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The Genocide Convention, passed by the United Nations in 1948, defines the crime of genocide as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” And this is, indeed, what happens: innocent people are targeted for destruction based solely on their identity. The Armenians were Christians in a Muslim Ottoman country; the Rohingya are Muslims in a Buddhist country; Jews perished in Christian countries; the indigenous Herero were annihilated in German-held Namibia; the Tutsis were murdered in Hutu-majority Rwanda; and on and on.

But is that why genocides happen? It’s certainly easy to polarize people based on identity characteristics. We see it everywhere today – in a mass killing in an American synagogue, in mosques in remote New Zealand, in black churches; in the dehumanization of Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals. Yet we also

know that almost everywhere, people from widely different national, ethnic, racial, and religious group live together harmoniously.

If anybody —or nobody— can be targeted, is it really about these identity characteristics, or is it based on something more fundamental?

I find it helpful to understand the motivation for genocide with the image of an iceberg. Only the very top of an iceberg is visible; the huge, deadly, and dangerous part lies below the surface. The identity characteristics that pit one group against another are at the top, easy to manipulate and easy to see and label. These are the ‘proximate causes’ of genocide, what appears nearby and visible: race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin.

Political leaders exploit people’s fears about these uncertainties by scapegoating minority groups that are easy to single out. The Nazis blamed Germany’s economic havoc and even the loss of World War I on the Jews. The Hutus blamed the Tutsis for Rwanda’s near-famine conditions and economic collapse. Today’s far-right is shaken by changing demographics, technology-driven economic turbulence, and a sense that they are left behind. Their leaders tell them to blame the ‘other.’

The likelihood of genocides and other mass atrocities is increasing because of the ‘force multiplier’ effect of climate change. The time is now to support state, local, and organizational action.

World Without Genocide at Mitchell Hamline School of Law | 875 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105www.worldwithoutgenocide.org | admin@worldwithoutgenocide.org | 651-695-7621

Printing by Jessen Press, St. Louis Park, Minnesota | Design and layout: Marcy Olson, Wendland CommunicationsLegal services: Brad Lehrman, Soffer Charbonnet Law Group, Edina, Minnesota | Accounting services: Ellingson & Ellingson, Ltd., Edina, Minnesota

A world without genocide - making it our legacy

Genocides and Icebergsby Ellen J. Kennedy, Ph.D., Executive Director

Spring 2019 NewsletterWorld Without Genocide

The real causes are far under the surface: political and economic uncertainty and instability, multiplied by ‘ultimate causes’ of climate

change and inevitable scarcities in food, fuel, and water.

Sen. Sandy Pappas and Dr. Ellen Kennedy are team-teaching a class this spring at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Human Rights, Civic Engagement, and the Legislative Process. The course focuses on national and state policies in many areas. Students have been directly involved in supporting five bills in the Minnesota legislature this session. They have contacted legislators, provided testimony, assisted in arranging hearings, and generated public awareness and support.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (center in the photo) spoke to the class about the role of the Attorney General and opportunities for careers in public service, human rights, and law.

New Class Involves Students at Legislature

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“There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore.

Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me.’”

–Philip K. Dick, American writer

The Holocaust was a 1940s high-tech genocide. Millions of Jews were killed efficiently by Zyklon B in gas chambers and up to 1,400 bodies were easily disposed of daily in a single crematorium.

But what is less known is that IBM aided the Nazis’ efforts to rid Europe of Jews. In 1933, the year that Hitler came to power, the Nazis conducted a population census. That census, using new punch-card technology, provided the basis for the Nazi state to identify, isolate, and ultimately exterminate, Germany’s Jews.

Nazi occupation reached across Europe. As country after country fell to Nazi control, the Nazis implemented a population census in each location to identify and isolate Jews and Roma (gypsies). These census operations used technology and cards supplied by IBM’s German and Polish subsidiaries. The data generated by means of the IBM-supplied counting and alphabetizing equipment was instrumental in ultimately destroying Jewish populations across Europe. This was the high-tech of its time.

