A Genocide Debate: History, Cause & Effect

How comparable are Rwandan warlords and Bosnia’s killers to George Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan? The genocide debate …

Comparing a Rwandan warlord with George Bush is gross logic. One is the head of a super-power while the other is a temporary and accidental upper-hand in a civil war | Cartoonist – Kevin Moore on 11/8/04; titled Mandate with the Devil; source & courtesy – incontemptcomics.com | Click for image

Though, in 1995, the women and children of Srebrenica were first removed from the killing grounds by Bosnian Serb troops, though the 8,000 men and boys they killed were a small proportion of the Bosnian Muslim population, it meets the definition. So the trial of Ratko Mladic, the troops’ commander, which began last week, matters. Whatever one thinks of the even-handedness of international law, and though it remains true that men who commissioned or caused the killing of greater numbers of people (George Bush and Tony Blair, for instance) have not been brought to justice and are unlikely to be, every prosecution of this kind makes the world a better place. (via My fight may be hopeless, but it is as necessary as ever | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian).

Here is an interesting Western debate – between members of self-identified Left. On the issue of genocide.

George Monbiot  of The Guardian tries to persuade Noam Chomsky, John Pilger that the Aboriginal genocide in Australia or the extermination of the Native Americans is somehow equal or problematic as civil war killings by warlords in Balkans and Africa (specifically in Rwanda and Bosnia).

There are two aspects that seem important to me.

One – There is a difference between systematic killings by the State – like in the case of Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, and the killings by factions in a civil war – like in Rwanda and Bosnia. There is also a good case that these two cases of killings (Rwanda and Bosnia) were in fact based on the structures erected and supported by Western imperialism.

Two – A significant difference is status of the killers.

Can a Rwandan warlord who kills nearly a million Africans in a civil war be an equal to a George Bush who initiated war against Iraq based on patently false grounds?

George Monbiot seems to say yes!

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• Genocide trial to be held in Rwanda for first time (dailystar.com.lb)
• Guatemala ex-dictator gets 2nd genocide charge (miamiherald.com)
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