Historically, genocides follow predictable patterns. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has established the Early Warning Project to investigate warning signs of mass killings, or genocide, to inform policymakers where such atrocities seem likely. Genocide Watch is another organization that aims to predict and prevent genocide. Listen to this story to learn about how these groups track data about conditions that may precede genocide and what they have learned from their research.
Story Length: 5:11
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April 5, 2016
3:41
A key leader in the Bosnian War was convicted of genocide by a United Nations tribunal. Radovan Karadzic was a former leader of the Serbian Republic during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. Bosnia was one of the ethnically mixed republics in the former country of Yugoslavia. Karadzic managed to escape arrest for twelve years. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for ethnic cleansing, including killing more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica. His trial was compared to the Nuremberg trials of German Nazi officials. Listen to hear more about this important war crimes trial.
Read MoreApril 19, 2015
7:00
In the wake of the Holocaust during World War II, the word “genocide” was coined, accepted and recognized as a crime. However, the Holocaust may not have been the first modern genocide. Looking back to the World War I, it seems clear that the Ottoman Empire perpetrated a form of genocide against the Armenian population through mass relocation and massacres 100 years ago. Listen to learn more about the Turkish Ottoman Empire during WWI and this dark period of Armenian history.
Read MoreOctober 24, 2014
5:56
Although the concept of genocide has been around for a long time, the word “genocide” is relatively new. A new documentary tells the story of a Polish man who coined the term in 1943, and then advocated for its widespread adoption and recognition. He possessed a strong sense of justice, and he felt determined that crimes related to genocide should be prosecuted. Listen to hear more about this inspirational man and the powerful documentary that tells his story.
Read MoreApril 8, 2014
3:00
Rwanda marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide this week. The ethnically driven killings led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, as the majority Hutu faction targeted ethnic Tutsis. Today, as people remember their loved ones, many feel traumatized by the horrible events of the past. Some feel that the country has become much more progressive since the genocide, but others argue that there is still a long way to go. Listen to the story to hear more about how Rwanda’s past still affects its present.
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