Two pertinent questions on genocide

1. How does Raphael Lemkin who, in 1943, formulated the word “genocide”, define this crime?

Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.

2. What is the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 9 December 1948?

For details, please click on following link from Office of  the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/genocide.htm (accessed 11 October 2012).

In Africa, since this UN convention, the following peoples have been subjected to the crime of genocide:

1. Igbo, 1966-1970; still continuing – see particularly article II (a), (b) and (c) in link above

2. Tutsi, 1994

3. Darfur, west of the Sudan, since 2004

4. Abyei, south of the Sudan, ongoing

5. Nuba, south of the Sudan, ongoing

6. Multiple nations/nationalities, Zaĩre/Democratic Republic of the Congo (especially east region), variously, since the late 1990s

Since the presumed conclusion of the Igbo genocide, during which 3.1 million Igbo were murdered, 12 million additional Africans have been murdered in the subsequent genocides (see above) and in other wars in Liberia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Algeria, Libya, Kenya, Central African Republic, Angola, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Mali, Ethiopia, Congo Republic, Somalia, South Sudan and Chad.