A Genocide Ignored

I'll just get right to the point. There is a genocide underway in South Africa. The victims are the Afrikaners/Boers, white South Africans, mostly of Dutch descent, who speak Afrikaans. While the genocide is not necessarily government sanctioned, I still blame the ANC, the only political party to hold power since the end of Apartheid. Why do I blame them? One, because many of these "farm murders" have been fueled by racist, anti-white rhetoric from ANC leaders, most notably ex-ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who was recently fired for such language, although this was only because of pressure from the outside world, and they would have probably otherwise kept him. Also, the police and government have been VERY complacent toward the attacks. An estimated 68,798 Afrikaners have been killed since 1994, mostly in racially motivated killings, and the latest statistics, which are out of date, put the number of commercial farmers at 4,041, which happened during the same period.

I know that this is a controversial subject, as post-Apartheid South Africa and Nelson Mandela in particular have become icons of anti-racism. I also know, regrettably, that many of the people who take up the Afrikaner cause here in the USA are members of white nationalist or supremacist organizations, and while I commend anyone who opposes genocide, I hate being associated with such bigotry. But I don't care what controversy it brings. Many people forget that, before WWII, the US, UK, and all of the nations who would later receive credit for stopping the Nazis and therefore the holocaust, actually IGNORED the holocaust. Yep, it's a historical fact. Had it not been for WWII, the holocaust probably would have went on unchecked. I'm not gonna be part of that complacency.

Weird isn't it? Every year on April 7th, Holocaust rememebrance day, the world leaders get up on their soap boxes and vow that They will never let another genocide happen again. Yet since the Holocaust we have had many genocides have occured and been largely ignored.

Country and Dates Nature of Episode Estimated Number of Victims
Sudan, 10/56-3/72 Politicide with communal victims 400,000-600,000
South Vietnam, 1/65-4/75 Politicide 400,000-500,000
India, Punjab 6/84-6/94 Religious Genocide 150,000
China, 3/59-12/59 Genocide and politicide 65,000
Iraq, 6/63-3/75 Politicide with communal victims 30,000-60,000
Algeria, 7/62-12/62 Politicide 9,000-30,000
Rwanda, 12/63-6/64 Politicide with communal victims 12,000-20,000
Congo-K, 2/64-1/65 Politicide 1,000-10,000
Burundi, 10/65-12/73 Politicide with communal victims 140,000
Indonesia, 11/65-7/66 Genocide and politicide 500,000-1,000,000
China, 5/66-3/75 Politicide 400,000-850,000
Guatemala, 7/78-12/96 Politicide and genocide 60,000-200,000
Pakistan, 3/71-12/71 Politicide with communal victims 1,000,000-3,000,000
Uganda, 2/72-4/79 Politicide and genocide 50,000-400,000
Philippines, 9/72-6/76 Politicide with communal victim 60,000
Pakistan, 2/73-7/77 Politicide with communal victim 5,000-10,000
Chile, 9/73-12/76 Politicide 5,000-10,000
Mexico, 5/68-1/70 Politicide 2,500 (est. to 10,000)
Angola, 11/75-2001 Politicide by UNITA and government forces 500,000
Cambodia, 4/75-1/79 Politicide and genocide 1,900,000-3,500,000
Indonesia, 12/75-7/92 Politicide with communal victims 100,000-200,000
Argentina, 3/76-12/80 Politicide 9,000-20,000
Ethiopia, 7/76-12/79 Politicide 10,000
Congo-K, 3/77-12/79 Politicide with communal victims 3,000-4,000
Afghanistan, 4/78-4/92 Politicide 1,800,000
Burma, 1/78-12/78 Genocide 5,000
El. Salvador, 1/80-12/89 Politicide 40,000-60,000
Uganda, 12/80-1/86 Politicide and genocide 200,000-500,000
Syria, 4/81-2/82 Politicide 5,000-30,000
Iran, 6/81-12/92 Politicide and genocide 10,000-20,000
Sudan, 9/83-present Politicide with communal victim 2,000,000
Iraq, 3/88-6/91 Politicide with communal victim 180,000
Somalia, 5/88-1/91 Politicide with communal victims 15,000-50,000
Bosnia, 5/92-11/95 Genocide 225,000
Burundi, 10/93-5/94 Genocide 50,000
Rwanda, 4/94-7/94 Genocide 500,000-1,000,000
Serbia, 12/98-7/99 Politicide with communal victims 10,000

