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===Cambodia===
===Cambodia===
Cambodia's ethnic minorities that constituted 15 percent of the population were driven out from the country or simply murdered during the [[Khmer Rouge]] regime. Out of 450,000 Vietnamese living in the country no survivors were known by 1979. The Chinese community about 425,000 people in 1975 was reduced to 200,000 during the next four years.<ref>{{cite book |title=Century of genocide: |last=Totten |first=Samuel |authorlink= |coauthors=William S. Parsons, Israel W. Charny |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location= |isbn=0415944309 |page=345 |pages= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=5Ef8Hrx8Cd0C&pg=PA345&dq |accessdate=}}</ref>
Cambodia's ethnic minorities that constituted 15 percent of the population in Cambodia. Of the 400,000 VIetnamese who lived in Cambodia before 1975, some 320,000 were expelled by the previous Lon Nol regime. When the Khmer Rouge came to power, there remained about 100,000 Vietnamese left. Almost all of them were repatriated by December 1975. Some argue that that the Khmer Rouge had no intent to cause serious mental and physical harm to the Vietnamese during the repatriation process. <ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20080203144203/http://www.phnompenhpost.com/TXT/letters/l1402-2.htm Phnom Penh Post, "Debating Genocide"]</ref>


The Chinese community about 425,000 people in 1975 was reduced to 200,000 during the next four years.<ref>{{cite book |title=Century of genocide: |last=Totten |first=Samuel |authorlink= |coauthors=William S. Parsons, Israel W. Charny |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location= |isbn=0415944309 |page=345 |pages= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=5Ef8Hrx8Cd0C&pg=PA345&dq |accessdate=}}</ref> In the Khmer Rouge's Standing Committee, four members were of Chinese ancestry, two Vietnamese, and two Khmers. Some observers argue that this mixed composition makes it difficult to argue that there was an intent to kill off minorities.
⚫
Cambodia led by [[Pol Pot]], executed after a veneer of due process, over a million Cambodians, out of a total population of 8 million.<ref>Kaplan, Robert D., The Ends of the Earth, Vintage, 1996, p. 406.</ref> Estimates suggest approximately 1.7 million were killed in the Cambodian genocide and it is described by the [[Yale University]] Cambodian Genocide Program as "one of the worst human tragedies of the last century."<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/cgp/ The CGP, 1994-2008] Cambodian Genocide Program, [[Yale University]]</ref> Pol Pot is sometimes described as "the [[Hitler]] of Cambodia" and "a genocidal tyrant".<ref>William Branigin, [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-664002.html Architect of Genocide Was Unrepentant to the End] ''[[The Washington Post]]'', April 17, 1998</ref> [[Martin Shaw (sociologist)|Martin Shaw]] described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the [[Cold War]] era".<ref>''Theory of the Global State: Globality as Unfinished Revolution'' by [[Martin Shaw (sociologist)|Martin Shaw]], [[Cambridge University Press]], 2000, pp 141, ISBN 9780521597302</ref>


