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ARMENIAN 'GENOCIDE': NINE ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS GROUPS BEING EXTERMINATED TODAY
100 years after the Armenian 'genocide', atrocities continue around
the world
LIZZIE DEARDEN
Friday 24 April 2015
As the world commemorates the Armenian genocide today, campaigners
are warning of continuing atrocities against ethnic and religious
groups around the world.
Turkey has maintains that up to 1.5 million deaths at the hands
of Ottoman soldiers during the First World War did not constitute
genocide, saying the Armenians killed were the victims of civil war
and unrest rather than a systematic extermination.
That interpretation is disputed by more than 20 countries including
France and Austria, who have urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to
change his stance.
"The Armenian claims on the 1915 events, and especially the numbers
put forward, are all baseless and groundless," he said yesterday.
"We have no fear, no worries on this subject. Our ancestors did
not persecute."
The UN Convention on Genocide defines it as acts intended "to destroy,
in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".
One hundred years later, numerous other peoples are at risk as
sectarian conflicts continue across the world.Minority Rights Group
International's map of genocide risk around the world, where red is
the worst and white is no risk.
Yazidis in Iraq
As Isis swept through the country last summer in its bloody quest to
establish an "Islamic State", Shia Muslims, Christians and anyone not
conforming to its violent Salafist ideology was killed and persecuted.
The Yazidi minority was pursued with particular ruthlessness as
militants seized Sinjar, driving thousands of families into the
mountains, where many died of hunger and thirst.
Men were summarily executed and women were captured to become sex
slaves to Isis fighters.
The group has declared Yazidis heretics and published an article
in its propaganda magazine Dabiq justifying their subjugation and
extermination using theological rulings of early Islam.
A UN report last year found that Isis may have committed "war crimes,
crimes against humanity and genocide" with the intent to "destroy
the Yazidis as a group".
Most survivors have now fled northern Iraq, either by forced exile
or as refugees.
Isis gained control of huge swathes of Iraq and Syria in its violent
advance last year and is now spreading its franchise to countries
including Afghanistan and has Islamist affiliates operating in
numerous countries.
Its Salafist ideology and enforcement of Sharia law makes ShiaMuslims,
Christians, Assyrians and all other minorities an enemy standing in
the way of its ultimate goal to establish a caliphate.
In all places where Isis operates, these groups and others have faced
forced conversion, persecution or death.
An Amnesty International report found ethnic cleansing on a "historic
scale", seeing the systematic targeting of "non-Arab and non-Sunni
Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands,
and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured
since 10 June 2014".
Unecso's Director-General, Irina Bokova, warned that the "cultural
cleansing" of the so-called Islamic State is inherently genocidal.
"This is a way to destroy identity," she said. "You deprive (others) of
their culture, you deprive them of their history, their heritage, and
that is why it goes hand in hand with genocide. Along with the physical
persecution they want to eliminate - to delete - the memory of these
different cultures."An Assyrian woman attends a mass in solidarity
with the Assyrians abducted by Islamic State fighters in Syria
Rohingya in Burma
Genocide Watch, a group monitoring atrocities around the world,
has declared an emergency in the state of Rakhine where around one
million members of the minority are believed to live.
The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority who claim to be indigenous
to Burma but face systematic religious and ethnic discrimination.
Burma, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 50 million, denies them
citizenship, as does Bangladesh.
In the last three years, attacks by Buddhist mobs have left hundreds
of Rohingya dead and 140,000 trapped in camps where they live without
access to adequate health care, education or jobs.
The UN has warned of a deteriorating situation in Rakhine, where
humanitarian agencies are struggling to deliver aid to hundreds of
thousands of people.
It urged the Burmese government to give Rohingya equal access to
citizenship and to crack down on Buddhist violence against them and
other Muslims.
