanced with the passing of the Act of Settlement of Ireland in 1652 whose goal was a further transfer of land from Irish to English hands. The immediate war aims and the longer term policies of the English Parliamentarians resulted in an attempt by the English to transfer the native Irish Catholic population to the western fringes of Ireland to make way for Protestant settlers. This policy has been summed up by a phrase attributed to Cromwell "To Hell or to Connaught" and has been seen by some historians as a form of ethnic cleansing, if not genocide.genocidal or near-genocidal:
*Breton, Albert (ed). 1995. "Nationalism and Rationality", Cambridge University Press, Chapter "Regulating nations and ethnic communities" by Brendam O'Leary and John McGarry p 248. "Oliver Cromwell offered the Irish Catholics a choice between genocide and forced mass population transfer. They could go 'To Hell or to Connaught!'"
*Coogan, Tim-Pat. 2002. "The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace". ISBN 978-0312294182. Page 6. "The massacres by Catholics of Protestants, which occurred in the religious wars of the 1640s, were magnified for propagandist purposes to justify Cromwell's subsequent genocide."
*Ellis, Peter Berresford. 2002. "Eyewitness to Irish History". John Wiley & Sons Inc. Page 108. ISBN-13: 978-0471266334. "It was to be the justification for Cromwell's genocidal campaign and settlement."
*Levene Mark. 2005. "Genocide in the Age of the Nation-State", I.B. Tauris: London: "Considered overall, an Irish population collapse from 1.5 or possibly over 2 million inhabitants at the onset of the Irish wars in 1641, to no more than 850,000 eleven years later represents an absolutely devastating demographic catastrophe. Undoubted the largest proportion of this massive death toll did not arise from direct massacre but from hunger and then bubonic plagues, especially from the outbreak between 1649 and 1652. Even so, the relationship to the worst years of the fighting is all too apparent.
[The Act of Settlement of Ireland] , and the parliamentary legislation which succeeded it the following year, is the nearest thing on paper in the English, and more broadly British, domestic record, to a programme of state-sanctioned and systematic ethnic cleansing of another people. The fact that it did not include 'total' genocide in its remit, or that it failed to put into practice the vast majority of its proposed expulsions, ultimately, however, says less about the lethal determination of its makers and more about the political, structural and financial weakness of the early modern English state. For instance, though the Act begins rather ominously by claiming that it was not its intention to extirpate the whole Irish nation, it then goes on to list five categories of people who, as participators in or alleged supporters of the 1641 rebellion and its aftermath, would automatically be forfeit of their lives. It has been suggested that as many as 100,000 people would have been liable under these headings. A further five categories—by implication an even larger body of 'passive' supporters of the rebellion—were to be spared their lives but not their property."]

Great Irish Famine

During the years of the Irish Famine, Ireland produced enough food, flax and wool not only to feed and clothe its nine million people, but enough for eighteen million.Finnegan, Richard B. and Edward T. McCarron "Ireland: Historical Echoes, Contemporary Politics" (2000 Westview Press) ISBN 0813332478] In this sense the famine was artificial, not caused by a shortage of food but by the British government's choice not to close the ports as had been done in previous Irish crop blights; as John Mitchell put it, "The Almighty sent the potato blight...but the English created the famine.".

Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, finding that the British violated sections (a), (b), and (c) of Article 2 of the CPPCG and committed genocide, issued a formal legal opinion to the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education on May 2, 1996, stating that "Clearly, during [the Irish Potato Famine] years [of] 1845 to 1850 the British government pursued a policy of mass starvation in Ireland with intent to destroy in substantial part the national, ethnical, and racial group commonly known as the Irish People." [ James Mullin " [http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=8813 Irish Famine Education and the Holocaust 'Straw Man'] ", Website American Chronicle, April 28, 2006.] [ [http://www.nde.state.ne.us/SS/Irish/irish_pf.html The Great Irish Famine] Approved by the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education on September 10, 1996, for inclusion in the Holocaust and Genocide Curriculum at the secondary level. Revision submitted 11/26/98.] Law professor Charles E. Rice of Notre Dame likewise issued a formal opinion, also based on Article 2, that the British had committed genocide. [Mullin, James V. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FKX/is_2002_Spring-Summer/ai_87915680/pg_5 The New Jersey Famine Curriculum: a report] Eire-Ireland:Journal of Irish Studies, Spring-Summer, 2002]

Contesting claims of genocide, Belfast-born and Cambridge-educated historian Peter Gray concludes that UK government policy "was not a policy of deliberate genocide", but a dogmatic refusal to admit that the policy was wrong which "amounted to a sentence of death to many thousands."; and Professor James S. Donnelly Jr., a historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has written that "... it is also my contention that while genocide was not in fact committed, what happened during and as a result of the clearances had the look of genocide to a great many Irish..." [ [http://www.nde.state.ne.us/SS/Irish/unit_6.html Irish Famine Unit VI Genocide] of the [http://www.nde.state.ne.us/SS/Irish/irish_pf.html The Great Irish Famine] Approved by the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education on September 10, 1996]

Records show that Ireland exported food, even increasing some food exports during the worst years of the Famine.fact|date=May 2008 When Ireland experienced a famine in 1782-83, ports were closed to keep Irish-grown food in Ireland to feed the Irish. Local food prices promptly dropped. Merchants lobbied against the export ban, but the government of the 1780s overrode their protests; that export ban did not exist in the 1840s.fact|date=May 2008

Cecil Woodham-Smith, an authority on the Irish Famine, wrote in "The Great Hunger; Ireland 1845-1849" that, "...no issue has provoked so much anger or so embittered relations between the two countries (England and Ireland) as the indisputable fact that huge quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England throughout the period when the people of Ireland were dying of starvation."fact|date=May 2008 Ireland remained a net exporter of food throughout most of the five-year famine. However, Woodham-Smith does not accept that the famine amounted to "genocide": "These misfortunes were not part of a plan to destroy the Irish nation; they fell on the people because the government of Lord John Russell was afflicted with an extraordinary inability to foresee consequences. It has been frequently declared that the parsimony of the British Government during the famine was the main cause of the sufferings of the people, and parsimony was certainly carried to remarkable lengths; but obtuseness, short-sightedness and ignorance probably contributed more."fact|date=May 2008 However Irish meteorologist Austin Bourke, in "The use of the potato crop in pre-famine Ireland" disputes some of Woodham-Smith's calculations, and notes that during December 1846 imports almost doubled.fact|date=May 2008 He opines that "it is beyond question that the deficiency arising from the loss of the potato crop in 1846 could not have been met by the simple expedient of prohibiting the export of grain from Ireland."fact|date=May 2008

Irish historian Cormac O' Grada disagrees with the claim that the famine was genocide on two grounds: firstly, he writes, "genocide includes murderous intent and it must be said that not even the most bigoted and racist commentators of the day sought the extermination of the Irish"fact|date=May 2008 and that most people in Whitehall "hoped for better times in Ireland"fact|date=May 2008 and secondly accusations of genocide overlook or ignore "the enormous challenges facing relief efforts, both central, local, public and private".fact|date=May 2008 Cormac views that a case of neglect is easier to sustain than that of genocide. [Cormac O' Grada, "Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and Memory", p. 10]

Peaking around 8-9 million in the early 19th century, Ireland's population fell to around 4 million during the Famine, because of emigration and starvation. [Irish Famine Memorial Website - [http://irishfaminememorial.org/events/2002_shirley_fitzgerald.htm 2002 Shirley Fitzgerald Oration] ]

Genocide scholar W.D. Rubinstein seems to agree with Cormac. In his book "Genocide" he wrote that: "The Irish Famine cannot in truth be described as an example of genocide, but nor, in truth, was it nineteenth- century Britain's finest hour."fact|date=May 2008

Russian Empire

" main|Muhajir (Caucasus)|Caucasian War

Antero Leitzinger wrote in an article called "The Circassian Genocide", initially published in the Turkistan News, that a genocide committed against the Circassian nation by Czarist Russia in the 1800s has been almost entirely forgotten, and that it was the largest genocide of the nineteenth century. [Antero Leitzinger " [http://www.circassianworld.com/circassiangenocide.html The Circassian Genocide] " in The Eurasian Politician - Issue 2, October 2000, in the article it states that it was originally published in Turkistan News]

1915 to 1950

In 1915, during World War I, the concept of Crimes against humanity was introduced into international relations for the first time when the Allied Powers sent a correspondence to the government of the Ottoman Empire, a member of the Central Powers, over massacres the Allies alleged were taking place within the Empire.1915 declaration
* [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=hr933&dbname=106& ffirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution] 106th Congress,,2nd Session, House of Representatives
* [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.RES.316: Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution (Introduced in House of Representatives)] 109th Congress, 1st Session, [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HE00316: H.RES.316] , June 14, 2005. 15 September 2005 House Committee/Subcommittee:International Relations actions. Status: Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 40 - 7.
* [http://www.Armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.160/current_category.7/affirmation_detail.html Original source of the telegram sent by the Department of State, Washington containing the French, British and Russian joint declaration]

] (For more details see the section Ottoman Empire (Turkey)).

