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... caused much pain and discomfort. The boys were strapped to a table and their rectums were hyper descended and they received a lower gastric intestinal examination. The young men cried so loud they had to be gagged. They also received humiliating urological experiments, where tissue samples were taken from kidneys, prostate glands, and testicles.
Several semen samples were forcefully taken over two days. After three weeks of torturous medical examinations, the twins were taken to the dissection laboratory, and killed simultaneously by injections of chloroform to the heart. They were finally dissected and their organs were sent to the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research in Berlin. Those experiments were some examples of the atrocities that were carried out during the period of the Holocaust. Probably the most gruesome of war crimes occurred within the walls of concentration camps in Germany, by men whose profession should have incurred them to save live, not mutilate them. South Africa is a country blessed with an abundance of natural resources.
But this beautiful country was plagued with Apartheid. Nelson Mandela described Apartheid as "the color line that all too often determines who is rich and who is poor... who lives in luxury and who lives in squalor... who shall get food, clothing, and health care...
and who will live and who will die. " (Gutman & Rieff, pg. 26) Such a definition given by a prominent figure as Nelson Mandela puts this particular war crime into grave prospective. Apartheid has been deemed a crime against humanity. Apartheid was invented by the Afrikanar National Party as a means to cement their control over the economic and social system in South Africa. Initially, the aim of apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. The seeds of apartheid were sown as early as 1910.
It officially became law on May 28, 1948 after the Reunited National Party won the white minority elections. (web) Mixed marriages were banned in 1949, and the immorality act became the first major piece of apartheid legislation. In 1950 the act was followed by a ban on sexual relations between white and black. The police tracked down mixed couples suspected of having a relationship and arrested them. In court they used the couple's underwear as forensic evidence to convict them. Most couples that were found guilty were sent to jail but blacks were sent to jail but blacks were often given harsher sentences.
Also in 1950 the Population Registration Act was passed to determine what belonged to a particular race. Many decisions made due to this act were wrong, causing families to be split up or evicted for living in the wrong area. Once the law was put into operation all citizens were issued with identity documents in which the race of a person was clearly marked. (web) Apart from apartheid, segregation played a major role. The Group Areas Act was designed to restrict the black or colored race group to its own residential area, and also to control the purchase or occupation of land. The black homestead system was one of the priorities of the apartheid government.
The creation of black homelands was to restrict black Africans even further. This system meant that all black Africans would be antagonized according to their various tribal antecedents and forced to accept citizenship appropriate designated "homeland." (web) The apartheid regimes police and military had only one objective, "Silence and Stop", any form of defiance from the black people of South Africa basically. Over the ensuing years the horrific crimes that took place was impossible to describe. Black political leaders and peaceful protestors were thrown in jail, under a law instituted by the apartheid government, named "detention without trial." Any person that challenged the National Party policy was considered to be a "terrorist." The people that fought the system was tracked down and tortured. Some of the torture tactics used was identical to the methods enforced by the Nazi's during World War II. In prison, black leaders "mysteriously" died. (web) Wherever defiance campaigns took place it would provide the government with incentives to introduce new laws.
These laws were meant to silence the outcry and dissatisfaction of the blacks. Protest, marches, and political gatherings were banned. The new laws also gave the authorities the power to declare a state of emergency at any given time. The era in which this inhumane crime took place has been deemed "Grand Apartheid." This system of racial discrimination and separation was abolished in the early 1990 's. States and nongovernmental organizations have only rarely referred to systems outside of South Africa as apartheid. All of the countries that seem to resemble a state in which South Africa experienced all lack the legal trappings of the South African model.
The likelihood that individuals will be prosecuted domestically or internationally for apartheid in the near future remains minimal. (Gutman & Rieff pg. 27) Carnage is the most appropriate word for the next topic of war crimes. Ghastly accounts of genocide have been recorded over history and hopefully the will never repeat itself. Genocide according to the 1948 Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide consists of certain acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial, or religious group. (Gutman and Rieff pg. 312) One of the most intensive killing campaigns in human history was the Genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Somewhere between 500, 000 and 1 million Tutsi's and moderate Hutu's males were targeted and murdered. The genocide in Rwanda developed on April 6, 1994 when President Habyarimana's plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile as it approached Kigali airport. The speed in which the genocide launched suggested that the Hutu extremities had decided to rid themselves of their president, and implement a final solution to the Tutsi problem in Rwanda.
Within 24 hours of the president's death, roadblocks had sprung up around Kigali. They were manned by the so-called "interahamwe" militia which means "those who attack together. " Tutsi's were separated from Hutu's and hacked to death with machetes at roadsides. Victims who could afford to pay them chose to die from a bullet. Death squads went from neighborhood to neighborhood in Kigali, murdering not only Tutsi's but moderate Hutu's including the prime minister, Apache Uwilinguyimana.
This caused the Belgians to withdraw the remainder of its U. N. troops from Rwanda. The genocide expanded from Kigali to the countryside.
By April 21, a quarter of a million Tutsi's and moderate Hutu's have been slaughtered. "The dead of Rwanda accumulated at merely three times the rate of Jewish dead during the holocaust. " (Gutman and Rieff pg. 314) By the end of April, according to the Human Rights watch, half of the Tutsi population of Rwanda had been murdered. The Tutsi men were primarily targeted. As soon as the genocide broke out, the Tutsi led RPF (Rwanda Police force) launched an intensive drive on Kigali. This crushed the Rwandan government resistance and put a halt to the genocide in successive areas of the country.
On July 4, 1994, Kigali fell to the RPF. The genocide and "war" finally came to an end on July 18, 1994. The term war crime has been defined over and over by various war conventions over time. Sometimes the laws of war are confusing, because of loopholes that can be used to avoid actually committing these crime.
International humanitarian law does not address the causes or beginnings of a particular war, or which side was right and which side was wrong, it can only address the way it was fought. So it is possible for an aggressive country to wage war and be in complete accordance with the Geneva Conventions, and for a defender to commit war crimes even in self defense. The fact that these laws cannot answer every question and determine every moral dilemma does not mean it has no answers and no protection against barbarism and pure evil. The types of war crimes that were touched on, as sad and heartbreaking as they might be are unavoidable. Works Cited Gutman, Roy and Rieff, David.
Crimes of War: What The Public Should Know. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999 Jones Adams. "Care study: Genocide in Rwanda, 1994. " web "Apartheid South Africa. " web web
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Research essay sample on Nelson Mandela War Crimes
