History of genocide – the hard truth

Forgetting one's own transgressions breeds shamelessness. (Democritus)

Back in time, the Russian Federation vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution on the 1995 events in Srebrenica. The document, tabled by Britain, proposed characterizing those events as "genocide." The question is debatable, especially in the context of civil war. Still, for the sake of comparison, it makes sense to recall the concrete cases of mass extermination of people that were never or too late classified as genocide.

Sadly enough, there are many such horrifying acts in human history, but in this case, British diplomats apparently demonstrated the brevity of their historical memory. The "exploits" of the British, for example, in medieval Ireland, are well known. What is less known, though, is the story described by historian Caroline Elkins in her Pulitzer prizewinning book, Imperial Reckoning: "The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya." In this book, she reveals details of the abuse, torture, and murder of members of the anti-colonial Mau Mau movement by the British in Kenya during the 1950s. The Mau Mau were part of the Kikuyu, Kenya's largest ethnic group. Their 1952 uprising was an attempt to reclaim their "land and will." The British portrayed the Mau Mau as vicious people who used torture and brutalized both the British and their own people. According to Elkins, however, the British were in fact solely responsible for unimaginable atrocities perpetrated in the prison camps. Based on documents and eyewitness testimonies that she personally gathered, Elkins shows that the British rounded up not only 80,000 Kikuyu, as official historiography claims, but almost the entire population of 1.5 million people into camps and fortified villages where thousands died from beatings, malnutrition, typhus, tuberculosis, and dysentery. In some camps, almost all children died. Forced labor was practiced in those camps with slogans like "Work and Freedom" and "He who helps himself will be helped" hung on the gates. Loudspeakers blared the national anthem and patriotic calls, and “rule-breakers” were executed in front of others. Survivors were forced to dig mass graves, which quickly filled with dead bodies. Torture during interrogation was widespread. Men and women were sexually abused in perverted ways; inmates were set upon by dogs and electrocuted. British guards cut off prisoners' ears and fingers and gouged out their eyes. They tied people to their Land Rovers and dragged them until their bodies were torn apart. Men were wrapped in barbed wire and driven around the campgrounds. Elkins provides extensive evidence that the horrors committed in the camps were sanctioned at the highest levels. The Governor of Kenya, Sir Evelyn Baring, regularly intervened to prevent those responsible from being prosecuted. According to the author, the Colonial Secretary, Alan Lennox-Boyd, repeatedly lied in the House of Commons. Elkins’ description of the crimes immediately brings to mind memories of Nazi death camps. Jawaharlal Nehru recalled that the news about the "Atlantic Charter," proclaiming the Anglo-American allies' desire to destroy the system of concentration camps (Nazi, of course), made him smile as he was then sitting in an English jail...

For many decades, no one was brought to justice for the crimes that the German colonialists committed in Africa either, although the UN classified the extermination of the Herero and Nama tribes in German South West Africa, modern Namibia, as genocide as early as 1948. It wasn’t until very recently that the German authorities officially recognized as genocide the early 20^th century extermination of the Herero and Nama tribes by German colonial troops in present-day Namibia, and will apologize to the descendants of the victims, Deutsche Welle reported. After more than five years of negotiations, Germany and Namibia reached an agreement on evaluating the darkest chapter of their shared history, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, adding that as a "gesture of recognition of immeasurable suffering," Germany would provide development funds to Namibia. The 1904-1908 extermination of the Herero and Nama tribes was carried out by German troops led by Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha. Of approximately 80,000 Herero people who resisted the German colonial power, 15,130 survived (1911 census data), while only half of the 20,000 Nama people avoided death. Although the Herero tribe had already been defeated by the Germans, Trotha issued an order for their annihilation: "The Herero are no longer German subjects. Within the German borders, every Herero, with or without weapons, with or without cattle, will be shot; I will no longer accept women or children, I will drive them back to their people or give the order to shoot them. These are my words to the Herero people." Germany existed as a colonial power for only 35 years - from 1884 to 1919. According to the Treaty of Versailles, it lost all its colonies, and on July 9, 1915, German troops surrendered in German South West Africa.

Memories of the unique French "legacy" are also fresh in Algeria. Even though this is an open secret now, no one has been held accountable for what happened there despite the fact that a book by General Paul Aussaresses, titled Special Services, Algeria 1955-1957, came out in France in the early 2000s. In his book, the retired general and holder of the Legion of Honor award described the systematic mass torture and extrajudicial executions (including of civilians) practiced by  the French special units he commanded during the colonial war in Algeria.

"Torture works: most break down and start talking. Well, then, in most cases, the job was finished. Of course, they should have been handed over to justice, and in exceptional cases, we did, but usually, there wasn't time for that. Did we feel any remorse? Honestly, no. I just got used to the practice." However, even these revelations by the ex-General were not enough reason for admitting guilt. Nor did the Fifth Republic acknowledge responsibility for its inaction during the Rwandan genocide. Paris only admitted that it "made mistakes in handling the Rwandan crisis," but denied any conscious complicity in the genocide. However, inaction in a critical situation is a perfect smokescreen for justification. After all, as is now well known, it was precisely the inaction of Dutch peacekeepers that let the tragedy in Srebrenica happen.

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