Tag Archives: genocide

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3 Genocides Erased from Western history


 

I am old enough that I remember the Chinese Genocide. I read a lot and I thought a lot. But today I don’t want to scare anyone but to remind us all that men and women who run governments are capable of killing their own citizens for power, greed, and money. If you have listened to any of the American election rhetoric, you  know candidates don’t always say what they mean but what they think think citizens want to hear. It is a concept as old as time.

 

The key to having power and money is not having people who are different. They should not look different or act different. They should not think for themselves. Citizens should not band together and create fraternal orders or unions. They should not be educated too much, just enough to do what is required of them. They should also have no or little to say in the government. It is the government of the leaders, and not the people.

 

With every life which is ended in Genocide, we, the human family, potentially lose great musicians, the cure for cancer, the next great art movement. We lose the scientist who may have been more intelligent than Einstein. We may loose the mathematician who invents flying cars or the biologist who figures out how to raise enough food to feed every person on the planet. We will never know what all the genocides have robbed from the family of  man.

 

What is important now is to be informed. If the media isn’t discussing something, get a book, look it up on the internet or ask someone who does know. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance can lead to war and genocide and the marginalization of human beings.  If you think you are being lied to by your government, investigate. George W. Bush told us we had to go to war with Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction. Iraq did not. Bush started his Presidency in the black. We had extra money and he left the White House terribly in debt. A debt President Obama  has been working to whittle down. Humans often try to change history to make certain acts and/or misdeeds more palatable. Be aware, look for the truth. Speak up when you know that the text books are not exactly telling the truth.

 

Namaste

Barbara

 

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A chart of the genocides the world has endured and their severity

A chart of the genocides the world has endured and their severity

 

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Obama, Call ISIS Tactics what they are: Genocide


Obama, call ISIS actions what they are: Genocide

By Frida Ghitis

Updated 3:43 PM ET, Tue March 15, 2016

A Yazidi woman kisses the hand of a relative before a bus takes women and children who were captives of ISIS to an airport in the Kurdish region of Iraq. From there, they will fly to Germany, where the German government is resettling up to 1,000 former captives of ISIS, giving them housing and psychological treatment.

A Yazidi woman kisses the hand of a relative before a bus takes women and children who were captives of ISIS to an airport in the Kurdish region of Iraq. From there, they will fly to Germany, where the German government is resettling up to 1,000 former captives of ISIS, giving them housing and psychological treatment.
Two older Yazidi men talk under a tree.
8 photos: Agony of the Yazidis
Two older Yazidi men talk under a tree.
Women and children wave goodbye to relatives before their journey to Germany.
8 photos: Agony of the Yazidis
Women and children wave goodbye to relatives before their journey to Germany.
A Yazidi man lights a ritual oil candle at sunset.
8 photos: Agony of the Yazidis
A Yazidi man lights a ritual oil candle at sunset.
Sabah Mirza Mahmoud, right, cries next to his uncle Jamil Jato as Mahmoud and his sisters prepare to leave for Germany.
8 photos: Agony of the Yazidis
Sabah Mirza Mahmoud, right, cries next to his uncle Jamil Jato as Mahmoud and his sisters prepare to leave for Germany.
Baba Sheikh, the Yazidi spiritual leader, speaks to Yazidi women and girls who were captives of ISIS before their journey to Germany.
8 photos: Agony of the Yazidis
Baba Sheikh, the Yazidi spiritual leader, speaks to Yazidi women and girls who were captives of ISIS before their journey to Germany.
A Yazidi girl faints while saying goodbye to relatives who are going to Germany.
8 photos: Agony of the Yazidis
A Yazidi girl faints while saying goodbye to relatives who are going to Germany.
Jamil Jato shows photos of family members who were murdered by ISIS.
8 photos: Agony of the Yazidis
Jamil Jato shows photos of family members who were murdered by ISIS.
8 photos: Agony of the Yazidis
Women and children wave goodbye to relatives before their journey to Germany.
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A Yazidi man lights a ritual oil candle at sunset.
8 photos: Agony of the Yazidis
A Yazidi man lights a ritual oil candle at sunset.

Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review, and a former CNN producer and correspondent. Follow her @FridaGhitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN)It’s not often these days that Americans can feel proud of what Congress has done. It’s even less common to see Republicans and Democrats working together for a meaningful and important purpose.

Rub your eyes and look again, because on Monday afternoon the United States House of Representatives did something that all Americans, and the entire world, should support: It unanimously approved a resolution pinning the label of “genocide” on the atrocities being committed by the Islamic State or ISIS and other groups targeting Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities.

The vote on Capitol Hill registered complete unanimity — a stunning 393 to 0. Every single member of Congress supported it. You might say Congress gave voice to the American people, who have been horrified by massacres, decapitations, crucifixions and enslavement in the region.

ISIS hates this religious group the most

And yet, the non-binding “sense of Congress” resolution was not cause for celebration at the White House or the State Department.

That’s because President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry plainly don’t want to utilize the morally and legally charged term of “genocide.” The resolution calls on the U.S. and all the world’s governments to start using the precise terms to describe the events unfolding in parts of the Middle East, including “war crimes,” “crimes against humanity,” and “genocide.”

This was one more maneuver in a long-running battle between Congress and the administration. Months ago, Congress set a deadline of March 17 for the State Department to designate ISIS actions as genocide. But according to news reports, Obama administration officials say it appears likely the administration will let the deadline pass while it ponders the legal consequences of the designation.

If the deadline passes without action, it will undoubtedly fuel criticism of the administration by the likes of Donald Trump. It’s worth noting that major candidates, including Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have all demanded that the administration label ISIS atrocities as genocide.

Yazidis join fight to drive ISIS out of Iraq

And they are not alone. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the expert on the subject, asked the U.S. to declare that ISIS acts — thoroughly documented by the group itself, human rights groups, and more recently in a detailed report by the Knights of Columbus — constitute a violation of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Other prominent voices declaring that the devastation of Christian communities, the enslavement and massacres of Yazidis, and the repeated slaughters, crucifixions and beheadings constitute genocide include Pope Francis and the European Parliament.

The truth is everyone knows that ISIS is targeting ethnic, religious, and national minorities (Turkmen, Yazidis, Kurds and others) with the”intent to destroy” these groups. Their actions meet the definition established by the U.N genocide convention of 1948 and subsequent legal rulings.

ISIS numbers don't tell the whole story

 And yet, the Obama administration continues to resist the pressure. Why?

The main reason is that once it uses the genocide label, Obama will come under growing pressure to act more forcefully against ISIS. It will raise the profile of the group and raise its position on the list of foreign policy priorities.

It will add up to more pressure on Obama to focus on the Middle East, something he has seemed to resist (mostly unsuccessfully) since he took office. Another reason for his reluctance may be that, from his perspective, the label would make a terrorist group seem more prominent and menacing in the mind of Americans, when, as Obama explained in a recent article in the Atlantic, he’s frustrated with what he considers Americans’ excessive focus on terrorism.

Terrorism on American soil, however, is another matter entirely from the genocide that has destroyed thriving Christian communities in the Middle East and the horrors that have befallen the small Yazidi sect. This is a moral issue of the highest order, and one with which Obama has wrestled with less than impressive results.

America’s current U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, wrote the book on modern-day genocide, and American leaders’ failure to prevent it. In the Atlantic article, we learned that Obama once responded to Power’s entreaties with a dismissive and condescending, “Samantha, enough, I’ve already read your book.”

Presidents don’t like it when Congress meddles in their foreign policy. And Obama is hardly the first president to hold back on a designation of genocide.

He has started bombing ISIS and making battlefield gains. But he does not want the historical record to register that he was the president on whose watch genocide occurred in the Middle East. Officially or not, that is already happening.

