Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations: In Comparative PerspectiveThe author in his dedication declares his hopes for the 21st century: "May it be kinder than the last one." If that happy thought becomes reality it will be because of scholars like Kurt Jonassohn. Here he provides a conceptual perspective with which to examine a wide variety of themes from famines, refugees and hunger, to the Holocaust denial literature and the prevention of unpunished crimes. A unique feature of the volume is special attention to methods and comparative approaches to data gathering with which to study global issues such as genocide. "Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations" offers actual studies of genocide in India, China, Colonial Africa, the Soviet Union, Burma, and the former Yugoslavia. Beyond narrating the most horrendous atrocities, the book focuses on the nature of gross human rights violations and genocides, and how best to stop them. Jonassohn formulates a typology that distinguishes events that have different origins, occur in different situations, and follow different processes. This work is motivated by the hope that it might be possible to reduce the number of genocides and to intervene in those that do occur. Jonassohn argues that genocides occurred throughout history in all parts of the world. As a consequence the subject needs to be approached from a comparative and historical perspective. While each genocide is unique, the author also emphasizes that there is much to be learned by what these unique events have in common. It is this conceptual framework that makes the work special and of enduring value. Jonassohn aims to learn enough to gain an understanding of the underlying situations and processes that will make it possible to prevent new genocidal events in the future, or at least to find ways to intervene in those underway. The book should satisfy both scholar and activist; those who read the book for intellectual guideposts and for political measures against to organized human destruction. |
Contents
9 | |
17 | |
18 | |
20 | |
22 | |
25 | |
The Question of Intent | 27 |
An Abbreviated History | 28 |
The Case of Walter Duranty | 167 |
Editorial Bias | 168 |
False Reports | 169 |
Ownership and Censorship | 171 |
Western Culture and the Western Media | 172 |
Conclusion | 174 |
Site Visits | 175 |
Other Sources of Data | 176 |
TwentiethCentury Famines | 33 |
Summary | 38 |
The Tragic Circle of Famine Genocide and Refugees | 41 |
Definitions | 42 |
Food Shortages as Evidence of Genocide | 43 |
Refugees as Sources of Information | 44 |
Summary | 48 |
The Consequences of Ideological Genocides and Their Role in Prevention | 49 |
The Albigensian Crusade | 50 |
The Spanish Inquisition | 52 |
The Armenian Genocide | 54 |
Genocides in the Soviet Union | 56 |
Nazi Germany and the Holocaust | 57 |
The Cambodian Tragedy | 59 |
Conclusion | 61 |
Afterword | 62 |
Some Antecedents of the Holocaust Denial Literature | 65 |
A Brief History | 66 |
Some Domestic Sources of German Racism | 69 |
Denials after World War I | 73 |
The Hitler Period | 76 |
Denials since World War II | 78 |
Conclusion | 80 |
On Jewish Resistance An Essay on Perceptions | 83 |
Jewish Resistance to Nazi Victimization | 84 |
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising | 86 |
Reasons Why Jewish Resistance is So Little Known | 88 |
Conclusion | 90 |
Prevention without Prediction | 93 |
Early Recognition | 94 |
Education | 97 |
Publicity | 99 |
Economic Sanctions | 100 |
Organizational Linkages | 101 |
The Law | 103 |
Conclusions | 104 |
Rethinking the Conceptualization of Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations | 107 |
On the Prevention of Unpunished Crimes | 115 |
Who is the Perpetrator? | 116 |
The Individual as Perpetrator | 117 |
Conclusion | 121 |
A Summation | 123 |
Preliminary Considerations | 129 |