Myanmar. For decades the government in Myanmar (Burma) has persecuted the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in the western part of the country. The UN, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the U.S. Congress, and Amnesty International label the violence as ‘genocide.’

For half a decade, Myanmar’s government has used Facebook to incite hate against the Rohingya. Facebook has admitted its failure to prevent its platform from being used to fuel the bloodshed in Myanmar. The company issued a report on the damage caused by abuses of its platform, including whipping up hatred that resulted in more than a million Rohingya fleeing from burned-out villages, rapes and torture, and murder into neighboring Bangladesh.

China. In western China’s Xinjiang province, ethnic Turkic Muslims known as Uighurs (WEE-gurs) are targeted by the Chinese government in a cultural genocide aimed at destroying the entire group by wiping out their religion, language, and ethnic identity.

China is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world.

In Xinjiang, technology is used to monitor and persecute the Uighurs with facial recognition devices, smartphone scanners, the mandatory installation of spyware on electronics, and biometric data. These tools target Uighurs and surveil for activists and dissenters. Police officers are equipped with smart glasses to assess distances people have traveled from their registered addresses; more than a million Uighurs have been rounded up and put into ‘re-education camps.’ Artificial intelligence is used to develop profiles that predict which individuals are significant “threats” to the Chinese authorities and warrant incarceration.

Genocides and TechnologyFrom the Holocaust to the Rohingya and the Uighurs

China, facial recognition technology www.washingtonpost.com

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Those words by the great poet T. S. Eliot could have been written because of genocides. The anniversaries of many genocides occur in April:

April 3 – Anniversary of the beginning of the Darfur genocideApril 5 – Anniversary of the siege of Sarajevo, BosniaApril 7 – Rwandan Genocide Remembrance DayApril 17 – Anniversary of the Cambodian genocideApril 24 – Armenian Genocide Remembrance DayMay 2 – Holocaust Remembrance Day (often in April)

April is officially designated as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month in Minnesota, Ohio, New Hampshire, California, and Texas, a month for individuals and organizations to hold programs in honor and memory of those whose lives and cultures have been affected by genocide.But beyond awareness and remembrance, we must make a commitment to genocide prevention – to stand up for law, not war; for equality, not injustice. Visit online: worldwithoutgenocide.org/toolkits/amidah-standing-up-2-2/ to see Amidah, a program to become an upstander in your own community. Visit worldwithoutgenocide.org/toolkits/april to see how to get your state to give April this important designation.

‘April is the Cruelest Month’—T.S. Eliot

Summer Institute 2019Incitement to Genocide: The Holocaust, Rwanda, and Bosnia

We chose a provocative and all-too-timely topic for this year’s 9th Summer Institute for High School and College Students. Incitement plays a role in every genocide, as ordinary people who live peacefully with their neighbors are convinced to demonize and dehumanize the very people whose lives they once shared.

We’ll study the ways that the Nazis used radio and newspapers like Der Stürmer to promote hatred of Jews and other ‘undesirables.’ We’ll examine broadcasts in Rwanda that gave out names and addresses of people to target for death. In former Yugoslavia, the war was inconceivable without television.

As always at the Summer Institute, we bring issues of the past to the present. We’ll look at the rise of neo-Nazism and nationalism today and incitement that caused the genocides of Myanmar’s Rohingya and of the Uighurs in China.

Julius Streicher, author of Der Stürmer, incited people to hate Jews and called for their extermination. After the war, he was prosecuted at Nuremberg, convicted of crimes against humanity, and executed.

This summer the students will participate in a mock trial of Julius Streicher, using outstanding material prepared by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

Summer Institute 2019August 6-8, 2019

at Mitchell Hamline School of LawFor students in high school and college

Information and registration at worldwithoutgenocide.org/events-and-programs/sis

Summer Institute 2018 participants with (center, l-r) Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Anne McKeig, District Court Judge Edward Wilson, and Vildan Teske, Esq.

