THE EIGHT STAGES OF GENOCIDE
By Gregory H. Stanton
Chomedey News, Canada
April 19 2007
EDITORIAL
April should be a month of reflection for humanity on the atrocities
committed throughout our history. We should all reflect on the Armenian
Genocide, commemorated April 24, and on the Holocaust Yom Hashoa,
commemorated April 15.
When Hitler was asked about what will the rest of the world do about
his ‘final solution’ (his attempt to exterminate the Jews) he replied
that it will be forgotten, like the Armenian Genocide.
History has shown that all genocides have something in common. All
start with classification and end by denial, stage seven which is
extermination…
As long as nothing is done to cut a genocide off as early as possible,
at the first stage, humanity will have more genocides to commemorate…
It is imperative to know the signs of these stages that lead to the
extermination of our fellow human beings.
1. CLASSIFICATION:
All cultures have categories to distinguish people into "us and them"
by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu
and Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as
Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide. The main
preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic
institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively
promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications
that transcend the divisions. The Catholic church could have played
this role in Rwanda, had it not been riven by the same ethnic cleavages
as Rwandan society. Promotion of a common language in countries like
Tanzania or Cote d’Ivoire has also promoted transcendent national
identity. This search for common ground is vital to early prevention
of genocide.
2. SYMBOLIZATION:
We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people
"Jews" or "Gypsies", or distinguish them by colors or dress; and
apply them to members of groups. Classification and symbolization are
universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they
lead to the next stage, dehumanization. When combined with hatred,
symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the
yellow star for Jews under Nazi rule, the blue scarf for people from
the Eastern Zone in Khmer Rouge Cambodia.
To combat symbolization, hate symbols can be legally forbidden
(swastikas) as can hate speech. Group marking like gang clothing or
tribal scarring can be outlawed, as well. The problem is that legal
limitations will fail if unsupported by popular cultural enforcement.
Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the
1980’s, code-words replaced them. If widely supported, however,
denial of symbolization can be powerful, as it was in Bulgaria,
when many non-Jews chose to wear the yellow star, depriving it of
its significance as a Nazi symbol for Jews. According to legend in
Denmark, the Nazis did not introduce the yellow star because they
knew even the King would wear it.
3. DEHUMANIZATION:
One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are
equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization
overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder.
At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to
vilify the victim group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement
to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal
societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech,
and should be treated differently than in democracies. Hate radio
stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes
and atrocities should be promptly punished.
4. ORGANIZATION:
Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, though sometimes
informally (Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or by terrorist
groups. Special army units or militias are often trained and armed.
Plans are made for genocidal killings.
To combat this stage, membership in these militias should be
outlawed. Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel.
The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of
countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to
investigate violations, as was done in post-genocide Rwanda.
5. POLARIZATION:
Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing
propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction.
Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the
center. Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or
assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may be seized,
and visas for international travel denied to them. Coups d’¢etat by
extremists should be opposed by international sanctions.
6. PREPARATION:
Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or
religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups
are forced to wear identifying symbols. They are often segregated
into ghettoes, forced into concentration camps, or confined to a
famine-struck region and starved.
At this stage, a Genocide Alert must be called. If the political will
of the U.S., NATO, and the U.N. Security Council can be mobilized,
armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy
assistance to the victim group in preparing for its self-defense.
Otherwise, at least humanitarian assistance should be organized by
the U.N. and private relief groups for the inevitable tide of refugees.
7. EXTERMINATION:
Extermination begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally
called "genocide." It is "extermination" to the killers because they
do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored
by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the
killing. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups
against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of
bilateral genocide (as in Burundi).
At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can
stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be
established with heavily armed international protection. The U.N.
needs a Standing High Readiness Brigade or a permanent rapid reaction
force, to intervene quickly when the U.N. Security Council calls it.
For larger interventions, a multilateral force authorized by the U.N.,
led by NATO or a regional military power, should intervene. If the
U.N. will not intervene directly, militarily powerful nations should
provide the airlift, equipment, and financial means necessary for
regional states to intervene with U.N. authorization. It is time to
recognize that the law of humanitarian intervention transcends the
interests of nation-states.
8. DENIAL:
Denial is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is
among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The
perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies,
try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny
that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the
victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to
govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile.
There they remain with impunity, like Pol Pot or Idi Amin, unless
they are captured and a tribunal is established to try them.
The best response to denial is punishment by an international
tribunal or national courts. There the evidence can be heard, and the
perpetrators punished. Tribunals like the Yugoslav, Rwanda, or Sierra
Leone Tribunals, an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge
in Cambodia, and ultimately the International Criminal Court must be
created. They may not deter the worst genocidal killers. But with the
political will to arrest and prosecute them, some mass murderers may
be brought to justice.
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