Ottoman Empire (Turkey)

On May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers (Britain, France, and Russia) jointly issued a statement explicitly charging for the first time ever another government of committing "a crime against humanity" in reference to that regime's persecution of its Christian minorities including Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks among others. ["The Killing Tr
] Contrary to popular conception, the Armenians were not the only ethnic minority to suffer as the Ottoman Empire dissolved. Assyrians and Greeks also suffered the genocidal depredations of the Young Turks. Many researches consider these events to be part of the same policy of planned ethnoreligious purification of the Turkish state followed by the Young Turks. [Schaller, Dominik J. and Zimmerer, Jürgen (2008) 'Late Ottoman genocides: the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Young Turkish population and extermination policies - introduction', Journal of Genocide Research, 10:1, 7 - 14]

.. This joint statement stated:

: " [i] n view of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization, the Allied Governments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres".

Armenian Genocide

On 15 September 2005 a United States Congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide "Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes." found that:

* "The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and which succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of Armenians in their historic homeland." 1915 [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.RES.316: Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution (Introduced in House of Representatives)] 109th Congress, 1st Session, [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HE00316: H.RES.316] , June 14, 2005. 15 September 2005 House Committee/Subcommittee:International Relations actions. Status: Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 40 - 7.]

The BBC reported that 16 December 2003, "The Swiss lower house of parliament has voted to describe the mass killings of Armenians during the last years of the Ottoman Empire as genocide. [...] Fifteen countries have now agreed to label the killings as genocide. They include France [in 2001] , Argentina and Russia." [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/Europe/3325247.stm Swiss accept Armenia 'genocide'] , BBC 16 December 2003] On 12 October 2006, French lawmakers "approved a bill making it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during and after World War I amounted to genocide. Turkey quickly objected, with its Foreign Ministry saying that the decision "dealt a heavy blow" to Turkish-French relations and 'created great disappointment in our country.'" [Associated Press report " [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/12/Europe/EU_GEN_France_Turkey_Genocide_Bill.php French lawmakers approve bill on Armenian genocide] " in the International Herald Tribune October 12, 2006]

Assyrian Genocide

The Assyrian Genocide (also known as "Sayfo" or "Seyfo"; Aramaic: "ܩܛܠܐ ܕܥܡܐ ܐܬܘܪܝܐ" or ܣܝܦܐ, Turkish: "Süryani Soykırımı") was committed against the Assyrian population of the Ottoman Empire near the end of the First World War by the Young Turks. [Assyrians: The Continuous Saga - Page 40 by Frederick A. Aprim] The Assyrian/Syriac population of northern Mesopotamia (Tur Abdin, Hakkari, Van, Siirt region in modern-day southeastern Turkey and Urmia region in northwestern Iran) was forcibly relocated and massacred by Ottoman (Turkish and Kurdish) forces between 1914 and 1920 under the regime of the Young Turks. [cite book
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=PK-TPKvmG7UC&printsec=frontcover#PPA148,M1
title = Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide
accessdate =
accessdaymonth =
accessmonthday =
accessyear =
author = Ye'or, Bat
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors = Miriam Kochan, David Littman
date =
year = 2002
month =
format =
work =
publisher = Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
pages = pp. 148-149
isbn = 0838639437
oclc = 47054791
doi =
archiveurl =
archivedate =
quote = ] This genocide is considered to be a part of the same policy of extermination as the Armenian Genocide and Pontic Greek Genocide.The Assyro-Chaldean National Council stated in a December 4, 1922, memorandum that the total death toll is unknown, but it estimates that about 275,000 "Assyro-Chaldeans" died between 1914–1918.Joseph Yacoub, La question assyro-chaldéenne, les Puissances européennes et la SDN (1908–1938), 4 vol., thèse Lyon, 1985, p. 156.]

Greek Genocide

Pontic Greek Genocidecite book| url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?vid=ISBN1859845509&id=khCffgX1NPIC&pg=PR13&lpg=PR13&vq=&sig=VgQBQ4-HVjDy2Kju1RpfDdy3N8E | title= With Intent to Destroy: Reflections on Genocide | first =Colin Tatz | last=Cohn Jatz | publisher=Verso |year=2003 | ISBN=1859845509 | location=Essex] cite web| url= http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP5.HTM |title= Statistics of Democide | work=Chapter 5, Statistics Of Turkey's Democide Estimates, Calculations, And Sources |author=R. J. Rummel | accessdate = 2006-10-04] cite book| url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?vid=ISBN0765801515&id=g26NmNNWK1QC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=pontian+isbn:0765801515&num=100&sig=D8lv0QCu9iCqIji5nfiYvhBRC_Q&hl=en| title= Pioneers of Genocide Studies (Clt)| first=Samuel Totten |last= Steven L. Jacobs | year=2002 | pages= 207, 213 | ISBN= 0765801515 | publisher: Transaction Publishers | location=New Brunswick, New Jersey ] [http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/12/3/393 "Creating a Modern "Zone of Genocide": The Impact of Nation- and State-Formation on Eastern Anatolia, 1878–1923"] , by Mark Levene, University of Warwick, © 1998 by United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] [Constantine Fotiades, "Genocide of the Greeks of Pontus" (16 volumes)] [http://www.aina.org/news/20071215131949.htm Assyrian International News Agency] , "International Genocide Scholars Association Officially Recognizes Assyrian, Greek Genocides", Retrieved on 2007-12-15.] is a term used to refer to the fate of the Pontic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire during and in the aftermath of World War I. It is used to refer to the determined persecutions, massacres, expulsions, and death marches of Pontic Greek populations in the historical region of Pontus, the southeastern Black Sea provinces of the Ottoman Empire, during the early 20th century by the Young Turk administration. G.W. Rendel of the British Foreign Office noted the massacres of Greeks in Pontus and elsewhere during the Turkish national movement,Foreign Office Memorandum by Mr. G.W. Rendel on Turkish Massacres and Persecutions of Minorities since the Armistice, March 20, 1922, "(a)" Paragraph 7, "(b)" Paragraph 35, "(c)" Paragraph 24, "(d)" Paragraph 1, "(e)" Paragraph 2] Taner Akcam, "From Empire to Republic, Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide", September 4, 2004, Zed Books, pages "(a)" 240, "(b)" 145] which was organized against Greece's invasion of western Anatolia.Arnold J. Toynbee, "The Western question in Greece and Turkey: a study in the contact of civilisations", Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922, pp. 312-313.] According to various sources the direct or indirect death toll of Greeks in Anatolia ranges from 300,000 to 360,000 men, women and children.

Turkish Denial

The Republic of Turkey government disputes this interpretation of events and maintains that crucial documents supporting the genocide thesis are actually falsifications. [ [http://www.kultur.gov.tr/EN/BelgeGoster.aspx?17A16AE30572D313AAF6AA849816B2EF3754CB9777885187 Armenian issue allegations-facts] ] Seen as historical revisionism by many historians, the topic is virtually taboo in Turkey. Laws like Article 301, which is amended recently, are used to bring charges against people like the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who had stated that "Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it". [Sarah Rainsford " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/Europe/4527318.stm Author's trial set to test Turkey] " BBC 14 December 2005.] However, Turkish authorities do acknowledge that the issue should be left to the historians [Chris Morris [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/Europe/1132336.stm Bitter history of Armenian genocide row] BBC 23 January 2001] and in an open letterby Prime Minister Erdogan to the U.S. President dated 10 April 2005, extended an "invitation to your country to establish a joint group consisting of historians and other experts from our two countries to study the developments and events of 1915 not only in the archives of Ottoman Empire, Turkey and Armenia but also in the archives of all relevant third countries and to share their findings with the international public". [ [http://www.turkishembassy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=516&Itemid=495 Prime Minister Erdogan's letter dated 10 April 2005] on the website of the Turkish Embassy in Washington] Furthermore, in spite of vehement resistance by nationalist groups, an academic conference was held on September 24, 2005 in Istanbul to discuss the early 20th century massacre of Armenians. [Robert Mahoney " [http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2006/turkey_3-06/turkey_3-06.html Turkey: Nationalism and the Press] " CPJ 16 March 2006.] In their book "Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society", Elizabeth Burns Coleman and Kevin White present a list of reasons explaining Turkey's inability to admit the genocides committed by the Young Turks [ "Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society", Elizabeth Burns Coleman, Kevin White, p.82]

oviet Union

There are several documented instances of unnatural mass death occurring in the Soviet Union. These include the Soviet-wide famines in early 1920s and early 1930s and deportations of ethnic minorities.

During the Russian Civil War the Bolsheviks engaged in a campaign of genocide against the Don Cossacks. [Mikhail Heller & Aleksandr Nekrich. "Utopia in Power: The History of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the Present." Summit Books, 1988. ISBN 0671645358 p. 87.] [Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, Stéphane Courtois. "The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression". Harvard University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-674-07608-7 pp. 8-9] [Orlando Figes. "A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891–1924." Penguin Books, 1998. ISBN 014024364X p. 660.] [Donald Rayfield. "Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him." Random House, 2004. ISBN 0-375-50632-2. p. 83.] [R. J. Rummel. "Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917." Transaction Publishers, 1990. ISBN 1560008873 [http://books.google.com/books?id=sK5CJFpb2DAC&pg=PA2&dq=lethal+politics+genocide+Don+Cossacks&ei=nCBpR8-uF4vUsgPKlay-Ag&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=uecCAvEq5sgjmo1uRMwqjsALGWM p. 2] .] The most reliable estimates indicate that out of a population of three million, between 300,000 and 500,000 were killed or deported in 1919–20. [Robert Gellately. "Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe." Knopf, 2007 ISBN 1400040051 pp. 70–71.]

