Alders Ledge

Ukraine Pogroms

2012-01-25T18:32:00.001-05:00

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January 11Th...
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The sun had not yet come up when the "Berkut" began it's dirty business. Ukrainian shock troops beat down the doors of Romani homes. Like the jackboots that ravaged the Ukraine decades before, these crack troops used racial prejudice to justify their terror.
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Like rabid dogs the Ukrainian police attacked their prey. Beating men and women alike the savages shouted racist slurs and death threats. Romani children watched on in horror as the people who are supposed to protect them beat their parents nearly to death.
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The Ukrainian state claims nothing happened. Yet word and evidence of the attacks keeps slipping out of the Ukraine. Roma groups and Human Rights organizations keep reporting the facts that the racist government and police of the Ukraine try to hide.
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So far one Roma man has died. He had been suffering from tuberculosis. After being attacked he died. Others have been in and out of hospitals as a direct result of the beatings the police gave them.
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"Please Dont Kill Me"

2011-12-08T11:39:00.001-05:00

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"I'll Never Be Tutsi Again!"
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Liars. The murders had machetes drawn and drenched in blood when they came to the church in Kibuye, Rwanda. Inside sat two families connected by two sisters. This day, these butchers, and their taunting lies would change the image of Rwanda for those who survived.
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Each sister was married to Tutsi men. Each sister was Hutu. By the roughly drawn "laws" of the murderous mobs the sisters' children were Tutsi. Thus the battle lines were drawn.
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The mob ordered any Hutu out of the church. Tutsi had to stay.
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The first sister decided that day that she would die a Tutsi... die with her husband. The mob was willing to kill her without a second thought.
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The second sister pleaded to be allowed to take her 11 children out of the church with her. After some time the mob said she could... under one condition.
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They ordered her to leave the building. Just outside the doorway she called her children to supposed safety. Wait their she had been promised the opportunity to leave.
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Her 11 children walked toward the exit. Afraid, the children walked toward the mob who stood between them and their mom. This is when all Hell broke loose.
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In a blood lust filled rage the mob began hacking away at the 11 children. In a matter of moments 7 of the children were mangled and laying dead in the church doorway. Two had escaped.
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A three year old boy now stood crying in the midst of his dead brothers and sisters. As the mob encircled the boy he screamed for mercy.
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"Please don't kill me," the young boy shouted. "I'll never be Tutsi again!"
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The child's mother could do nothing for her boy. The mob had become a snarling pack of hyenas. Their prey was barely old enough to run let alone fight back. The war against the Tutsi had now become absolute Hell.
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Unmoved by the three year old child's tears and blood curdling pleas... the Hutu mob attacked.
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Genocide doesn't allow it's perpetrators to see these scenes with rational eyes... it mask their hearts. This three year old boy was the enemy for the genocidal Hutu. He wad old enough to know he was Tutsi. And that was all that mattered to his savage assailants.
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For the two siblings who lived the image of their brother pleading for mercy would never cease to replay itself over and over again in their minds. For you, it should never cease to replay itself over and over again in your soul.
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Genocide has not gone away. It continues to claim lives in countries all around the world. Currently it continues to kill in countries right next-door to Rwanda.
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As long as we remain silent it will never stop... it will never relent. It knows no boundaries and respects no borders. National sovereignty does not concern those who practice genocide. Religion cannot reign it in. Morality is blurred by it's many forms.
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Only the actions of brave men and women can stop it. Only the will to fight for the rights of all people can stem it's bloody flow. Only the courage to scream, even when it seems nobody I'd listening, will bring an end to genocide.
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Scream for those who have no voice. Repost this and other post on Alder's Ledge. Share us on FaceBook and Twitter. Follow us on Twitter, @alders_ledge. All of these are easy ways to become a screamer.
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Silent Suffering

2011-12-07T17:19:00.001-05:00

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Rape and Genocide
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As the Armenian genocide began the horrors it would unleash became almost instantly clear to one part of the Armenian population... it's women.
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Turkish soldiers were well known for many things amongst the Armenians. Self-control was not one of them. Instead the Turks took everything they wanted without a moment of hesitation. This included the innocence of young Armenian girls.
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Rape became a hallmark of deportation in the process The Young Turks called "Turkification". If a child became unable to walk after repeated rapes... the Turks killed them. If a woman tried to resist she would be bludgeoned and then gang raped... then killed.
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Yet despite the use of rape as a weapon not all it's victims died. Many were kept alive to serve as sex slaves in Turkish homes. Government officials, officers, and street vendors all approached the caravans of deportees to purchase "desirables". Young girls and boys were purchased from the soldiers all along the death marches.
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Some of these slaves would be sent to work on farms. Others were sent to Turkish homes as servants. Many were sent to Turkish villages to be used as forced wives or made to participate in orgies.
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For those made to become wives or concubines rape was a daily threat. "Unrelated girls and boys in the household—regardless of religious or ethnic origin—were sexually available to senior males." Any adult male could use them for his deviant desires.
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In all of this a common form of brandishing ownership developed amongst the Turkish masters. Slaves were to be tattooed upon their face and hands. It was a way to demoralize the slave and to show the rest of society that they were "unclean".
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Thanks to the League Of Nations (the predecessor to the UN) we have documented cases of this practice. The survivors' families can access the pictures and documents of their grandparents who made it out of captivity. All due to a safe house the League operated in Aleppo, Syria. These images and surveys are housed in Geneva.
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For Suzanne Khardalian these documents helped her understand the suffering and deep scars left by the "devilish marks" on her grandmother's hands and face. You can hear her story by watching her film "Grandma's Tattoos".
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To read more about this subject please follow the link below.
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http://www.armenianweekly.com/2011/12/07/devilish-marks/

Never Again Often Comes Too Late...

2011-11-22T11:57:00.001-05:00

... If Never At All.
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In Rwanda we as a world community watched as the words "Never Again" fell away. The Hutu militias swept the country with amazingly deadly speed. Rapes, mutilations, and murders earmarked their movement. The machete became their symbol.
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All the while the UN stood helplessly by as the Canadian commander called for help... or if nothing else, permission to engage. The world that April failed to uphold those seemingly hollow words. Never Again.
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Bosnia became a melting pot of ethnic radicals as Europe took a step back. For the first time since World War Two the world watched as death camps were built on European soil. The Serbs were set to destroy their enemies... on ethnic and religious grounds.
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Civilians were targeted while the few combatants Bosnia could field were kept alive as an excuse for Serbian aggression. Muslims in Bosnia were then shipped of to camps or killed outright wherever they could be found. Artillery, grenades, and the infamous AK47 became the Serbian hallmarks.
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We remained silent. Our world leaders left the innocent victims to the wolves. Once again we failed to uphold those two words. Never Again.
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As the Arab Spring amped up we watched as Bahrain began to pit Sunni against Shiites. The stage was set for genocide once again. We got a few news stories about it. Some world leaders may have mumbled something or another about it. But once again we failed to address the issue... we failed to proclaim and stand behind those words "Never Again".
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In Libya the politics of the West out weighed our commitment to preventing and stoping genocide. Instead we seemed to look the other way as arab Libyans began to slaughter their black countrymen. And once again we used the excuse of civil war to mask the ethnic cleansing Libyans engaged in. Worst yet, our support may have contributed to their success in killing on ethnic grounds. We not only failed to stop genocide but also may have supported it.
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Time will tell just how often we have failed in this commitment. We will see in the years to come just how many lives need be lost before we actually act upon those words. Until then we must hold our governments and ourselves responsible for our shortcomings.
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Never Again

George Soros and the Roma

2011-11-08T15:44:00.001-05:00

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Finances verse Discrimination
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The Hungarian born financier has begun to refocus his efforts on his country's largest minority. In an interview with the EUobserver Soros addressed the issue of integration. This is a subject that the EU had demanded it's member countries to focus on and achieve by January 2012.
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“The problem of the Roma is deteriorating with the economic situation. And the majority of the public is releasing its anger and frustration at its own economic situation by attacking the Roma,” he told EUobserver.
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Soros went on to warn the EU about the growth of the far-right. He focused on Jobbik, the neo-Nazi Hungarian party. He also said that at least seven member nations are failing to meet the obligations set in place back in April by the EU Parliament.
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“The other side of the economic crisis is this growth in the far right. Now Europe is in a process of disintegration which is self-reinforcing, just as the process of integration was self-reinforcing,” he warned.
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“When Europe was in the positive mode, its leadership was in the forefront of pushing further EU integration,” he continued.
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“Now they are just trying to preserve the status quo, which actually is unsustainable and many people who recognise that is unsustainable or intolerable are pushed into an anti-European position.”
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“We are now in a situation where we are pushed to greater economic integration out of necessity of preserving the euro and that creates a very bad political dynamic where people are very close to each other and fight with each other and there is a lot to fight about.
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“When people are forced to live together out of necessity and not desire, it leads to a very unhappy marriage,” he said “ You need to re-invent the process of economic of European integration."
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Soros's ideas are a step in the right direction. However if past behavior is to be any indicator than the EU will most likely fail to meet it's obligations. Jobbik will continue to grow as more banks fail in Europe. And life for the Roma will continue to grow worse in Europe.
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Source Documents, note not all sources listed.
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EUobserver
http://euobserver.com/851/114218
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Romani Man Attacked By Czech Police

