Modern Genocide

This article covers genocide after 1970 as per from 1975-1979 Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge, which brutalized Cambodia, resulting in the deaths of 25 percent of the population from starving them, overwork, and execution. The 1975 withdrawal of U.S troops from Vietnam led to a vacuum that Pol Pot took advantage of in order to rid Cambodia of western influences such as Western culture, city life, and religion, since he was inspired by the Mao Cultural Revolution in China to go after intellectuals, former government officials, as well as Buddhist monks. In 1992, other genocidal situations included the Bosnia and Herzegovina ethnic cleansing by the Serbians because of Slobodan Milosevic.

Would we ever have a world without genocide happening in other parts of the world that the United States itself contributes to whenever we have troops on the ground, even as Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia, which was splitting up into different countries? Bosnia was a mostly Muslim country, and Serb snipers did a lot to shoot Bosnian Muslims. Serbs only made up 32 percent of the population, after all. Men and boys were deported to concentration camps, along with forced displacement of whole towns. 200,000 Muslim civilians were murdered. 2,000,000 Muslims became refugees. So you see, World War II has happened again already in the 1990s because of Bosnia. It can continue to happen until we humans learn from our mistakes.

Rwanda is even more shocking than Bosnia only because it began on April 6th, 1994 because of angry groups of Hutu running around armed with machetes wanting to kill people not Hutu. Rwanda’s Hutu militias are known as Interhamwe. The Hutu extremists took over the radio, encouraging the violence. When any leader encourages genocide, they are not contributing to social change. We can see that white men can be as much a terrorist as Muslims.

The solution to this takeover was armed Tutsi rebels from neighboring countries invading Rwanda despite 800,000 people or 1/10 of the population was killed as the industries of Rwanda were destroyed, along with the dislocation of it’s population. Another hotbed of genocide is Sudan, in particular the Darfur region. The Janjaweed are government-sponsored militias that have been terrorizing the people since 2003. Darfur faces the problems of murder, rape, starving people, and an increase of refugees. 400,000 people have died from violence, starving, or diseases. 2.5 million people are refugees running from their homes while 200,000 have fled across the border to Chad.

The human race has a long history of genocide that we perpetuate to this day. Were it not for genocide being illegal in the United States, various groups would take up arms against people they don’t like. Killing somebody is an unlawful act. The rise of the Nazis during this time has happened if only because they were frustrated at 44. Their seething frustration was what prompted the new resurgence in KKK memberships. If it were not for killing somebody having tough penalties such as life in prison, they’d be killing people not white because that is simply what they want to do.

Syria is another hotbed of political unrest from March 2011. The death toll from Syria is larger than 60,000 people. 700,000 refugees have come out of Syria in recent years. President Assad is digging in his heels and not meeting with Sheik Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, the opposition leader. The bottom line is that Assad is bombing his own nation, which needs to stop. Genocidewatch.org states that “NATO forces led by Turkey should destroy his air force.” The genocide that still happens on this planet must be stopped. Countries like China spend a lot of time monitoring their citizens to make sure revolutions do not happen. The Economic Intelligence Unit from the Economist magazine state that the United States is a “flawed democracy,” and this is a cause for concern. Those of us who value the democratic process need to stand up and take notice, because we rank at 7.98, flawed democracy. Take stock of this. Think carefully.

Works Cited

The Genocide In Darfur

Genocide Watch

New Report Classifies US as a 'Flawed Democracy'