10 Stages to a Genocide
Genocide is a process that develops in ten stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The process is not linear. Stages may occur simultaneously. Logically, later stages must be preceded by earlier stages. But all stages continue to operate throughout the process. - Gregory H. Stanton
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The stages we studied
Work citedEngelberg, Stephen. "Carving Out a Greater Serbia." The New York Times. September 01, 1991. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/01/magazine/carving-out-a-greater-serbia.html
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The first stage of the “Stages of Genocide,” classification, was prominent in Serbia and Yugoslavia in 1991 and led to the 1995 actions by Serbs in Bosnia, proving them to constitute as genocidal. The President of Serbia in 1991, Slobodan Milosevic, created ethnic nationalism in his country and a divide between Serbs and other ethnicities with his “Greater Serbia.” The New York Times published an article in 1991 titled Carving Out a Greater Serbia as fighting was breaking out in Yugoslavia regarding territory. This article gives an outside perspective on Serbia’s actions in 1991 and shows Slobodan Milosevic’s perspective and the way of thinking that he cast on the people of Serbia. This insight helps prove that the Serbs’ massacres of Muslims and Croats in Bosnia in 1995 truly do constitute as a genocide. The article shows that classification was already taking place in 1991 and acted as a warning to the global community about the possible dangers to come.
As explained in this article, Serbia was taking part in classification which caused a polarizing “us and them” mentality on the basis of ethnicity. The New York Times author states that nowhere in the world was “the process of disintegration so advanced as in Yugoslavia.” This separation fits with the definition of classification as there was a lack of mixed ethnic categories which is one of the first developments that make countries especially susceptible to genocide. The different ethnicities all saw each other as different. With Yugoslavia divided, the article explains how Slobodan Milosevic was able to convince his people that foreigners, who were not considered apart of their group, were a threat to their Greater Serbia. This polarizing “us and them” mentality caused by classification created an enemy for the Serbs to defeat, with that enemy being all other ethnicities in Yugoslavia. According to the article, in 1991, Bosnia was 45% Moslem Slav, 35% Serb, and 18% Croat, all living in different sections within the country as a result of classification. With the perceived difference between people of different ethnicities, Milosevic aimed to ethnically cleanse Bosnia so that only and all Serbs were apart of Greater Serbia. This article shows the classification that led to the violence against the Muslims and Croats proving the Serbs’ actions as genocidal. |
Work cited"MASSACRE IN BOSNIA;Srebrenica: The Days of Slaughter." The New York Times. October 29, 1995. Accessed February 04, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/29/world/massacre-in-bosnia-srebrenica-the-days-of-slaughter.html.
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Based on the definition of dehumanization, and the accounts of citizens and government officials, the mass killings in Bosnia can be labeled as a genocide. On July 10th, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces massed outside of a United Nations city of refuge and proceeded to kill approximately 6,000 Muslim citizens, specifically men. Both the United Nations and the Western alliance did nothing, and the killing and torture of the Muslim men continued and intensified. A 55-year-old carpenter, Hurem Suljic, was taken by a Serbian soldier, and was dropped off at a warehouse filled with men. A soldier would come in and pick out different men, and Suljic remembers hearing screaming, “a specific sound, like the sound when you slaughter an animal,” from the outside of the warehouse. In total 40 men were beaten, 10 were thrown back inside, and 5 died in the morning. The next day, the same process was repeated. Finally, it was Suljic’s turn, and he was taken into a gym filled with about 2,500 men in total. He was then transported on a bus, and pushed his blindfold up and saw a field littered with bodies. Hurem was then put in line with three other men, and soldiers began to shoot. He escaped being shot, because other men fell on top of him, and after hours he heard the Serb soldiers say, “Everything is finished; nobody is left.” The Serbian soldiers brutally murdered and tortured over 8,000 Muslim men in total, dehumanizing them by treating them like animals and disregarding their basic rights.
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Work CitedSrebrenica was not genocide: Bosnian Serb leader https://web.archive.org/web/20100717064036/http://www.france24.com/en/20100427-srebrenica-was-not-genocide-bosnian-serb-leader.
"Istraživanje: Kako Građani RS-a Gledaju Na Genocid U Srebrenici." Al Jazeera Balkans. July 11, 2018. http://balkans.aljazeera.net/video/istrazivanje-kako-gradani-rs-gledaju-na-genocid-u-srebrenici. |
Denial is one of the key indicators that genocide occurred. The perpetrators of genocide will always try to cover up their genocide, trying to make it seem as if there was not actually one. The Bosnian genocide is no exception to denial in this manner. In 2010, The President of Republika Srpska (one of the constitutional and legal entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Milorad Dodik stated, “We cannot and will never accept qualifying that event as a genocide,” in reference to a massacre in Srebrenica where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were executed then buried in mass graves. He is saying that he is not going to believe in the genocide that occurred and he is denying that the genocide ever happened as he states “we cannot and will never accept the events as genocide". He also stated that the true number of Muslims killed should be 3,500, without even explaining how that number was determined. Here, he is using fake numbers to convince the masses, revealing that he was just trying to disregard the true number to make it seem as if the horrible event was not that bad, when in fact, it was. As of the writing of the article, 6,400 bodies were identified using DNA. Additionally, in a poll conducted this year, 66 percent of Serbs who are part of Republika Srpska believe that there was no Bosnian genocide. This dreadful statistic tells that the Serbian government was able to convince most of the citizens that there was no genocide. In the future, we should work harder to make sure that genocides are remembered as genocides.
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