⚫
During Democratic Kampuchea, the country experienced serious hardships due to the effects of war and disrupted economic activity. According to Michael Vickery, over 650,000 people in Cambodia in a population of about 7 million died due to disease, overwork, and political repression. Other estimates suggest approximately 1.7 million and it is described by the [[Yale University]] Cambodian Genocide Program as "one of the worst human tragedies of the last century."<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/cgp/ The CGP, 1994-2008] Cambodian Genocide Program, [[Yale University]]</ref> Pol Pot is sometimes described as "the [[Hitler]] of Cambodia" and "a genocidal tyrant".<ref>William Branigin, [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-664002.html Architect of Genocide Was Unrepentant to the End] ''[[The Washington Post]]'', April 17, 1998</ref> [[Martin Shaw (sociologist)|Martin Shaw]] described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the [[Cold War]] era".<ref>''Theory of the Global State: Globality as Unfinished Revolution'' by [[Martin Shaw (sociologist)|Martin Shaw]], [[Cambridge University Press]], 2000, pp 141, ISBN 9780521597302</ref>
⚫
The genocide ended when [[Vietnam]], backed by the Soviet Union, invaded Cambodia, removing Pol Pot from power.<ref>Howard, Lise Morje. [http://books.google.com/books?id=QeVykay5lakC&pg=PA132&dq=American-backed+genocide+cambodia&lr=#v=onepage&q=American-backed%20genocide%20cambodia&f=false ''UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars''.] Cambridge University Press. P. 132.</ref> U.S. analyst Lawrence LeBlanc has suggested that the United States bowed to Chinese and ASEAN interests and voted for a UN seat for the Pol Pot regime{{ndash}} however the USA claimed that the issue of seating a delegation was purely technical and legal, and that its support of seating the Pol Pot regime did not imply approval of that regime's policies, although key [[Jimmy Carter]] aide [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] has admitted that the U.S. encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot, remarking in 1979 that "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot... Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him but China could."<ref name="LeBlanc">LeBlanc, Lawrence J. [http://www.enotes.com/genocide-encyclopedia/united-states-foreign-policies-toward-genocide "United States Foreign Policies Toward Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity".]</ref><ref>Kiernan, Ben. [http://www.historyplace.com/pointsofview/kiernan.htm "Cambodia's Twisted Path to Justice"]. History Place. Retrieved 11 August 2009.</ref>

⚫
[[Vietnam]], backed by the Soviet Union, invaded Cambodia, removing Pol Pot from power.<ref>Howard, Lise Morje. [http://books.google.com/books?id=QeVykay5lakC&pg=PA132&dq=American-backed+genocide+cambodia&lr=#v=onepage&q=American-backed%20genocide%20cambodia&f=false ''UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars''.] Cambridge University Press. P. 132.</ref> U.S. analyst Lawrence LeBlanc has suggested that the United States bowed to Chinese and ASEAN interests and voted for a UN seat for the Pol Pot regime{{ndash}} however the USA claimed that the issue of seating a delegation was purely technical and legal, and that its support of seating the Pol Pot regime did not imply approval of that regime's policies, although key [[Jimmy Carter]] aide [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] has admitted that the U.S. encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot, remarking in 1979 that "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot... Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him but China could."<ref name="LeBlanc">LeBlanc, Lawrence J. [http://www.enotes.com/genocide-encyclopedia/united-states-foreign-policies-toward-genocide "United States Foreign Policies Toward Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity".]</ref><ref>Kiernan, Ben. [http://www.historyplace.com/pointsofview/kiernan.htm "Cambodia's Twisted Path to Justice"]. History Place. Retrieved 11 August 2009.</ref>


==Recent developments==
==Recent developments==

Revision as of 20:29, 15 August 2009

Skulls of victims of communist regime in Cambodia under Pol Pot.
Child victim of the Holodomor.

The term Communist genocide [1] refers to the claim that mass killings carried out by the communist regimes in the former USSR,[2] the Democratic Kampuchea, the People's Republic of China[3] and Ethiopia[4] should be considered genocide or politicide.[5] Communists have been accused of orchestrating genocide against Nazi collaborators in Slovenia, where mummified remains and massacre sites of suspected Nazi collaborators are still being discovered to this day.[6][7] A Slovene historian, commenting when 540 such sites had been located throughout Slovenia, has said that communist executions of Nazi collaborators have made Srebrenica look like "an innocent case" by comparison.[8]

Overview

Harry Wu writes "The term ‘genocide’ was first coined in the 1940s to describe the horrors of Nazi rule in occupied Europe. In Nazi Germany, the machine of oppression was the concentration camp; in the Soviet Union, the Gulag. In China, it is the Laogai which means ‘reform through labor.’"[9] Former Vietnamese judge Nguyen Cao Quyen, who was a victim of communist political repression after the communist victory in the Vietnam War, describes communist genocide as the "genocide of entire classes".[10] Michael Shafir writes, "the notion of genocide has originally been confined to the physical annihilation, or intention to do so, of members of whole nations. If it were to have remained confined within those boundaries, the Communist genocide would, perhaps, be arguably applicable to massive deportations and annihilation of a large number of Ukrainians, Balts and other Soviet nationals, but if would leave out the massive extermination of own-nationals. The Cambodian Khmer Rouge, among others, could never be indicted for 'genocide,' which is absurd."[11]