The Rohingya crisis has led to the highest outflow of asylum seekers
by sea in the region since the Vietnam War, the ASEAN Parliamentarians
for Human Rights said this week.Over the years hundreds of thousands
of Rohingya refugees have taken refuge in Bangladesh to escape the
deadly sectarian violence
Kachin in Burma
Another ethnic group in Burma has become the victim of genocidal
violence, according to human rights groups.
The Kachin Independence Army is fighting in a state of the same name
with its majority Christian population pitted against the Burmese
Buddhist government.
In June 2011, a 17-year peace agreement was shattered and fighting
between the KIA and Burmese government has been non-stop ever since.
Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 100,000 civilians Kachin
have yet to return home following fighting from 2011 to 2013.
The rape and murder of two young Kachin women found dead in their homes
in January was blamed on Burmese soldiers and the security situation
remains tense with a large Burmese army troop presence, landmines,
and continued alleged abuses by government forces including rape
and murder.
Displaced persons in government-controlled areas face arbitrary
arrest and torture from security forces, including for allegedly
supporting Kachin insurgents.A young Kachin activist in Myanmar
performs a piece of street theatre depicting a victim of war rape
attempting to commit suicide
Non-Muslims in Boko Haram-controlled Nigeria
Boko Haram, the Islamist faction fighting a bloody insurgency to
establish a caliphate in northern Nigeria, have targeted Christians and
other minorities in endless terror attacks, massacres and kidnappings.
The school where almost 300 girls were kidnapped in Chibok last year
was in a dominantly Christian village and churches have often been
targeted by militant attacks.
Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, has declared "jihad" on
Christianity in Nigeria and vowed to attack Nigerian government police
and government officials.
The group has also appeared to target the ethnic Igbo people and
anyone opposing its control and implementation of Sharia law.
Genocide Watch has put Nigeria on its "emergency" list of countries at
risk of genocide.The aftermath of a suicide bomb attack on a Catholic
church in Nigeria
Muslims and Christians in the Central African Republic
Both the UN and French officials have warned of the risk of genocide
in the CAR at the hands of both sides in the continuing conflict.
Abuses by Anti-Balaka Christian self-defence militias have targeted
minority Muslim communities, while the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel
coalition is also accused of grave abuses against Christians.
Although a UN commission was recently unable to prove genocide had
taken place, violence on both sides is deemed genocidal in nature
because victims are targeted for their religion with the aim of wiping
opposition out in areas various groups want to control.
An report submitted to the UN Security Council found that up to up
to 6,000 people had been killed by the anti-Balaka militia but that
"genocidal intent" had not been proved.
"Although the commission cannot conclude that there was genocide,
ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population by the anti-balaka
constitutes a crime against humanity," it said.
Sectarian violence spread from western parts of the country toward
central and eastern areas last year, Human Rights Watch said.
Witnesses on both sides frequently described the attacks as retaliatory
in nature, indicating a growing cycle of revenge killings.
By the end of 2014, thousands of civilians had been killed by both
sides and more than 800,000 people were displaced from their homes,
with many fleeing to neighbouring countries as refugees.Militia
fighters known as anti-balaka pose for a photograph in Mbakate village,
Central African Republic
Dinka and Nuer in South Sudan
A dispute between President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar,
quickly degenerated into open conflict in December 2013, pitting
Dinka forces controlled by the government against ethnic Nuer.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said last year that the country had
been hit by "ethnic, tribal, targeted nationalistic killings" and
that the violence "could really present a very serious challenge to
the international community with respect to the question of genocide".
Following fighting between government forces and defecting Nuer
soldiers, ethnic Nuer people were subjected to targeted killings,
house-to-house searches, mass arrests, unlawful detention,
ill-treatment, and torture, Human Rights Watch said.
In one of the worst incidents recorded, government forces rounded up
between 200 and 400 Nuer men and massacred them in December 2013.
