How to Kill a Million

From the gas chambers of the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War to the bloody streets of Darfur today, the presence of genocide is clearly visible. What thought to be the end of these ruthless killings since the Nuremberg Trials, the world is shocked and once again disturbed by the continuation of mass murders illustrated by the civil dispute in Rwanda, the Khemer Rouge regime in Cambodia and the Indonesian occupation of East Timor in the late twentieth century. Behind the piles of corpses stacked high, the curiosity of what constitutes such acts sparks the study of genocide. In order to study genocide, an understanding of its various definitions, history, causes and most importantly—its stages of achievement, is essential.

The term “genocide” is referred to the systematic attempt to annihilate people simply because of their presumed race and ethnicity (Henslin, Glenday, Duffy and Pupo,2007). However, genocide is not only restricted to this definition as different groups ranging from legal organizations to scholars and the common people enclose their own definitions. For instance, the legal definition of genocide can be obtained from the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPG) which labels genocide as any action directed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, racial, ethnical or a religious group as such killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group’s conditions of life, premeditated to bring about its physical devastation in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to avert births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group (Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 2002). Genocide scholars on the other hand defines, genocide as a form of one sided mass killing in which a government or other authority intends to destroy a group as that group and membership in it are defined by a perpetrator ( Frank and Chalk, 1990). Commonly, genocide can be labeled as the intentional killing by government of people due to their group’s identity. The origin of the term was coined by Raphael Lempkin in 1943 where he combined the Greek word, genos (family, tribe or race) and the Latin word, cide (to massacre). Various definitions of genocide are established in order to facilitate the CPPG’s broad definition which comprises a variety of behavior like murder, prevention of birth and transferring children to other groups and their narrow definition that does not include the annihilation of political, economic and other non-indelible groups (Rummel, 2002).

Under the legal definition of United Nations, the history of genocide can be traced from the twentieth century where the Rape of Nanking and the Nazi Holocaust which took place during the second World War to the current genocide in Darfur (The History Place, 2000). On the other hand, the common definition of genocide will reveal that the systematic annihilation of people based on their group’s identity had taken place more than a hundred years ago in human history. Throughout the fourteen ancient dynasties in China beginning from the Xia Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, with emperors overthrowing each other and wars erupting frequently, millions were murdered because of their political affiliation (Liang, 2006). The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was another infamous example of genocide that took place before the 20^th century. As the Christian converted administration led by Hongxiu Quan revolted against the Qing government in China, between seven hundred thousand and eight hundred thousand Taiping soldiers under the Christian converted administration marched their way to Nanjing before slaughtering thousands Imperial soldiers and non Christian civilians. The rebellion was successfully suppressed by the Qing government with the help of British and French military forces at the cost of an estimated twenty to thirty million deaths (Spence, 1996). Genocide was not only restricted in ancient China; in feudal Japan, a ruthless Shogun by the name of Oda Nobunaga devastated a Buddhist monastery on Mount Hiei as his measure to remove any “thorns” that would hinder him from unifying the entire regions of Japan. The massacre cost the lives of twenty thousand to thirty thousand men, women and children (Samurai Archives Wiki, 2007). Another example of genocide during the medieval times can be illustrated by the famous Mongolian warlord called Temujin or better known as Genghis Khan. With his Mongol Empire and his aggressive conquests policies, Genghis Khan and his successors had brought death and destruction to millions of people in the large sections of Persia, Middle East, China and Europe (Macro History, 2004). Millions of people have been murdered by their governments throughout human history because of their ethnic, racial, religion, national or political identity which was perceived to be a threat by the state (Rummel, 2002).

The study of genocide will be greatly facilitated by the factors that cause the mass murders. The government structure within which genocide occurs, the context, the motives of the person responsible and the nature of the victims are the factors which explain the causes of genocide. Based on historical findings and research, totalitarian governments are the frequent parties responsible for genocide. Apart from that, countries that lack respect for human rights have the tendency to resort to mass murders. The context of which genocide occurs are one of the reasons behind the ignition of genocide; the probability of mass murder occurring is very high in the event that a country is experiencing civil or foreign wars regardless of the country’s political structure. Motives of the perpetrators are also one of the few causes of genocide. They are usually intertwined and complex, nevertheless a major motive can be extracted behind the mixtures of intentions. The objective of destroying a group that is seen as a peril to the ruling power is an example of the variety of motives behind genocide. Besides that, the hope of destroying those who are hated, despised or envied is the second motive behind genocide. Unlike the earlier motive, this motive is highly emotional. The intention of pursuing an ideological transformation of society is another genocide motive. This motive revolves around perceiving those who resist the ideological transformation as enemies worthy of death. Economic gain is another motive that sparks genocide. The implementation of death to those who resisted the rape of the colony’s wealth and the mass murder conducted indirectly through harsh labor conditions are featured in this last motive. With a thorough understanding of the government’s structure within which genocide occurs, the context, the five motives of the person responsible for genocide and the nature of the victims, the reasons behind such mass murders can be explained (Rummel, 2002).

The study of genocide will not be completed without understanding the stages of achieving genocide. Shortly after the Rwanda genocide, a study regarding the stages of genocide was presented at the United States Department of State. The study mainly revolved around the recent eruption of mass killings in Rwanda and the achievement of genocide can be broken down to eight stages; these stages are predictable yet unavoidable (Wikipedia, 2006). The early symptom of genocide can be illustrated by the classifications of group among society. There is a clear boundary that differentiates both the groups in subject. As the classification intensifies, both of the groups in subject construct symbols on one another which bear negative connotations in the second stage. In the event which the hatred still continues, the third stage which involves dehumanization occurs. At this point, there is a presence of reducing people to objects that do not deserve the humane treatments. The persisted conflict will escalate to the fourth stage which forces the dominant group to organize. Governments or the ruling force will establish Gestapo like SWAT teams as the first step of annihilating the minority. As the hatred intensifies, polarization is presented in the fifth stage. The ruling class or the government will shower the society with propaganda depicting their hate for the minority group with the objective of influencing the people to take severe action against the minority. The minority or the victims are then identified and separated based on their group’s identity at the sixth stage. This stage prepares the dominant group for their next step in annihilating the minorities. The seventh stage ignites the extermination process of the minorities by the dominant group. Lastly, the genocide process is completed with denial by the ruling class that any act of genocide ever occurred. The eight stages of genocide begin with classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination and ends with denial (Stanton, 1996)

Behind the piles of corpses stacked high, the curiosity of what constitutes such acts sparks the study of genocide. In order to study genocide, an understanding of its various definitions, history, causes and most importantly—its stages of achievement, is essential. Genocide is spawned from the prejudice, discrimination and the abuse of power by the ruling class. It also indicates that human life is expandable and justifies killings through its dehumanization process. To prevent future genocide in human history, mankind will have to learn to decline any form of discrimination and value the human life.