The 1933 famine that affected Ukraine, some densely populated [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1932-1933|regions of Russia and the Kazakhstan] has a special connotation in Ukraine where it is called the Holodomor. The famine was caused by the confiscation of the whole 1933 harvest in Ukraine and in Kazakhstan, the North Caucasus, and other parts of Russia leaving the peasants too little to feed themselves as a result 6 million died Soviet-wide, including 2.6 to 3.5 million Ukrainians and 1.3 to 1.5 million Kazakhs. Ukraine is attempting to have the latter recognised as an act of genocide."Helen Fawkes " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6179818.stm Legacy of famine divides Ukraine] " BBC News 24 November 2006] This move is opposed by the Russian government and some members of the Ukrainian parliament. Officially Moscow recognises that the famine took place, but refuses to class it as an ethnic genocide. During November 2006 a remembrance ceremony held in Kiev, a big board listed ten other countries that recognised the Holodomor as a genocide: Australia, Argentina, Georgia, Estonia, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, Poland, U.S., Hungary. [Veronica Khokhlova " [http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/11/29/ukraine-famine-recognized-as-genocide/ Ukraine: Famine Recognized As Genocide] " ]

Croatia

The Ustaše (also known as Ustashas or Ustashi) was a Croatian fascist movement that ruled Nazi puppet Independent State of Croatia after Axis Powers occupation of Yugoslavia during World War II. The Ustaše enacted race laws patterned after those of the Third Reich aimed at removing Jews, Roma, Croatian anti-fascists, and in particular Serbs. Victims were interned in concentration camps, the largest of which was the Jasenovac complex. Death toll estimates for the Independent State of Croatia is between 330,000 [ [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005449 Jasenovac] ] and more of 600,000, [http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206358.pdf] with the vast majority of victims being ethnic Serbs.

Nazi Germany and occupied Europe

Because the universal acceptance of international laws, defining and forbidding genocide was achieved in 1948, with the promulgation of the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" (CPPCG), those criminals who were prosecuted after the war in international courts, for taking part in the Holocaust were found guilty of crimes against humanity and other more specific crimes like murder. Nevertheless the Holocaust is universally recognized to have been a genocide and the term, that had been coined the year before by Raphael Lemkin, [Oxford English Dictionary: 1944 R. Lemkin "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe" ix. 79 "By 'genocide' we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group." ] appeared in the indictment of the 24 Nazi leaders, Count 3, stated that all the defendants had "conducted deliberate and systematic genocide – namely, the extermination of racial and national groups..." [Oxford English Dictionary "Genocide" citing Sunday Times 21 October 1945]

The term "the Holocaust" is generally used to describe the killing of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany led by Adolf Hitler.Niewyk, Donald L. "The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust," Columbia University Press, 2000, p.45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II." Also see "The Holocaust," "Encyclopaedia Britannica", 2007: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women and children, and millions of others, by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question."] A majority of scholars do not include other groups in the definition of the Holocaust, reserving the term to refer only to the genocide of the Jews,
*Weissman, Gary. "Fantasies of Witnessing: Postwar Attempts to Experience the Holocaust", Cornell University Press, 2004, ISBN 0801442532, p. 94: "Kren illustrates his point with his reference to the "Kommissararbefehl". 'Should the (strikingly unreported) systematic mass starvation of Soviet prisoners of war be included in the Holocaust?' he asks. Many scholars would answer no, maintaining that 'the Holocaust' should refer strictly to those events involving the systematic killing of the Jews'."
* [http://isurvived.org/Frameset4References-3/-Holocaust-YadVashem.html "The Holocaust: Definition and Preliminary Discussion"] , Yad Vashem: "The Holocaust, as presented in this resource center, is defined as the sum total of all anti-Jewish actions carried out by the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945: from stripping the German Jews of their legal and economic status in the 1930s, to segregating and starving Jews in the various occupied countries, to the murder of close to six million Jews in Europe. The Holocaust is part of a broader aggregate of acts of oppression and murder of various ethnic and political groups in Europe by the Nazis."
*Niewyk, Donald L. "The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust," Columbia University Press, 2000, p.45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II."
*"Holocaust," "Encyclopaedia Britannica", 2007: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question" (emphasis added).
* [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761559508/Holocaust.html "Holocaust"] , "Encarta": "Holocaust, the almost complete destruction of Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II (1939-1945). The leadership of Germany’s Nazi Party ordered the extermination of 5.6 million to 5.9 million Jews (see National Socialism). Jews often refer to the Holocaust as Shoah (from the Hebrew word for “catastrophe” or “total destruction”)."
*Paulson, Steve. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/holocaust_overview_01.shtml "A View of the Holocaust"] , BBC: "The Holocaust was the Nazis' assault on the Jews between 1933 and 1945. It culminated in what the Nazis called the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe', in which six million Jews were murdered."
* [http://www.auschwitz.dk/ "The Holocaust"] , "Auschwitz.dk": "The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War 2."
* [http://www.chgs.umn.edu/educational/edResource/definition.html "Holocaust—Definition"] , "Encyclopedia of the Holocaust", Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies: "HOLOCAUST (Heb., sho'ah). In the 1950s the term came to be applied primarily to the destruction of the Jews of Europe under the Nazi regime, and it is also employed in describing the annihilation of other groups of people in World War II. The mass extermination of Jews has become the archetype of GENOCIDE, and the terms sho'ah and "holocaust" have become linked to the attempt by the Nazi German state to destroy European Jewry during World War II ... One of the first to use the term in the historical perspective was the Jerusalem historian BenZion Dinur (Dinaburg), who, in the spring of 1942, stated that the Holocaust was a "catastrophe" that symbolized the unique situation of the Jewish people among the nations of the world."
*Also see the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies list of definitions: "Holocaust: A term for the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945."
* [http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/holocaust?view=uk "The Holocaust"] , Compact Oxford English Dictionary: "(the Holocaust) the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime in World War II."
*The 33rd Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches defines the Holocaust as "the Nazi attempt to annihilate European Jewry," cited in Hancock, Ian. [http://www.radoc.net:8088/RADOC-3-PORR.htm "Romanies and the Holocaust: A Reevaluation and an Overview"] , Stone, Dan. (ed.) "The Historiography of the Holocaust". Palgrave-Macmillan, New York 2004, pp. 383-396.
*Bauer, Yehuda. "Rethinking the Holocaust. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2001, p.10.
*Dawidowicz, Lucy. "The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945". Bantam, 1986, p.xxxvii: "'The Holocaust' is the term that Jews themselves have chosen to describe their fate during World War II."] or what the Nazis called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."

The Holocaust was accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6724481.stm Ukrainian mass Jewish grave found] ] Jews and Roma were crammed into ghettos before being transported hundreds of miles by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers. Every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal nation."Berenbaum, Michael. "The World Must Know," United States Holocaust Museum", 2006, p. 103.]

Other targets of the Nazi mass murder or "Nazi genocidal policy", [ [http://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/victims.htm A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims] ] included Slavs (Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Serbs, and others), Roma (see Porajmos), mentally ill (see T-4 Euthanasia Program), Homosexuals and "sexual deviants", Jehovah Witnesses, and political opponents. R. J. Rummel estimates that 16,315,000 people died as a result of genocide, just over 10.5 million Slavs, just under 5.3 million Jews, 258,000 Roma and 220,000 homosexuals. [R.J. Rummel, [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NAZIS.CHAP1.HTM Nazi Democide: Nazi genocide and mass murder: Chapter 1] , [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NAZIS.TAB1.1.gifTable 1.1] .] [R.J. Rummel states elsewhere that there are three definitions of genocide, and it is not clear which one he is using in this table. See the section in this article "Alternative meanings of genocide" for more details on this issue.] Donald Niewyk suggests that the broadest definition would produce a death toll of 17 million. [Niewyk, Donald & Nicosia, Frances (2000): "The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust", Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231112009, ISBN 978-0231112000.] A figure of 26 million is given in "Service d'Information des Crimes de Guerre: Crimes contre la Personne Humain, Camps de Concentration". Paris, 1946, p. 197.

Partition of India, 1947

Massive population exchanges occurred between the two newly-formed states in the months immediately following Partition. Once the lines were established, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders to what they hoped was the relative safety of religious majority. Based on 1951 Census of displaced persons, 7,226,000 Muslims went to Pakistan from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan immediately after partition.

The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border. Estimates of the number of deaths range around roughly 500,000, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at 1,000,000. [ [http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm#India Death toll in the partition] ]

1951 to 2000

Universal acceptance of international laws, defining and forbidding genocide was achieved in 1948, with the promulgation of the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" (CPPCG). The CPPCG was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1948 and came into effect on 12 January 1951 (Resolution 260 (III)). After the minimum 20 countries became parties to the Convention, it came into force as international law on 12 January 1951. At that time however, only two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) were parties to the treaty, which caused the Convention to languish for over four decades.

Australia 1900-1969

Sir Ronald Wilson, former president of Australia's Human Rights Commission thinks that Australia's "Stolen Generation" — where from 1900 to 1970, 20,000 to 25,000 Aboriginal children were forcibly separated from their natural families (see the Bringing Them Home report)Manne, Robert [http://www.theage.com.au/news/robert-manne/the-cruelty-of-denial/2006/09/08/1157222325367.html The cruelty of denial] , The Age, September 9, 2006] — "It clearly was attempted genocide ... [because it] was believed that the Aboriginal people would die out". [cite news | title=A Stolen Generation Cries Out| publisher=Reuters | month=May | year=1997 | url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/088.html] However the nature and extent of the removals have been disputed within Australia, with some commentators questioning the findings contained in the report and asserting that the Stolen Generation has been exaggerated. Not only has the number of children removed from their parents been questioned, but also the intent and effects of the government policy.