2011-11-08T08:34:00.001-05:00

"World's Best Police"
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On Saturday, October 29th, a Romani man in the embattled Northern Bohemia reports to have been strangled and further attacked by Czech Police. The officers were in fact two members of the SPJ Praha, the Czech Special Forces Unit - Prague Patrol. And their actions, racially motivated, are not being investigated or punished.
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Mr Ladislav Bíllý, a Czech Roma man, claims that around 4pm the first officer surprised him on his own property. In a matter of moments the second officer darted in and grabbed Ladislav by the throat. The officer proceeded to slam Mr Ladislav into the wall with his hand firmly gripping Ladislav's windpipe.
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'Shut up and be polite' the aggressive officer shouted in Ladislav's face as he began berating the Roma man. The officer, who was trespassing, demanded Ladislav's identity papers. All the while the first officer stood by and did nothing to stop the attack.
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After a short time Ladislav convinced the aggressive officer to let him go and that his identity papers were in his car. Suddenly the second officer became even more irate. It appeared to the Roma man that having to walk a few meters to his car had made the officer even more aggressive.
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Once at the car, a Volkswagen Golf, the aggressive cop yelled at Ladislav very loudly, "Don't piss me off anymore you black swine."
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When the Roma's papers were produced the officers demanded the car's papers. Once the car's documents were produced the officers called for reinforcements. Now there were six officers. All six special unit officers proceeded to trash the car as they "searched" it without a search warrant or permission.
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Finally Mr Ladislav had had enough. He demanded the officers get off his private property. The aggressive officers had a shouting match before leaving. The entire time they were there they had covered their service numbers... masking their identity.
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The "Blue Line" in Czech police forces is rarely crossed. This means no cops rat out other cops. Thus their criminal behavior goes unpunished.
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As for the Romani people in the Šluknov hills the police are just as dangerous as are their "ethnic white" neighbors. The SPJ units are even more dangerous. They are able to get away with murder and never are punished.
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Source Document, note that not all sources are listed.
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2935
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Beauty and the Beast

2011-10-26T12:46:00.005-04:00

Hollywood and Ramzan Kadyrov
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Just recently Hilary Swank attended a birthday bash for a tyrant. She flew halfway around the world to perform her services to the dictator Ramzan Kadyrov. Don't know who this guy is? Well there is a good chance that Miss Swank doesn't really know either. But that didn't stop her from offering her support to a brutal savage that tortures, murders, and kidnaps his own countrymen.
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After the "little war" Putin launched back in 1999, a war that was used by Putin to gain the Russian Presidency, Ramzan's father was put into power in Chechnya. This move was calculated by Putin, a dictator in his own right, to put down the separatist movement in Chechnya. However the move failed when the Chechen rebels killed Ramzan's father with a bomb attack in 2004. Thus Putin allowed Ramzan Kadyrov to gain power with the backing of Moscow.
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The son of the first beast made the name of the Chechen capitol city his personal motto... Grozny translates to "terrible". He has used brutal police force to chase out or kill off his political opposition. Any publicly spoken dissent for Kadyrov leads to being abducted or having your door busted down in the middle of the night. Women who dare to venture out without the "proper Islamic clothing" are taken away and often raped by Kadyrov's men. Other women are simply beaten and if lucky, killed.
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Kadyrov's abuses have led countless human rights organizations to condemn the tyrant. Ironically Putin claims that Kadyrov is the only man standing between the Islamic terrorist and "peace" in the Northern Caucasus. And yet it is Putin who wants to hold the next Olympic games, after 2012, in an area of the Caucasus where Russia committed a genocide they still deny. But we are asked to remember that Kadyrov is the bad guy here... not Putin.
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And thus we get a Hollywood star, mind numbingly stupid one at that, going half way around the world to celebrate Putin's puppet. It wasn't till returning home that Swank decided she might have done something wrong. It wasn't till the American media started to point out just how bad Kadyrov and his regime is that Hilary Swank decided to weasel her way out of the situation.
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That is why, and that is the only reason why, Hilary Swank is now saying that she will donate all proceeds to charity. But does any charity really want blood money? Sadly probably so. Mainly because the charities Swank knows about don't really care who they hurt as long as they feel good when they lay their heads down at night.
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So I must ask in closing just how do we reach a point in American history where we have American citizens flying around the world to pat killers on the back? We have gotten to this particular case due to the fact that celebrities in Hollywood view Russian dictators as liberators. Their love affair with the old Soviets has blinded them to the atrocities committed by Moscow. And thus we have Hilary Swank going over to Chechnya to lavish praise upon a cold blooded killer due to his association with Putin and Moscow. It is the politics of the liberals in Hollywood that allows them to be blind to the human rights violations their politics endorse.
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Source Documents, Note that not all documents used are listed below.
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The Moscow Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/swank-will-donate-money-from-grozny-bash-to-charity/445546.html
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The Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2048798/Hilary-Swank-apologises-attending-Chechen-president-Ramzan-Kadyrovs-birthday.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
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Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/us-russia-chechnya-putin-idUSTRE79C2E020111013
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MSNBC Today
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44857630/ns/today-entertainment/
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CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/12/earlyshow/leisure/celebspot/main20119106.shtml
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Racial Tensions Still Rising

2011-10-25T11:06:00.009-04:00

Romani Still Targeted By "Ethnic Majority"
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As local police struggle to push back the hordes of racially charged "ethnic Bulgarians" and "White Czechs" the special police units are pulling out. The petrol bombs may have stopped flying for the time being but the racist crowds have not stopped massing. And it is this fact that has many Roma in Northern Bohemia worried.
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In the Czech Republic local "ethnically Czech" peoples have resorted to finding new ways to drive the Roma out of Bohemia. Some have pooled their money together to purchase the homes of Roma without the consent of the Roma themselves. Others have begun trying to push legislation to make public bans on Roma living in their select villages. All in all, the sounds echoing out of Bohemia are starting to sound more and more like the Nazi era.
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In Bulgaria the white population has still refused to stop their assault on Roma. Burning and torching of Roma homes continues as police fight to keep the assailants at bay. When out in public the Bulgarian Roma now have to fear random style attacks by neo-Nazi inspired youth. These same attacks have been used for years in Russia to target Islamic immigrants from former USSR held territories. It is a tactic used by the Russian neo-Nazi movement.
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The only good news coming out of the region is that some action is being taken to combat the rise of ethnic violence. In the Czech Republic today 14 Czechs face charges for assaulting Roma for racial reasons. This sort of action is finally starting to become the normal reaction in the Czech Republic instead of the old reaction of doing nothing.
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In Bulgaria however the news is still sour at best. Journalist who show any sympathy for the Roma or even fairness in their reporting are called "Jews". The use of the old scapegoat as an insult shows just how far Bulgaria has fallen. They are now bathing in the Nazi doctrine. And there isn't any sign of hope for their revival any time soon.
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Source Documents, please note not all documents used are shown below.
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The Prauge Post
http://www.praguepost.com/news/10461-police-pull-back-in-north-bohemia.html
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2908
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2909
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Prauge Daily Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2011/10/25/fourteen-czechs-face-racism-charges-assaulting-roma
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The Guardian (blog)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/oct/24/bulgaria-press-freedom?newsfeed=true
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Novinite.com
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132646

Genocide and the Olympics

2011-10-13T11:29:00.006-04:00

The Czar's Genocide
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As Russia marched into the Caucasus it couldn't help but get its hands covered in blood. Every ethnic group that Russia came across it found new reasons to kill, subjugate, or deport. For the Circassians this new ruler would be one to which they could not bow. So they, like many others, were deported.
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Pushing the Circassian population south, the Czar made certain the bold Muslims would never return to the Russian Empire again. And for hundreds of years this decision proved to work out for the Russians. So much so that the Russians didn't seem to think twice about asking to hold the 2014 Olympics in the exact region they had exiled the Circassians to.
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The Circassian diaspora claims that around 1.5 million of their ancestors died in the region of Sochi. Russia claims that the number is around 300,000 or so. But both sides do agree that their was a sizable number of Circassians killed in Sochi through starvation, exposure to the elements, and outright killing by Russian forces.
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Of course Russia claims the acts were an acceptable extension of war with a violent rebellious ethnic group. They claim that the Circassians brought about the deportations by not simply accepting the harsh rule of Russian Czars. And that the actions were in no way "genocide".
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The Circassians however, and Alder's Ledge, know that the actions taken by Russia constitute genocide. There was an obvious attempt made by Russia to destroy in part or in whole a distinct ethnic group. Worse yet, the attempt was not a sudden decision made in the fog of war. Russia had already planned on what ethnic groups could be cleared out or killed off to make room for ethic Russian settlers and Germans brought in from the Prussian wilderness. This was the same idea Hitler had for making "living space".
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Most Circassians are only asking that Russia admit to acts of genocide in the Caucasus. Others however want an independent state in the Caucasus for the Circassians to live free in their traditional homeland. While an even more extreme element would like to team up with rebels in Chechnya to help form an Islamic state in the Caucasus.
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Alder's Ledge sides with the majority of Circassians who simply want an apology and for Russia to accept the fact that it committed genocide against the Circassians. And until this happens their should be no Olympic games in Russia. Let alone holding the games in Sochi where the Circassians were slaughtered for Russian gains.
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(Of the nearly 8 million Circassians world wide barely half a million live within Russia)

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Source Documents (note not all sources are listed below)
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Caucasus Regional News (Blog)
http://dailygeonews.blogspot.com/2010/11/to-recognize-sochi-as-symbol-of.html
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Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/us-russia-caucasus-olympics-idUSTRE79C2ST20111013
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Flower Power?