Last April, opposition forces attacking Bentiu slaughtered hundreds
of civilians, including in attacks on a mosque and hospital.Displaced
people - here in South Sudan with a UN patrol - are 'traumatised and
without assets'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/armenian-genocide-nine-ethnic-and-religious-groups-being-exterminated-today-10201532.html
100 years after the Armenian 'genocide', atrocities continue around
the world
LIZZIE DEARDEN
Friday 24 April 2015
As the world commemorates the Armenian genocide today, campaigners
are warning of continuing atrocities against ethnic and religious
groups around the world.
Turkey has maintains that up to 1.5 million deaths at the hands
of Ottoman soldiers during the First World War did not constitute
genocide, saying the Armenians killed were the victims of civil war
and unrest rather than a systematic extermination.
That interpretation is disputed by more than 20 countries including
France and Austria, who have urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to
change his stance.
"The Armenian claims on the 1915 events, and especially the numbers
put forward, are all baseless and groundless," he said yesterday.
"We have no fear, no worries on this subject. Our ancestors did
not persecute."
The UN Convention on Genocide defines it as acts intended "to destroy,
in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".
One hundred years later, numerous other peoples are at risk as
sectarian conflicts continue across the world.Minority Rights Group
International's map of genocide risk around the world, where red is
the worst and white is no risk.
Yazidis in Iraq
As Isis swept through the country last summer in its bloody quest to
establish an "Islamic State", Shia Muslims, Christians and anyone not
conforming to its violent Salafist ideology was killed and persecuted.
The Yazidi minority was pursued with particular ruthlessness as
militants seized Sinjar, driving thousands of families into the
mountains, where many died of hunger and thirst.
Men were summarily executed and women were captured to become sex
slaves to Isis fighters.
The group has declared Yazidis heretics and published an article
in its propaganda magazine Dabiq justifying their subjugation and
extermination using theological rulings of early Islam.
A UN report last year found that Isis may have committed "war crimes,
crimes against humanity and genocide" with the intent to "destroy
the Yazidis as a group".
Most survivors have now fled northern Iraq, either by forced exile
or as refugees.
Isis gained control of huge swathes of Iraq and Syria in its violent
advance last year and is now spreading its franchise to countries
including Afghanistan and has Islamist affiliates operating in
numerous countries.
Its Salafist ideology and enforcement of Sharia law makes ShiaMuslims,
Christians, Assyrians and all other minorities an enemy standing in
the way of its ultimate goal to establish a caliphate.
In all places where Isis operates, these groups and others have faced
forced conversion, persecution or death.
An Amnesty International report found ethnic cleansing on a "historic
scale", seeing the systematic targeting of "non-Arab and non-Sunni
Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands,
and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured
since 10 June 2014".
Unecso's Director-General, Irina Bokova, warned that the "cultural
cleansing" of the so-called Islamic State is inherently genocidal.
"This is a way to destroy identity," she said. "You deprive (others) of
their culture, you deprive them of their history, their heritage, and
that is why it goes hand in hand with genocide. Along with the physical
persecution they want to eliminate - to delete - the memory of these
different cultures."An Assyrian woman attends a mass in solidarity
with the Assyrians abducted by Islamic State fighters in Syria
Rohingya in Burma
Genocide Watch, a group monitoring atrocities around the world,
has declared an emergency in the state of Rakhine where around one
million members of the minority are believed to live.
The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority who claim to be indigenous
to Burma but face systematic religious and ethnic discrimination.
Burma, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 50 million, denies them
citizenship, as does Bangladesh.
In the last three years, attacks by Buddhist mobs have left hundreds
of Rohingya dead and 140,000 trapped in camps where they live without
access to adequate health care, education or jobs.
The UN has warned of a deteriorating situation in Rakhine, where
humanitarian agencies are struggling to deliver aid to hundreds of
thousands of people.
It urged the Burmese government to give Rohingya equal access to
citizenship and to crack down on Buddhist violence against them and
other Muslims.
The Rohingya crisis has led to the highest outflow of asylum seekers
by sea in the region since the Vietnam War, the ASEAN Parliamentarians
for Human Rights said this week.Over the years hundreds of thousands
of Rohingya refugees have taken refuge in Bangladesh to escape the
deadly sectarian violence
Kachin in Burma
Another ethnic group in Burma has become the victim of genocidal
violence, according to human rights groups.