A Note on Definitions and Typologies | 131 |
The Language of Data | 139 |
Translation | 141 |
Evolution of Language | 146 |
Place Names | 147 |
Writing Systems and Transliteration | 148 |
Manipulation of Language | 149 |
Sources of Data | 153 |
Kinds of Data for Contemporary Cases | 159 |
Quality of Data | 161 |
Journalists Reports | 162 |
The Western Media | 163 |
Censorship and the Western Media | 164 |
National and International Governments | 177 |
Humanitarian Aid NGOs | 178 |
Human Rights NGOs | 179 |
Introduction | 183 |
PreTwentiethCentury Perpetrators | 187 |
The Defeat of Numantia in 133 BC | 188 |
The Asian Vespers of 88 BC | 190 |
Diocletians Persecution of the Christians | 191 |
The Fourth Crusade 1202౼1204 | 195 |
Vlad III of Walachia | 197 |
The Conquest of Mexico 1519౼1521 | 200 |
The Sack of Novgorod in 1570 by Ivan the Terrible | 202 |
The Wars of the Vendee | 205 |
Bulgarian Atrocities 1876 | 208 |
Argentina 1878౼1885 | 211 |
The Brazil Backhands 1886౼1897 | 213 |
Perpetrators in India | 217 |
The Persecution of the Jains | 219 |
Balbans Persecution of the Meos | 220 |
Timurs Conquests | 221 |
Baburs Style of Warfare | 222 |
Perpetrators in China | 225 |
The Taiping Rebellion of 1850౼1864 | 227 |
Famines | 229 |
Perpetrators in Colonial Africa | 233 |
Britain in Matabeleland and Mashonaland 1896౼1897 | 234 |
The Belgian Congo Leopoldville | 235 |
French Pacification of the Ivory Coast and the French Congo | 239 |
The Graziani Massacre in Italian Ethiopia | 243 |
The War against the Hehe 1891౼1898 in German East Africa | 245 |
The Maji Maji Uprising 1905౼1907 | 248 |
Revolt against the Germans in Kamerun 1903౼1908 | 249 |
More TwentiethCentury Cases | 253 |
Chittagong Hill People in Bangladesh | 256 |
Myanmar Burma | 258 |
The Rohingyas | 262 |
Oppression of Other Minorities and Political Opposition | 265 |
The Relevance of History for the Case of the Former Yugoslavia | 269 |
Antiquity | 270 |
The Schism between Greek and Latin Christendom | 272 |
Medieval Croatia and Serbia | 273 |
The Ottoman Empire | 275 |
The Rise of Balkan Nationalism | 277 |
Hegemony or Negation | 278 |
A New Yugoslav State | 279 |
The Killing of Jews in the Independent States of Croatia and Serbia 1939౼1945 | 281 |
The Killing of Gypsies in Serbia and Croatia 1941౼1945 | 282 |
The Resistance | 284 |
Yugoslavia under Tito | 286 |
The Abuse of History | 287 |
Conclusion | 288 |
Afterword | 291 |
295 | |
Bibliography of Internet Materials | 325 |
Name Index | 329 |
Common terms and phrases
Arakan areas argues Armenian army Aztecs Balkan Bangladesh became become British Burma chapter Chetnik Chittagong Christians cide colonial conflict Congo Conquest Croatia Croats Crusade cultural deal denial destroyed developed Diocletian East economic Empire Ethiopia ethnic European example fact famine forced foreign French geno genocidal massacres German ghetto gross human rights Gypsies Herero Holocaust human rights violations humanitarian ideological genocides India intent International Jewish resistance Jews Kazakh killed language large number literature Lo-yang major ment military Muslim native Nazi Novgorod occurred organizations Ottoman Ottoman Empire perpetrator society persecution political population prevention produce rebellion refugees regime region reports result revolt Rohingyas Roman Rwanda scholars Selinus Serbian Serbs slaves social sources South West Africa Soviet starvation term territory tion trans translation twentieth century United Nations uprising Ustashi Vendée victim groups Vlad Warsaw ghetto uprising Western York Yugoslavia
Popular passages
Page 9 - Nations, 1983) defines a refugee as any person who owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion...
Page 10 - 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 perpetrators.'6 Before the perpetrators of genocide acquire the power over their victims' life, they must have acquired the power over their definition.