2011-10-13T10:09:00.010-04:00

Roma Showing Civility While Facing Ethnic Violence
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"We are here to prove that stirring ethnic hatred makes no sense; let other people tell what should and should not be displayed in society," Mariana Vankova from the Bulgarian National Network for Children.
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Despite being faced with violence the Roma of Sofia, Bulgaria are showing up for a "Roma Pride" parade. The event was planned long before the ethnic violence broke the peace in Bulgaria. But now it is being used to show that the "ethnics" and the Roma can exist side-by-side in peace.
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At nearly every intersection in the capitol city, Sofia, young Roma children were seen handing out flowers and smiling at passersby. Their goal was simple. Heap kindness upon thine enemies' head.
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It is to early to tell if the parade or the flowers helped in any way. It is clear however that at least some "ethnic" Bulgarians found repentance in the act of solidarity shown by the Roma. Large numbers of Bulgarians showed up to participate and show their hope for peace.
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It is true however that many on both sides of the fight have refused to join in and drop their ethnic hatred. Protest organized around the said racial motives are still present in Bulgaria. However now the police are arresting many of those who cross the line from talk to violence. And the attacks on innocent Roma are finally being addressed by the politicians and police alike.
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Elsewhere in Europe the Roma Pride demonstrations occurred without as much scrutiny. On Saturday, October Second, hundreds of Roma took to the streets in Paris to display the colorful Roma culture and to show how the French government has recently attacked it. In Romania's capitol of Bucharest around three hundred Roma turned out for celebrations of the Roma culture. And according to Agence-France Presse even more Roma Pride events occurred in Denmark, Italy, Norway, and Turkey.
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"Many Roma are afraid or ashamed to openly recognize their ethnicity because they are concerned about discrimination," Marian Mandache of the Romani Criss organization told Agence-France Presse. The demonstrators in Bucharest wore t-shirts that said "I am Romani" in the Romani language.
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So all this leaves me to ask why fight back with flowers and not guns? It is hard to imagine a life where a simple display of your music, language, and dance is considered historic... historic in a place you have called home for generations upon generations. How do they continue to smile?
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Galina Trefil.
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* When violence is directed against us, without exception, we are blamed for it. Why? We did not “assimilate.” My grandfather once taught at Karelova University in Prague. Most anyone would have considered that assimilated enough, but he was still a Rom and, thusly, he was shot at with a machine gun and saw his children butchered. His life was destroyed. Roma families all have slaughter stories from the war though. To be Romani, one expects and has to find a way to accept hatred from birth. So, from that perspective, that Neo-Nazis would march and cry for our murder yet again is a frontal assault; not a surprise at all.
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Where my own family has felt intense betrayal is that so many were destroyed by the original Nazis that, collectively, many Holocaust-survivor families today say, “Things changed. They got better. And we can take comfort in that.” I and others in my family proudly display the photographs of the Romani-American soldiers of World War II—men who volunteered for the army, eager to be part of that change; eager to bring justice and freedom to their brethren and other ethnic groups besides across the ocean. Risking their lives, these men returned to America with medals, proving not just their valor in battle, but their commitment to the idea of genocide being wiped out.
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In 1959, my father made a gesture of standing up to a government that does not protect its citizens, but instead forces them to suffer. He swam a river and risked his life in order, just for a moment, to stand in his father’s homeland with pride. Even if it was only a gesture, sometimes gesture are necessary.
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My father, a retired psychiatrist and surgeon, still loves the Czech Republic. This is an all-encompassing and devoted love that will not, no matter how many vicious mobs arise, ever change. No matter how many police refuse to arrest citizens bent on murder, he will never blame the Czech people as a whole, but rather the government which is failing to protect its non-Czech citizens. He considers those who Czechs who did not stand up to and or prosecute the mob as shameful to their own race and sympathizes with the many decent, ethical Czechs who are shamed by the escalating violence that they did not take part in. *
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Take what you will from her story. An explanation? I don't know for sure. It seems impossible to explain the resolve of the Roma people. It is hard to understand from this American mind how they still want to be part of a place and people who continue to hate them. And how they assimilate only to be rejected.
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As for the flowers and smiles... we here at Alder's Ledge applaud the Roma who took part in the Roma Pride activities throughout Europe. And we will continue to cover your attempts to live in peace by writing about them here on Alder's Ledge. G-d bless you all.
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Source Documents (note that not all sources are listed below)
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noinvite.com
Sofia News Agency
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132582
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2866
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Infoshop News
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20111001151904175
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Bulgarian Right Wing Rearing Its Ugly Head

2011-10-07T14:15:00.006-04:00

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Roma Targeted Once Again.
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In much of the European Union it doesn't take much to spark an anti-Roma campaign. A civil feud can easily become a national debate. And in Bulgaria that means the neo-Nazis rise to power once again.
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Their goal is simple. Keep the hate flowing. Keep the people fixated upon the target. And keep the message loud and constant.
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Now that the jackboots have hit the pavement their isn't much stopping the Bulgarians from outright attacking Roma citizens. Their blood is boiling and the fascist are readily stoking the flames. The death of one "ethnic" Bulgarian could prove merit enough for countless Roma deaths.
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"The hate speech that has been fuelling the anti-Roma protests in Bulgaria is of great concern," Rupert Colville, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). "We call on Bulgarian authorities at the highest political level to publicly restate this principle of individual criminal responsibility."
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And yet the Bulgarian authorities are doing nothing. Instead they simply stand back and wait. Wait for the "ethnic" Bulgarians to take matters into their own hands. Then once the blood has been spilled and the good citizens of Bulgaria have had their fun... then Bulgarian authorities will have a reason to expel the countries Roma population.
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After all, France did it. Why wouldn't Bulgaria?
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They have already taken their aggression to a level not seen in France. The racist protesters have the backing of a national political party, Ataka. A common uniform is showing up amongst the hate filled "ethnics". All their missing is a short fat Austrian with a funny mustache.
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So where is the EU or the UN? Doing what they do best in this sort of situation. Waiting till the storm blows over and then apologizing afterward. They did it with the Czechs recently. They did it with the French for years now. So why should we trust them with a clearly Nazi style protest as this one?
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And if you watched both videos you can see that the "ethnics" can't even keep their stories straight. First it was a "Roma clan" in a "Roma van". Next it is a "Roma national leader" in a "Roma bus". The only fact they do have here is that a Bulgarian citizen ran over another Bulgarian citizen.
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In any case we here at Alder's Ledge will continue to follow this story and update you all as events occur.
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Source Documents. (Note that not all are listed below.)
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The Sofia Echoe
http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/10/05/1168911_un-human-rights-commission-speaks-out-against-targeting-of-roma-in-bulgaria
&
http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/10/07/1170776_extremists-in-bulgaria-trying-to-exploit-ethnic-tensions-after-katounitsa
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/europe/anti-roma-demonstrations-spread-across-bulgaria.html
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BBC World News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15093839
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Hungary and the Neo-Nazis

2011-09-21T15:45:00.004-04:00

Jobbik, the legal arm of Nazism in Hungary.
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Jobbik should had been banned much like the neo-Nazi organization just banned in Germany today. Instead Jobbik continues to flourish as it spreads its messege of hate across Hungary and abroad. Instead Jobbik remains free to enlist more and more "stormtroopers" into its Nazi army. Instead it continues to attack and harrass a portion of Hungary's population that the government refuses to protect.
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Spread the word about Jobbik and help fight the spread of fascist groups like these. In doing this you help make it more and more difficult for groups like Jobbik to gain power by working under the radar. And in doing this you help put pressure on Hungary to stop supporting Jobbik and its Nazi scum.
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"She's Buried Chest Deep"

2011-09-20T12:10:00.004-04:00

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"Allah... has come up with such a fair rule, even the Devil couldn't be so cruel."
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Iran, the name alone makes me sick. A place where even Satan might not show his head for fear of Islamic retribution. A people taught to fear a religion, a faith, a tormented ideal. A country sealed off from hope.
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The rulers of this religious theocracy crush the fairer sex while exalting the depravity of the males beastly lust. A glimpse of hair, a centimeter of exposed flesh, a twinkle of the eye and a woman can be literally crushed. And yet the youth of Iran have showed the will to fight back.
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In the end of President Bush's rule the "green movement" began. Obama has refused to support it. His presidency has watched on as the symbol of this movement died... bleeding out in the street... staring into the camera as if to scream out for help.
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And yet we could not look away. For the first time the world was damned to watch. Damned to see how these religious zealots treat their women. To see how Neda died simply for being born the wrong sex... for stepping out of the role Islam has cast for its women.
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If you have seen her eyes you know her pain. If you have watched as life left her there, dieing before your eyes, than you must bear witness. Turning away is kin to being the bastard that fired the shot. Remaining silent is kin to being the monster that stole from her the life you live... free.
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Every year the Iran government issues the command to kill an unknown number of women. Many die without the world knowing their names. Many simply slip away into the darkness of Iran's Islamic law. Their faces are stolen from them with the pounding of stone. Their blood spilt by the fascist bullet. Their lives extinguished so that those remaining might never have to face the gallows.
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The goal of Iran is simple. To keep its women enslaved to the rule of Sharia law. A code Iran gave birth to. A law that was written through the militants' interpretation of radicalized Islam. A law that rapes, maims, and slaughters those who can not submit to it.
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Scream for these extinguished flames. Scream for Neda. Scream till your throat bleeds and your voice can bear it no more.
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Educational Discrimination Against Romani Children Part of Czech Unrest

