Genocide

The word genocide, which is also known as ethnic cleansing, is certainly not uncommon to anyone living in this not so perfect world, full of violence, hatred and discrimination. Throughout the decades, genocide has taken place in more than one occasion, causing wars, slaughters and mass destruction of cities and towns. Genocide has taken place all over the world, with some of the most well known being the Holocaust and the African genocide. Even with murders happening everyday because of someone's race or religion, the world often turns it's head, afraid to see or realize the truth. Could genocide be prevented, or is it one of the things the world must sadly face' In 1944, Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin was trying to find a word to describe the Nazi's policies of systematic murder, but there was no word. Lemkin then created his own word, Genocide. The word is derived from the Greek word "geno-", meaning race or tribe, and the Latin root "-cide", meaning to kill. In 1948, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This convention establishes "genocide” as an international crime, which signatory nations “undertake to prevent and punish.” The crime of Genocide has been committed or attempted many times in recorded history. The best known example in this century was theattempt by Nazi Germany during the 1930's and 1940's to destroy the Jewish population of Europe, known as the Holocaust. By the end of WWII, 6 million Jews had been killed in Nazi concentration camps. In Rwanda, massacres have been going on for almost 2 decades.The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994., and in that same year, approximately 800.000 people were killed. Even though ethnic tension in Rwanda is not a new thing, it still has a profound effect on today's world. Throughout the world in many countries genocide effects different cultures, ethnic groups and cultures. Genocide is not a very talked about topic. In text books, there usually is only a small section on the Holocaust. There are no passages in the African section that include information about the genocide that has occurred between the Hutus and the Tutsi. Another example of ignorance in history books involves the Jews and the Romans. The Jews were persecuted, and genocide did occur, yet there is no such information included in the text, and it is little known that currently Chinese are killing Tibetan Buddhists in attempt to wipe out the whole group.