Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

Republics (1918–1989), Nazi Germany (1933–1945), Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Communist
China (1949 to the present), Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge (1975–1979),
Rwanda under Hutu Power (1973–1994), and the Sudan (1993–currently). The dictators
of these regimes were, respectively: the triumvirate of Mehemet Talaat Pasha
(1874–1921), Ismail Enver Bey (1881–1922), and Ahmed Djemal Pasha (1872–1922);
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924) and Josef Stalin (1879–1953); Adolf Hitler
(1889–1945); Benito Mussolini (1883–1945); Mao Zedong (1893–1976); Pol Pot
(1925–1998); Juvenal Habyarimana (1937–1994), and Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir
(b, 1944).
After the massive genocidal upheavals of World War II (1939–1945), dictatorial rule
became common throughout Latin America, Asia, and especially postcolonial Africa
(particularly since the 1960s). Such dictatorships, often located in the hands of individual
military strongmen, rendered whole regions unstable, and allowed for the violent
expression of radical ideologies based on ethnic, religious, and even tribal differences,
with huge losses of life. The most notorious examples of such dictators have been: Milton
Obote (1924–2005) of Uganda, Idi Amin (c. 1925–2003) of Uganda, Jean-Bedel Bokassa
(1921–1996) of Central African Republic, Muammar al-Gaddafi (b. 1942) of Libya,
Haile Mariam Mengistu (b. 1937) of Ethiopia, Robert Mugabe (b. 1924) of Zimbabwe,
Charles Taylor (b. 1948) of Liberia, and the previously mentioned Omar Hasan Ahmad
al-Bashir (b, 1944) of Sudan.
Dili Massacre. On November 12, 1991, a massacre took place at the Santa Cruz cemetery
in Dili, East Timor. The perpetrators of the massacre were members of the much
feared KOPASSUS, the Special Forces of the Indonesian military (the Tentara Nasional
Indonesia, or TNI). The catalyst for the massacre was a funeral procession for an East Timorese
student, Sebastião Gomes (1969–1991), who had been shot dead by Indonesian
troops a few days earlier. Tensions were already at a flashpoint by the time of the funeral.
A parliamentary delegation from Portugal had been due to arrive in East Timor to investigate
allegations of human rights abuses, but when student groups supporting the resistance
movement FRETILIN (Frente Revolucionária do Timor-Leste Independente, or
“Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor”) threatened to turn the group’s
arrival into a protest demonstration against Indonesian rule, the authorities grew wary
and stepped up the military presence in the capital. As the funeral procession approached
the Santa Cruz cemetery, some of the students took the opportunity to unfurl banners
calling for independence, showing images of FRETILIN leader Jose Alexandre “Xanana”
Gusmao (b. 1946). In the incendiary environment, this was the final justification the
KOPASSUS forces needed to clamp down on the procession as an unauthorized political
demonstration. As the procession entered the cemetery truckloads of troops appeared and
shortly thereafter opened fire on the unarmed crowd. Although figures regarding the numbers
killed and wounded in the ensuing violence vary depending on the source, the most
commonly accepted numbers are 271 killed, 382 wounded, and a further 250 missing
(those who ran away when the shooting began, or were taken into custody and never seen
again). The massacre was witnessed and filmed by Western journalists, and, after being
smuggled out of East Timor, broadcast around the world to the universal condemnation of
Indonesia. The fact that KOPASSUS forces were at the cemetery on the day of the
funeral, were heavily armed, and did not hesitate to open fire at an opportune moment,
indicated the possibility that the action had been prepared in advance in order to
DILI MASSACRE
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