Why Does Genocide Happen?

  Why Does Genocide Happen?

            Genocide is the killing of a large group of people due to their ethnicity or nationality. This is an extremely terrible thing that should not be going on in this world today. The most popular genocide we all know of is the Holocaust where the Nazis killed the Jews because they were Jewish. The Holocaust shows how impacting genocide truly is to the world.

            How many people are actually aware that genocide is still happening today? I was one of those people who were unaware of what was actually going on around the world. After researching multiple modern genocides, I found that genocides are still a huge issue today. For example, in Grant Solis’blog, we find that there is a modern genocide in Darfur where more than one hundred people continue to die each day and five thousand die every month.

But why does genocide happen?  Generally, genocides occur because one group of people that have a higher power over another group thinks that the other groups of people are causing problems in a certain country. In Holly Matthews’ blog, we find that the conflict in Darfur began when the government was accused of favoring Arabians over Africans. Darfur had previously faced many years of tensions over land rights between the Arabs and African tribes, which thus sparked a rebellion. Genocide is a terrible world issue that needs to come to an end.

Modern Genocides: What Really Goes On?

Genocide In Darfur

   In spring of 2003, we saw the start of genocide in Darfur after two Darfur rebel movements were launched against the government military. "About the size of Texas, the Darfur region of Sudan is home to racially mixed tribes of settled peasants, who identify as African, and nomadic herders, who identify as Arab. The majority of people in both groups are Muslim” The people of Darfur launched these attacks to stand up for their political, economic, and historical power of Darfur. This genocide lasted six years and finally ended in 2009. More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month.

In May of 2004, Physicians for Human Rights investigated the refugee camps along the Chad and Sudan border, which confirmed that there was now genocide beginning in Sudan. On July 22, 2004 the United State Senate and House of Representatives adopted a joint resolution, which accused Sudan of genocide against the Darfur’s. The United States asked the international community to help the United States bring an end to the genocide beginning in Sudan. President Bush gave a speech in September of 2004 at the United Nations, which spoke of genocide, and Darfur.               

In January of 2005 the United Nations Commission of Inquiry found that the government of Sudan was doing extremely harsh things to the Darfurians. Sudan was killing, torturing, kidnapping, raping, pillaging and removing innocent Darfurians rapidly. Not only were Darfurians killed by the violence of the Sudan’s, but diseases and famine also killed them. The United Nations Security Council created a resolution to the genocide against Darfur in March of 2005 and President Bush was finally positive that there was a serious genocide taking place in Darfur. The Human Rights Watch said the Sudan government was spreading systematic abuses in Darfur in December of 2005 and in September of 2006, President Bush gave a speech to the United Nations reporting the violence and killings in Darfur as a major genocide. In February 2007, Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs Minister was charged with 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity which consisted of murder, rape, torture and persecution of innocent civilians in Darfur.

                  Finally, in July of 2010, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir was arrested which added three more counts of genocide to the list of what was going on in Darfur. Sadly, this genocide is still continuing right now. As we speak, roughly 400,000 people have been killed and two and a half million citizens of Darfur were forced to leave their houses and live in camps or refugee camps in Chad and the Central African Republic. Over 400 villages of Darfur have been destroyed in Darfur. This is a very serious situation that needs to be dealt with very soon.