Never can be sure how accurate the numbers are but ask yourself how many consititutes a geniocide?

in a book i read, a history and moral philosophy teacher asks of his students (all officer candidates) 'if ten thousand of our guys are held captive somewhere, is that enough reason to start back up the conflict, knowing full well that more than that may die in the process of rescue?'

to which the protagonist replied 'yes sir! more than enough.'

the teacher then asked 'very well. how about 10 men?' the protagonist balked. 'come, come, mr rico! i asked you a question! you have stated that 10,000 men is sufficient reason to resume hostilities, yet have not answered if ten are?'

mr rico takes a stab at it. 'yes sir. its enough.'

the teacher says, 'well, then by that logic, one may argue that the heavy price paid for these men, be they 10 or 10,000, could be equated to potatoes. 10 would cost the same as 10,000. is this correct?'

'no sir.' 'why not?' 'men are not potatoes.'

'ah, excellent, mr rico. bring me a 10,000 word analysis of your logic and reasoning to class tomorrow. i want you all to think about this. when do we apply pressure on an enemy, and why. class dismissed.'

the above is not verbatim. its from one of my favorite novels, and i wrote it from memory. i have read it enough times to have a very close recall of what was said.

but the point the H&MP teacher was trying to make stands here as well. when do we attack a group, and over what offense? when are their hostilities enough to 'justify' it? do they ever? is 'fighting for peace' as ridiculous as 'screwing for virginity' or 'infecting people with AIDS for good health'?

im sure you see what im getting at. and i am not an isolationist, by any means. but after the past two large scale US interventions (iraq and afghanistan), i am VERY wary about sending troops ANYWHERE short of to defend a continent against the aggressive expansion of fascism as in WW2. or something like that.

If you were one of those 10,000 potatoes you'd probably say yes

My point was not to declare war everytime something like this happens. I was pointing out the Hypocracy of world leaders saying they will never allow another holocaust while they ignore or dismiss the recent genocides or attempts at genocide.

I assume those 10,000 men in your example were soldiers and combatants. Genocides happen to non-combatants; children, woman, elderly. Quite a different situation. Do you think students answer would be different if 10,000 people were women, children and elderly?

As for deloying troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, been there and done that, I'd go again if ordered (but by no means am I going to enthusiatically volunteer). For me, having worked with and lived withe people of both countries, its hard to say we shouldn't have deployed troops there.

i dont know if the answer would be the same.

ALSO been there, done that, will NEVER ever ever do it again. in the army and as a contractor is where i first understood what the H&MP teacher was actually trying to say, in this book i had read literally for over a decade at least once a year. i am in no position to make those kinds of calls anymore, they are WAY above my paygrade. and yours. and some would say even the President's. possibly only answerable to god. maybe not even then.

there are a couple of threads here along the lines of 'when is war justified'. my suggestion is to check those out as far as a better idea of what other jedi believe on the subject.

i neglected to explain why i keep mentioning war. here is why:

in grad school we wrote a series of paper on the iraq war, which was in its infancy then. how many troops would be needed, how long, what equipment, etc. in order to properly pacify such a large population, you needed more troops than we ever deployed there. and now we are left with a tumultuous country on the verge of civil war due to these early oversights.

the same applies here. IF there is something that can be labelled genocide going on, it follows that it is being performed by a force of some significant size. this force would need to be hunted down and destroyed or risk resurgence. spec ops teams alone would not be able to carry out such a large scale mission, but would require staging points, FOBs, air support, supply lines, ground troops, etc. AKA, a small scale (at least) war. this is what you are calling for.

'Alright! Alright!' Tom cheered, mostly getting out the excitement of Author-Mama and her pro-activist side because everyone else was very, very solemn.

'Just like before.' Gornash -- a very Jewish-themed character with tattoos on his inner arm -- muttered, 'Never again, never again, they say. And then...'

Ken, being a character that was both Gornash's sworn enemy and yet greatest ally, laid a pacifying arm on Gornash's shoulder.

'Is there any proposed solution? Is there a petition any of us can sign, or letters we can send to our representatives?' He asked, being of a similar mindset. The CMC and his butler, Nash -- both whom were the original fiction incarnations of the odd pair -- appeared to be perusing the topic, looking for any such information.

