"Screamers"

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"I promise I'll never be Tutsi again"
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1994. The world watched as the Hutu nationalist in Rwanda took to the streets with guns held high and and machetes strapped to their sides. Militias had been training for years before the violence erupted once again that April. Soon they would run out of ammunition... even running out of hand grenades. The machete would be the judge, jury, and executioner for 100 long bloody days.
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The quote above is directly from the lips of a young boy whose mother happened to be Hutu. She was promised that she and her children would be safe if they left her Tutsi husband. Instead the butchers fell upon her children like savage wolves ravening their prey. Those words were the last he would ever speak on God's green earth. He, like many before him, knew the killings had nothing to do with ration or reason... he was killed simply because of who and what he was. Tutsi.
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In Bosnia the world witnessed the death of thousands of Muslims. Perhaps that is why we allowed the Christian Serbs to put them in concentration camps? Whatever the case, we watched as they Serbs set up "cat houses" in which they raped young Muslim girls. The money they spent on their savage rapes funded the deaths of the girls' fathers, brothers, and mothers. Even with this we remained silent.
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From 1991 to 1995 we watched as the Serbs literally raped Bosnia. And again President Clinton waited till the blood and dust had mixed into mud before he gave his apology. He was even so bold as to utter that damned hollow phrase "NEVER AGAIN".
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For what has seemed like an eternity we as a species have watched as the oppressed and tormented beat upon the barbwire and shout for our help. With slit wrist they have have come before us and begged for our mercy and yet we have sent them back into the mouths of Hell's hounds to be devoured.
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With all the evidence the world had to offer we watched as the Armenians were marched into the wastelands only to be slaughtered. Under unmarked graves their bones were left to rot only later to have Hitler himself proclaim, "Who alive today remembers the Armenians?"
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Well I do.
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Today we watch as the European continent (and its outlying island nations) are steadily marching toward the sins of their fathers. Complacent to murder, they have strapped back on the jackboots and began to beat the same bloody drums as before. This time, as before, they march to the "sound of progress". They will, less their path be altered, once again have an entire race put to the flames of Hell for nothing less than "progress".
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The Roma have long been targets of discrimination due to the European view that they are "outsiders" or "un-civilized". The popular view of the Roma is that they are not nor never will be true citizens of the nation in which they live. Despite the common perception that the European Union was set up to allow the free flow of money, products, and people the Roma remain "outsiders".
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In Italy they are forced to register and live in camps the Italians have purposely set up in areas where the Roma will be harassed daily. Their children are forced to go to schools that are set up like prisons (with barbwire and guard towers). Some Italians have even forced the Roma to have their finger prints taken, their family histories documented, their religion publicly proclaimed, the languages they are capable of speaking or writing recorded, and their pictures documented and posted for public access.
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So even if you overlook the French "raffles" (which the French used to rid themselves of Jews in World War Two) you cannot overlook their issuing of ghettos for the Roma. Ghettos that are more reminiscent of Hitler's treatment of Polish Jews than anything we have seen since Bosnia.
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The march is on. The familiar tones of far right fascism is wringing from across the pond. The sound of hard rubber soles is echoing in nearly every capitol city in Europe.
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According to groups such as Human Rights First (www.humanrightsfirst.org) violent crimes committed against and specifically targeting Roma in Europe have been sharply increasing since at least 2007. The ethnocentric fear that fueled Hitler's crimes are showing their teeth with ever increasing tenacity.
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What is more disturbing is that, as Human Rights First puts it, "The bias-motivated violence against Roma often occurs in a hostile environment, as political leaders speak openly of desire to expel Roma from their communities." And this is exactly what is happening in France under Nicolas Sarkozy and his fellow brown shirts.
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It leaves me to wonder just how long it will be before all of Europe adopts Italy's "Security Pact" program. It is clear that France, Germany, and Sweden have adopted this policy in their own ways, but how long till more liberally whitewashed nations like England take to these deportation policies? And now that Germany has chosen to evict its Roma to Kosovo (a country that is not a European Union nation) will France choose a country from which the Roma may not return?
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In 2008 the Italian government declared a "state of emergency" so as to stop the immigration of Roma from Bulgaria and Romania. This was the first time since World War Two that a European nation used immigration as a reason to declare a state wide "state of emergency". It however had little to do with the Roma that were coming into the Axis state as much as it did with those already citizens of Italy.
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Under the broad banner of "emergency" it is surprising just how much citizens are willing to give up in the name of "safety". It is under this same guise that Saddam Hussein began his gassing of the Kurds. And it is under this same sheepskin cloak that almost every loss of freedom has been suffered. Nazism, Fascism, Communism... they all came from the mere perception of a "state of emergency".
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Italy has been using this "state of emergency" to evict long standing communities of Roma so as to destabilize the Roma population in whole. They want to keep the Roma moving so that they cannot integrate any more than they already have. This is a direct personification of the xenophobia that has stripped the Roma of their freedoms... the same freedoms that are "guarantied to all European citizens" by the European Union.
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"Resolution 1740 (2010)

The situation of Roma in Europe and relevant activities of the Council of Europe

1. The Roma constitute the largest minority in Europe and are present in virtually all Council of Europe member states. All member states – without exception – have the moral and legal duty to make concrete and sustained efforts to improve the situation of Roma and to ensure the full respect of their fundamental rights."
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Yet "without exception" the Italians have made "concrete and sustained efforts" to destabilize the Romani population in an attempt to destroy or remove the said population from Italy.
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"2. The Parliamentary Assembly is shocked by recent outrages against Roma in several Council of Europe member states, reflecting an increasing trend in Europe towards anti-Gypsyism of the worst kind." -Parliamentary Assembly of the European Union, Resolution 1740
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And yet still, with all their "shock" by "recent outrages against Roma" the European Union has failed to stop or even sway the steady march toward Nazi style policies in "several Council of Europe member states". In fact, recently the European Union has dropped its grievances and charges against France. Instead they took a step back and allowed Germany to step up its "anti-Gypsyism" by deporting Roma to Kosovo.
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We know not where this current genocide is heading but we do know that, like most others, it is going to escalate. It is also apparent to those aware of its existence that far to few others are watching. And to those of us screaming on the sidelines... we know this sense of desperation far to well.
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To those who want to write this current genocide off as "typical melodrama" from some "typical tree hugging hippie"... well its obvious you don't know me.
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Here is the legal definition of genocide.
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Article II: In the present Convention, 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;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
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We here at Alder's Ledge will continue to fight in any way we can. If nothing else, we will continue to scream till our throats bleed or our voices fail us.
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You can continue to follow us on Facebook by searching "Alder's Ledge" and clicking on the group page.
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Source Documents
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http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm#II
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http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta10/ERES1740.htm
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http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/disc/2009/alert/430/index.htm