2011-09-15T12:52:00.004-04:00

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Czech Television station ČT24 has posted an article to its website reporting on the connection between the current unrest in Šluknov district and discrimination against Romani people in the schools. Such discrimination has been linked for decades in the Czech Republic to the provision of special education.
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The unrest in Šluknov region is rooted in the ongoing discrimination being practiced against Romani children at elementary schools there. For decades, the state has permitted intellectually healthy Romani children to be educated at schools for the intellectually disabled. After the practice was criticized, the state renamed the schools concerned, changing "special" ("zvláštní") schools into "practical" ("praktické") ones. Irremediable harm has been done to these children, because without a normal education, Romani people have no chance on the labor market. Among Romani residents of the residential hotel in Varnsdorf which police officers have been protecting from attack by non-Romani locals recently, only half of the local children currently attend mainstream schools.
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A full 27 % of Romani children without intellectual disabilities are still attending the renamed "special" schools throughout the country. "Special schools are intended for the intellectually disabled. Tell me: Is it possible for such a high percentage of any population to be intellectually disabled?" asks Iveta Němečková, a special needs educator.
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There are 400 ghettos total in the Czech Republic where an estimated 30 000 children live. Just like their parents when they were of pre-school age, many of these children have small vocabularies in Czech, may not yet know the words for colors or shapes (or may not distinguish colors), and may not yet grasp certain concepts. However, they are not intellectually backward, just socially deprived. They therefore have even more of a need for a normal education. "That's how they become familiar with the majority society, how they establish relationships with other children and start perceiving social norms and values in a natural way," said Klára Fischerová, a special needs educator working at the Lyčkovo náměstí Elementary School in Karlín.
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In 2007, the Czech Republic lost a case at the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg, which found in favor of Romani citizens who complained they had been unjustifiably educated in special schools. The practice is continuing and has been criticized by the Czech School Inspectorate and the ombudsman.
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Segregated education has a sad tradition of devastating impacts among the Roma. Those living in the ghettos today are often graduates of the days when special education was developed in full in Czechoslovakia during the 1970s. "A disproportionate percentage of the Romani population were educated in special schools, as many as 70 % of Romani children at the height of the practice," Němečková pointed out.
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According to a World Bank study published last year, eight out of 10 Romani people currently of economically productive age have only ever completed an elementary education. If their children don't get a chance for a better education, they will end up on welfare. The situation is a vicious circle.
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"It's not true that information has not been available about this, but for some reason there has never been interest at the highest levels, such as the Czech Education Ministry, or even in regional government. If we don't address this now, it will catch up to us in time," said Ivan Gabal, a sociologist and author of several pieces of research into the unequal position of Romani children.
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The state already knows how to address the situation. One elementary school in Prague's Karlín neighborhood could serve as a model, where rich and successful people are neighbors with families living in existential deprivation and everyone sends their children to the same schools.
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"The children are satisfied, that's important. We are the clients of these children and their parents, so we want to guarantee education for all," school director Jan Korda said. The Romani population of the school is 10 %, or two or three pupils in each class. Class 6.B also includes a girl of Vietnamese origin and a hearing-disabled boy. They live on the same street and attend the same class.
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"We're all children and we should be friends, not be separated," said Anežka Novotná from class 6.B. Whether the situation will change in Šluknov district remains an open question.
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Romea.cz Article
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2813

Is Europe Dieing?

2011-09-15T11:20:00.004-04:00

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Rise of Fascism in Russia.
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In 2009 it was predicted that over half the worlds known population of Neo-Nazis lived in Russia. To me this is almost to much to believe. After all, it was Adolf Hitler who had used a "scorched Earth" policy while invading the "Mother Land". So how is it that the World War Two stormtroopers are now reappearing in Russia?
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The idea goes that as the collapse of the Soviet Union came about the rise of immigration began. People from the Caucuses and other former colonies of the Soviets began to rush into the falling empire's homeland. These people simply were seeking a better life than what the Soviets had made for them in the old Soviet block puppet states.
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Now days the immigration to Russia is still climbing. With a booming economy, the old communist state is suddenly an attractive destination for the East and its impoverished countries. This has helped bring about the resentment that has fueled the "apocalyptic" view of the skinhead movement in Russia.
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Ideas that focus on the "birth rate" and the replacement of ethnic majorities have lent to the racist motivations that now have a footing in Europe. The Czech Republic has demonized its old communist rulers while leaning back toward Adolf's style of thinking. Romania too has lent itself to the racist ideologies of Hitler's Europe. Russia however... well Russian racist are reforming the agendas of Nazism to fit their nations unique needs.
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Random street fighting, vicious attacks on minorities, terrorist style executions, and racist backed boot camps. These are all the trademarks of Russian Nazism. This is how half of the Nazis in the world today behave.
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It is clear that the movement is still growing. The economy in Russia may be hitting rough patches yet the immigration to Russia is still continuing. And the Nazi movement in Russia is still sucking in the poor and weary in a dim society. All we have left is to see where the movement ends.
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Will Russia be the new Germany?
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Source Document
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Current TV: From Russia With Hate

Once The Roma Start Using Twitter...

2011-09-09T13:53:00.004-04:00

Article by Romea.cz
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The electronic media - television in particular - have unfortunately played a large role in the hysteria created around the problems with coexistence between the "majority society" and the Romani community in the Šluknov foothills. The populism of various politicians has also played a big role.
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Various television stations have been and are reporting on the situation in Rumburk or Varnsdorf in a one-sided, populist manner - and sometimes directly in an apocalyptic style. Government politicians, under pressure from the unrelenting problems in their own coalition, have sensed the opportunity to flex their "muscles". It's not that there are not serious problems in the Šluknov foothills, but it cannot be a total coincidence that these problems have moved to the center of the country's attention at the very moment the governing coalition is introducing many anti-social measures through its reforms.
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The tactic of "divide and conquer", or inciting society against itself, is a tried-and-true political tool. In other countries where governments have gone down the path of unpopular measures, it has worked for them to incite the poor - or the lower middle class who are being rendered poor by the reforms - against those who are the very poorest, often those afflicted by total social exclusion.
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The rhetoric used in such cases is rather simple: During hard times, we must all make sacrifices, and unfortunately our world is being ruined by a layer of parasites and "moochers" who in addition are terrorizing our fellow citizens with their violence - citizens who may be poor, but who are honest, hard-working, and who pay their rent. Then, when the resentful "nation" takes to the streets demanding harsh measures and security, the television cameras movingly follow the socially "adaptable" dads, moms, teenagers and children as they take out their justified anger against the "inadaptables", demanding decisive measures. If the police weren't stopping them, the "adaptables" would be only too glad to beat those Roma up.
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We cannot make light of a certain justified degree of desperation currently being felt by locals in some towns over rising crime. However, a deeper analysis is missing from this flood of emotionally extreme television reports.
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For example, the information is not being delivered to the public that the Czech government, for more than 20 years since communism fell, has not managed to propose social policy or other measures to prevent the creation of the Romani ghettos into which politicians and town counselors are moving Romani people who once lived in town centers. These evictions are often a cynical display of corruption and gold-digging, with "the market" cutting its teeth on the potentially lucrative buildings in which the Romani tenants are residing.
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Various human rights organizations and think tanks have long warned that the Czech Republic is stirring up an enormous problem for itself by creating these ghettos, of which there are already several hundred, just as it is by segregating Romani children in the schools and adopting ineffective social policies. This is compounded by the fact that the freedom of "the market" to pick and choose who will be in the work force has never been considered an effective anti-discrimination policy for states to adopt in societies riddled with anti-minority prejudice.
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The people who have been evicted into the ghettos have nothing left to lose, because the ghetto is, for most of them, the "terminus". There are no (legal) jobs near the ghettos, and drugs, gambling and loan-shaking are the norm there. Children from an early age are learning how to survive in environments where they have never seen anyone hold a regular job.
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The superficial reporting by the media, and the populist outcries of politicians in response to the problems now arising in the vicinity of these ghettos, are food for racist stereotypes, according to which "only repression against them will work", because - "What's the point of discussing it?" - this problem is, so to speak, "genetic". When I recently published an opinion piece on how the invisible hand of the market is contributing to the creation of ghettos while the state passively ignores the problem, I received many responses to it in that vein.
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It's not surprising that various neo-Nazi fighting units who want to settle accounts with the "inadaptables" by using force - or at least squeeze some political capital out of it - have started feeding off of these desperate citizens' marches with lightning speed. Unfortunately, the government has come quite close to operating on the "skinhead" level itself. An otherwise indecisive Prime Minister, evidently inspired by the British government's recent response to unrest in British towns, has theatrically sent police reinforcements to maintain order in the Šluknov foothills.
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There is nothing wrong with modestly ensuring order where it is being repeatedly violated, but the publicized, forceful speeches about the police reinforcements remaining there as long as necessary - and that if necessary people from the Police Presidium will roll up their sleeves as well - are completely beside the point, because they are not addressing the essence of the problem. When the Prime Minister then says the new method for disbursing welfare payments will contribute to solving this problem because people will have to earn their welfare by performing public service, it is clear that even worse times lie ahead for us.
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In the final analysis, the actual failure of social policy must always compensated for by repression. Of course, more prisons, police officers, and special forces do not, in the end, cost as much as an active social policy - but they also don't solve the problem. They just push it under the surface. Moreover, if we "Řápkovize" the Romani problem through programs of harassment and repression, it is completely certain that it will lead to the radicalization of the people in the ghettos with nothing left to lose.
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Here it must be ironically added that the police and the "majority society" in general are in great luck that the Roma have not yet learned to use "Facebook" and "Twitter". When the Prime Minister made the sweeping gesture of deciding to deploy riot police in the battle with the "inadaptables" in a ghetto in just a single town, I could not help but rather mischievously imagine what the government would do if Romani activists suddenly used social networking sites to call for unrest in the hundreds of ghettos the Czech Republic has allowed to develop. I guess the Prime Minister's colleagues at the Office of the Government would have to help out in addition to the bureaucrats from the Police Presidium.
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The same applies to the Czech skinheads. The hard core of neo-Nazis is said to have hundreds of members and several thousand fellow-travelers. There are an estimated 300,000 - 500,000 Romani people in the country. What if they start organizing like the right-wing radicals? The catastrophic social policy of the Czech state has not yet managed to move all of the Roma into the ghettos, but the tens of thousands of people who have ended up there are just a bomb waiting to explode.
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Please Note That This Post Is Not The Original Content Of Alder's Ledge.
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Source.
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2793

