News

 

 

Hate Speech the Language of
Genocide, Survivor Says

‘Lecturers Discuss Conditions that Lead to Rwandan

Genocide, Holocaust

Maria Kotovych, The Gateway (University of Alberta)

 

E DMONTON (CUP) -- When
Tharcisse Seminega and his family
emerged after hiding in a dark under-
ground room for over a month, their
skin had been deprived of sunlight for
so long they were nearly unrecogniz-
able. But it was because of their hiding
spot that Seminega and his family
survived the genocide of Tutsis that oc-
curred in Rwanda in 1994.

On Feb. 1, Seminega and Len Rudner of
the Canadian Jewish Congress present-
ed a talk entitled “Lessons from Hatred.
Genocide: Beyond Terror, Systematic
Mass Destruction,” organized by the
University of Alberta chapter of Hillel,
a Jewish students group, as part of Inter-
national Week.

Seminega told his family’s story of sur-
vival, and both men discussed reasons
why genocides occur and the lessons
that people can learn from them. They
also drew comparisons between the
Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust.
The night Seminega’s family escaped
from their home to go into hiding, a
friend came to warn him that some-

one was coming to kill him. He was
surprised to learn that when the militia
arrived at his house, one of Seminega’s
colleagues had come with them to iden-
tify him as a Tutsi.

“You were wondering why you just be-
came the enemy overnight,” Seminega
said, recalling the fear as his family fled
to hide in horrid conditions -- a situation
Rudner paralleled with the Nazi target-
ing of the Jews.

Seminega explained that before Belgian
colonists arrived in the 20th century, the
land was occupied by three groups (the
Batwa, the Hutus and the Tutsis) who
lived in relative peace.

But the newly arrived colonists fa-
voured the minority Tutsis above the
other groups, and when Rwanda finally
gained independence in 1962, the previ-
ously repressed Hutus came into power
with an axe to grind against the Tutsis.
Tensions escalated until 1994, when the

Pg 4

government began killing the Tutsis,
Seminega said.

“The conflict was misrepresented and
distorted,” Seminega said of the govern-
ment propaganda circulated prior to the
genocide. According to Seminega, the
government told Hutus to kill Tutsis, so
that the Tutsis wouldn’t kill them first.
While Seminega spoke about the
Rwandan genocide, Rudner focused on
the Holocaust during the Second World
War. In 2004, he visited Majdanek, a
Holocaust concentration camp in Po-
land. There he saw the same weeds that
grew in his own garden, leading him to
believe that the atrocities can be com-
mitted anywhere.

“Tf the same weeds can grow in Maj-
danek as grow in my own garden, then
how can I imagine the evil that grew

in this place can grow nowhere else?”
Rudner asked.

Rudner said that his studies of diaries
written by Nazi special police battal-
ions revealed terrifying truths about the
genocide.

“What was frightening was the ordinari-
ness of their days. “We went to work.

It went well,’” Rudner quoted from the
diaries.

Additionally, Rudner quoted an SS of-
ficer who knew of no Nazis who were
killed for refusing to execute Jews,
despite popular opinion to the contrary.
They did it, Rudner said, because they
saw nothing wrong with killing Jews.
Rudner argued that people who want

to spread hate use language as their
weapon.

“Jews were referred to as lice, bacteria,
vermin; in Rwanda, the Tutsis were re-
ferred to as cockroaches,” Rudner said,
noting that for this reason, the lessons
from the Holocaust and Rwandan geno-
cide must extend beyond “never again.”
“Hate speech must not find protec-

tion in this country. A person’s right to
speak must be balanced against another
person’s right not to be the target of
hateful speech.”

 

Celebrate Black
History Month!

Upcoming Events in Greater

Vancouver

February 23
“ROYALTY”

Celebrate Black History Month with
friends, family, and fellow community
members. Poetry reading and open mic.
Doors: 9:00pm

Azure Grill at the Plaza of Nations
Downtown Vancouver

February 24

4" Annual Black History Month Market
and Cultural Showcase

10:30am — 8:00am

The Warehouse (2650 Slocan Street)
Merchants tables, delicious food,
performers and music

$5 entry fee

Organized by the BC Black History
Awareness Society

Marking the 3 Anniversary of the US/
Canada/France Invasion of Haiti...
Rally and March

US/UK Out of Iraq! Canada Out of
Afghanistan!

US/UN Troops Hands Off Sudan and
Darfur! All Foreign Troops Out of
Somalia Now!

Performers and speakers from the
Somali, Sudanese, African and Muslim
communities.

2:00pm

Vancouver Art Gallery (Robson St at
Hornby St)

Organized by Mobilization Against War
and Occupation - MAWO
(www.mawovancouver.org)

Remembering Hogan’s Alley and the
Black Urban Landscape

Vancouver East Cultural Centre
7:30pm

$17 entry fee.

This event will feature keynote
speakers former Black Panther Party
member David Hilliard and Dr. Afua
Cooper, who will focus on the topic
of black urban sites in different North
American contexts and will illustrate
the commonalities of the experiences
of black Canadians with the cultural
legacy of the Black panther party and
their agenda for empowering black
communities in the US. The event will
also be a means of raising the profile
of Vancouver’s black community while
also linking this community to others.
Organized by the Hogan’s Alley
Memorial Project and the Vancouver
East Cultural Center.

 

Continued from Pg 1
Forgotten

Canadian Slavery
This Black History Month, It’s Time to Wake

up to the Truck

Sarah Custer, The McGill Daily (McGill University)

permission. Lucky for him, there was
a vast pool of Aboriginal peoples from
which to extract labour, and that is
precisely what the new settlers did.

I cannot help but wonder whether
slavery would have been more
widespread if Canada’s climate were
more conducive to a Southern U.S.-
style plantation economy. Is the
difference in the two countries’ record
of slavery a mere geographic accident?

Every year, February brings another
Black History Month. And every year,
very little, if anything, is said about
slavery in Canada. What are widely
publicized, on the other hand, are the

Underground Railroad and the image
of Canada as a safe haven for runaway
slaves from the south.

By no means do I wish to detract
merit from those who worked hard in
this country to see the institution of
slavery come to an end, but we cannot
continue to sweep away the ugly parts
of the story and carefully conceal them
under a rug of self-delusion. Slavery
was here, and it is time to wake up to
this truth.

- Sarah Custer is the Black Students’
Network internal communications co-
ordinator at McGill University