Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

whether or not Golkar would develop into a legitimate party independent of the army.
With Suharto’s exit as president, and a succession of subsequent presidents that followed
until a full and free presidential election in 2004, Golkar’s power base was first challenged
and then toppled. Although still a leading opposition presence, Golkar—the party that
retained Suharto in office for more than thirty years, oversaw the invasion of East Timor
in 1975, permitted war to be waged internally against the people of Aceh and Papua, and
collaborated with the army to hold the population of Indonesia in what was effectively a
police state—has now lost much of the influence (and all of the political power) it once
possessed.
Gorazde. A city in eastern Bosnia situated on the Drina River, Gorazde was designated
a United Nations “safe area” in 1993. During the Bosnian War (1992–1995) the city was
besieged by Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) forces, which were aided by paramilitary
and militia units. In April 1994 some 150 peacekeepers, part of the United Nations Protection
Force (UNPROFOR) troops helping to safeguard the city, were taken hostage by
the Serbs in the hope that this would deter NATO air strikes against Serb positions. The
previous week Serb gunners had assaulted the city using heavy weapons taken from the
Srebrenica front, causing an enormous amount of damage to urban housing and the city
center. NATO delivered an ultimatum to the Serbs on April 22, threatening air strikes
unless they pulled back by three kilometers, immediately halted their attacks, and opened
the city to all UN forces and relief convoys. The Serbs complied, though whether the
NATO actions would have actually followed any noncompliance by the Serbs is open to
debate. The UNPROFOR commander, Lieutenant General Sir Michael Rose (b. 1940),
and the UN special representative of the secretary-general, Yasushi Akashi (b. 1931), neither
of whom evinced the same level of concern about Serb actions as did the NATO
forces on the ground, worked hard behind the scenes to prevent further NATO air strikes,
and put substantial pressure on the UNPROFOR contributing states not to commit their
forces to action against the Serbs. In the end, Gorazde held out as a result of NATO
threats and an active local Bosnian Muslim defense. Despite extensive destruction by
continued shelling and sniping from Serb positions throughout the remainder of the war,
during which Gorazde continued to be besieged, the city did not fall. It was to become the
only Muslim town in eastern Bosnia not to be “ethnically cleansed” by the Serbs.
Gorazde’s role in the annals of international peacekeeping will be assured by another
observation: it signaled a parting of the ways between a UN approach that was reluctant
to intervene and a NATO approach that was prepared to take action in order to stop Serb
aggression. The divide would be played out more fully in March 1999, when NATO went
to war with Serbia over the prospect of a genocide taking place in Kosovo.
Göring, Hermann (1893–1946). Born in Bavaria to a wealthy family, Göring distinguished
himself as an ace fighter pilot during World War I, and joined the Nazi Party in
1922. In 1933 Hitler appointed him Prime Minister of Prussia and Minister for Police
(which gave him authority for the establishment of draconian measures against political
opponents), and his designated successor at the start of World War II, September 1939. By
1935 he was also in charge of both German economic policy, and, after 1938, focused
increasing attention on so-called Jewish problems. With the failure of the German air force
(Luftwaffe) against Britain in the years 1940–1941, and its inability to stop the bombing
of Germany, his relationship with Hitler began to sour; by 1945 he had been stripped of all
power and dismissed from the Nazi Party. Sentenced to death by the International Military
GÖRING, HERMANN
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