Congress wants the U.S. to lead the world in taking the case of ISIS and the rest of Syria to the U.N. A separate resolution approved on Monday condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for “gross violations of international law amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” and called on the president to work for the creation of an international war crimes tribunal for Syria.

History shows that this is an important moment. In at least two previous cases, American presidents downplayed the disasters unfolding in distant lands, only to take action after pressure from Congress forced their hand.

During World War II, President Roosevelt knew about the Holocaust but didn’t even mention the mass extermination of Jews until 1944, when millions had already been murdered, after Congress raised the pressure.

Similarly, during the Bosnian war of 1995, President Bill Clinton stood back as long as he could, even as concentration camps filled with emaciated prisoners were visible to all on the evening news. With former Sen. Bob Dole, running for president at the time and pushing for the U.S. to help, Clinton finally relented and intervened.

Clinton launched a successful military intervention that ended the war and halted the killing. Remember that the next time someone says military interventions are always disastrous.

In Syria, as occurs much too often, the world has allowed far too many to be killed before doing something to stop it. What is occurring there and in neighboring Iraq is, without a doubt, genocide. It’s time for the Obama administration to listen to Congress and for the President to admit it to himself, to the world, and to history.

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Though this isn’t the first attack of genocide in our world, Bosnia, Germany, Africa, and others farther back in history; this doesn’t mean we need to accept the concept of genocide much less it’s killing of practically entire populations.

International objections should descend upon the UN and NATO and Amnesty International. Public outcry can make a difference. If these organizations feel the pressure then they will work harder to protect the populations that are experiencing bigotry. I encourage letter writing and emails. Let us make the world understand that genocide will not be tolerated against anyone.

Namaste,

Barbara

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Genocide


I have had to do some very difficult thinking. As you already know, I am a pacifist. I do not believe in war. War brings nothing but violent destruction, resentment, anger, bitterness. It brings all that we are fighting so hard to eliminate.

 

I am working for peace by bringing light, kindness, compassion and goodness to push out the darkness, the pain and the horror hanging over our world. I think we may be making some progress. But the fact that genocide is involved in the conflict in Iraq changes my heart and mind. Genocide is the game changer.

 

This isn’t the first time homo sapiens have been the victims  of or the perpetrators of  an evil desire to eliminate certain nationalities or religions. The radical group ISIS has killed many of the men of the minority group Yazidi. Thousands of women, elders and children have fled with whatever the could carry. Children have been brutally killed and women have been told they will be married to the ISIS soldiers,  a horrible fate for these women. Some may be sold. As we have discussed, human slavery is rampant in our world. Pray in your way for all of these people. May we be successful in stopping the carnage.

 

Genocide is wrong. It is the only reason for a conflict or a war. We have fought to stop genocide in the past and we have stepped back from other cases of genocide. I believe that we all must do what we can to stop genocide. There is no reason to kill our brothers and sisters because they are different. We are a civilized world, at least compared to the world historically. On behalf of Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Croats and many others have been in the position of being the victims of genocide. I must say, there is no reason for genocide. WE ARE ALL ONE.

 

Our POTUS is considering a larger humanitarian mission to rescue the thousands who have been stranded on a mountaintop. I can’t support us getting into a war. I can and do support  stopping genocide. It is indefensible and we can not let it go. Pray for the dead victims and pray for those on the mountain to survive and to be able to begin their lives over again in safety.

 

 

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Dove of Peace

Dove of Peace

 

 

Yazidi Refugees Recount Desperate Struggle To Flee Islamist Militants In Iraq

by Sophia Jones, Posted to Huffington Post 08/12/2014 4:14 pm EDT Updated: 1 hour ago

 

SILOPI, Turkey — The Omers’ journey to safety was the stuff of nightmares: gun-wielding militants firing on cars of screaming children, tens of thousands of people trapped on a mountain, mothers keeping dehydrated babies alive with their own saliva.