Guatemala 1968-1996

During the Guatemalan civil war, some 200,000 people died. More than one million people were forced to flee their homes and hundreds of villages were destroyed. The officially chartered Historical Clarification Commission attributed more than 93% of documented violations of human rights; and that Maya Indians accounted for 83% of the victims. It concluded in 1999 that state actions constituted genocide. [ [http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/1999/19990301.guate.brf.html Press conference by members of the Guatemala Historical Clarification Commission] , United Nations website, 1 March 1999] [Staff. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/286402.stm Guatemala 'genocide' probe blames state] , BBC, 25 February 1999.]

In 1999, Nobel peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchú brought a case against the military leadership in a Spanish Court. Six officials, among them Efraín Ríos Montt and Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores, were formally charged on 7 July 2006 to appear in the Spanish National Court after Spain's Constitutional Court ruled in 2005 that Spanish courts can exercise universal jurisdiction over war crimes committed during the Guatemalan Civil War [ [http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/Spain-judge-charges-ex-generals-in.php Spain judge charges ex-generals in Guatemala genocide case] , Jurist, July 8, 2006.]

Bangladesh War of 1971

In 1997 R. J. Rummel published a book which is on the web called "Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900", In Chapter 8 called "Statistics Of Pakistan's DemocideEstimates, Calculations, And Sources" In it he looks at the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Rummel wrote:

: In East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) [The President of Pakistan, General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, and his top generals] also planned to murder its Bengali intellectual, cultural, and political elite. They also planned to indiscriminately murder hundreds of thousands of its Hindus and drive the rest into India. And they planned to destroy its economic base to insure that it would be subordinate to West Pakistan for at least a generation to come. This plan may be perceived as genocide.Rummel, Rudolph J., [http://www.Hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP8.HTM "Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900"] , ISBN 3-8258-4010-7, Chapter 8, table 8.1 ]

Rummel goes on to collate the what considers the most credible estimates published by others into what he calls democide. He writes that "Consolidating both ranges, I give a final estimate of Pakistan's democide to be 300,000 to 3,000,000, or a prudent 1,500,000." Other authors like Anthony Mascarenhas and Donald W. Beachler have cited a figure ranging between 1 - 3 million civilians killed by Pakistan Army; [cite book | author=Anthony Mascarenhas|title= | publisher=Hodder and Stoughton | year=1986 | id=ISBN 0-340-39420-X] Bleacher states that both Pakistan and its primary ally USA have denied Genocide allegations. [Genocide Denial; The Case of Bangladesh by Donald W. Beachler - [http://www.isg-iags.org/events/2005iagsconference/abstracts/IAGS%202005.proposal.doc Online summary hosted at Institute for the Study of Genocide] ] National Geographic and the Guinness Book of World Records state that 3 million were killed.

A case was filed in the Federal Court of Australia on 20 September 2006 for alleged crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during 1971 by the Pakistani Armed Forces and its collaborators: [http://www.rayimmigration.com.au/pressrelease.htm Raymond Faisal Solaiman v People's Republic of Bangladesh & Ors] In The Federal Magistrates Court of Australia at Sydney]

On 21 May 2007, at the request of the applicant "Leave is granted to the applicant to discontinue his application filed on 20 September 2006." (FILE NO: (P)SYG2672/2006) [This judgement can be found via the [http://esearch.fedcourt.gov.au/ Federal Court of Australia home page] by following the links and using SYG/2672/2006 as the key for the database]

The Guinness Book of Records lists the atrocities in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) as one of the top 5 genocides in the 20th century. [Guinness Book of Records 2007, pp 118-119]

Burundi 1972 and 1993

Since Burundi's independence in 1962, there have been two events called genocides in the country. The 1972 mass-killings of Hutu by the Tutsi army, [Staff. http://www.preventgenocide.org/edu/pastgenocides/burundi/resources/ pastgenocides, Burundi resources] on the website of Prevent Genocide International lists the following resources:
*Michael Bowen, "Passing by;: The United States and genocide in Burundi", 1972, (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1973), 49 pp.
*René Lemarchand, "Selective genocide in Burundi" (Report - Minority Rights Group; no. 20, 1974), 36 pp.
*Rene Lemarchand, "Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide" (New York: Woodrow Wilson Center and Cambridge University Press, 1996), 232 pp.
*Edward L. Nyankanzi, "Genocide: Rwanda and Burundi" (Schenkman Books, 1998), 198 pp.
*Christian P. Scherrer, "Genocide and crisis in Central Africa: conflict roots, mass violence, and regional war"; foreword by Robert Melson. Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2002.
*Weissman, Stephen R. " [http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/pwks22.html Preventing Genocide in Burundi Lessons from International Diplomacy] ", United States Institute of Peace] and the 1993 killing of Tutsi by the Hutu population that is recognised as a genocide in the final report of the International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi presented to the United Nations Security Council in 2002. [http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/burundi_coi/burundi_coi1996toc.html International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi: Final Report] Source Name: United Nations Security Council, S/1996/682; received from Ambassador Thomas Ndikumana, Burundi Ambassador to the United States, Date received: 7 June 2002. Paragraph 496.]

Equatorial Guinea

Francisco Macias Nguema was the first President of Equatorial Guinea, from 1968 until his overthrow in 1979. [ [http://www.dictatorofthemonth.com/Nguema/Dec2001NguemaEN.htm Francisco Macias Nguema] ] During his presidency, his country was nicknamed "the Auschwitz of Africa". Nguema’s regime was characterized by its abandonment of all government functions except internal security, which was accomplished by terror; he acted as chief judge and sentenced thousands to death. This led to the death or exile of up to 1/3 of the country's population. Out of a population of 300,000, an estimated 80,000 had been killed, in particular those of the Bubi ethnic minority on Bioko associated with relative wealth and intellectualism. [ [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2530772.ece Coup plotter faces life in Africa's most notorious jail] ] [ [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=455635&in_page_id=1770 True hell on earth: Simon Mann faces imprisonment in the cruellest jail on the planet] ] Uneasy around educated people, he had killed everyone who wore spectacles. All schools were ordered closed in 1975. The economy collapsed, and skilled citizens and foreigners left. [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/08/29/do2902.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/08/29/ixopinion.html If you think this one's bad you should have seen his uncle] ]

On August 3, 1979, he was overthrown by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. [cite web |url=http://english.people.com.cn/200111/19/eng20011119_84896.shtml |title=Chinese President Meets Equatorial Guinean President |date=2001-11-20 |People's Daily Online |location=Beijing, China] Macias Nguema was captured, tried for genocide and other crimes along with 10 others. All of them were found guilty, four received terms of imprisonment, while Nguema and the other six were executed a few weeks later on September 29. [John B. Quigley (2006) "The Genocide Convention: An International Law Analysis", Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, ISBN 0754647307. [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZXZ8qMR5YVQC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&source=web&ots=zIfJ7DEYzK&sig=lDM-pfUAVB_cC6Mu7k4pCvqOUx0 p.31] ,32] [cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Equatorial-Guinea-HISTORY.html |title=Equatorial Guinea |year=2006 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Nations |publisher=Thomson Corporation]

John B. Quigley in "The Genocide Convention: An International Law Analysis" points out that at Macias Nguema's trial for genocide that Equatorial Guinea had not ratified the Genocide convention and that records of the court proceedings show that there was some confusion over whether Nguema and his co-defendants were tried under the laws of Spain (the former colonial power), or whether the trial was justified on the claim that the Genocide Convention was part of customary international law. Quigley states that "The Macias case stands out as the most confusing of domestic genocide prosecutions from the standpoint of the applicable law. The Macias conviction is also problematic from the standpoint of the identity of the protected group." [John B. Quigley (2006) "The Genocide Convention: An International Law Analysis", Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, ISBN 0754647307. [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZXZ8qMR5YVQC&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&source=web&ots=zIfJ7DEYzK&sig=lDM-pfUAVB_cC6Mu7k4pCvqOUx0 p.32] ]

Cambodia

The Khmer Rouge, or more formally, the Communist Party of Kampuchea, led by Pol Pot, Ta Mok and other leaders, organized the mass killing of ideologically suspect groups, ethnic minorities like the ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese (or Sino-Khmers), Chams and Thais, former civil servants, former government soldiers, Buddhist monks, secular intellectuals and professionals, and former city dwellers. Khmer Rouge cadres defeated in factional struggles were also liquidated in purges. The number of the victims is estimated at approximately 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975-1979, including deaths from slave labour. [http://www.yale.edu/cgp/index.html Cambodian Genocide Program] , Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies]

This episode is widely seen as a genocide. For example "since 1994, the award-winning Cambodian Genocide Program" has been included as part of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, and in 2003 Khieu Samphan, the Cambodian head of state under the Khmer Rouge, was quoted as saying "I have found it so difficult to believe what people told me of what happened under the Khmer Rouge regime, but today, I am very clear that there was genocide" [staff. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3357075.stm Khmer Rouge genocide admission] , BBC, 30 December 2003, citing an Associated Press report]

The killings of Cambodia's Muslim Cham population by the Khmer rouge is also considered genocide. During the massacres by the government, a disproportionate number of Chams were killed compared with ethnic Khmers. Ysa Osman, a researcher at the Documentation Center of Cambodia concludes,"Perhaps as many as 500,000 died. They were considered the Khmer Rouge's No. 1 enemy. The plan was to exterminate them all" because "they stood out. They worshiped their own god. Their diet was different. Their names and language were different. They lived by different rules. The Khmer Rouge wanted everyone to be equal, and when the Chams practiced Islam they did not appear to be equal. So they were punished." [http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501030310/persecution2.html weakness in numbers]

