Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

REPATRIATION
362
Historically, institutional religions have been (and continue to be) conservative and
concerned with maintaining the status quo and preserving their own belief systems and
thus, at times, find themselves in collusion with those forces perpetrating a genocide. An
excellent example of this is in South America (e.g., Guatemala, Argentina), where at various
times during the twentieth century the Roman Catholic Church allied itself with the
governments in power and therefore saw the poorest populations subject to military
brutality, death, and disappearances.
All of the following are potential factors in the propagation of genocide: the use of socalled
“divine mandates” to sanction and rationalize genocidal behavior; the use of sacred
texts that propagate “insider-outsider” tensions; and the all-too-common involvement of
religious leadership in governmental and military collusions for economic and political
reasons.
Because this area of research is still in its relative infancy in the overall field of
“genocide studies,” only continued work will result in a more complete understanding of
how religion played out in past genocides, those “religious factors” that contribute to
genocide, and the type of concrete and positive steps that can be taken by religious
communities to either bring to conclusion genocides that have already begun or prevent
such from happening. Religious work, of course, also involves healing and reconciliation
after tragedies such as genocide, and here, too, religious communities may have much to
contribute by bringing together victims and perpetrators, creating environments where
such work can begin, and using the power of sanctuary-related activities (e.g., prayer,
worship) to further that healing.
Repatriation. The action of returning refugees to their countries of origin.
Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations
Secretary-General. This report presents the findings of the first investigation into an
ongoing conflict conducted by the United Nations for the express purpose of ascertaining
whether genocide had been perpetrated or not. The commission’s inquiry was basically a
follow-up to the U.S. Darfur Atrocities Documentation Project, which involved the
analysis of 1,136 randomly selected interviews with Black Sudanese in the refugee camps
of Chad and the subsequent finding by the U.S. government that Government of Sudan
(GOS) troops and the Janjaweed (Arab militia) had committed genocide. The UN investigation
was conducted in Sudan (including Darfur and Khartoum), Chad, and adjacent
countries over the course of December 2004 and January 2005. In late January the commission
declared that genocide had not been perpetrated. Instead, it found that the GOS
and Janjaweed were responsible for serious violations of international human rights and
humanitarian law, amounting to crimes against humanity. Among the acts the GOS and
Janjaweed were alleged to have committed, according to the UN report, were the killing
of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms
of sexual violence, pillaging, and forced displacement throughout Darfur. The commissioners
went on to say that “the crucial element of genocidal intent appears to be missing,
at least as far as the central Government authorities are concerned. Generally speaking, the
policy of attacking, killing and forcibly displacing members of some tribes does not evince a
specific intent to annihilate, in whole or in part, a group distinguished on racial, ethnic,
national or religious grounds. Rather, it would seem that those who planned and organized
attacks on villages pursued the intent to drive the victims from their homes, primarily for
purposes of counter-insurgency warfare. The Commission does recognize that in some