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Oct 30, 2023

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Running header: GENOCIDE AWARENESS 1 SGS 343 Dr. Langille Genocide Awareness 4/30/2023

GENOCIDE AWARENESS 2 I will be discussing the Genocide Awareness Weeks presentations by Matthias Mitman and the genocide of Yazidi Kurdish from Northern Iraq and Nejera Sumic / Naomi Steinberg about the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The discussion of genocide is a very important subject in all societies and has occurred throughout hundreds of years in history and mankind has not learned. Although the genocides of Bosnian Muslims and Yazidis were 30 years apart, they share many common traits. The Serb Orthodox Christians and the Islamic State were ethnoreligious entities that wanted to eliminate the minority religion and peoples. In Bosnia- Herzegovina and Northern Iraq and Syria, both groups wanted to eradicate the others, among other issues, for land gain (Former Yugoslav land and for the Islamic State to create a modern Caliphate). Genocide is a historic problem, propagated by the dominant religion at that time. Both the genocide of the Bosnians and Yazidi not only used murder but also used sexual violence and rape to humiliate and show dominance from both communities. It is very similar to the caste system of the US and India. Where the superior could do anything to the inferior. Muslim women in Bosnia were dehumanized through rape and violence. The Yazidi women and girls were raped and humiliated and became sex slaves, forced into marriages to create more population for the Islamic State. As stated by Mr. Mitman, one of these women that were violated sexually and ultimately murdered by the Islamic State was Kayla Mueller, a human rights activist from Prescott. The psychological abuse and stories of sexual violence were one of the forms of terrorism used by both the Serbs and Islamic State. Propaganda is a useful tool for many. In the examples of the Serbs, they used the lies that Islam was a false religion based on lies. They also spewed other propaganda for Islam being a religion of terrorism and extremism (history of fringe Islamist hijacking planes in the 1980s). For the Islamic State, it was easy to propagandize the Yazidi as a Godless religion as they were not

GENOCIDE AWARENESS 3 the descendants of Abraham. Propaganda is an easy way to justify killing a whole group of people. As seen in the past like the genocide of 6 million Jews or the persecution and genocide of the Uyghurs in China, the international community turns a blind eye to these acts of genocide or doesn’t care. The governments of the world always seem to be reactive rather than proactive to this issue. In Bosnia, the genocide lasted for years post-Cold War until the international community decided to intervene. For the Yazidi, the same can be said and Matthias Mitman reiterated the point that the Department of Defense took their time figuring out if it was a genocide. This delay in intervention allowed the continuation of the genocide and suffering of both Muslims and Yazidis. The devastation of genocide in both Bosnia and Yazidis of Northern Iraq has greatly affected those communities. In the presentation of “Refugee Resettlement: Life Long after the Genocide, Najera Sumic explains that over one hundred thousand Bosnia Muslims were murdered and upward of 2 million were displaced. Many of the refugees spent an average of ten years in a refugee camp. Many were relocated, for a price that needed to be paid back, as Nejera was. She speaks of a hard transition she and many others went through relocating to different countries of the world including the United States. Najera still sees the aftermath of genocide after her displacement. She speaks of the Bosnia Genocide denial and urges the international community to hold those accountable and fix the international justice system and bring them to trial. She believes in supporting the victims of genocide and displacement as she sees it from the war in Ukraine. For the Yazidis in Northern Iraq, it also mirrors the genocide in Bosnia. Today, it is believed that ten thousand Yazidis have been murdered and enslaved and that the Yazidi community has been devastated by this. Over two hundred thousand Yazidis have been

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GENOCIDE AWARENESS 4 displaced across Northern Iraq. It is believed that more than 2700 women and children are still in captivity by Islamic State, no doubt in Syria, as the US and partner countries still operate in that region between Iraq and Syria. Matthias spoke of the relocation of many of the women to Germany and staying there fearing the Islamic State or because of humiliation from sexual violence. It still does not stop those who have relocated have become advocates for the displaced. The genocide of the Bosnia Muslims and the Yazidi of Northern Iraq have followed very similar paths of death, displacement, and trauma. The genocides inflicted were motivated by ethnoreligious issues and brought upon them by the fringe, fanatical extremists. Propaganda, humiliation, sexual violence, and death were forms of terrorism both used to hurt the minority. I have learned that the international community is slow to react to genocide and that genocide will continue to happen throughout history by the majority will always want to suppress the minority through religion.