The most horrific genocides in history(1)

The most horrific genocides in history

 

Story by Stars Insider • 6h ago

2023.06.14

 

 

 

 

The most horrific genocides in history

Few words in the world evoke such feelings of pain, loss, and suffering as "genocide." Used to describe the most horrendous and detestable violations of human life, motivated by the most revolting manifestations of hate and prejudice conceivable, genocide is a word that should never be used lightly.

It would be comforting to imagine genocide as a problem of the past that has since been solved, a barbaric habit that we as a species have evolved out of, but that is unfortunately far from the truth. Genocides continue to this day, and the future doesn't promise an end to the misery either. It's important to learn from our past, if we ever want to escape it.

Read on to remember some of modern history's darkest moments, in hopes that we'll never have to relive them.

 

 

 

 

 

How to define a genocide

The word "genocide" is thrown around quite often, but it does, in fact, have an exact and explicit definition. According to the United Nations, an event constitutes genocide when the aggressors are proven to act toward the total or partial elimination of a specific group or groups of people based on racial, ethnic, religious, or national grounds. Importantly, these programs of elimination don't necessarily have to be carried out through mass murder; the UN provides five methods of elimination that can be called genocide. Killing is the most obvious method, followed by causing serious bodily or mental harm, mandating living conditions with the intent of destroying a group, halting new births in a certain group, and, finally, separating the children of a group from the adults.

 

 

 

 

Bangladesh genocide

The Bangladesh Liberation War was fought between the military of Pakistan and the Bengali rebels of modern-day Bangladesh, previously known as the province of East Pakistan. The war was infamously brutal and bloody, but one event in particular stands out.

 

 

 

 

Bangladesh genocide

The Pakistani military's Operation Searchlight commenced on March 21, 1971, and lasted for eight grueling months until December 16 of the same year. This campaign of terror utilized murder and sexual abuse on a genocidal level, claiming the lives of possibly as many as three million people and resulting in the vicious assaults of 400,000 Bengali women.

 

 

Darfur genocide

It would be comforting to think of genocide as a horrid ghost of the past, but that is far from the truth; numerous genocides are still taking place even today. The Darfur genocide in Sudan began in 2003, and continues to rage on decades later.

 

Darfur genocide

A result of long-time instability in the region, the genocide in Darfur is being carried out by the established government's forces, with the help of multiple loyalist militia groups, against various North African ethnic groups, particularly the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa. As of 2015, the total death toll eclipsed 400,000 people. Today, the total human cost is surely much higher.

 

 

Rwandan genocide

The Rwandan genocide of 1994 was one of the most bloody and infamous events of the last decade of the 20th century. The genocide lasted for 99 days, between April 7 and July 15, marking an end to the horrific Rwandan Civil War that started in 1990.

 

 

Rwandan genocide

Perpetrated by the ruling majority of ethnic Hutus, the Rwandan genocide resulted in the grisly deaths of around 800,000 members of the Tutsi ethnic minority group.

 

 

 

Armenian genocide

The Armenian genocide of the early 20th century was arguably the most horrific event of World War I. Occurring between 1915 and 1917, the Armenian genocide was a program of widespread ethnic cleansing carried out by the Ottoman Empire.

 

 

Armenian genocide

The wide-reaching empire of the Ottomans established its base in the indigenous land of the Armenians. As the empire declined, the ruling Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) enacted a bloody war of terror against ethnic Armenians as a preemptive effort against rebellion. Around one million Armenians were captured and sent on brutal death marches through the Syrian desert.

 

 

Circassian genocide

In the 19th century, the Russian Empire stretched far into Eastern Europe, conquering much of the Caucasus Mountains and bordering the Black Sea. It was here, between the Black Sea and the Caucasus, that the Circassian genocide occurred.

 

 

Circassian genocide

The mostly Muslim Circassian population tried to resist the Russian Empire's invasion and campaign of cultural cleansing, but were decimated by the empire's army. Between a death toll of nearly 750,000 and the forced displacement of as many as 1.5 million, an estimated 80% to 97% of the Circassian ethnic group was erased from their homeland.

 

 

 

Cambodian genocide

The Cambodian Civil War was one of the harshest and bloodiest events of the Cold War era. Perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot, the widespread mass murder of Cambodian citizens lasted from 1975 to 1979.

Cambodian genocide

Over these three years, it is estimated that as many as two million Cambodian citizens were slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge. Hundreds of thousands of these individuals were killed in the now infamous Killing Fields—large plots of land where prisoners of all genders and ages were killed using farm tools, to save ammunition, and buried in mass graves.