John N. Gray in the book Post-Liberalism: Studies in Political Thought observed "that the political creation of an artificial terror-famine with genocidal results is not a phenomenon restricted to the historical context of Russia and the Ukraine in the Thirties, but is a feature of Communist policy to this day, as evidenced in the sixties in Tibet and now in Ethiopia. The socialist genocide of small, "primitive" peoples, such as the Kalmucks and many others, has been a recurrent element in polices at several stages in the development of Soviet and Chinese totalitarianism". Gray goes on to state "that communist policy in this respect faithfully reproduces classical Marxism, which had an explicit and pronounced contempt for "small, backward and reactionary peoples - no less than for the peasantry as a class and a form of social life".[4]

Stéphane Courtois in The Black Book of Communism compared Communism and Nazism as slightly different totalitarian systems. He claims that Communist regimes have killed "approximately 100 million people in contrast to the approximately 25 million victims of Nazis." [12]

History

Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

See also: Great Purge

During the Russian Civil War, there was intense conflict between the Russian Government and the "Don Army" of General Krasnov. White Cossacks initiated a civil war in the Don Region in late 1917. After the German occupation of Rostov on May 8, a puppet regime headed by Krasnov was formed in Rostov. Krasnov's forces then invaded Tsaritsyn, but were defeated. In the period that Krasnov's regime controlled the Don province, more than 40,000 people were executed.[13] Cossacks rebelled against the Krasnov regime, which helped the Red Army advance in the region in January 1919. The Soviet forces then retaliated against their defeated enemies. The Southern Front published instructions stating, "The main duty of stanitsa and khutor executive committees is to neutralize the Cossackry through the merciless extirpation of its elite. District and Stanitsa atamans are subject to unconditional elimination, [but] khutor atamans should be subject to execution only in those cases where it can be proved that they actively supported Krasnov's policies (having organized pacification, conducted mobilization, refused to offer refuge to revolutionary Cossacks or to Red Army men)" Before the White Cossacks seized power again in March 1919, revolutionary tribunals executed thousands of alleged counter-revolutionaries. After the revolt, the Soviet Government concluded that the decossackization was an error that contributed to counter-revolution. The Government then cancelled the policy later in 1919. Some authors call these events "genocide", but experts on the subject such as Peter Holquist and Andrei Venkov conclude that they did not constitute genocide. [14]

Some Ukrainian nationalist politicians and authors in the West characterize the 1930s famine as genocide against Ukraine. But experts on the famine do not characterize the famine as genocide. [15] [16] Allegations that the famine was genocide has provoked controversy in Russia, where the Government concludes that Russia the famine affected the entire country, not just Ukraine. [17] Scholars conclude that the famine was not genocide because there was no purpose to exterminate Ukrainians as a people. Some attribute the famine go government policies. [18] Others trace the causes of the famine to natural disasters which contributed to a genuine shortage in food and a significant decrease in agriculture. [19]

During the the second world war, Crimean Tatars were deported to eastern parts of the Soviet Union. The deportation was justified by the collaboration of tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars with the Nazi occupation regime during the war. Amir Weiner of Stanford University writes that the policy could be classified as "ethnic cleansing". But it is concluded that the policy was not genocide because there was no intent to kill off the Crimean Tatars in an attack. [20]

Cambodia

Cambodia's ethnic minorities that constituted 15 percent of the population in Cambodia. Of the 400,000 VIetnamese who lived in Cambodia before 1975, some 320,000 were expelled by the previous Lon Nol regime. When the Khmer Rouge came to power, there remained about 100,000 Vietnamese left. Almost all of them were repatriated by December 1975. Some argue that that the Khmer Rouge had no intent to cause serious mental and physical harm to the Vietnamese during the repatriation process. [21]

The Chinese community about 425,000 people in 1975 was reduced to 200,000 during the next four years.[22] In the Khmer Rouge's Standing Committee, four members were of Chinese ancestry, two Vietnamese, and two Khmers. Some observers argue that this mixed composition makes it difficult to argue that there was an intent to kill off minorities.