It took nine days for Omer Omer and his wife, Baraa, both 60, to make the desperate trip with their family from the town of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq to the relative safety of Silopi, a border town in southeast Turkey. After hardline militants from the Islamic State captured Sinjar earlier this month, vowing to kill members of the Yazidi religious minority unless they converted to Islam, they fled to Mount Sinjar, along with tens of thousands of other civilians. They say they were stuck there in the blazing heat for five days without food or water as people perished around them.

Now the Omers, their faces sunburned and covered in rashes, are seeking refuge with 22 family members and neighbors in a tiny, rundown concrete home in Silopi. The house, occupied for the first time since it was built years ago by Turkey’s Housing Development Administration, is part of a makeshift camp set up here in the past week. According to local aid workers, there are are some 700 Yazidis at the camp and about 800 others seeking refuge around Silopi in other makeshift camps and homes. They consider themselves the lucky ones.

“When we left our village, the Islamic State was shooting at our car,” Baraa says as flies buzz around her. “There were eight people in our car and people were running alongside us trying to hide themselves.”

Looking down, she adds, “My disabled cousin was burned in her house.”

Baraa’s family says that heavily armed members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party(PKK), a group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States, saved their lives by escorting them and other Yazidis from Sinjar, battling Islamic State militants along the way. They say that without the PKK’s help and a car to drive to the mountain — many of their friends and neighbors fled on foot — they wouldn’t have survived.

Busra Saeed rocks her son, Waseem, as she recounts her journey from Iraq to Turkey.

The Omers’ 26-year-old daughter, Busra Saeed, says that the most harrowing moment of her journey was not when the militants lit her neighbors’ homes on fire, or when bullets started flying, but when she crossed the Hezil Suyu river from Iraq to Turkey.

“The river was breast-deep,” she says while holding her 2-year-old son, Waseem. “I thought I would lose him.”

As the Islamic State continues to gain more territory in Iraq with the goal of creating an Islamic caliphate, it has reportedly killed at least 500 Yazidis, burying some alive. While some people who fled to Mount Sinjar have been rescued by helicopters and others have managed to reach Turkey, Syria or safer parts of Iraq, the death toll is climbing daily. Another day on the mountain is another day without adequate food, water, medical attention or shelter.

Sitting in the excruciating summer heat, refugees here exchange horror stories as children around them stare blankly into space. The refugees have one word for what the Islamic State is doing to their people in Iraq: genocide.

“How can we go back there?” Baraa asks, her lilac-colored dress matching her husband’s tunic. “They will kill us.”

Refugees in a makeshift refugee camp in Silopi, Turkey, are living in small, dilapidated homes built by the country’s Housing Development Administration.

Baraa says that one of her neighbors called her a few days ago and said he had witnessed militants kill a pregnant woman and cut open her belly. Stories of women and children being used as sex slaves run rampant in the camp. A United States official confirmed last week that some women are being sold or married offto Islamic State fighters.

Just days ago, Baraa and her family were eating leaves to survive. Now, they’re living off donations from Silopi locals and volunteer aid workers. The family has even received medical treatment for diabetes, paid for by Kurdish locals.

But the refugees wonder how long they can survive on donations from generous strangers.

“People here share their things with us, but how will they do this for a year, two years?” Omer asks.

Yazidis desperately seeking sanctuary in Turkey find a cash-strapped country already facing a crippling refugee crisis. More than 800,000 registered Syrian refugees — and many more without permits — have poured over the border in the past three years to escape the civil war in their country, settling in refugee camps, crowded apartments and even bus stations.

Like many Syrians who came before them, Yazidi refugees here say that smugglers are charging hefty fees — around $600 per person — to sneak people without passports or papers across the border. Many Yazidis fled in the middle of the night, some of them still in their pajamas, so they didn’t have a chance to grab large amounts of cash. Most could not afford such a large fee in the first place.

Hundreds of Yazidi refugees sit under tents in a makeshift camp to escape the heat.