Scream For Us...

2011-08-29T12:10:00.002-04:00

Scream So That They Might Have A Voice.
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If these images can not get you to scream than nothing will. If these pictures can not stir your heart than there is no further hope for mankind. Scream for those who have perished. Scream for those who have no voice. Scream for those who are about to die... genocide does not go away. It is still alive and well today.
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Stepping Stones

2011-08-29T10:43:00.005-04:00

To Hell.
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As tensions in the Northern part of the Czech Republic continues to build the violence continues to spark. Just recently we reported on how the Roma (a small segment of the Roma population that is) were beginning to push back. A few violent attempts as gaining the high ground have led to violence in return. And now it is the ethnic Czechs turn at dishing out more violence of its own.
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Recently four Czech men severely beat a Rom with baseball bats in an apparent retaliatory attack for the Romani youth who had attacked four Czechs. An eye for an eye is clearly the rule of Northern Bohemia these days. And the battle field is ripe with those willing to dish out its brutal law.
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Police have shown that they are either unwilling or incapable of stopping the violence. Riot police have been used only after the violence has begun. Parades by the neo-Nazis have been allowed to occur even when violent hate speech had preceded these displays of force. Mobs readily allowed to form while the authorities stood uninterested on the sidelines.
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In the town of Rumburk, Czech Republic, 1,500 ethnic Czechs took to the streets to "protest" the Roma population. Their bigoted message was amplified by the Czech Social Democrat Party who sponsored their "right" to such a hate filled cause. These fascist leaning citizens quickly turned from an organized rally to a flash mob of sorts.
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Seventeen minutes after the rally had begun a local citizen took the microphone and called upon his fellow mob members to take to the streets with pickaxes and pitchforks. The politicians claim this is when they called the "rally" off. But the actions they had set into motion would not stop just because the politicians wanted them to. This was now an officially sanctioned mob. This was an army raised by the Czech Social Democrat Party.
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Not waiting to gather the weapons of they had been called to use, the army of thugs and Nazis stormed the "Rumburk Triangle". This was a name given to a pair of apartment buildings occupied mainly by Roma families. It was there that the violence began. It was there that the far-right of the Czech Republic launched stones, rocks, and tree limbs into the homes of Roma families.
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The petrol bombs that the Czech Nazi movement had promised did not arrive, thankfully. However the screaming and beating on the doors lasted some time before the Czechs left. Their voice had been made known. Their threats had been heard. And now it was time for them to move on to their next target.
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Moving on to a single level home, occupied by one Roma family, the ethnic Czechs began to attack the home in any way they could. The first of the mob to reach the home began the attack by breaking out windows. For the rest of the attack the mob continued to threaten to "burn the Gypsies alive". Once again, thankfully the Nazi made petrol bombs never materialized.
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This is when the Czech police say that they began to "monitor" the attacks from a helicopter overhead. They also claim that the only reason the police did not stop the mob was because the presence of young children. In our opinion this excuse is an excellent reason to stop the attacks.
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Waiting for the mob at the next target, riot police stood aside as the attackers targeted another apartment building. It was there that the mob broke down a fence to get at the Roma families. And it was by this time that the mob showed real intent to cause actual harm. The rabid mode of the mob was in full swing.
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Breaking in windows, a few mob members began to show interest in getting in and personally attacking the Roma within. Finally the riot police began to step in. But the damage was done. The homes had been vandalized. The rule of law had shown its weakness... its lean toward the right.
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We know that if history is not learned from it than we are damned to repeat it. We know that the Czech Republic has shown in the past that it is willing to allow hate crimes to occur against Romani citizens. We have seen houses burned out and Roma shot in the back as they fled the attacks. These mobs are just another step toward the end goal of the Nazi movement... extermination.
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Will we be seeing this in the coming weeks? Another form of genocide... the pogroms of old Russia? Is the Czech Republic's ethnic tension just a stepping stone toward another pharrajimos (devouring)?
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Time will tell. But until we know for sure we can only scream so that the world might listen. We must call for an end to this that doesn't involve the deaths of even a few Roma, let alone hundreds, thousands, or millions.
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Source Documents, Note that not all sources are listed.
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2744
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2761
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2734
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2755
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2762
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2745
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Fighting Back

2011-08-23T10:44:00.004-04:00

(Picture above is of a Romani girl who fled to Canada, the scars on her chest were put there during a racial attack she suffered in the Czech Republic)
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Tensions Rising in Czech Republic
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The old phrase "out of sight, out of mind" seems to be proving itself wrong once again in the Czech Republic. As the government encourages the forcible moving of Roma families from all over the country to the Sluknov foothills area. This move is just the start of a new wave of ghettoizing the Roma minority in the Czech Republic. A system of social exclusion that is now spawning the need for state intervention through violent reactions to a system the government created.
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But before I get at the reason for the violence let me first explain the attacks a little further.
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Tensions appear to have begun growing as the waves of new Roma families began to appear in the Sluknov area. Racial tensions then continued to grow as the "majority population" began to organize anti-Roma events in protest of the continued arrival of Roma (who didn't want to be in the Slukov area anyhow). And yet nothing was really going too awfully wrong till about a week ago.
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That is when the racial tensions flared up (literally) when Molotovs began to fly. Attacks on Roma families began to be reported as the far-right continued to organize. Families that had been removed from areas of the Czech Republic where they had been victimized were now being attacked in Northern Bohemia.
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However it wasn't till a couple days ago that the Roma began to fight back. That was when a racial attack surpassed all others in its shear brutality. A delivery van driver was reported to have rapidly accelerated as he drove over a five year old Roma boy. The majority population however seems to have united behind the delivery driver as they continue to blame the dead boy for the racial attack that ended his life.
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This is what led to the attacks on the "majority" by the minority population. Roma have finally stomached enough violence to be ready to unleash some of their own. And thus you end up with attacks like the one a day ago when twenty Roma attacked four "majority population" men.
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The attack was brutal in nature and ended up with one of the victims in the hospital with broken bones. The Romani had attacked the four men outside and then broken in their door to attack the four men in their home. They had even used clubs of some sort in the attack on the "majority".
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So how does this sort of issue arise so quickly?
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Well first of all it has been an issue that has been bubbling to the surface for some time now. It began way back in 1989 when the economy in the Czech Republic sort of crashed. Roma who had worked just like everyone else in the economy were the first to be given the pink slips. As a result they were forced out of the productive society and into the world of welfare.
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For two generations now the Roma have been doing anything they can to get back on their feet. This would have been easier had the Czech government not taken the actions it did earlier this year. Now we are witnessing how that second generation, a generation that no longer remembers what it is to work for a living, reacts to being forced into a ghetto lifestyle.
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Earlier this year the Czech government took actions it claims are to reduce the debt of government by cutting its expenditures. It is choosing to do this by cutting the Romani people out of the welfare state it created three decades ago. It is not however choosing to find ways to put these people back to work. It is not attempting to find ways to grow its taxable population by decreasing its welfare population through honest labor.
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Like the rioters in London these Romani are people who know a life that the state has provided for them. Every attempt to break free from this sort of indentured servitude proves unsuccessful for most Roma. Even a college education proves useless when the "majority population" seems unshakable in their resolve to exclude the Roma. They are after all the first to loose their jobs and the last to be hired back into the work force.
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Thus we have a situation that seems tailor made for the Czech government. A situation where only the strong arm of the law can solve the issue at hand. And that always makes people like me a little worried.
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In both the past and present the Czech government has shown an over willingness to ghettoize the Roma. The Czech government seems to have a love affair with forcing the Roma out of secular society. And this recent out break of racial violence (violence that the Czech government should had seen coming with the current rise of far-right rhetoric) forces a situation which only the law can handle.
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We will have to wait to see what happens but in my humble opinion this problem has no happy ending. Violence begets violence. And the result of this violent outbreak can only serve to fuel the flames of the fascist movement in Eastern Europe.
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Source Documents (Note that not all sources used are listed)
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Prague Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2011/08/22/romani-group-reportedly-attacks-four-men-north-bohemia
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2725
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2714
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2711
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2727
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2706
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CBC News Canada
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2009/06/25/roma-czech-asylum062509.html