In 1997 the Cambodian Government asked the United Nations assistance in setting up a genocide tribunal. It took nine years to agree to shape and structure of the court — a hybrid of Cambodia and international laws — before in 2006 the judges were sworn in.Doyle, Kevin. [http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1647257,00.html Putting the Khmer Rouge on Trial] , Time, July 26, 2007] [MacKinnon, Ian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2028421,00.html Crisis talks to save Khmer Rouge trial] , The Guardian, 7 March 2007] [ [http://www.cambodia.gov.kh/krt/english/ The Khmer Rouge Trial Task Forc] , Royal Cambodian Government] The investigating judges were presented with the names of five possible suspects by the prosecution on 18 July 2007. On 19 September 2007 Nuon Chea, second in command of the Khmer Rouge and its most senior surviving member, was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. He will face Cambodian and foreign judges at the special genocide tribunal. [Staff, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7002053.stm Senior Khmer Rouge leader charged] , BBC 19 September 2007]

East Timor under Indonesian occupation

East Timor was occupied by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999 as annexed territory with Indonesian provincial status. A detailed statistical report prepared for the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor cited a lower range of 102,800 conflict-related deaths in the period 1974-1999, namely, approximately 18,600 killings and 84,200 'excess' deaths from hunger and illness, most of which occurred during the Indonesian occupation. [cite web |author=Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group |title=The Profile of Human Rights Violations in Timor-Leste, 1974-1999 |work=A Report to the Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation of Timor-Leste |publisher=Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) |date=9 February 2006 |url=http://www.hrdag.org/resources/timor_chapter_graphs/timor_chapter_page_02.shtml] Earlier estimates of deaths during the occupation range from 60,000 to 200,000. [cite web |last=Nunes |first=Joe |title=East Timor: Acceptable Slaughters |work=The architecture of modern political power |year=1996 |url=http://www.mega.nu/ampp/nunestimor.html]

According to Sian Powell writing in The Australian, a UN report states that the Indonesian military used starvation as a weapon to exterminate the East Timorese, along with Napalm and chemical weapons, obtained from the United States, which poisoned the food and water supply. [Sian Powell " [http://www.yale.edu/gsp/east_timor/unverdict.html UN verdict on East Timor] , Jakarta correspondent, The Australian, January 19, 2006 ] Ben Kiernan has written in "War, Genocide, and Resistance in East Timor, 1975–99: Comparative Reflections on Cambodia" that "the crimes committed ... in East Timor, with a toll of 150,000 in a population of 650,000, clearly meet a range of sociological definitions of genocide used by most scholars of the phenomenon, who see both political and ethnic groups as possible victims of genocide. The victims in East Timor included not only that substantial 'part' of the Timorese 'national group' targeted for destruction because of their resistance to Indonesian annexation—along with their relatives, as we shall see—but also most members of the twenty-thousand strong ethnic Chinese minority prominent in the towns of East Timor, whom Indonesian forces singled out for destruction, apparently because of their ethnicity 'as such.'"Ben Kiernam PDFlink| [http://www.yale.edu/gsp/east_timor/03-263_Ch_09.pdf War, Genocide, and Resistance in East Timor, 1975–99: Comparative Reflections on Cambodia] |218 KB, Chapter 9 page 202] [Ben Kiernam footnotes "clearly meet a range of sociological definitions of genocide..." with [13] – Lou Kuper, "Genocide" (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1981), pages 174-175] As may be noted from the title, Ben Kiernan draws a comparison with the Khmer Rouge Cambodian genocide, accusing the west of hypocrisy in ignoring one whilst protesting about the other.

On August 30, 1999, a United Nations-supervised popular referendum was held. The East Timorese voted for full independence from Indonesia, but violent clashes, instigated primarily by the Indonesian military and aided by Timorese pro-Indonesia militias, the most notable being led by Eurico Guterres, broke out soon afterwards. A peacekeeping force (INTERFET, led by Australia) intervened to restore order.

abra-Shatila, Lebanon

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was carried out in September 1982 against Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by Lebanese Maronite Christian/Phalange militias, near the beginning of the 1982–2000 South Lebanon conflict. The number of victims of the massacre is estimated at 700-3500. Responsibility for the massacre has been attributed to the Phalangists as the perpetrators, and indirectly to Israel as the occupying army.Georges Andreopoulos, "Genocide. Conceptual and Historical Dimensions", p.24, 37]

On December 16, 1982, the United Nations General Assembly condemned the massacre and declared it to be an act of genocide. [ [http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/37/a37r123.htm A/RES/37/123(A-F)] [http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/res/resa37.htm Adopted at the 108th UN General Assembly plenary meeting] 16 December 1982 and the 112th plenary meeting, 20 December 1982.] Paragraph 2, which "resolved that the massacre was an act of genocide", was adopted by ninety-eight votes to nineteen, with twenty-three abstentions: All Western democracies abstained from voting.Leo Kuper, "Theoretical Issues Relating to Genocide: Uses and Abuses", in George J. Andreopoulos, "Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions", University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, ISBN 0812216164, p. 37.] William Schabas, "Genocide in International Law. The Crimes of Crimes", p. 455]

According to William Schabas, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, [ [http://www.nuigalway.ie/human_rights/Staff/william_schabas.html Professor William A. Schabas] website of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland] "the term genocide (...) had obviously been chosen to embarrass Israel rather than out of any concern with legal precision”. This opinion is a reflection of the comments made by some of the delegates who took part in the debate. While all acknowledged that it was a massacre, the claim that it was a genocide was disputed, for example the delegate for Canada stated " [t] he term genocide cannot, in our view, be applied to this particular inhuman act". The delegate of Singapore added that " [his] delegation regret [ted] the use of the term "an act of genocide" (...) [as] the term 'genocide' is used to mean acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". and that " [he] also question [ned] whether the General Assembly ha [d] the competence to make such determination", and the United States commented that " [w] hile the criminality of the massacre was beyond question, it was a serious and reckless misuse of language to label this tragedy genocide as defined in the 1948 Convention (...)".

Citing Sabra and Shatila as an example, Leo Kuper notes the reluctance of the United Nations to respond or take action in actual cases of genocide for most egregious violators, but its willingness to charge "certain vilified states, and notably Israel", with genocide. In his view:

This availability of a scapegoat state in the UN restores members with a record of murderous violence against their subjects a self-righteous sense of moral purpose as principled members of 'the community of nations'... Estimates of the numbers killed in the Sabra-Shatila massacres range from about four hundred to eight hundred - a minor catastrophe in the contemporary statistics of mass murder. Yet a carefully planned UN campaign found Israel guilty of genocide, without reference to the role of the Phalangists in perpetrating the massacres on their own initiative. The procedures were unique in the annals of the United Nations.Leo Kuper, "Theoretical Issues Relating to Genocide: Uses and Abuses", in George J. Andreopoulos, "Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions", University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, ISBN 0812216164, pp. 36-37.]

In a Belgium court case lodged on 18 June 2001 by 23 survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres, the prosecution alleged that Ariel Sharon, former Israeli defense minister (and Israel's Prime Minister in 2001–2006), as well as other Israelis committed a number of crimes including genocide, [http://www.indictsharon.net/case.shtml#Introduction The Case Against The Accused] (Ariel Sharon, former Israeli defense minister and Israel's prime minister in 2001, as well as other Israelis and Lebanese), [http://www.indictsharon.net/ indictsharon.net] &ndahs; The website of the International Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra & Shatila] because "all the constituent elements of the crime of genocide, as defined in the 1948 Convention and as reproduced in article 6 of the ICC Statute and in article 1§1 of the law of 16 June 1993,29 are present". [http://www.indictsharon.net/cmptENen.pdf The complaint against Ariel Sharon] Lodged in Belgium on 18 June 2001] This allegation was not tested in Belgium court because on 12 February 2003 the Court of Cassation (Belgian Supreme Court) ruled that under international customary law, acting heads of state and government can not become the object of proceedings before criminal tribunals in foreign state (although for the crime of genocide they could be the subject of proceedings of an international tribunal). [http://www.indictsharon.net/12feb2003dectrans.pdf English translation of Belgian Supreme Court Decision (unauthorised)] , 12 February 2003] [Chibli Mallat, Michael Verhaeghe, Luc Walleyn and Laurie King-Irani [http://www.indictsharon.net/case-diary15.shtml The February 2003 Decision of the Belgian Supreme Court Explained] on the website of [http://www.indictsharon.net/ indictsharon.net] , 19 February 2003] This ruling was a reiteration of a decision made a year earlier by the International Court of Justice on 14 February 2002. [ Andrew Osbor " [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,650603,00.html Sharon cannot be tried in Belgium, says court] , [The Guardian, 15 February 2002] Following these ruling in June 2003 the Belgian Justice Ministry decided to start a procedure to transfer the case to Israel, [Luc Walleyn, Michael Verhaeghe, Chibli Mallat. " [http://www.indictsharon.net/case-diary20.shtml Statement of the Lawyers for the Suvivors of Sabra and Shatila in reaction to the Belgian Justice Ministry's decision to start the procedure of transferring the case to Israel] " 15 June 2003.] so to date the accusation that the massacres in Sabra and Shatila were a genocide has not been tested in any court.

oviet invasion of Afghanistan

M. Hassan Kakar presents an argument in a chapter called "Genocide Throughout the Country" in his book "The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982" that the international definition of genocide is too restricted, and that it should include political groups or any group so defined by the perpetrator as described by Chalk and Jonassohn: “Genocide is a form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrator.”

