THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE

Dom Martin

"Political power”, said Mao Tse-Tung, grows out of the barrel of a gun.  Joseph Stalin extended the barrel even more portentously:  “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic”.  Looming impotently overhead, is Article 2 of the Geneva Convention on the crime of genocide:

“ . . . genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group . . ."

The Geneva Convention does not pontificate numbers; rather, it associates premeditated intent with culpable guilt, one that’s unmistakably apocalyptic.  In reality, every war is a declaration of genocide, as it essentially embodies much of the elements that define genocide:  collective death and suffering, mass destruction and displacement (refugees).   

From time immemorial, civilizations have been stratified by the genocidal remains of prior cultures and ethnic offshoots.  As long as coexistence and survival are under the surveillance and dictates of politics, one can expect little to evolve in the direction of lasting peace.  On the other hand, genocide, like any other infectious disease, can be contained — even eradicated — the moment politics begins to get funded by ethics rather than by war mongering and the proliferation of sanitized war stocks and bonds.

Dom Martin is a surrealist artist, poet and writer.  His recent poem, ICONS OF INNOCENCE, dedicated to the children of Gaza who were killed in the 2008/09 Israeli/Gaza conflict, can be seen at:  http://www.propheticimagery.com/Gaza%20Poem/Innocence.htm

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