Not Allowed To Stay

2011-08-19T12:28:00.004-04:00

Banned From Leaving?
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Macedonia appears to be the one and only European country that wants to keep its Roma population. So much so that they have banned their Roma citizens from leaving the country. But not everything is as it seems.
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Marseille, France has recently decided that it would like to force dozens of Roma families out of its city limits and further if allowed. These Roma were recently evicted from homes in the city and are now living on the streets due to Frances failed political leadership. The law in France states that any city over a set population limit is required to make arrangements for its "Gypsy" population or have set camp sites. Marseille is the second largest city in France... it has no camp sites or temporary housing for Roma families. It now has shown that it will also not tolerate them living on the streets... where the Mayor of Marseille had put them.
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So why is Macedonia so willing to keep its Roma population?
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Five families in Serbia were recently evicted from their homes without even a days notice. The Serbian government has been asked several times to stop this practice (partially because the EU doesn't want the evicted families moving West) and yet it continues to attack settled Roma communities. The number of uprooted Roma families is on the rise in Serbia despite the pleas of countless human rights organizations.
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So once again I asked myself why Macedonia of all places is so desperate to keep its Roma?
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It is simple really. Macedonia is a poor and ofter crime riddled nation. Its populace is constantly looking for ways out... and fleeing the country is just the ticket for many. But with the economies of Europe constantly dive bombing these days (Spain and Ireland recently proving that point) the West can't support the Balkan states any longer. And they most certainly aren't willing at all to accept the "excess population" (as Roma are repeatedly referred to) of a poor state like Macedonia.
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Thus Macedonia, holding out hope of becoming a EU welfare state, has placed a travel ban upon all Roma citizens. No excuse will be accepted and no second chances will be given. Macedonia must keep its nose clean if it wants to be accepted into the socialist collaboration that is the EU.
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Meanwhile the EU is taking every opportunity to "export" its population of Roma back out East to areas like the Balkans. Romanian Roma have been hardest hit by France's legalized racism. However those from the Balkans are being "exported" just as well. And those being sent to Macedonia are having their passports confiscated so as to prevent return to the West. Turning Macedonia into one giant ghetto.
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And that brings us to the final point of this post.
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In other areas of the Balkans the idea of Roma Ghettos is in full bloom. Many of the Balkan states have already forced their Romani citizens into select areas segregated from the rest of society. In despicable living conditions, often over crowded and far from common utilities their neighbors enjoy daily, the Balkans Roma population is forced into poverty worse than the rest of society.
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In a growing number of areas the local "civilized" society has gone as far as to erect fences, walls, and concrete barriers to keep the Roma separate or out of view. The result of these actions is the ghetto style that the Nazis used just a couple generations ago. And yet the locals feel it is better to resort to these sorts of openly racist actions than to tolerate their differences with their Roma neighbors.
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But I guess having your neighbors just not wanting to look at you is a tiny bit better than having them throw Molotov cocktails into you home? Possibly? Or is it that "separate but equal" never really works out? And is it that these ghettos are just the first step toward concentration camps?
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Source Documents (Note that not all documents used are shown)
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Public Service Europe
http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/715/macedonia-has-no-legal-basis-for-roma-travel-bans
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RFI English
http://www.eglish.rfi.fr/france/20110810-marseille-evict-90-roma
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IBtimes
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/197269/20110812/roma-gypsie-serbia-eviction.htm
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2713
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The Good Fight

2011-08-18T11:43:00.007-04:00

Summer Update
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And we are back. After a little interruption due to a "differing point of view" we have returned to the good fight. So here is what has happened since our last update.
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The United States has entered into the fight against the Romani people. Town ordinances, local laws, and even the state of New Jersey has been levied against the Roma along the east coast. The attempt here is to keep the Roma on the road and to keep them from entering into the community. Here at Alder's Ledge we find this practice deplorable.
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In the media we have watched as Kathy Lee Gifford (on the Today Shows fourth hour) maligned the entire Romani people by characterizing them as child abusers who exploit their children to rob and pillage unsuspecting white trash TV host.
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And in Europe, well that theater has remained the same all summer long. The Eastern Front (Romania, the Balkans, and Hungry) have continued to allow their local "civilized" citizens to attack and harass the Roma. While back West (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Ireland, and many more) the Roma are now being forced back out onto the road. In London the fires were used not just to loot and rob but to mask the attacks on Romani camps (sites the government was legally responsible for). All the while the police were able to ignore the attacks on human life because their local children were out doing the very things the locals claim the Roma are responsible for.
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In Ireland (Northern Ireland to be exact) the Roma have suffered countless attacks in attempts to force the Roma out of the cities. In the country side they are outright savaged as the local "civilized" population is allowed to practice their hedonistic desires and racist prejudice.
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A few days ago in the Czech Republic yet another Molotov Cocktail was thrown into a Romani family's home. And yet the police seem incompetent in finding and arresting the attacker or attackers. However in a twinge of hope the locals have finally started to show that they have had enough. Apparently attacking a family that the locals know to have an infant inside the home is finally overstepping the bounds of "civilized society". It was not overstepping the bounds of Czech society when just a week prior a gang of white supremacist had broken into a Roma home and nearly beaten the father to death. Or when a few days earlier a racially motivated torch attack was carried out in a neighboring town.
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The Czech Republic has also recently decided that it will not allow local citizens to adopt children from abroad. It is however stepping up its attempts to "export" Romani children. This attempt plays into the appearance of preparing to or even carrying out genocidal acts.
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In Austria the rise of far-right extremism has now been recorded to have risen by 31% over 2009. Many of these new attacks have been coming from groups that have decided to target the Roma. And this makes sense for hate groups just starting out since the local police are less likely to enforce the law when it is Romani being attacked.
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Meanwhile in France old Saint Nich (Sarkozy) is loosing his fight with the French Roma population. They continue to run and hide as his hounds continue to nip at their heels. They have been encountering growing hunger and increasing poverty and yet they remain in France. Those who have been deported continue to find their way back into France. And those who were paid 300 dollars to leave are now taking another pay out to leave once again. But old Nich is still pushing his racist agenda as he steers France toward the nationalism that once conquered it by force.
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All this has happened in the month or so that I have been kept from posting. And now we are back. Now we will continue to be "the rust upon your gears, the insect in your ear". We will continue to fight and all you have to do is continue to read.
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Information is power. The power to resist. The power to fight. The power to win.
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Source Documents for this post... (Note that not all sources are listed)
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2683
&
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2691
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2707
&
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2686
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2679
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2671
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"France's Roma Still Running From Sarkozy"

2011-07-22T13:16:00.002-04:00

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A PressTV World News Video

Romanian Ghettos

2011-07-18T18:41:00.005-04:00

The Call for Roma "Segregation"
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It is hard to imagine any modern state using ghettos as a method of control or in the name of "safety" these days. After the lessons learned in Warsaw it seems unthinkable that any politician in any European country would think this was a good idea. But it is happening once again. And the idea is spreading slowly but surely.
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In February of 2010 The Times on London reported that a Slovak town had begun building a 2.2 meter tall wall that was meant to segregate the two-thirds of the town's population. That wall still is in use today. And the Roma are still being segregated in Bulgaria as this article is being written.
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Just as they were in 2010 the walls are still being constructed. The ghettos are still being assembled. And the Roma are now being forced out of "civilized society".
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Their neighbors claim the isolation is for their own protection. A slogan used before. A message proclaimed by similar socialist societies of the past.
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Today the Romanians join the ranks of the Eastern Europeans willing to use ghettos to isolate the Romani population. In Baia Mare, a city in northwestern Romania, the locals are ready to build a concrete wall that will encircle the Roma area of town. This is an area the Roma were "deported" to and are now being held captive in. And once again the isolated area soon to be walled off is being said to be "for the Romas' protection".
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In past articles I have asked without remorse what would happen if places like Auschwitz were allowed to come back online. Today it seems that the old death camps are not far from the current issues facing the Roma population. Like under the old socialist of the past, the Roma of Romania now face a society that is willing to surrender its own humanity for a vain promise of "safety". And the promise of "safety" once again is not being promised to the Roma themselves.
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The governor of the city claims the deportations of the Roma outside the city limits was a necessary step to rid the city of its' "poverty hotbeds". In a way he was correct. However now the countryside just beyond the city has an issue with forced poverty. It also has an issue with sanitation since the Romani ghetto was built right next to the city's water treatment facility.
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In post World War One Germany the Roma faced similar "concentration" sites. The Nazi regime felt it was somehow fitting to place Roma ghettos near waste sites. This increased the probability of disease or death due to exposure. The Romanian governor has chosen a similar site for similar reasons.
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So the question is this... how much more will the European Union tolerate? How much more human rights violations will they stomach happening right on their door step? And are we seeing the buildup to another genocide on European soil?
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Some Source Documents Not Listed.
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The Sofia Echo
http://sofiaecho.com/2010/02/18/860356_slovak-town-raises-concrete-wall-around-roma-ghetto-report
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SETimes.com
"Roma Community Segregation Still Plaguing Romania"
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Days Of Infamy