During Democratic Kampuchea, the country experienced serious hardships due to the effects of war and disrupted economic activity. According to Michael Vickery, over 650,000 people in Cambodia in a population of about 7 million died due to disease, overwork, and political repression. Other estimates suggest approximately 1.7 million and it is described by the Yale University Cambodian Genocide Program as "one of the worst human tragedies of the last century."[23] Pol Pot is sometimes described as "the Hitler of Cambodia" and "a genocidal tyrant".[24] Martin Shaw described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the Cold War era".[25]

Vietnam, backed by the Soviet Union, invaded Cambodia, removing Pol Pot from power.[26] U.S. analyst Lawrence LeBlanc has suggested that the United States bowed to Chinese and ASEAN interests and voted for a UN seat for the Pol Pot regime– however the USA claimed that the issue of seating a delegation was purely technical and legal, and that its support of seating the Pol Pot regime did not imply approval of that regime's policies, although key Jimmy Carter aide Zbigniew Brzezinski has admitted that the U.S. encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot, remarking in 1979 that "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot... Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him but China could."[27][28]

Recent developments

Remembrance of communist genocide

Remembrance Day for the Victims of Communist Genocide is celebrated in Latvia on June 14.[29]

Charges of genocide

In 2005, Slovenia charged Mitja Ribicic, a chief in the security forces under Yugoslavia's communist leader Tito, with genocide as Slovene media accused him of orchestrating "summary execution of suspected Nazi collaborators."[30] The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence.[31]

In August 2007, Arnold Meri, a cousin of former Estonian president Lennart Meri, faced charges of genocide by Estonian authorities.[32] The trial was halted when Meri died March 27, 2009, at the age of 89.

Denial of communist genocide and law against denial

To prevent the denial of communist genocide, several Central European countries enacted laws which state "endorsing or attempting to justify Nazi or Communist genocide" will be punishable by up to three years of imprisonment.[33]

The Czech Republic has a law including a provision against denial of communist genocide. Article 261a of the amended constitution of December 16, 1992 states "the person who publicly denies, puts in doubt, approves or tries to justify Nazi or communist genocide, or other crimes against humanity of Nazis or communists will be punished by prison of 6 months to 3 years."[34]

In Ukraine, a draft law "On Amendments to the Criminal and the Procedural Criminal Codes of Ukraine" submitted by President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada, envisages prosecution for public denial of the Holodomor Famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine as a fact of genocide of the Ukrainian people, and of the Holocaust as the fact of genocide of the Jewish people. The draft law foresees that public denial as well as production and dissemination of materials denying the above shall be punished by a fine of 100 to 300 untaxed minimum salaries, or imprisonment of up to two years.[35]

