Book Review: Genocide Today
As a scholar and as someone who has seen many direct and adjacent spaces of genocide firsthand, first in Iran and later as a senior Policy Analyst with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT), few people would be more qualified than the editor Ezat Mossallanejad to present the variegated perspectives on genocide.
Phenomenal effort, hard work, painstaking diligent research, and most important of all Ezat’s love for people & humanity and passion for human rights have imbued the book Genocide Today with a sense of purpose. This is why I felt spontaneous joy and a sense of restitution when I first read this book.
The book’s most exciting feature is the many different lenses through which genocide is viewed beyond the traditional definition as we all understand it. The book purveys the many acts and policies exhibited in ‘’imprisonment, torture, extermination, apartheid, forced dislocation, discrimination, disappearance, rape, sexual slavery, enforced sterilization, segregation of men & women, human-made famine, internet blockade’’ among other things. The book contains inter-connected chapters contributed by nineteen lifelong caregivers, human rights activists, and survivors: Amir Hassanpour, Nadia Umadat, Ezat Mossallanejad, Keyvan Soltany, Kubra Zaifi, Domine Rutayisire, Alexandre Rutayisire, Huda Bukhari, Hannibal Travis, Mulugeta Abai, Ravi Nair, Lotus Alphonsus, Noelle Alphonsus, Sharry Aiken, R. Cheran, Gabrielle Allohverdi, Norman Lyle Epstein, Andrea Dzamarija, and Adriana Lilic.
The authors have cited many examples, some of which are Bahais in Iran, and the policies against women, Tajiks, and the Hazaras in Afghanistan. All these and more are genocidal in intent and their consequences are often worse than the physical annihilation in genocide. The authors and editor have done an excellent service to the readers in general and to the study of genocide in particular in unearthing these horrendous crimes and creating an awareness of the dreadful consequences of different types of genocides and genocidal intents.
The sheer breadth and coverage are phenomenal: from Middle East & Central Asia (Palestine, Kurds, Yazidis, Tajiks, Hazaras) to Africa (Rwanda, Darfur, Sudan, Tigray) to South and South-East Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Rohingya, Cambodia, Japan- though Pakistan was left out), to China and Europe. Because of this vast sweep, scholars/readers looking for depth in some of the pieces could be disappointed, but in a book of this scope, I guess this cannot be helped. I for one felt the section on Palestine did get short shrift not because the issue continues to be unresolved but because the sufferings of the Palestinian people continue to be underreported in the media dominated by Western agencies/vested interests. Don’t miss out on the four pieces that appear for some odd reason titled ‘’Appendix’’ toward the end of the book. Some of these almost aesthetically complement the previous chapters of the book. (Appendix is a misnomer, and the editor could have subsumed these four articles under a more appropriate heading).
The contributors to the volume have varied backgrounds, academicians, scholars, and activists, among others. The book captures some exciting stories and snippets, albeit disturbing ones and not so well-known. One of them is about a Japanese biowarfare expert who, after his capture, instead of being prosecuted, was quietly ‘transferred’ to the arsenal of USA experts working in the same area (chapter 2, pg 53). Also, read about the gross murders committed in China’s organ transplant industry (chapter 5 pg 305), and the ethnic cleansing of Nepalese Bhutanese in Bhutan (chapter 5, pg 253).
The book poignantly shows how different sets of conditions/belief structures are dependent variables in the interplay of genocide. Some of these expounded in the book are totalitarianism, the problem of denial, religious fanaticism, forcibly imposing ideology on masses, the apathy of superpowers in recognizing genocides, greed for power, social Darwinism, and subordination of all kinds.
This book will surely test your patience: good, solid 419 pages of dense, dismal reading. It is indeed a valuable contribution to the study of genocide studies. Despite all the horror stories, the book ends on an optimistic note unveiling Ezat’s humanism, zeal, and positive outlook: ‘’We need hope, patience, and consistent work to humanize our dehumanized world’’.
Khozema Mansure
Toronto, September 2023