Having established a broader definition of Genocide Kakar goes on to claim that during the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989), "The Afghans are among the latest victims of genocide by a superpower. Large numbers of Afghans were killed to suppress resistance to the army of the Soviet Union, which wished to vindicate its client regime and realize its goal in Afghanistan. Thus, the mass killing was political."

Ethiopia

Ethiopia's former Soviet-backed Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam was tried in an Ethiopian court, in absentia, for his role in mass killings. Mengistu's charge sheet and evidence list was 8,000 pages long. The evidence against him included signed execution orders, videos of torture sessions and personal testimonies. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011100243.html Ethiopian Dictator Sentenced to Prison] by Les Neuhaus, The Associated Press, January 11, 2007] The trial began in 1994 and on 12 December 2006 Mengistu was found guilty of genocide and other offences. He was sentenced to life in prison in January 2007. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6251095.stm Mengistu is handed life sentence] BBC, January 11, 2007] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6171429.stm BBC, "Mengistu found guilty of genocide," 12 December 2006.] ] It should be noted that Ethiopia defines genocide as intent to wipe out political and not just ethnic groups. [ [http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_world_story_skin/929524 Ethiopian leader guilty of genocide] TVNZ, December 13, 2006] 106 Derg officials were accused of genocide during the trials, but only 36 of them were present in the court. Several former members of the Derg have been sentenced to death. [ [http://www.ethiopianreporter.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1489 Court sentences Major Melaku Tefera to death] Ethiopian Reporter] Zimbabwe has refused to respond to Ethiopia's request that Mengistu be extradited, which has permitted Mengistu to avoid his Ethiopian life imprisonment sentence. Mengistu supported Robert Mugabe, the long-standing President of Zimbabwe, during his leadership of Ethiopia. [ [http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/12/no-zimbabwe-extradition-of-mengistu.php University of Pittsburgh legal news] , 13 December 2006.]

Some experts have estimated that 150,000 university students, intellectuals and politicians were killed during Mengistu's rule. [ [http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1355&id=1848132006 'Butcher of Addis Ababa' is guilty of genocide with torture regime] ] Amnesty International estimates that up to 500,000 people were killed during the Ethiopian Red Terror [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=4eSR1rHg5_YC&pg=PA457&dq=half+a+million+Red+Terror+of+1977+and+1978&ei=4pvqRqCkDo3eoALaiuiFAw&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=Ba_dV32N_Z1dqTfznGjiZuUcx8o "The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World"] by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, pg 457] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/575405.stm US admits helping Mengistu escape] BBC, 22 December, 1999] ["Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators" by Riccardo Orizio, pg 151] Human Rights Watch describes the Red Terror as "“one of the most systematic uses of mass murder by a state ever witnessed in Africa.”" During his reign it was not uncommon to see students, suspected government critics or rebel sympathisers hanging from lampposts each morning. Mengistu himself is alleged to have murdered opponents by garroting or shooting them, saying that he was leading by example. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2501253,00.html Guilty of genocide: the leader who unleashed a 'Red Terror' on Africa] by Jonathan Clayton, The Times Online, December 13, 2006]

Iraqi Kurds

: "See also 1988 Anfal campaign"

Human Rights Watch and Middle East Watch in 1993 compiled an extensive dossier on the 1986-1988 campaign against Iraqi Kurds, concluding that

"The central government went much further than was required to restore its authority through legitimate military action. In the process Saddam Husseins's regime committed a panoply of war crimes, together with crimes against humanity and genocide. " [ [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/14/iraq13979.htm “Genocide in Iraq - The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds” (Human Rights Watch, 14-8-2006) ] ]

On December 23 2005 a Dutch court ruled in a case brought against Frans van Anraat for supplying chemicals to Iraq, that " [it] thinks and considers legally and convincingly proven that the Kurdish population meets the requirement under the genocide conventions as an ethnic group. The court has no other conclusion that these attacks were committed with the intent to destroy the Kurdish population of Iraq." and because he supplied the chemicals before 16 March 1988, the date of the Halabja poison gas attack he is guilty of a war crime but not guilty of complicity in genocide. [Anne Penketh and Robert Verkaik [http://news.independent.co.uk/Europe/article334972.ece Dutch court says gassing of Iraqi Kurds was 'genocide'] in The Independent 24 December 2005 ] [ [http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/12/23/kurds-sentence051223.html Dutch man sentenced for role in gassing death of Kurds] CBC News 23 December 2005]

Tibet

On 5 June 1959 Shri Purshottam Trikamdas, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, presented a report on Tibet to the International Commission of Jurists (an NGO). The press conference address on the report states in paragraph 26 that

On 11 January 2006 it was reported that the Spanish High Court will investigate whether seven former Chinese officials, including the former President of China Jiang Zemin and former Prime Minister Li Peng participated in a genocide in Tibet. This investigation follows a Spanish Constitutional Court (26 September 2005) ruling that Spanish courts could try genocide cases even if they did not involve Spanish nationals. [Spanish courts to investigate if a genocide took place in Tibet.

* "Spain to investigate 'genocide' in Tibet" The Independent in the section "European News in brief" on Wednesday 11 January 2006 Page 19
* [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10363286 Spanish court to investigate Tibet massacre case] Reuters report in the New Zealand Herald 12 January 2006] The court proceedings in the case brought by the Madrid-based Committee to Support Tibet against several former Chinese officials was opened by the Judge on 6 June 2006, and on the same day China denounced the Spanish court's investigation into claims of genocide in Tibet as an interference in its internal affairs and dismissed the allegations as "sheer fabrication". [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2212271.html World in Brief: Lawyers take China to court] in The Times, 7 June 2006] [Alexa Olesen " [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/Asia/article656410.ece China rejects Spain's 'genocide' claims] " in The Independent 7 June 2006 ]

Rwanda

During a period of 100 days in 1994, officially 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutus in Rwanda. The rate at which people were killed far exceeded any other genocide in historyFact|date=March 2008. Bodies were left wherever they were slain, mostly in the streets and their homes. The method of killing was done mostly with machetes. See also History of Rwanda.

Bosnia

The term Bosnian Genocide is used to refer either to the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995, [Staff. " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1907122.stm Bosnian genocide suspect extradited] ", BBC, 2 April 2002] or to ethnic cleansing that took place during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. [http://www.echr.coe.int/echr/ European Court of Human Rights] - [http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/viewhbkm.asp?sessionId=1448788&skin=hudoc-en&action=html&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649&key=63590&highlight= Jorgic v. Germany Judgment] , July 12 2007. § 47] [ [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SE00134:@@@D&summ2=m& CRS Summary: A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995] . See clause (2)] In the 1990s, several authorities, in line with a minority of legal scholars, asserted that ethnic cleansing as carried out by elements of the Bosnian Serb army was genocide. These included a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly and three convictions for genocide in German courts, the convictions based upon a wider interpretation of genocide than that used by international courts. [ECHR Jorgic v. Germany Judgment, July 12 2007. § 47,107,108] In 2005, the United States Congress passed a resolution declaring that "the Serbian policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing meet the terms defining genocide". [ [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.res.00134: A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995] ]

Brazil

The Helmet Massacre of the Tikuna people took place in 1988, and was initially treated as homicide. Since 1994 it has been treated by the Brazilian courts as a genocide. Thirteen men were convicted of genocide in 2001. In November 2004 at the appeal before Brazil's federal court, the man initially found guilty of hiring men to carry out the genocide was acquitted, and the other men had their initial sentences of 15-25 years reduced to 12 years. [ Staff. [http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/711/41/ Brazilian Justice Acquits Man Sentenced for 1988 Massacre of Indians] , Brazzil Magazine 12 November 2004. Cites as its source Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council http://www.cimi.org.br, ]

In November 2005 during an investigation by the Brazilian authorities, code-named Operation Rio Pardo, Mario Lucio Avelar, a Brazilian public prosecutor in the city of Cuiabá, told Survival International that he believed there were sufficient grounds to prosecute for genocide of the Rio Pardo Indians. In November 2006 twenty-nine people were held in custody for the alleged genocide with others such as a former police commander and the governor of Mato Grosso state implicated in the alleged. [Eamonn McCann. [http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/columnists/eamon-mccann/article2578919.ece Longing for a saviour] Belfast Telegraph, May 24, 2007] [ [http://www.survival-international.org/news/1258 Top officials accused of genocide of Indians] , Survival International , 13 December 2005]

In a newsletter published on 7 August 2006 the Indianist Missionary Council reported that: "In a plenary session, the [Brizillian] Supreme Federal Court (STF) reaffirmed that the crime known as the Haximu Massacre [perpetrated on the Yanomami Indians in 1993] [http://www.survival-international.org/news/1786 Supreme Court upholds genocide ruling] , Survival International 4 August 2006] was a genocide and that the decision of a federal court to sentence miners to 19 years in prison for genocide in connection with other offenses, such as smuggling and illegal mining, is valid. It was a unanimous decision made during the judgment of Extraordinary Appeal (RE) 351487 today, the 3rd, in the morning by justices of the Supreme Court". [ [http://www.cimi.org.br/?system=news&action=read&id=2049&eid=275 Federal Court is competent to judge the Haximu genocide] Indianist Missionary Council] Commenting on the case the NGO Survival International said "The UN convention on genocide, ratified by Brazil, states that the killing 'with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group' is genocide. The Supreme Court's ruling is highly significant and sends an important warning to those who continue to commit crimes against indigenous peoples in Brazil."