See also

Notes and References

  • Valentino, Benjamin A (2005). "Communist Mass Killings: The Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia". Final solutions: mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century. Cornell University Press. pp. 91–151. ISBN 0801472733. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  • WEISS-WENDT, ANTON (2005). "Hostage of Politics Raphael Lemkin on "Soviet Genocide"" (PDF). Journal of Genocide Research (7(4)): 551–559. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Deker, Nikolai (1958). Genocide in the USSR: studies in group destruction. Scarecrow Press. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  1. ^ White, James Daniel (2007). "Understanding genocide". Fear of persecution: global human rights, international law, and human well-being. Lexington Books. pp. 248–249. ISBN 0739115669. The scale of communist genocide is overwhelming, and it will be years before all the information about these atrocities is processed and disseminated {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Deker, Nikolai K (1958). Genocide in the USSR: studies in group destruction. Scarecrow Press. p. 12. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Gray, Brian. Advanced Iron Palm. DEStech Publications. p. 67. ISBN 1932078908. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help).
  4. ^ a b Gray, John. In Totalitarianism at the crossroads. Ellen Frankel Paul (Editor). Transaction Publisher, 1990
  5. ^ Lenṭin, Ronit (1997). Gender and catastrophe. Zed Books. p. 1997. Soviet and communist genocide and mass state killings, sometimes termed politicide, occurred in the Soviet Union, Cambodia, and the People's Republic of China {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ [1] TerrorismCentral Newsletter. May 29, 2005. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
  7. ^ Štor, Barbara. "Post-War Killings: Enter the Bloody History". 2 April 2009. The Slovenia Times. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  8. ^ "Slovenia digs up proof of World War 2 Slaughter". Reuters. 22 October 2007. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
  9. ^ Classicide-Genocide in Communist China, by Harry Wu, Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2006, Vol. 18 Issue 1/2, p121-135, 15p
  10. ^ Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOCMF) hold Fund Raising Gala The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
  11. ^ Shafir, Michael. In Lentin, Ronit. Re-presenting the Shoah for the Twenty-first Century. Berghahn Books, 2004. ISBN 9781571818027. P. 220.
  12. ^ The Black Book of Communism, Introduction, page 15.
  13. ^ [ Walter Laqueur, Black hundred: the rise of the extreme right in Russia‎, p.195
  14. ^ Holquist, Peter, "A Russian Vendee: The Practice of Revolutionary Politics in the Don Countryside, 1917-1921." Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1994.
  15. ^ http://www.as.wvu.edu/history/Faculty/Tauger/Tauger,%20%27The%201932%20Harvest%20and%20the%20Famine%20of%201933,%20SR%2091.pdf
  16. ^ # Robert W. Davies; Wheatcroft, Stephen G., The Years of Hunger. Soviet Agriculture 1931-1933, Houndmills 2004 ISBN 3-412-10105-2, also ISBN 0-333-31107-8
  17. ^ http://www.russiatoday.ru/Top_News/2009-05-25/Who_is_the_culprit_Ukraine_starts_Holodomor_criminal_case__.html
  18. ^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=JXN49vbz1B4C&pg=PA194&dq=j+arch+getty+famine+genocide#v=onepage&q=j%20arch%20getty%20famine%20genocide&f=false Is the Holocaust Unique?: Perspectives on Comparative Genocide Alan S. Rosenbaum
  19. ^ http://www.as.wvu.edu/history/Faculty/Tauger/Tauger,%20Natural%20Disaster%20and%20Human%20Actions.pdf
  20. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=KStML5rSbQ4C&pg=PA223&dq=crimean+tatars+genocide+soviet+collaborate&lr=#v=onepage&q=&f=false
  21. ^ Phnom Penh Post, "Debating Genocide"
  22. ^ Totten, Samuel (2004). Century of genocide:. Routledge. p. 345. ISBN 0415944309. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ The CGP, 1994-2008 Cambodian Genocide Program, Yale University
  24. ^ William Branigin, Architect of Genocide Was Unrepentant to the End The Washington Post, April 17, 1998
  25. ^ Theory of the Global State: Globality as Unfinished Revolution by Martin Shaw, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp 141, ISBN 9780521597302
  26. ^ Howard, Lise Morje. UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars. Cambridge University Press. P. 132.
  27. ^ LeBlanc, Lawrence J. "United States Foreign Policies Toward Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity".
  28. ^ Kiernan, Ben. "Cambodia's Twisted Path to Justice". History Place. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  29. ^ Remembrance Day for the Victims of Communist Genocide
  30. ^ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4581197.stm Man on Slovenia genocide charges] BBC News
  31. ^ Štor, Barbara. "Post-War Killings: Enter the Bloody History". 2 April 2009. The Slovenia Times. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  32. ^ Estonian charged with Communist genocide International Herald Tribune, August 23, 2007
  33. ^ Is Holocaust denial against the law? Anne Frank House
  34. ^ Michael Whine, Expanding Holocaust Denial and Legislation Against It Institute for Global Jewish Affairs
  35. ^ "Public denial of Holodomor Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as genocide of Ukrainian people to be prosecuted", December 12, 2007

Further reading

  • Communist Genocide in Cambodia
  • The Communist Genocide in Romania, by Gheorghe Boldur-Latescu, Nova Science Publishers, 2006, ISBN 9781594542510
  • Murder of A Gentle Land, The Untold Story of Communist Genocide in Cambodia, by Barron, John & Paul, Anthony, NY Reader's Digest Press 1977, ISBN 0-88349-129-X
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