60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

44 development dialogue december 2008 – revisiting the heart of darkness preconditions, processes of banalisation of violence fi gure prominently. Such processes gradually ‘draw people in’, as they are enmeshed and possibly entrapped within the criminal framework. These include the routinisation already alluded to, inclusion into specifi c institutional nexuses creating a feeling of belonging and conspiracy, as well as ‘ideological acceleration… splitting and separating the good (us) from the bad (them)’ (Foster et al. 2005: 77). Mechanisms of ‘genocidal priming’ (Hinton 2002: 29) encompass a range of ‘apparently far lesser occurrences of symbolic and physical violence’ on the basis of social exclusionism, resulting in particular exclusionary devices that result in the constitution of ‘groups that the dominant society has defi ned in one way or another as lesser human beings’ (Nagengast 2002: 325). Such mechanisms, acting over several decades, and again through an entire array of phases, have been present in the prehistory of the genocide against European Jewry in German society and public discourse (cf. Bartov 1998), but arguably also as a longterm impact of the genocide committed by German colonial troops in present-day Namibia early in the 20th century (cf. Kössler 2005). Another instance of such rather long-term priming is the process of debasing and naturalising ‘Tutsi’ and of inculcating a feeling of impunity by mass propaganda, which occurred on a continuous basis years before the genocide in Rwanda 1994 actually took place (cf. Neubert 1999; Taylor 2002, 2005). Again, precisely the long time frame of these processes underscores the contingent dimension of genocide and, more generally, of mass violence: While the potential that may be discerned within a given situation, such as the regime at the US/ Mexican border (cf. Nagengast 2002) may hopefully never be actualised, for such potential to turn into gruesome reality, a particular ‘hot’ situation must accrue, ‘some sort of “genocidal activation” that ignites the “charge” that has been primed’ (Hinton 2002: 30), or in other words, the prerequisite ‘toxic relations’ have to be aggregated in a specifi c and cataclysmic way (Foster et al. 2002: 67). Order by the state: the defi nition of target groups and processes of othering An important ingredient in such toxic concoctions is constituted by specifi c traits of the modern state, to order, enumerate, cultivate and ‘weed out’. Zygmunt Bauman (1991: ch. 1) has dubbed this kind of state activity as the ‘gardening state’, highlighting precisely the social technological pattern of identifying conducive and unhealthy traits in persons or groups of people and consequently, nurturing the former, and eliminating, even exterminating the latter (cf. also Schiel 1999). Such activities of the modern state obviously fall within a much
violence, legitimacy and dynamics of genocide – notions of mass violence examined 45 broader quest of ordering and rectifying society, of homogenising the population in cultural and linguistic terms, all of which clearly are not as harmless as it might seem at fi rst sight, but fraught with latent or manifest violence, up to the ill-famed ethnic cleansing of the late 20th century. Thus, the state also plays a pivotal role in defi ning the group targeted for destruction in processes of genocide, which by defi nition is directed against a collectivity (Hinton 2002: 6). This dovetails with one central mode of operation of the modern state, simplifying perceived structures, categorising, and thereby crystallising and essentialising social and cultural diff erence (Hinton 2002: 28, Scott 1998). The related tendency of the modern state to fashion ‘enumerative’ collective or group identities (Randeria 1994) is an important avenue to create preconditions for mass violence directed against specifi c groups, which centrally also involves genocide, even though such violence certainly also occurs on a whole range of frequently far lesser scales. Since processes of mass violence, including genocide, are never just wanton occurrences and generally contain at least an element of strategic design, it is important to conceptualise the ways in which the groups that become victims of violent acts and strategies are defi ned. In the case of genocide, the very concept points to the centrality of this issue. When we look at historical cases, it emerges that very diverse social processes have been at work here, which we may summarily subsume under two categories, active and passive grouping. In this, grouping underscores the constructed and by no means ‘natural’ character of all such groups (cf. Brubaker 2004). Thus, passive grouping would highlight not just victimisation, but the in many cases forcible, bureaucratic subsuming under a category which does not necessarily refl ect the victims’ self-identity. The outstanding example of this is the gradual, step-by-step ostracism that excluded ‘Jews’ from German society during the 1930s, even where they had no active relation to Jewry or were not even aware of their Jewish ancestry. In broadly similar fashion, the Rwandan genocide in 1994 was predicated on ascribed and bureaucratically enforced ethnic/racial identity. Another form of passive grouping would be the essentialisation of real or ostensible class membership, where ‘class’ is framed not so much as a social category but confl ated with a political orientation. Important instances are the kulaks, subjected to savage mass violence in the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s (Werth 1984, 2003: 226-8) and
Page 1 and 2: no. 50 | december 2008 Revisiting t
Page 3 and 4: Revisiting the heart of darkness -
Page 5 and 6: Acknowledgements The larger part of
Page 7: Dennis Brutus, born 1924 in then Rh
Page 10 and 11: 8 development dialogue december 200
Page 96 and 97:
94 development dialogue december 20
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Page 198 and 199:
Page 200 and 201:
Page 202 and 203:
Page 204 and 205:
Page 206 and 207:
Page 208 and 209:
Page 210 and 211:
Page 212 and 213:
Page 214 and 215:
Page 216 and 217:
Page 218 and 219:
Page 220 and 221:
Page 222 and 223:
Page 224 and 225:
Page 226 and 227:
Page 228 and 229:
Page 230 and 231:
Page 232 and 233:
Page 234 and 235:
Page 236 and 237:
Page 238 and 239:
Page 240 and 241:
Page 242 and 243:
Page 244 and 245:
Page 246 and 247:
Page 248 and 249:
Page 250 and 251:
Page 252 and 253:
Page 254 and 255:
Page 256 and 257:
Page 258 and 259:
Page 260 and 261:
Page 262 and 263:
In short, both the understanding of
Page 264 and 265:
Page 266 and 267:
Page 268 and 269:
Page 270 and 271:
Page 273 and 274:
Behind most mass violence lurk econ
Page 275 and 276:
ehind most mass violence lurk econo
Page 277 and 278:
Page 279 and 280:
Page 281 and 282:
Is there a south perspective on gen
Page 283 and 284:
is there a south perspective on gen
Page 285 and 286:
Page 287 and 288:
Page 289 and 290:
Page 291 and 292:
Page 293:
Page 296 and 297:
Page 299:
The Voksenåsen Statement Genocides
Page 302 and 303:
Page 304:
Page 308:
This Development Dialogue is publis
show all

60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?