Democratic Republic of Congo

During the Congo Civil War, Pygmies were hunted down and eaten by both sides of the war, who regarded them as subhuman.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article402970.ece Pygmies struggle to survive] Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti pygmies, has asked the UN Security Council to recognize cannibalism as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm DR Congo Pygmies appeal to UN] ] According to a report by Minority Rights Group International there is evidence of mass killings, cannibalism and rape. The report, which labeled these events as a campaign of extermination, linked much of the violence to beliefs about special powers held by the Bambuti. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm DR Congo Pygmies 'exterminated'] In Ituri district, rebel forces ran an operation code-named “Effacer le tableau” (to wipe the slate clean). The aim of the operation, according to witnesses, was to rid the forest of pygmies. [ [ http://www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=9&ReportId=58647 Pygmies today in Africa] ] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-eating-pygmies-as-mass-slaughter-continues-in-congo-despite-peace-agreement-601088.html rebels 'eating pygmies']

West New Guinea / West Papua

In 2004 the Yale University Law School published "Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control", [PDFlink| [http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/westpapuahrights.pdf Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control] ] a 75 page report detailing the applicability of Indonesian control to each of the genocide conventions. During 2005 Sydney University Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies published "Genocide in West Papua? The role of the Indonesian state apparatus and a current needs assessment of the Papuan people", [ [http://fandom.net/InfoKit/Src/WestPapuaGenocideRpt.05.pdf "Genocide in West Papua? The role of the Indonesian state apparatus and a current needs assessment of the Papuan people"] ] a report on the current conditions of the territory. The report estimated more than 100,000 Papuans have died since Indonesia took control of West New Guinea from the Dutch Government in 1963. [ [http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=651 Report claims secret genocide in Indonesia - University of Sydney] ] while others had previously specified much higher death tolls. [ [http://www.news.vu/en/news/RegionalNews/050728-West-Papua-Support.shtml West Papua Support] ]

The United Nations has yet to respond to NGO requests during 2006 for the United Nations to resume its decolonization obligations under UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 and to return the territory's name to the United Nations list of Non Self-Governing Territories.Fact|date=July 2007

Zanzibar

The Zanzibar Revolution led to the poorly-known genocide of between 5,000 and 12,000 members of the Arab and Asian ethnic minorities, which had been living in Zanzibar for centuries. [cite book|last=Plekhanov |first=Sergeĭ |authorlink= |coauthors= |editor= |others= |title=A Reformer on the Throne: Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said |origdate= |origyear= |origmonth= |url= |format= |accessdate= |accessyear= |accessmonth= |edition= |series= |date= |year= |month= |publisher=Trident Press Ltd |location= |language= |isbn=1-9007-2470-7 |oclc= |doi= |id= |pages=91 |chapter= |chapterurl= |quote= ] The Italian filmmaker Gualtiero Jacopetti and his crew shot (from a plane and a helicopter) footage of the operations as they took place, during the filming of his documentary "Africa Addio", which premiered in 1966 and represents the only existing document of the January 1964 mass murders in Zanzibar.

International prosecution of genocide

Ad hoc tribunals

In 1951 only two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) were parties to the CPPCG: France and the Republic of China. The CPPCG was ratified by the Soviet Union in 1954, the United Kingdom in 1970, the People's Republic of China in 1983 (having replaced the Taiwan-based Republic of China on the UNSC in 1971), and the United States in 1988. So it was only in the 1990s that the international law on the crime of genocide began to be enforced.

Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1995

In 2001 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found General Krstić guilty of genocide for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, thereby making it the first ever legally determined act of genocide by an international tribunal. [The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia found in [http://www.worldlii.org/int/cases/ICTY/2001/8.html Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstic - Trial Chamber I - Judgment - IT-98-33 (2001) ICTY8 (2 August 2001)] that genocide had been committed. (see paragraph 560 for name of group in English on whom the genocide was committed). The judgement was upheld in " [http://www.worldlii.org/int/cases/ICTY/2004/7.html Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstic - Appeals Chamber - Judgment - IT-98-33 (2004) ICTY 7 (19 April 2004)] "] This judgement was upheld by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its February 2007 ruling in the case of Bosnia vs Serbia. However, contrary to the claim made by Bosnia, the ICJ did not find that genocide had been committed on the wider territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war, limiting local genocide to the Srebrenica. [cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/26/international/i033600S38.DTL&type=politics|title=Courte: Serbia failed to prevent genocide, UN court rules|date=2007-02-26|publisher=Associated Press] Before this ruling the term Bosnian Genocide had been used by some academics,University of California Riverside:
* [http://www.honors.ucr.edu/Courses/hnpg036p.htm HNPG 036P (or 033T) History: Bosnian Genocide In the Historical Perspective]
* [http://www.honors.ucr.edu/Courses/winter2007.htm Winter 2007 Honors Courses] & [http://www.honors.ucr.edu/Courses/winter2008.htm Winter 2008 Honors Courses] ] and human rights officials.Human Rights Watch: [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2001/12/11/bosher3415.htm Milosevic to Face Bosnian Genocide Charges] 11 December 2001]

German courts have handed down several convictions for genocide during the Bosnian War. Novislav Djajic was indicted for participation in genocide, but the Higher Regional Court failed to find that there was sufficient certainty, for a criminal conviction, that he had intended to commit genocide. Nevertheless Djajic was found guilty of 14 cases of murder and one case of attempted murder. [ [http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/legal-procedures/novislav_djajic_135.html Novislav Djajic] , [http://www.trial-ch.org/en/about-us/goals-and-activities.html TRIAL (Track Impunity Always)] ] At Djajic's appeal on 23 May 1997, the Bavarian Appeals Chamber found that acts of genocide were committed in June 1992, confined within the administrative district of Foca. [ [http://www.worldlii.org/int/cases/ICTY/2001/8.html Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstic - Trial Chamber I - Judgment - IT-98-33 (2001) ICTY8 (2 August 2001)] , The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, paragraph 589. citing Bavarian Appeals Court, "Novislav Djajic" case, 23 May 1997, 3 St 20/96, section VI, p. 24 of the English translation.] The Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Dusseldorf, in September 1997, handed down a genocide conviction against Nikola Jorgic, a Bosnian Serb from the Doboj region who was the leader of a paramilitary group located in the Doboj region. He was sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment for his involvement in genocidal actions that took place in regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, other than Srebrenica; Oberlandesgericht Dusseldorf, "Public Prosecutor v Jorgic", 26 September 1997 (Trial Watch " [http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/legal-procedures/nikola_jorgic_283.html Nikola Jorgic] "] and "On 29 November 1999, the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Dusseldorf condemned Maksim Sokolovic to 9 years in prison for aiding and abetting the crime of genocide and for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions". [Trial watch " [http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/legal-procedures/maksim_sokolovic_139.html Maksim Sokolovic] "]

Rwanda

: The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is a court under the auspices of the United Nations for the prosecution of offenses committed in Rwanda during the genocide which occurred there during April and May, 1994, commencing on April 6. The ICTR was created on November 8, 1994 by the Security Council of the United Nations in order to judge those people responsible for the acts of genocide and other serious violations of the international law performed in the territory of Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between January 1 and December 31, 1994.

So far, the ICTR has finished nineteen trials and convicted twenty-five accused persons. Another twenty-five persons are still on trial. Nineteen are awaiting trial in detention. Ten are still at large. The first trial, of Jean-Paul Akayesu, began in 1997. Jean Kambanda, interim Prime Minister, pled guilty. [These figures need revising they are from the ICTR page which says see [http://www.ictr.org www.ictr.org] ]

International Criminal Court

Darfur, Sudan

: "See also Second Sudanese Civil War, Darfur conflict

The on-going conflict in Darfur, Sudan, which started in 2003, was declared a "genocide" by United States Secretary of State Colin Powell on September 9, 2004 in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. [ [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/sudan_09-09-04.html POWELL DECLARES KILLING IN DARFUR 'GENOCIDE'] , The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Sep. 9, 2004] Since that time however, no other permanent member of the UN Security Council has followed suit. In fact, in January 2005, an International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 1564 of 2004, issued a report to the Secretary-General stating that "the Government of the Sudan has not pursued a policy of genocide."PDFlink| [http://www.un.org/News/dh/sudan/com_inq_darfur.pdf Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General] |1.14 MB, January 25, 2005, at 4] Nevertheless, the Commission cautioned that "The conclusion that no genocidal policy has been pursued and implemented in Darfur by the Government authorities, directly or through the militias under their control, should not be taken in any way as detracting from the gravity of the crimes perpetrated in that region. International offences such asthe crimes against humanity and war crimes that have been committed in Darfur may be no less serious and heinous than genocide."In March 2005, the Security Council formally referred the situation in Darfur to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, taking into account the Commission report but without mentioning any specific crimes. [PDFlink| [http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/cases/N0529273.darfureferral.eng.pdf Security Council Resolution 1593 (2005)] |24.8 KB] Two permanent members of the Security Council, the United States and China, abstained from the vote on the referral resolution. [ [http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sc8351.doc.htm SECURITY COUNCIL REFERS SITUATION IN DARFUR, SUDAN, TO PROSECUTOR OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT] , UN Press Release SC/8351, Mar. 31, 2005] As of his fourth report to the Security Council, the Prosecutor has found "reasonable grounds to believe that the individuals identified [in the UN Security Council Resolution 1593] have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes," but did not find sufficient evidence to prosecute for genocide. [PDFlink| [http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/organs/otp/OTP_ReportUNSC4-Darfur_English.pdf Fourth Report of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to the Security Council pursuant to UNSC 1593 (2005)] |597 KB, Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Dec. 14, 2006.]