'To have a Zero moment, here --' An older fanfiction Ken butted in, 'Who are you waiting on to start this protest FOR you? You have to do it, yourselves, or nobody will.'

Triclops set down his knitting and pulled the computer over.

'Alright, then -- we shall start something. Since Miss Author deleted her facebook, then I suppose Change.org is going to be our best bet. Tom-' The monkey character did a comic-double take, 'Get on the internet and start researching details about this genocide. And Kenda-' His ever loving partner gave a salute, knowing what he wanted her to handle.

Star Forge wrote: An estimated 68,798 Afrikaners have been killed since 1994, mostly in racially motivated killings, and the latest statistics, which are out of date, put the number of commercial farmers at 4,041, which happened during the same period.

Can you site your source for the 60,000+ number? I tried to find that number online, and I found the number of farmers, which was about what you said, but no site provided a number claiming that 60,000+ people had been killed since 1994.

Desolous wrote: IF there is something that can be labelled genocide going on, it follows that it is being performed by a force of some significant size. this force would need to be hunted down and destroyed or risk resurgence. spec ops teams alone would not be able to carry out such a large scale mission, but would require staging points, FOBs, air support, supply lines, ground troops, etc. AKA, a small scale (at least) war. this is what you are calling for.

To stop apartheid in the first place, what South Africa needed was international recognition and reaction to a problem; no forces were sent into the country. Many people believe that there are only two ways to leverage international power agains a country: sanctions, and war. I choose to thinks that diplomacy is also always an option. But, even if diplomacy would not substantially change things in South Africa, international recognition and reaction would. So, I think Start Forge's post could be seen as a PSA on a little known topic, not a call to arms.

Joey wrote:

Star Forge wrote: An estimated 68,798 Afrikaners have been killed since 1994, mostly in racially motivated killings, and the latest statistics, which are out of date, put the number of commercial farmers at 4,041, which happened during the same period.

Can you site your source for the 60,000+ number? I tried to find that number online, and I found the number of farmers, which was about what you said, but no site provided a number claiming that 60,000+ people had been killed since 1994.

Desolous wrote: IF there is something that can be labelled genocide going on, it follows that it is being performed by a force of some significant size. this force would need to be hunted down and destroyed or risk resurgence. spec ops teams alone would not be able to carry out such a large scale mission, but would require staging points, FOBs, air support, supply lines, ground troops, etc. AKA, a small scale (at least) war. this is what you are calling for.

To stop apartheid in the first place, what South Africa needed was international recognition and reaction to a problem; no forces were sent into the country. Many people believe that there are only two ways to leverage international power agains a country: sanctions, and war. I choose to thinks that diplomacy is also always an option. But, even if diplomacy would not substantially change things in South Africa, international recognition and reaction would. So, I think Start Forge's post could be seen as a PSA on a little known topic, not a call to arms.

Thank you, man. I'm not calling for military intervention necessarily, just recognition of the problem. I've got many good friends in SA, and the ANC (yes, Mandela's gang and the ruling government) tries to keep it hidden from the international audience, but it's leaking out gradually, hence their firing of Malema to appease the ignorant world who does not know the full extent of what is going on. Like you correctly stated, Apartheid was not ended by any violent action (no, Mandela and his gang's terrorist actions during that period didn't help at all, and just made matters worse for blacks), but by international pressure, as well as changing opinions among Afrikaners. When the civil war breaks out, I have already pledged to volunteer, however.

Sapadu, please. I'm not being a **** but this is hardly the appropriate place to use your usual form of writing. People I know have been murdered, so please show a little respect.

Star Forge wrote: Sapadu, please. I'm not being a **** but this is hardly the appropriate place to use your usual form of writing. People I know have been murdered, so please show a little respect.

Sometimes I feel like I'm taken the wrong way when I say these things but...in what way do you think that writing in a different style is disrespectful?

I actually thought Sapadu made some great points. Particularly thought provoking for me was the suggestion that we shouldn't only ever look around trying to find some pre-existing movement. We each have the power to create change. Change always has to start somewhere. Why not with ourselves?

I was not aware of the problem myself, but the figures are awful. I will certainly look into peaceful protest. I don't believe that any country should ever engage in violent conflict with another country on the basis of sorting these things out. No country has the right to interfere in another's affairs. But I would hope that organisations such as the United Nations will sit up and take notice of the situation. Achieving that would be one possible aim of the peaceful protest of individuals.