The Kachin Independence Army is fighting in a state of the same name
with its majority Christian population pitted against the Burmese
Buddhist government.
In June 2011, a 17-year peace agreement was shattered and fighting
between the KIA and Burmese government has been non-stop ever since.
Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 100,000 civilians Kachin
have yet to return home following fighting from 2011 to 2013.
The rape and murder of two young Kachin women found dead in their homes
in January was blamed on Burmese soldiers and the security situation
remains tense with a large Burmese army troop presence, landmines,
and continued alleged abuses by government forces including rape
and murder.
Displaced persons in government-controlled areas face arbitrary
arrest and torture from security forces, including for allegedly
supporting Kachin insurgents.A young Kachin activist in Myanmar
performs a piece of street theatre depicting a victim of war rape
attempting to commit suicide
Non-Muslims in Boko Haram-controlled Nigeria
Boko Haram, the Islamist faction fighting a bloody insurgency to
establish a caliphate in northern Nigeria, have targeted Christians and
other minorities in endless terror attacks, massacres and kidnappings.
The school where almost 300 girls were kidnapped in Chibok last year
was in a dominantly Christian village and churches have often been
targeted by militant attacks.
Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, has declared "jihad" on
Christianity in Nigeria and vowed to attack Nigerian government police
and government officials.
The group has also appeared to target the ethnic Igbo people and
anyone opposing its control and implementation of Sharia law.
Genocide Watch has put Nigeria on its "emergency" list of countries at
risk of genocide.The aftermath of a suicide bomb attack on a Catholic
church in Nigeria
Muslims and Christians in the Central African Republic
Both the UN and French officials have warned of the risk of genocide
in the CAR at the hands of both sides in the continuing conflict.
Abuses by Anti-Balaka Christian self-defence militias have targeted
minority Muslim communities, while the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel
coalition is also accused of grave abuses against Christians.
Although a UN commission was recently unable to prove genocide had
taken place, violence on both sides is deemed genocidal in nature
because victims are targeted for their religion with the aim of wiping
opposition out in areas various groups want to control.
An report submitted to the UN Security Council found that up to up
to 6,000 people had been killed by the anti-Balaka militia but that
"genocidal intent" had not been proved.
"Although the commission cannot conclude that there was genocide,
ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population by the anti-balaka
constitutes a crime against humanity," it said.
Sectarian violence spread from western parts of the country toward
central and eastern areas last year, Human Rights Watch said.
Witnesses on both sides frequently described the attacks as retaliatory
in nature, indicating a growing cycle of revenge killings.
By the end of 2014, thousands of civilians had been killed by both
sides and more than 800,000 people were displaced from their homes,
with many fleeing to neighbouring countries as refugees.Militia
fighters known as anti-balaka pose for a photograph in Mbakate village,
Central African Republic
Dinka and Nuer in South Sudan
A dispute between President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar,
quickly degenerated into open conflict in December 2013, pitting
Dinka forces controlled by the government against ethnic Nuer.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said last year that the country had
been hit by "ethnic, tribal, targeted nationalistic killings" and
that the violence "could really present a very serious challenge to
the international community with respect to the question of genocide".
Following fighting between government forces and defecting Nuer
soldiers, ethnic Nuer people were subjected to targeted killings,
house-to-house searches, mass arrests, unlawful detention,
ill-treatment, and torture, Human Rights Watch said.
In one of the worst incidents recorded, government forces rounded up
between 200 and 400 Nuer men and massacred them in December 2013.
Last April, opposition forces attacking Bentiu slaughtered hundreds
of civilians, including in attacks on a mosque and hospital.Displaced
people - here in South Sudan with a UN patrol - are 'traumatised and
without assets'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/armenian-genocide-nine-ethnic-and-religious-groups-being-exterminated-today-10201532.html