Genocide Studies International - Volume 8, Number 2, Fall 2014

Now available online…
Genocide Studies International - Volume 8, Number 2, Fall 2014
http://bit.ly/gsi82

Editors’ Introduction
Maureen S. Hiebert, Henry Theriault

In our first general issue of Genocide Studies International, we have included a mix of academic articles; a “Research Note” on an important book containing primary documentation of a case of genocide that has not been given the attention it should have; and, in our first “Notes from the Field” installment, an extended interview with a humanitarian aid worker in the midst of ongoing mass violence in the Nuba Mountains area of Sudan. These contents are intended to put into practice GSI’s mission of publishing a journal that not only makes new research and analysis on genocide studies and genocide prevention available to readers but also puts on the record and disseminates important primary documents and other forms of policy-relevant information and analysis that can inform the work of scholars, policy makers, and anti-genocide NGO workers and activists. Our vision for this issue and the journal generally is to bridge the gaps separating ivory-tower academics, policy makers, and communities around the world; researchers and practitioners; and theory and practice. The editors of this issue believe that the articles and other material contained herein go some distance toward accomplishing this task. (excerpt from Editors’ Introduction) DOI: 10.3138/gsi.8.2.01  http://bit.ly/gsi_82e

The United Nations and Genocide Prevention: The Problem of Racial and Religious Bias
Hannibal Travis 

Could racial or religious bias within the United Nations be hindering efforts to prevent and punish the crime of genocide? I answer this question by surveying the UN response to a variety of alleged genocides, ranging from Biafra starting in the late 1960s to Syria starting in 2012. In terms of quantitative analysis, this article explores whether the UN response to claims of genocide is proportionate to the scale of actual harm, using absolute death tolls and percentage reductions in the populations of specific minority groups to assess harm. It finds that voting blocs based on racial or religious identity may be warping the UN response to potential genocides, resulting in disproportionate attention across cases. In this regard, the Arab League, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Republic of Turkey appear to play important roles in shaping UN responses. In terms of qualitative analysis, the article surveys evidence that key actors at the United Nations may have been motivated by bias in framing collective responses to claims of genocide and other mass violence. DOI: 10.3138/gsi.8.2.02  http://bit.ly/GSI82_Travis

Polluting the Waters
Adam Hughes Henry     

In response to an alleged Communist coup in Indonesia on 1 October 1965, ambassadors Sir Keith Shann (Australia), Sir Andrew Gilchrist (United Kingdom), and Marshall Green (United States) initiated anti-Communist propaganda campaigns. In conjunction with the Indonesian army, these campaigns helped to underpin the rationale for widespread, army-coordinated anti-Communist repression throughout Indonesia. Through a careful re-examination of Australian archival materials regarding Indonesia between October 1965 and February 1966, this article provides a detailed, transnational chronology of propaganda efforts during the period of the massacres, highlighting the direct and indirect connections between them and the killings. DOI: 10.3138/gsi.8.2.03 http://bit.ly/GSI82_Henry

The Role of the Netherlands in the European Framework for an International Response on Darfur during its Presidency in 2004–2005
Fred Grünfeld, Wessel N. Vermeulen    

In this article, we discuss the role of the Netherlands with respect to the Darfur crisis during 2003–2005. From the moment the crisis broke out, the Netherlands was active as a major donor and tried to facilitate political solutions. During the period January 2004–July 2005, it functioned as the (acting) presidency of the Council of the European Union and was therefore involved in creating a common EU position. We discuss how policy was made while observing internal (domestic) and external (international) influences. We conclude that the Netherlands was partially successful in establishing a more active EU position regarding Darfur. However, we also find evidence that, eventually, the EU has lagged behind the response of the UN Security Council, despite being a major donor to emergency relief and the African Union mission in Sudan. DOI: 10.3138/gsi.8.2.04 http://bit.ly/gsi_82d

Genocide and Identity (Geo)Politics: Bridging State Reasoning and Diaspora Activism
Khatchik DerGhougassian           

