NINE STAGES of GENOCIDE

To view this article with pictures, click here.
 
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, a professor at Mary Washington University and the Vice President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars says: “Genocide cannot be committed by an individual or small group; rather, it takes the co-operation of a large number of people and the state. The genocidal process starts with prejudice that continues to grow.”
 
Genocide progresses through nine stages, or operational processes, each further stage needing to succeed the previous; although the earlier stages continue to run concurrently throughout the operation.

---

The Nine stages of genocide are:
1.      Classification
2.      Symbolization
3.      Discrimination
4.      Dehumanization
5.      Organization
6.      Polarization
7.      Preparation
8.      Extermination
9.      Denial.
 
1.           CLASSIFICATION
Every culture distinguishes between variances and classifies them into groups. Subconsciously we distinguish and classify objects all the time. Naturally as infants, we assimilate new information about unknown items and incorporate that new information into existing broad categories containing other items with similar characteristics. All cultures require the classification of the natural and social world. Cultures continuously tend to distinguish between “us” and “them”. People categorise according to nationality, religion, ethnicity, race, language, intelligence etc.
 
The problem occurs when there is no respect for these differences, for the people, for their private property and for the wellbeing of others within the divergent groups.
 
Despite the slogan of a Rainbow Nation, today South Africa is greatly divided – whatever the category may be defined by - race, poverty and demographics. There was separation in South Africa under the apartheid regime, but was there respect? Was the life, property and wellbeing of the other group respected? Today, discrimination is being sustained by the ANC government for their own political agendas. Is respect for life, property and well-being being encouraged today?

---

2.           SYMBOLISATION
Symbols are used to categorise and label certain classifications. Sometimes the symbols originate from physical characteristics, other times the symbols are attributed to the category. Classification and Symbolisation are natural human process and on their own, do not lead to genocide. It is when they lead to discrimination and dehumanization and are coupled with blind hatred, that they become perilous. For example, in Ottoman Turkey, Christians were isolated and marginalized. They wore crosses instead of the muslim attire, so they were easily distinguished and subsequently disparaged. In South Africa now, the colour of your skin alone is used to distinguish the group to be destroyed. Regardless of your wealth or poverty, regardless of your age, regardless of your intelligence, regardless of your nationality, regardless of your life of service and sacrifice for the country, in South Africa the colour of your skin tone can be a matter of life or death.
 
3.           DISCRIMINATION
Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, based on race, age, religion etc. This is aggravated when a majority group dominates and uses laws and political power to deny the rights of other groups. For example, the minority group is given limited civil rights or even citizenship, like communists in the Soviet Union prohibited education for Christians. Discrimination on the basis of race was prevalent during Apartheid. Blacks, Coloureds and Indians were only allowed in certain areas and prohibited from other areas. But in their allocated living areas, they were looked after – they were provided with electricity, running water, education and medical facilities etc. - luxuries that hundreds of thousands of South Africans don’t have today. We have all been awaiting the promise of the Rainbow Nation to be delivered, but with no avail. Even though Nelson Mandela promised that “never, never, never again will any South African be discriminated against on the basis of their race”, hopes of a Rainbow Nation, along with most of our civil rights, have been trampled into the water barren land, as our country is even more divided and alienated than before.
 
Entire families are being murdered and mutilated daily, on the basis of their skin colour and language, by people who were “born free”. The murderers didn’t even live through the times of apartheid, so where is this hatred coming from? It’s being taught to them by our very own government. Many black South Africans are upset that they are still living in poverty. Why are they still living like this? Have they themselves not worked hard enough to better themselves, or has the government not fulfilled any of their promises of a brighter future? Rather than actually looking after the people, the leaders in our government are too busy enriching themselves and blaming the poverty and malfunctioning systems on the white minority. “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption…” 2 Peter 2:19
 
4.           DEHUMANIZATION
Dehumanization is depriving a person, or a group of people, of positive human qualities, diminishing them by likening them to animals, diseases, pests, parasites etc. such as, in the Rwandan Holocaust, where the minority group of Tutsis was called cockroaches. As soon as a people group is perceived as ‘less human’, it becomes easier for the dominant group to exterminate them. Denying others of their humanity pardons their murder and therefore victims are often butchered and mutilated to express this denial. Farmers and their families are having their eyes gouged out, electric drills and angle grinders used on them, “joker” smiles cut into their faces etc.
 
During this stage of genocide, hate propaganda is spread in media, newspapers and radios, to portray the terrorists as victims and portray the actual victims as villains. White people are still being blamed for oppression, yet according to African Union statistics,  the government is stealing a trillion rand (R1,000,000,000,000) a year from the country through corruption and therefore causing millions of South Africans, black and white alike, to live without basic human rights. The Lord knew this would cause disaster and warned against it in His Word, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil… who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man!” Isaiah 5:20-23
 
5.           ORGANIZATION
Genocide does not happen by accident, it is premeditated and well organized. Occasionally it is organized by a terrorist group, but most often it is planned by the state. Soldiers are often specially trained and armed, in order to execute the genocidal murders. Even though genocide is planned, the actual killings are often primal, for example hoe-blades to the back of the neck in Cambodia and butchering’s by machetes in Rwanda. Force is then often used to gain participants and group hysteria is whipped-up and spread in order to overcome or prevent individual resistance.
 