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It is my pleasure to support the work of World Without Genocide as Board Chair. We welcome four new board members this spring:

Colleen Fiege President, League of Women Voters, EdinaKevin Lindsey, J.D. former Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Human RightsAmanda McAllister, J.D. Associate, Gray Plant MootySenior Judge Edward Wilson, J.D.

Adjunct Professor, University of Minnesota Law School

Board of Directorsby Senator Sandy Pappas, Chair

They join a distinguished roster that includes the following:Marie Failinger, J.D., Vice-Chair Professor, Mitchell Hamline School of LawRachel Carlson, J.D., Secretary Program Manager, Forward Global WomenRandi Markusen, Treasurer (ex officio) Founder and Director, Rwanda Reads Director, Post-Genocide Education FundMonica Booe Chowdhury, J.D., Parliamentarian Family Law Staff Attorney, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal ServicesFred Amram Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota Holocaust survivor

Bunkhean Chhun Retired educator, Minneapolis Public Schools Cambodian genocide survivorBarbara Forster Human rights activistRobert Halagan, J.D. Past Governor, Rotary District 5950Phebe Haugen, J.D. Professor Emerita, Mitchell Hamline School of LawThe Reverend John Matthews Senior Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church of Apple Valley Past President, Dietrich Bonhoeffer SocietyMariam Mohamed Philanthropy, government, and nonprofit consultant

See the list of Advisory Board members online at: worldwithoutgenocide.org/about-us/board-members/advisory-board

In 1994, 800,000 people perished in a genocide in Rwanda. This equates to six deaths every minute of every hour of every day for 100 days.

All Americans were ordered to be evacuated from the country. But one American remained: Carl Wilkens. Working with Rwandan colleagues, he saved hundreds of lives.

This year is the 25th anniversary of that genocide.

On Monday, May 13, 2019, at our annual gala, Gov. Tim Walz will present our ‘Outstanding Upstander’ award to Carl Wilkens for outstanding contributions to human rights. Join us to meet Carl and to hear his remarks at The Woman’s Club in Minneapolis, 7:00-9:00 pm. The event is open to the public.

For more information and online RSVP visit: worldwithoutgenocide.org/gala

A WORLD of UPSTANDERSRemembering Rwanda: The 25th Anniversary

Join us for our annual

GALABenefit

Carl Wilkens

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The country of Yugoslavia imploded during the early 1990s, collapsing into genocide and mass atrocities perpetrated by individuals, government armies, and paramilitary troops against one-time friends and neighbors.Park Square Theatre, St. Paul, is producing Heaven, a theatrical look into war-torn Bosnia told by playwright/director Joe Chvala in music, dance, and story.To deepen understanding of the conflict and challenges faced after genocide, Park Square Theatre and World Without Genocide offer programs that include films, talks, and a compelling personal story of a survivor of one of the 20th-century’s worst massacres.The events are open to the public: $10 general public, $5 seniors and students; $25 for lawyers’ CLE credits at most programs; ‘clock hours’ for educators. No advance registration is required. Date Program Venue Thursday, April 4 Film, Men Don’t Cry Park Square Theatre 7:00-9:00 pm War trauma in Bosnia Andy Boss Thrust Stage Tuesday, April 16 Panel, A Survivor, a Prosecutor, Mitchell Hamline School of Law 7:00-9:00 pm and a Forensic Pathologist Thursday, April 25 Talk, Bosnia, Genocide, and St. Anthony Park Public Library 7:00-9:00 pm Climate Change Sunday, May 19 Film and Talk, Rape: A Crime of Genocide- Park Square Theatre 1:30-3:30 pm The Foča ‘Rape Camp’ Trials Proscenium Stage Tuesday, June 11 Film and Talk, Sex Trafficking and Genocide Mitchell Hamline School of Law 7:00-9:00 pm with FBI Special Agent Michael Melcher Sunday, June 16 Exhumations and Justice Park Square Theatre 2:00 pm Post-show discussion (for play attendees only) Proscenium Stage

Genocide and Justice: From Nuremberg to the International Criminal Court, the exhibit by World Without Genocide, will be on display at Park Square Theatre during this time.

