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Genocide

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Genocide means extermination of people belonging to an ethnic or political group, although alternate definitions abound (see definition of genocide).

Major cases of genocide

Events that are obvious cases of genocide :

  • Rwanda (April 1994)
    • Roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutus. See Rwanda/History.


  • Armenian (1915-1923) genocide by the Young Turk government
    • Approximately 0.6-1.5 millions Armenians in Ottoman Empire were killed [2]. However, the Turkish government rejects that position, maintaining it was the Ottoman policy toward the Armenians that was genocidal and that most of the Armenian deaths resulted from armed conflict, disease and famine during the turmoils of World War.

Events commonly called genocide despite the fact they are technically either mass murder or a war crime in whole or part :

  • Cambodia (late 1960s-1979)
    • Groups that were target of genocide during Pol Pot's rule:
      • Chinese (200 thousands)
      • Vietnamese (150 thousands)
      • Buddhist monks (40-60 thousands)
      • Thai (12 thousands)
    • Pol Pot also murdered many other groups as part of a wider campaign of mass murder, such as intellectuals and professionals
    • The genocidal Pol Pot regime was removed by a Vietnamese occupation. However, during the 1980s and 1990s, Pol Pot's guerilla group was supported by the UK and the US as his genocidal history was considered preferable to the Vietnamese occupation.
  • Australia
    • Genocide of Tasmanian Aborigines.
    • Many argue that the removal of Aboriginal children from their families by the Australian government constituted genocide; see Stolen Generation
  • Lebanon
    • Sabra and Shatila massacre, committed by Lebanese Christians, in an area surrounded by Israeli forces. The United Nations delcared it to be an act of genocide. Some claim that this declaration was political, the proper classification of the event being a massacre, since no party in the conflict implemented a systematic policy of exterminating Palestinians.

[1] Figures from R.J. Rummel, "Death by Government".
[2] Figure from Britannica

Further Reading

  • Problem from Hell America's Failure to Prevent Genocide, Samantha Power, Basic Books, 2002, hardcover, 640 pages, ISBN 0465061508