Genocide- Sydney Gray

 

    In the two readings assigned in class, two humanitarians were discussed, Florence Nightingale and Henry Dunant. Although they sometimes worked together, they had a difference of opinion when it came to the issue of humanitarian aid and what should be done for it. Henry Dunant believed that it is a person’s responsibility to help no matter what the circumstances are. He believes it is the right thing to do and that we should give back. Dunant has stood by the phrase “Tutti Fratelli” which means “we are all brothers”, this shows his mindset in believing it is our duty to help. He has stood by this motto throughout his entire humanitarian aid campaign and it was a daily reminder of why he was doing what he was doing, and it kept him going. However, Florence Nightingale believed that if aid fails in its purpose, the warring parties will use that aid to their advantage (Polman). Dunant eventually formed the Red Cross with the help of others. He was inspired by soldiers who were dying and wanted to find a way to help them. He thought of the great idea to have about a hundred nurses set up close enough where they were easily assessable and able to quickly help the wounded soldiers.

    The ethical disaster in Goma that Polman talks about is the Rwandan genocide that happened in 1995. Genocide is an internationally recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The acts of crime fall into five categories, killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. The term “genocide” was made to describe the murders during the Holocaust, where they were trying to get rid of Jews altogether. However, the Rwandan genocide had two ethnic groups involved, the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Tutsis were cattle farmers while the Hutu were farmers. This caused conflict between the two ethnic groups. The Hutu extremists thought that the Tutsi were trying to stay above them. This caused the Hutu to take out the government and start murdering Tutsis, trying to get rid of them altogether. It was a horrible conflict between two ethnic groups.

     Mali is currently under an alert for genocide emergency. There has been an escalating cycle of violence happening in the country for quite some time now. The government has not been able to control the violence and this situation that they have found themselves in is characterized by an unprecedented level of organization and militarization. Once Qaddafi was overthrown in 2011, the Tuaregs returned to Mali with weapons ready to take over and get what they want. The Tuaregs also founded a new organization to fight for secession of northern Mali called the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA). The goal they were trying to reach is to establish an independent state for the Tuareg people in the Sahel region. They were successful in their defeat of Qaddafi and it has only caused more chaos. While trying to establish an independent state for themselves, they have committed brutal ethnic massacres and many executions. The Malian army recaptured a village that they had been occupying but the NMLA fought back. They recaptured the village and killed 82 prisoners from the Malian army. It started a war. However, the crimes that have been committed have been said to be from the terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Islamist Maghreb (AQIM). Insurgents and security forces have killed thousands of civilians and it has created a humanitarian crisis that is internally displacing hundreds of thousands of Malians. This fight against different groups and the Malian government has been going on for years but it is getting worse as time goes on. In the first six months of 2020 alone, the UN reported 589 civilians killed by various armed groups in central Mali (Ross, 2020). It is currently listed as stage 9, extermination. The government is trying to prevent further violence and deaths by increasing protection to villages in central Mali, as well as working with community leaders to try to lessen the ethnic tensions through educating them and forming peace. Humanitarian assistance to Mali is also being increased and the goal is to provide economic opportunities to individuals tempted to otherwise join armed Islamist groups (Ross, 2020). The country is trying to take steps to get the violence under control and hopefully find peace but so far it has not had much affect.

Watch, Eric Ross | Genocide. “Genocide Emergency: Mali.” Genocidewatch, Genocidewatch, 3 Aug. 2020, www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/2020/08/03/Genocide-Emergency-Mali.