The program series is co-sponsored by the Minnesota Chapter, Federal Bar Association; the Human Rights Committee, Minnesota State Bar Association; DKG, an international women educators’ society; ILSA, the International Law Student Association at Mitchell Hamline School of Law; and the St. Paul and Minneapolis-University Rotary Clubs.

Tickets for Heaven, running May 31–June 23, can be purchased online at parksquaretheatre.org/box-office/shows/2018-19/heaven/

Justice After GenocidePrograms about the 1990s war in Bosnia

From Genocide to Justice: A Book of Mock Trials For the past five years, participants at the Summer Institutes for High School and College Students have played judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, perpetrators, witnesses, and the press in re-enactments of world-famous trials and in fictitious trials of people who are accused but who have not yet stood in a courtroom.These mock trials are now available on our website, at no cost and with no use restrictions.Three trials are based on actual proceedings of individuals accused of heinous crimes, with some testimony included verbatim from trial transcripts: Soghomon Tehlirian, on trial for the murder of a presumed perpetrator of the Armenian genocide; three women accused of horrific violence in concentration camps during the Holocaust; and

the trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, convicted of genocide in Rwanda.The other two trials, of Presidents Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan and Bashar Al-Assad of Syria, are wholly fictitious. These two men have not been brought to trial as of spring 2019. These trials were written to encourage students’ thinking about current crises and the challenges in bringing those who are accused to stand in a court of law. Our students begin these mock trials with great enthusiasm for their roles. They

conclude the trials with insight about the process of the law and about the complexity of defining and finding truth and justice. We hope that you, too, find the mock trials engaging and thought-provoking. Find them online at worldwithoutgenocide.org

Bosnian graveyard, Getty Images

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875 Summit AvenueSt. Paul, MN 55105

World Without Genocide has two original traveling exhibits that can be rented by schools and universities, faith organizations, human rights groups, community centers, libraries, businesses, and other civic and public places to promote education about the Holocaust and other genocides.

Genocide and Justice: From Nuremberg to the International Criminal Court features 23 free-standing, 7’ banners with information about the Holocaust and the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur; highlights of the international tribunals and domestic prosecutions for these genocides; and information about regional human rights courts and commissions. Global ‘upstanders’ in human rights are recognized for their contributions to justice.

Genocide and Justice, new in January 2019, is booked at Mitchell Hamline School of Law; St. Paul Academy and Summit School; and Park Square Theatre, St. Paul through late June 2019. Contact us now for summer and fall reservations.

Tents of Witness: Genocide and Conflict features tents resembling those used in refugee camps today. Each 8’ x 12’ tent depicts the story of a group that has been persecuted based on race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin: the American Indians, the Armenians, and the Jews during the Holocaust; and the catastrophes in Argentina, Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, North Korea, and Rwanda.

The outside of each tent is painted to represent the diversity of the places and people. The inside contains illustrations depicting the pre-conflict society, the catastrophe, and the challenges facing survivors and communities today.

Tents of Witness: Genocide and Conflict can be used in human rights programs for high school, college, and adult audiences. It has been on display since 2012 and has been seen by nearly 20,000 people. The exhibits demonstrate that genocide has no boundaries – no people or place has escaped from atrocities.

To schedule one of our traveling exhibits and for details, contact World Without Genocide at 651-695-7621 or info@worldwithoutgenocide.org

Genocide and JusticeFrom Nuremberg to

the International Criminal Court

TENTS of WITNESS

Traveling Exhibits