2011-06-30T11:43:00.002-04:00

The Loss Of Our Humanity
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Genocide is a crime that strips us all of something special. It deprives us of our shared sensitivities. Those emotions that make us human. The essence of what makes us special. It will undoubtedly always be with us.
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Today we fight not for ourselves but for the memory of what we lost. Make no mistake about what this blog is. We call upon you to act. We make a call for action and not just your intentions. This blog is to make it impossible for you to deny the fact that deep inside you know what they have stolen from us.
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In the 20th century we perfected the art of killing our own innocents. We destroyed the idea that war occurs on the battle field. It now rages in our homes, hearts, and minds. That is what genocide does to a people. It never goes away.
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Today it lingers at the edge of society looking and waiting for a way in. It is at work in the fields of old Russian empire. In the desserts of the Middle East it is toiling away as the West turns it's head away. The stench of it's familiar breath is spreading. It needs only one thing... for good men to remain silent.
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Armenia, Germany, Russia, Cambodia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, The Americas, Greece, Turkey, Iran...
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The list seems to never end. Virtually every nation has suffered from it's vile efforts. All peoples have been touched by it. All will now bear witness.
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Let not one person say from now on that they did not know, that they were not made aware. We will scream till our voices fail us, till our throats bleed. We will never cease. We will never give up this fight.
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Two Monsters Arrested

2011-05-26T13:04:00.004-04:00

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Two Genocide Masterminds.
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Ratko Mladic is finally behind bars on multiple charges of "crimes against humanity". Serbia seems to have finally decided to arrest the monster Mladic for his participation in the Bosnian Genocide. But this is nearly 16 years after the acts of genocide were committed. This is after Ratko has been allowed to roam the Serbian countryside for nearly 16 years a free man.
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Meanwhile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a Hutu militia leader has been arrested on charges of "crimes against humanity". This savage beast was the "mastermind" of the genocide, or is at least charged to be so. Yet it has taken nearly 17 years to hunt this monster down. However today Bernard Munyagishari is behind bars and ready to be sent off to trial.
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Now we will have to wait to see what the penalty will be for these two savages. As for Alder's Ledge we hope they will both be sentenced to death and put to death in short order. Let them bleed as their victims did and let justice finally be served.
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"They are Cockroaches"

2011-05-18T09:11:00.005-04:00

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On the Fast Track to Hell
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In 1994 the tiny, hardly heard of, country of Rwanda slipped into the history books as Hell on Earth. This was the site where a minority of militant attackers launched one of the fastest and most effective genocides of the 20Th century. Now we watch as the warning signs of Rwanda begin to pop up in another tiny, hardly heard of, country.
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Bahrain is a country where the national minority runs the government, the Sunnis royal family reigns in Bahrain. Shiites outnumber Sunnis 4 to 1 in this tiny island nation. It wasn't till this year that the minority rule really began to face open opposition to their authority (often oppressive government).
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In response the royal family has ordered the imprisonment and deaths of Shiite politicians, teachers, doctors, nurses, and businessmen. Those who have taken to the street to protest this action are now being attacked by government backed militias and the country's own military. Gunfire, teargas, grenades are the common responses to often nonviolent protesters who simply want a government that better represents their common will.
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The Sunni population not directly involved in the repression and outright attacks seem to support them simply by remaining silent. Other Sunnis however have come out in favor of the brutal attacks of unarmed protesters. They have even been captured on film cheering the snipers as they pick off protesters one by one.
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The Obama White House has said absolutely nothing about this looming genocide. Perhaps the president just doesn't care. After all, was he not the president who decided to wait till Iran had crushed its opposition before muttering some sort of apology? Was it not a Democrat president who waited till the bloody April in Rwanda had ended before he too mumbled some sort of apology?
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As bulldozers tear down Shiite holy sites the United States 5Th Naval Fleet enjoys its little base in Bahrain. As people are shot in the streets our politicians enjoy rubbing elbows with butchers. As the youth of a nation are systematically slaughtered our president remains unharassed by the us... the land of the free.
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Our voices should be raised so loud that they might be heard in that Hellhole of a country, Bahrain. Our hearts should be with the oppressed peoples of every nation no matter what the race, religion, or creed. Yet when it comes to Bahrain the screamers of our great nation remain silent?
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We have watched as Iran shot its youth right through the heart. We stirred for but if a moment before falling silent once again. And in that moment of wavering we watched the as the youth of Iran were crushed beneath the heels of tyrants.
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Make no mistake about it, the Green Revolution of Iran has not been forever silenced. The good fight is still being fought against the beast that still sets upon the throne of Iran. We just aren't allowed to watch this battle... for if we were our government might be forced to act.
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So what about Bahrain?
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If no action is taken from the outside world, by the United States, Bahrain will slip into the bloody Hell of genocide. Their youth, the protesters, will be systematically slaughtered till their are no more left to fight the oppressors. The leaders of the Shiite community in Bahrain will be butchered... "shot like dogs". Their community will be uprooted "like termites". And the United States will set back in the comfort of its relative safety as the future cause of terrorism is born from our own indifference.
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This is genocide. The systematic removal of community leaders, the executions of politicians, the intentional infliction of harm with intent of destroying in part or in whole of a community... Bahrain is already sinking into genocide. These are just the first signs of what is still to come.
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“That [the crackdown on protesters] is completely against the Geneva Convention[s] in any warfare or any protest situation; so to be breaking the Geneva Convention[s]... and to (be) basically committing genocide, I think it's ... an amazing situation that the UN isn't looking further into these things,” London-based documentary filmmaker David Lawley told Press TV on Saturday.
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Source Documents
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Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/08/2858559/while-bahrain-demolishes-mosques.html
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Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177596.html
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LA Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/05/bahrain-new-report-details-alleged-torture-calls-on-obama-to-hep-ahead-of-thursday-speech.html
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Please note that the sites listed above are just a few of the sources used for this article.
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Roma Still Being Attacked - Amnesty International

2011-05-17T14:46:00.005-04:00

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Still Separate and Unequal

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"Three years after the European Court for Human Rights judgment which confirmed that the separate, substandard education of Roma people should be prohibited, the government has still not succeeded in bringing an end to discrimination in the country's education system," Amnesty reported in its annual report of human rights violations in the Czech Republic.
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In March of 2010 the Czech government initiated its National Action Plan of Inclusive Education. This is intended to prohibit the segregation of children based upon their "condition or disability". It does not however address the fact that Czech Republic schools still can and will segregate children based upon their ethnic origins. A fact that has led to the placement of Romani children into classes designed for the mentally handicapped.
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The National Action Plan of Inclusive Education also fails to place a time for which the schools must be integrated. It does not give a set date for the classes to be altered in their current designs. And no incentive for integration has been given except the loosely based idea that the government has mandated it.
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Amnesty also reported that the Czech Republic allows and in some cases promotes the "open hostility" that Roma face in Czech society. They did recognize that the Czech government had brought a handful of people to justice years after they had reportedly attacked Romani peoples. Unlike Amnesty however I do not nor have not agreed with the sentences handed down to the few assailants charged in these attacks.
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Until the racist past of the Czech Republic taught in the public schools, to all students, they can not assume it will ever end. This is a problem that Amnesty seems to overlook. This is an issue that the Czech government does not want to address. It is simply easier to maintain the status quot... it is simply easier to believe that their is nothing wrong with the current racist attitude of Czech society.
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If the same situation happened here in America we would be in arms to stop it. However when the European governments permit the segregation and demonetization of a given race we here in United States seem to be the ever ready and willing accomplices. Where is the outcry to force and end to this treatment of the Roma in Europe? Where is your courage to speak America?
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Source Documents
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2445
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The Prague Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2011/05/13/ai-czech-roma-discriminated-against-education
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Politics.Hu
http://www.politics.hu/20110513/amnesty-international-report-underscores-climate-of-fear-facing-hungarian-roma
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Genocide In The Heartland

2011-05-11T09:59:00.006-04:00

... Native Indiana.