In April 2007, the Judges of the ICC issued arrest warrants against the former Minister of State for the Interior, Ahmad Harun, and a Militia
Janjaweed leader, Ali Kushayb, for crimes against humanity and war crimes. [ [http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/organs/otp/ICC-OTP-ST20080605-ENG.pdf Statement by Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to the United Nations Security Council pursuant to UNSCR 1593 (2005)] , [http://www.icc-cpi.int/ International Criminal Court] , 5 June 2008]

On July 14, 2008, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC), filed ten charges of war crimes against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. The ICC's prosecutors have claimed that al-Bashir "masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part" three tribal groups in Darfur because of their ethnicity. The ICC's prosecutor for Darfur, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is expected within months to ask a panel of ICC judges to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir.cite web |first= Peter |last=Walker|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/14/sudan.warcrimes1?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews |title=Darfur genocide charges for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir |accessdate=2008-07-15 |publisher=The Guardian |date=2008-07-14 ]

ee also

*Command responsibility
*Crime against humanity
*Human rights
*International humanitarian law
*International law

References

* Pfitzner, Wolfgang, "The Unknown Famine Holocaust - About the Causes of Mass Starvation in Britain's Colony of India 1942-1945", The Revisionist 1(1) (2003).
* Braudel, Fernand, "The Perspective of the World," vol. III of "Civilization and Capitalism" 1984 (in French 1979).
* Cronon, William, "Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England" 1983 ISBN 0-8090-1634-6
* Crosby, Alfred W., "Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900," Cambridge University Press, 1986 ISBN 0-521-45690-8
*Jones, Adam. " [http://www.genocidetext.net/gaci_excerpts.htm Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction] " , Routledge/Taylor & Francis Publishers, 2006. ISBN 0-415-35385-8. [http://www.genocidetext.net/gaci_origins.pdf Chapter 1: Genocide in prehistory, antiquity, and early modernity]
* McCarthy, Justin., "Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims", 1821-1922, (Darwin Press, 1995)

Further reading

; General

* Charny, Israel W.; "Encyclopedia of Genocide", ABC-Clio Inc, 720 pages, ISBN 0-87436-928-2 (December 1, 1999); " [http://www.Armenian-genocide.org/encyclopedia.html Entries on the Armenian Genocide] " by Rouben Paul Adalian, displayed on the website of the [http://www.Armenian-genocide.org/anifaq.html#type Armenian National Institute] .

* Courtois, Stephane, et al; "" Harvard University Press 1999, 858 pages. ISBN 0-674-07608-7
* [http://www.gendercide.org/ Gendercide Watch] home page. GW "seeks to confront acts of gender-selective mass killing around the world."
* Harff, Barbara (Principal Investigator United States Naval Academy). " [http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/genocide/ Genocides and Politicide] " the site includes descriptions of 39 historical cases of genocide and politicide from 1955 to 2002; the data used to estimate models of the risks of genocide as published by Harff in " [http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/genocide/HarffAPSR2003.pdf No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955] American Political Science Review 97.1 (February 2003): 57-73.
* Power, Samantha, "" Harper Perennial (2003) paperback, 656 pages ISBN 0-06-054164-4
* Totten, Samuel; Parsons, William S.; and Charny Israel W.; eds; "Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts", Second Edition, Routledge Press, 507 pages, ISBN 0-415-94429-5 (hardcover, 2004), ISBN 0-415-94430-9 (paperback, 2004)
* [http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/prev_genocide/index.htm U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide]
* WarCrimes.info [http://www.warcrimes.info/ Documents and Resources on War, War Crimes and Genocide] . (WarCrimes.info is an independent website owned by War Crimes Limited (UK)).
* Woolf, Linda; [http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/holocaust.html Holocaust, Genocides and Human Rights]
* Matthew White; [http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat0.htm Selected Death Tolls for Wars, Massacres and Atrocities Before the 20th Century] and [http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstats.htm Detailed death tolls for the major bloodlettings of the 20th Century]
* Arthur Hu; [http://www.arthurhu.com/INDEX/genocide.htm War Index of Disaster and Genocide]
* [http://www.preventgenocide.org/prevent/UNdocs/whitaker/section5.htm Whitaker Report] - Describes acts of genocide that occurred between 1900 and 1985 in addition to the the German genocide of Jews, Gypsies, and others: "the German massacre of Hereros in 1904, the Ottoman massacre of Armenians in 1915-1916, the Ukrainian pogrom of Jews in 1919, the Tutsi massacre of Hutu in Burundi in 1965 and 1972, the Paraguayan massacre of Ache Indians prior to 1974, the Khmer Rouge massacre in Kampuchea between 1975 and 1978, and the contemporary Iranian killings of Baha'is; Armenia
* [http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page Armeniapedia]
* [http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Armenian_Genocide The Armenian Genocide]
* [http://www.armenian-genocide.org/ ANI]
* [http://www.24April1915.com/ 24 April 1915]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A884432 Armenian Genocide]

; Asia

* Becker, Elizabeth, "When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution", Public Affairs, 1986, 1998, paperback, 519 pages, ISBN 1-891620-00-2
* Brundige, Elizabeth; et al. " [http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/westpapuahrights.pdf Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control] "(PDF) A paper prepared for the Indonesia Human Rights Network by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic Yale Law School
* Elst, Koenraad, "Chapter 2: Negationism [http://koenraadelst.voiceofdharma.com/books/negaind/ch2.htm in India] "
* Farooq, Mohammad Omar; " [http://www.globalwebpost.com/genocide1971 Genocide 1971 in Bangladesh (former East Pakistan)] "
* [http://www.gendercide.org/about.html Gendercide Watch] " [http://www.gendercide.org/case_bangladesh.html Genocide in Bangladesh, 1971] "
* Kiernan, Ben, Ed., "Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the U.N., and the International Community", 335 pp. (1993). ISBN 0-938692-49-6
* Pran, Dith; " [http://dithpran.org/ The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project] " Cambodia

; Darfur
* [http://www.protectdarfur.org/ Protect Darfur] UK-based lobbying organisation
* [http://www.genocideintervention.net Genocide Intervention Network] Building the first permanent anti-genocide constituency
* [http://www.africaaction.org/index.php Africa Action] Africa advocacy organization seeking 400,000 signatures on petition demanding US action to stop genocide in Darfur
* [http://www.stopgenocidenow.org Stop Genocide Now] Global community to change the way the world responds to genocide. Daily video feeds from the ground in Darfur/Chad border.
* [http://www.STANDarfur.org/ Students Taking Action Now: Darfur] Student movement to end the genocide in Darfur with over 75 chapters in the US and Canada
* [http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/podcasts United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Voices on Genocide Prevention Podcast] Stay up-to-date on the crisis in Darfur and the continuing challenge or preventing and responding to genocide
* [http://www.savedarfur.org Save Darfur Coalition] Alliance of over 160 humanitarian, advocacy, human rights, and faith-based organizations united to end the genocide in Darfur.

; Eastern Europe

* Leonas Cerskus " [http://www.angelfire.com/de/Cerskus/English/links1.html Crimes of Soviet Communists] " — Wide collection of sources and links
* Yaroslav Bilinsky [http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/bilinsky.html Was the Ukrainian Famine (Holodomor) of 1932-1933 Genocide?] originally published in the "Journal of Genocide Research" (1999), 1(2), 147-156
* [http://www.okupatsioon.ee/English/index.html Kistler-Ritso Estonian Foundation] " [http://www.okupatsioon.ee/English/index.htm Museum of occupations of Estonia] "
* [http://www.occupationmuseum.lv/eng/about_us/welcome.html/ The Occupation museum of Latvia]
* [http://www.eurozine.com/authors/senn.html Alfred Erich Senn] " [http://www.lfpr.lt/uploads/File/2000-6/Senn.pdf What Happened in Lithuania in 1940?] "(PDF)
* Oksana Zakydalsky " [http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2003/230312.shtml Commemorations of 1943 events in Volyn: perspective of Ukrainians in Poland] " first published in The Ukrainian Weekly, June 8, 2003, No. 23, Vol. LXXI
* " [http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/findings.html Findings of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine (Holodomor)] " Source: U. S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine, Report to Congress. Adopted by the Commission, April 19, 1988. Submitted to Congress April 22. 1988. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1988. 524p

; Other
* " [http://www.platial.com/oleander/map/5267?title=Genocide Map of Occurrences of Genocide Throughout History] " (open for additions by anyone)
* Tatz, Colin. [http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/5747/DP08.pdf Genocide in Australia] . Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
* [http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk/ Survivors Fund/ Representing survivors of the Rwandan genocide]
* [http://www.minorityrights.org/admin/Download/pdf/MRGIraqReport.pdf Assimilation, Exodus, Eradication: Iraq’s minority communities since 2003] London, Minority Rights Group, 2007
* [http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ojs/index.php/portal/article/viewFile/90/58 Globalizing the Holocaust: A Jewish ‘useable past’ in Serbian Nationalism - David MacDonald, University of Otago] en icon
* [http://www.innocentsbetrayed.com/index2.htm Innocents Betrayed] Documentary Film, 2003, 58 minutes, Director: Aaron Zelman/Writer: Claire Wolfe, JPFO Productions.

Footnotes