Since the independence of Armenia in 1991, the question of whether and how to include the Armenian Genocide on the state’s foreign policy agenda has become the most important issue of controversy between the republic and the global Armenian diaspora. International recognition of the genocide and demands for reparations have been central to diaspora activism and have defined what experts conceptualize as “identity politics.” The Armenian state, however, has been reluctant to include the issue on its political agenda. Eager to establish diplomatic relations with Turkey and open their shared border—closed since 1993—for trade and economic development, Yerevan has insisted on “relations without preconditions” with Ankara. There is, therefore, a clear gap between the state reasoning and diaspora activism. This paper looks at identity politics and state reasoning through the lenses of international relations theory to examine the divide between the two parties and how it might be bridged. It employs Yossi Shain’s framework of diaspora politics to study the relationship between the Armenian diaspora and state concerning the question of the genocide. It argues that an area of convergence followed the failure of the Armenian-Turkish agreement of 2009, which is evidence of an ongoing social construction of identity geopolitics toward a bridging of the gap. DOI: 10.3138/gsi.8.2.05 http://bit.ly/GSI82_DerGhougassian

Anatomy of Denial: Manipulating Sources and Manufacturing a Rebellion
Dikran Kaligian  

Turkey’s and Sudan’s governments use similar genocide denial tactics. This article, by closely examining Turkey’s tactic of claiming an Armenian rebellion, can help scholars combat similar claims by Sudan. Deniers claim the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) fomented a rebellion, but they elide the fact that Turkey’s ruling party tried to recruit the ARF to form a fifth column behind Russian lines. They also dismiss as a subterfuge the ARF World Congress decision that Ottoman and Russian Armenians must join their respective armies. These authors ignore multiple sources describing the interparty negotiations but base their positions on a book by Esat Uras, a perpetrator of the genocide, which created the template for denial. Deniers also distort the formation of volunteer regiments in the Russian army, made up predominantly of Russian Armenians, into a mass movement of Armenians deserting the Ottoman army to conduct guerilla warfare. The evidence for these false claims consists of a single Ottoman intelligence report and distortions of Armenian sources. But the internal deliberations of the ARF show no evidence of a conspiracy with Russia. DOI:10.3138/gsi.8.2.06 http://bit.ly/GSI82_Kaligian

RESEARCH NOTE
The Black Deeds of the Kremlin: Sixty Years Later
Bohdan Klid       

In 1953, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine, émigrés from eastern and central Ukraine published in Toronto an English-language collection titled The Black Deeds of the Kremlin: A White Book. The volume contained largely memoirs and testimonies on policies and actions taken by Soviet authorities that Raphael Lemkin had identified that same year as constituting the Ukrainian Genocide. A second volume, published in 1955, was dedicated to the collectivization and famine. The two, however, went virtually unnoticed by the scholarly community until the appearance of Robert Conquest’s The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine (1986). At that time, Conquest was attacked for using émigré sources, characterized by some critics as Cold War products, biased and unreliable. Despite shortcomings, the publication of the two volumes marked an admirable effort by the émigrés to tell their stories of repression and persecution under Stalinist rule in Ukraine. DOI: 10.3138/gsi.8.2.07  http://bit.ly/GSI82_Klid

NOTE FROM THE FIELD
Interview with Dr. Tom Catena, Physician-Surgeon, Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel, South Kordofan (Nuba Mountains), Sudan
Samuel Totten 

The following interview of Dr. Tom Catena by Samuel Totten was largely conducted in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan. Catena, a US citizen with a medical degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has what one can aptly describe as legendary status in the Nuba Mountains. He is the only physician-surgeon at the only hospital in the Nuba Mountains. Due to the fact that he cares for anyone who shows up at Mother Mercy Hospital in Gidel, he has seen up-close the human impact of the bombs the government of Sudan has dropped almost daily on the civilians of the Nuba Mountains since June 2011, as well as the impact of civilians being forced off their farms due to the aerial bombings—that run the entire gamut from malnutrition to starvation. His thoughts on the current crisis in the Nuba Mountains are fascinating and insightful. DOI: 10.3138/gsi.8.2.08  http://bit.ly/gsi_82i

Reviews
Katharina von Kellenbach, The Mark of Cain: Guilt and Denial in the Post-War Lives of Nazi Perpetrators, reviewed by Valerie Hébert

Ervin Staub, Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict, and Terrorism, reviewed by George R. Mastroianni

DOI: 10.3138/gsi.8.2.09  http://bit.ly/gsi_82r