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Monday, September 9, 2019

The Ingredients of Genocide

Lets not go back to the Holocaust to look at the beginnings of genocide.  Let's look at a more modern genocide to see where we are here, in the United States, with the current immigration policies that have separated families and left people dehumanized in cages.
Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days.  Most of the dead were Tutsis - and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus.  The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994.  Whoever was responsible, within hours a campaign of violence spread from the capital throughout the country, and did not subside until three months later.
But the death of the president was by no means the only cause of Africa's largest genocide in modern times.  There was violence and ethnic tensions that went back to the 19th century.  There were many ingredients that are listed above in our current administrations treatment of Central Americans seeking asylum.  And let's remember, until the mid-19th century, all the border land in the US belonged to Mexico.  We took the land and then appear surprised that there are Mexicans living on it.  This is no more excusable than the slaughter of Rwandans 25 years ago.

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