In genocide people are targeted for destruction not because anything they have done, but because of who they are. Group idenity is often imposed by the perpetrators. Perpetrators of genocide frequently make group categories more rigid or create new definintions which impose group identity on individuals, eithout regard to peoples individual choices. The crime of genocide has two elements: intent and action.
Intent can be proven directly from statements or orders. But more often, it must be inferred from a systematic pattern of coordinated acts. Intent is different from motive.
Whatever may be the motive for the crime land expropriation, national security, territorrial integrity, etc. The phrase "in whole or in part" is important. Perpetrators need not intend to destroy the entire group.
Destruction of only part of a group such as its educated members, or members living in one region is also genocide. But an individual criminal may be guilty of genocide even if he kills only one person, so long as he knew he was participating in a larger plan to destroy the group. The International Criminal Court in issued an arrest warrant for the President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, on genocide charges, accusing him of waging a campaign against the citizens of the Sudanese region of Darfur where about , people are said to have died and millions more displaced during seven years of fighting.
IS was "genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology and by actions, in what it says, what it believes and what it does," then-Secretary of State John Kerry said. In , The Gambia submitted a case to the International Court of Justice accusing Myanmar of carrying out a genocide against the Rohingya people, alleging "widespread and systematic clearance operations" in Rohingya villages.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people have fled Myanmar into bordering Bangladesh and elsewhere, and thousands are reported to have been killed.
In , the US, Canadian and Dutch governments all formerly accused China of committing a genocide against the Uighur people in Xinjiang, while several other countries brought parliamentary resolutions making the same accusation. Evidence suggests China has subjected the Uighurs to forced sterilisation , forced labour , mass detention , and systematic rape and torture - actions which many say meet the criteria of a genocide.
China denies the charges. The first case to put into practice the convention on genocide was that of Jean Paul Akayesu, the Hutu mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba at the time of the killings.
In a landmark ruling, a special international tribunal convicted Akayesu of genocide and crimes against humanity on 2 September More than 85 people were subsequently convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 29 on counts of genocide.
In August , a leaked UN report alleged that Rwandan Hutus, perpetrators of the genocide, may themselves have been victims of the same crime. Krstic appealed against his conviction, arguing that the 8, people killed constituted "too insignificant" a number to be a genocide. In the ICTY rejected his appeal. And in , Nuon Chea, 92, and Khieu Samphan, 87, were both sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity for their roles in the Khmer Rouge killings.
Congo killings 'may be genocide'. Bosnian Serb cleared of genocide. Image source, AFP. Some have argued that the only genocide was the Nazi Holocaust. Definition and debate. In , the U.
Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ICTY at The Hague, in the Netherlands; it was the first international tribunal since Nuremberg and the first to have a mandate to prosecute the crime of genocide.
In its more than 20 years of operation, the ICTY indicted individuals of crimes committed during the Balkan wars. While Milosevic died in prison in before his lengthy trial concluded, the ICTY convicted Karadzic of war crimes in and sentenced him to 40 years in prison. From April to mid-July , members of the Hutu majority in Rwanda murdered some , to , people, mostly of the Tutsi minority, with horrifying brutality and speed. As with the former Yugoslavia, the international community did little to stop the Rwandan Genocide while it was occurring, but that fall the U.
The Yugoslav and Rwandan tribunals helped clarify exactly what types of actions could be classified as genocidal, as well as how criminal responsibility for these actions should be established. In , the ICTR set the important precedent that systematic rape is in fact a crime of genocide; it also handed down the first conviction for genocide after a trial, that of the mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba.
Since then, the ICC has dealt with cases against leaders in the Congo and in Sudan, where brutal acts committed since by the janjawid militia against civilians in the western region of Darfur have been condemned by numerous international officials including former U. Secretary of State Colin Powell as genocide. For example, in the case of Darfur, some have argued that it is impossible to prove the intent to eradicate the existence of certain groups, as opposed to displacing them from disputed territory.
Despite such ongoing issues, the establishment of the ICC at the dawn of the 21st century reflected a growing international consensus behind efforts to prevent and punish the horrors of genocide. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. In April , the government of the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia.
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