We have many racist and Marxist groups in South Africa, like ANC, EFF, BLF who are spreading hate speech and training their followers to detest and want to kill whites.
 
Genocidal leaders promise utopia and advocate these atrocities in order to achieve the dream. Yet in the end, the only ones to benefit are the handful of leaders.
 
6.           POLARIZATION
After these stages, genocide continues in a downward spiral of blood until it reaches a pool of mass murder. Hate groups continue to reinforce abhorrence by broadcasting lies and propaganda and intimidating their victims into silence. Massacres can then be directed to polarize the groups further, until settlement cannot be negotiated.
 
Greedy, incompetent and narrow-minded political leaders, are polarizing our country through deceit and incendiary hate speech and have destroyed South Africa’s dream of peace and of a Rainbow Nation.
 
7.           PREPARATION
One of the first steps in the preparation of genocide is identification. The victims are singled out and made known. Identification enables the mass killing process to be sped up. In further preparation armies are built, maps are drawn, troops are trained, houses are marked and weapons are bought.
 
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton of Genocide Watch, states that preparation also includes expropriation of the victims property and often victims are concentrated or herded into a specific area or region. The leaders indoctrinate the nation with a fear or hatred of the victim group.
 
ANC, EFF, BLF and DA are all political parties who are all vigorously preparing. They are in the process of trying to accomplish “land reform” and “land expropriation”. They are meticulously planning the removal of white people and they are starting with the farmers. This is a masquerade for theft, for murder and for violence, all under the guise of liberation.
 
8.           EXTERMINATION
As the victims are demonized and not considered human, their deaths are not even considered murder, like in Rwanda, mass murder was called “work” and “clearing the bush”. Men, women and children are slaughtered and then buried in a mass grave or burned in a heap like rubbish. The savagery of the occurring farm murders is appalling. It is not a matter of property or right, but rather a hatred that has been entrenched deeply within them through many years of endless lies and hate mongering. This is evident, in that, during many of the attacks little or even nothing is stolen. The single aim seems to be to inflict as much excruciating pain as possible.

9.           DENIAL
The final stage of genocide is just as tragic as the preceding stages. After every genocide, indubitably, denial occurs - the mass graves are destroyed, witnesses are intimidated or eliminated, historic files are eradicated and any evidence is extirpated. The initiators and leaders deny that any crimes were committed and continue to try and blame the victims for the atrocities. Due to their power, they impede any investigations until they are forcefully driven from power. Because the only information comes from ‘unofficial’ sources, the stories are considered alleged and ostensible. The leaders keep spreading propaganda of distorted statistics and the actual definition of genocide is disputed, as the number of killings is scrutinized as to whether it’s considered genocide or not.
 
All these lives have been lost and not one lesson is learned. As evil tries to change and rewrite history, it is doomed to occur again and again, in selfish greed.
 
Our government’s dishonesty continues. Our police force has been ordered to stop collecting data and stop supplying the public with actual statistics. There have been more farm murders than deaths in many wars, such as the Northern Ireland Conflict 1966-1998, the Anglo-Iraqi War 1941 and the Falklands War 1982, just to mention a few. Even so the crisis is dismissed and not considered a crisis or special crime. Farm attackers are found to be using military grade arsenal, unavailable to citizens, yet the government denies that the attacks are premeditated, denies their involvement in the farm murders and denies the public truth and peace.
 
JURISDICTION
It is clear that there is an explicit communist agenda. We need to learn from history and be vigilant towards the indicative warning signs. None of the ideas and plans of our political leaders are new and revolutionary. They are simply stealing failed ideas from other Marxist rulers, who starved their nations and left their countries in decay. The government idolizes these criminals and their ardour towards them is evident in the fact that we have roads and buildings named after them, for example, Fidel Castro building in Bloemfontein named after the Cuban communist, Che Guevara Road in Durban is named after the mass murdering militant Marxist. They even attempted to name a road in Pretoria after Mao Tse Tung - the butcher of Beijing.
 
Marxism expresses that ownership of any private property must be confiscated and the state instead, should have ownership of all property. The government is misleading and manipulating poor and uninformed people who are living in rural areas, by lying to them and making empty promises, in order to acquire more votes in the upcoming elections. Yet, every time, without fail, after the election these people will still be living in townships without any of the promises being fulfilled. While the politicians drive even faster cars, live in bigger mansions, buy more holiday houses in the Bahamas, while sipping their 21-year-old whiskey… yet somehow the poverty and oppression is because of the white man and therefore the scapegoat must be slaughtered.
 
“Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.” Proverbs 3:25-26
  
Emma Vaughan-Jones
Henry Morton Stanley School of Christian Journalism
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
emma@frontline.org.za
www.hmsschoolofchristianjournalism.org

See also:
Farms and Freedom Under Fire in South Africa
Racism, Rhetoric and Reality
A Christian Response to Xenophobia
The Heart and Soul of Karl Marx
The Greatest Killer
Understanding South African History