Some Yazidis who lack proper documentation have been turned away at the border by Turkish guards, refugees say, while others have been detained. Outside of a school here now being used as a detention center for undocumented Yazidis, Turkish security officials holding assault rifles pace next to exhausted refugee families. After a week of barely surviving, they now find themselves prisoners in a foreign land.

Several mothers in Silopi say they had to leave their children behind with other family members because they don’t have passports for them. They are waiting to somehow get the appropriate paperwork or find a way to smuggle their children across. They say they’re not going back to Iraq — not ever.

Back at the makeshift refugee camp, a short drive from the detainment center, Omer says he considers himself and his fellow Yazidis stateless.

“This is the end for us,” he says, as his family sits in silence around him.

 

 

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Yazidi people flee for their lives

Yazidi people flee for their lives

 

 

Yazidi refugees being taken out by helicopters who are dropping bundles of humanitarian aid.

Yazidi refugees being taken out by helicopters who are dropping bundles of humanitarian aid.

 

 

 

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Why is Racism still an issue?


 

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I have written about war and peace, I have written about gender equality. I have written about people living in violence. Today, I am writing to the world about yet another human tragedy. I don’t know how bad racism is everywhere in the world, but I feel it is getting worse in America. I am an old lady, but I have a black hoodie that says peace on the front. When I wear it, I wear it with the hood up. I wear it that way for Trayvon Martin.  I wear it because I realize that more people will look at it on the body of  a 5’2″ blonde white woman.  I wear it because my grandfather told me about the Holocaust when I was nine years old. He gave me a book of photographs in black and white of the piles of dead Jews, Poles and Gypsies. He sat me on his knee and told me that we can never forget or it will happen again. I have never forgotten this experience. It has influenced a lot of the work in my life. He died in 1972, and I have told this story in schools, at battered women’s shelters, Holocaust museums and to mean hearted people. I have mentioned it before, here on my blog.

 

Injustice begins with seeds of hatred, intolerance, and ego. I have worked so many places, with so many different people that I can quite honestly tell you that we are all the same. Our hearts beat in the same rhythm, our eyes show us the same world (for good or bad), we all get hungry and tired. We all need to prevent dehydration by drinking fluids. Except for multiple births, we all look different and sound different. We could all die from a barrage of bullets. Why is it that small differences frighten people so much? My nose is different than yours, should that make me feel better than you? No. My skin color is different from many other Caucasians. It depends on the nationality of your ancestors. The people in my family do not all look alike. The DNA is different for each of us. This is true except for identical twins, like my grandsons.

 

During a lifetime, events happen that are not fair. They are not just. If you have a bad interaction with someone of different skin color does that mean that all people of that skin color are a threat? No, of course, not. The human species is more than capable of turning a person or a people’s life into hell. Genocide of any race or religion is a hideous crime without any justification.

 

Morgan Freeman was on a talk show today and Queen Latifah  put a question to him.  She asked him if he believed in intelligent beings in other universes or places in space. He thought a moment and said, “Yes, I do.” She then asked him if those beings would have a god. He again answered yes. I got to thinking about alien life. We are so hateful as a species that I tried to imagine what would happen if people with green skin, or antennae for ears, or even has three arms came to Earth and I think we would kill all of them without a qualm.We would justify it as the only way to keep human beings safe. I think we would never accept them and would destroy them without hesitation. Add in the concept that they might have a god or a goddess. Or better yet, what if our “God” was also their god. I think it would be ever so sad and might even destroy our souls. We can’t even allow other human beings to believe in a god/goddess who they are comfortable with if it is not our god. We want to kill them. It is time to stop sowing the seeds of discrimination, intolerance and hatred. It is time that we got back to the garden. The garden, yes the Garden of Eden. The place where it all began, if you believe that. (Don’t start about Eve. She offered Adam a piece of fruit, he chose of his own free will to eat of it. That is on him. And it always was on him.)

 

 

 

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I am dedicating this blog to every human being who died due to hatred and intolerance.

 

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