Below are the 8 Stages of Genocide as recognised by Genocide Watch.

Level 1. CLASSIFICATION: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide. The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the divisions. The Catholic church could have played this role in Rwanda, had it not been riven by the same ethnic cleavages as Rwandan society. Promotion of a common language in countries like Tanzania has also promoted transcendent national identity. This search for common ground is vital to early prevention of genocide.

South African application: For 350 years racial conflict has been part of the South African socio-political landscape. Initial attempts, since the early nineties, towards racial reconciliation, have actively been undone by the Mbeki regime’s Africanist policies. The country’s stark cultural differences between black and white have also rendered the initial attempts mostly unsuccessful. Racial tension is currently at an all time high.

Level 2. SYMBOLIZATION: We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people “Jews” or “Gypsies”, or distinguish them by colors or dress; and apply the symbols to members of groups. Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanization. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the yellow star for Jews under Nazi rule, the blue scarf for people from the Eastern Zone in Khmer Rouge Cambodia. To combat symbolization, hate symbols can be legally forbidden (swastikas) as can hate speech. Group marking like gang clothing or tribal scarring can be outlawed, as well. The problem is that legal limitations will fail if unsupported by popular cultural enforcement. Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the 1980’s, code-words replaced them. If widely supported, however, denial of symbolization can be powerful, as it was in Bulgaria, where the government refused to supply enough yellow badges and at least eighty percent of Jews did not wear them, depriving the yellow star of its significance as a Nazi symbol for Jews.

South African application: The South African regime constantly symbolises whites as a classification not worthy equal treatment to black South Africans. Whether it is President Mbeki stating that whites are a seperate nation to black South Africans or activists of the governing alliance chanting “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer!” the message is consistent. It remains symbols that indicate whites as a separate and ‘evil’ minority that should be wiped out.

Level 3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than democracies. Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and make it culturally unacceptable. Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from international travel and have their foreign finances frozen. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished.

South African application: In the case of South Africa the following definition of Genocide Watch has been proven invalid: “Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than democracies.” In SA however, the very constitutional body that is supposed to protect human rights, i.e. the Human Rights Commission, has declared “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer.” as a cultural song and therefore not an infringement of anyone’s human rights. This absurdity serves to demonstrate the naivety of organisations such as Genocide Watch in understanding Africa.

The Communist Africanist regime of South Africa constantly uses the SABC television channels and other media(e.g. black radio stations) to brand whites as the “white oppressor” and various other racist terms in order to dehumanise whites and point them out as the target group.

Level 4. ORGANIZATION: Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility (the Janjaweed in Darfur.) Sometimes organization is informal (Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or decentralized (terrorist groups.) Special army units or militias are often trained and armed. Plans are made for genocidal killings. To combat this stage, membership in these militias should be outlawed. Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel. The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate violations, as was done in post-genocide Rwanda.

South African application: Though there are  reports of tranining camps where black terrorists are trained in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Letsotho etc. no international organisation is willing to investigate this level of organisation by those who are proponents of the genocide on white South Africans. The constant hate propagated by the ANC-Communist government (via the SABC etc.) also forms part of mobilising blacks against whites. The international community takes no interest in these initiatives by the Africanists. Of particular concern is the total lack of interest by organisations, such is Genocide Whatch, Humanrights Whatch and Amnesty International.

Level 5. POLARIZATION: Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center. Moderates from the perpetrators’ own group are most able to stop genocide, so are the first to be arrested and killed. Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them. Coups d’état by extremists should be opposed by international sanctions.

South African application: The condition for Nelson Mandela’s release from prison was that he does not act as a polarising factor. Thabo Mbeki who was not held by that obligation has gone out of his way to vilify whites. From denouncing whites as a separate nation to telling blacks not to be friendly with whites since blacks “owe whites nothing” to numerous other acts of anti-white hatred. The Mbeki has actively used every platform at its disposal to incite black on white hatred. Sadly though the same international community that forced this government onto white South Africans, takes no interest in the rising death toll.

Level 6. PREPARATION: Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. Their property is expropriated. They are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved. At this stage, a Genocide Emergency must be declared. If the political will of the great powers, regional alliances, or the U.N. Security Council can be mobilized, armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy assistance provided to the victim group to prepare for its self-defense. Otherwise, at least humanitarian assistance should be organized by the U.N. and private relief groups for the inevitable tide of refugees to come.

Level 7. EXTERMINATION begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the killing. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of bilateral genocide (as in Burundi). At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. (An unsafe “safe” area is worse than none at all.) The U.N. Standing High Readiness Brigade, EU Rapid Response Force, or regional forces — should be authorized to act by the U.N. Security Council if the genocide is small. For larger interventions, a multilateral force authorized by the U.N. should intervene. If the U.N. is paralyzed, regional alliances must act. It is time to recognize that the international responsibility to protect transcends the narrow interests of individual nation states. If strong nations will not provide troops to intervene directly, they should provide the airlift, equipment, and financial means necessary for regional states to intervene.

Level 8. DENIAL is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile. There they remain with impunity, like Pol Pot or Idi Amin, unless they are captured and a tribunal is established to try them. The response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the evidence can be heard, and the perpetrators punished. Tribunals like the Yugoslav or Rwanda Tribunals, or an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or an International Criminal Court may not deter the worst genocidal killers. But with the political will to arrest and prosecute them, some may be brought to justice.

Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Campaign to End Genocide

P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 703-448-0222
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