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Contrary to many far fetched ideas of where the state's name came from, Indiana is derived from Latin for "place of the Indian". Its capitol city, Indianapolis is derived from Latin and Greek for "city of the Indian". And yet both those names are perverted by the fact that no such peoples fully exist or participate in the current state of Indiana.
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Before the Europeans arrived their were a handful of differing tribes that all spoke similar languages and lived in similar ways. They were called Algonquian-speaking peoples by the Europeans that later arrived. One of these peoples was the great tribe of warriors known as the Miami people (or the Mihtohseeniaki).
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The Miami gave Indiana many of its current place names and river names. The Tippecanoe River, the Wabash River, Anderson, Muncie, and Mississinawa are all Miami names. Either derived from later chiefs or ancient names of the tribal traditions, these all seem common place to modern Hoosiers.
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And yet the Miami are one of the tribes that are more so forgotten than any other in the United States. Their name is applied to a city in nearly every state. A county in nearly every state. And yet their legacy was almost wiped out by the American government and the state of Indiana.
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The tale of their departure from the governing and running of Indiana happened while the state was still a territory. At first it was the Iroquois who began the push against the Miami. Then the Delaware. And finally the British and American governments. Yet for each adversary they faced their is a tale that persist of the Miami's fighting prowess... their warrior spirit.
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Before white people ever came to the Wabash Valley the Miami were busy building and constructing a system of society that would not die till the State of Indiana was formed. It was a society in which the man was the life force for his family, the hunter and supplier of meat. A society in which the woman was a nurturer for her family, the grower of grain and fostered of the young minds. This was a society that only differed in a few select ways from those that would replace it.
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The major difference the Miami had from the white culture that invaded was that it did not take war as lightly as the white Europeans. This was their home and they would defend it with every last drop of blood they had. This was their way of life and they would kill any person who threatened to take it away.
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Iroquois warned British about the "people down stream", a name for the Miami at the time, when they acquired the land from the French. This is how strongly the Miami defended themselves. That their native foes would lend their hand to the fight against them... ally with the very enemy that would later help destroy the Iroquois tribes.
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When the French first came to Kekionga, what would later be called Fort Wayne, they didn't seem to realize what horrific events they were putting in motion. So without forethought they French began to colonize the Indian Territory (a tract of land west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River) by building wilderness forts. These very forts would be used later on by the English and American forces to destroy the native peoples. But for the French these forts were simply meant to defend their trade routes in the area... trade that was always lopsided in the Frenchman's favor.
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After the French and Indian War the last real French stronghold in America was handed over the British. And history would record that the this new European power was even less favorable to the Miami than the prior. For it was the British who began to employ what would come to be known as the Factory System. A system of starvation meant to deteriorate and decay native culture.
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The Factory System was a simple method of trade that forever indebted the native peoples to the white trade post supported first by the British and then by the American governments. In exchange for fur, meat, and local foods the Europeans would give the Natives firearms, gun powder, and cheaply made household supplies. Over a given time the number of fur pelts and pounds of meat required for one rifle would go up and never come down. This drove up the cost of the European goods while depressing the given currency of the native peoples. Thus creating a economic climate the Miami and their local allied could not understand.
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To take the Factory System to the next level the white traders would introduce alcohol while at the same time of introducing the native peoples to the concept of debt. This allowed the Miami to purchase goods without the exchange of food or fur. In return they would later be called upon to give up land to make up for the debt they did not know they had racked up.
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By the time the American Revolution came about the Miami had already begun to loose land to British traders. This caused a portion of the Miami bands to support the American rebels while the other bands (still "winning" in the trade with the British) to support their old trade partners. The custom of the Miami to support those who help you now divided the tribe.
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This divide would be quickly healed however when the newly created American Government began to look west. Suddenly the Miami found themselves once again at the hands of a white invader. This time however the Factory System would not be the only method of removing the Miami from their lands.
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As the 18Th century came a close and the 19Th century dawned the Miami found themselves ever increasingly desperate. They were loosing patches of land to a system of trade they did not fully understand. Their hunting grounds were now becoming barren and food was increasingly hard to find. Alcohol was causing the fabric of their tribal society to unravel as more and more warriors fell to its temptations. The end of the world was seemingly right around the corner.
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At the end of the American Revolution the Miami had tried to remain neutral in the tug-of-war that continued between the British the American governments. This seemed to cause many in Washington to question just why the Miami, a known warrior tribe, did not join the fight. And thus the American Army began its campaign to destroy the center of Miami culture... Kekionga (Fort Wayne, Indiana).
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For years the American Army made one attack after another against the Miami capitol. Each time the Americans threw more and more soldiers at the Miami at Kekionga. And every time the Americans where thrown back into Ohio. Finally the Americans massed in Ohio and then marched the largest force it could assemble to destroy the struggling Miami forces in Kekionga. This battle would be known as the St. Clair's Defeat. And it would be the largest defeat the Americans would suffer at the hands of a Native American force.
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(Chief Little Turtle)
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Also known as The Battle Of A Thousand Slain (or The Battle of the Wabash 1791), this Miami led force would kill all but 48 of the 1,000 American soldiers who attacked that day (this battle was five times as deadly as Custer's Last Stand and The Battle of Little Big Horn). Chief Little Turtle of the Miami would have his image engraved in Washington as a result of this victory for the Miami. Yet his people would now become the "scourge" of the American politicians back east.
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The Americans would not be outdone however. In retreat and ready to fall back over the Appalachian Mountains, the American forces attempted to regroup in Ohio. This attempt would prove to be an overall success since they could not be pushed out of region. This led Chief Blue Jacket, of the Shawnee, to make a final push against the Americans near modern day Toledo Ohio.
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The Miami in this case offered their support seemingly out of resentment that their capitol had been attacked repeatedly by the American Army. However, unlike The Battle Of A Thousand Slain, the Miami would not make up nearly as large a number of the fighting force that attacked that day.
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This battle would become known as The Battle of Fallen Timbers. The American commander "Mad" Anthony Wayne would be victorious in defending the American position. However the numbers he would go on to report for the battle statistics were skewed at best.
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By the end of the fighting at The Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) the Native American forces had lost somewhere between 19-44 warriors. The Americans had lost a known 33 soldiers and had suffered a hundred wounded. This victory was only a victory due to the retreat of Blue Jacket's forces. Militarily speaking it was a skirmish more than anything else when of the 1,500 Native Americans the 3,000 Americans had only be able to kill around 19 fleeing warriors.
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It was this defeat however that caused the largest lost of Miami land to date. In 1795 the Treaty of Greenville was signed. And as usual, the American forces present refused to explain to the Miami what it was they were being forced to sign.
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It was at this time that the starvation, the lack of hunting lands, and the ever encroaching American settlements drove the Miami to desperation. Gathering around Prophet's Town Indiana the Miami began to side almost exclusively with the Shawnee warrior known as Tecumseh. The message of the Shawnee "Prophet" was one of redemption... of victory. A message that any oppressed people would rally around.
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Later in the American Genocide the Plains Indians would rally around a similar message. Their "ghosts dance" would be banned and even lead to the massacres that now trademark the American Genocide. For the Miami this message was one that they could not refuse. After all, they were one of the tribes now bordering the American lands. They were one of the tribes now endangered by the expansionist methods of the American government.
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Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison would now go on to use the War of 1812 as an excuse to attack and destroy any Miami villages he could find in the Indiana Territory. The Genocide of the Miami was officially in full swing.
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A common tactic of the militias Harrison employed was to lure warriors of the Miami out of villages only to attack the villages while the women and children were left undefended. This method was used on almost all villages that lay outside the sphere of influence of Kekionga, the still beating heart of Miami society.
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Harrison then made repeated attacks on Kekionga only to find that the Miami would not nor seemingly could not be defeated there. This led the governor to turn back toward the weaker tribes and for a short period of time a brief peace with the Miami.
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It was in this time of peace that many American politicians sought out native tribes in Indiana that happened to be shaky allies of the Miami. Finding a faulty ally in the Delaware, or Lenape, the territorial politicians sought to purchase modern Fort Wayne from a tribe that had no claim to its lands.
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In 1826 the Miami sought to save Kekionga from sell and invasion by signing a treat with the Indiana Territory. This treaty, the Treaty of Mississinawa handed over a vast portion of Miami territory. It also forced the Miami to succeed the idea that they owned the land as a people and forced them to divide the remaining land up to individual Miami men.
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This was a method that the American politicians were just beginning to perfect. It allowed the territorial politicians to attack the Miami as individuals and not as a united force. It also flew in the face of the Miami culture.
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One by one the Miami fell victim to what many Democrats today would call "predatory lending". And one by one the Miami lost their lands to white settlers who then refused to pay an "Indian" for land. Those who fought back were legally hunted down and killed by the Indiana Rangers.
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Starvation and disease now claimed more Miami than ever before. Their strong warrior society was dieing a slow and painful death. The territorial politicians had defeated them through economics where their soldiers could not defeat them in battle. Fort Wayne was lost when the remaining Miami signed the Treaty of the Wabash in 1840.
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The federal government in Washington now began to remove the Miami in mass as a method of disrupting and destroying the Indiana Native American trade. The influence of British forts in the north was now destroyed as well. And the Genocide of the Miami was now entering its final stages.
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Forcing the death marches of Miami to Kansas in 1846, the American government and Indiana government claimed the remaining Miami lands. Those Miami that remained were forced to sign and recite allegiance to the American government. They were also forced to deny any allegiance to the Miami tribe. The land the remaining Miami claimed was allotted to individual male Miami and scattered so as not to form a block of Native American land.
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The traditions of the Miami were lost when they were forced to march to Kansas and then to Oklahoma. Kekionga was renamed and now white owned. Their strong warrior society was now forced to be that of servitude to a white conqueror. The lands to which they were forced did not even remotely resemble the land from which they claimed to have been formed... a land from which they claim to have been born as a people. Corn didn't grow in Kansas just by simply dropping it in a little dirt mound. Fish didn't even look the same in this alien place. Kansas and Oklahoma might as well have been Hell.
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For the Eastern Band of Miami the last stage of Genocide had begun. Denial.
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To this day the Miami that did not leave Indiana are not recognized by the federal government. Despite having been recognized in 1854 by a treaty with the American government, the United States will not recognize the Miami. For if it did they would then have to recognize the atrocious nature of our relationship with the Miami people. We would have to recognize that we did in fact commit genocide against the Miami people. We attempted to destroy in part or in whole the Miami culture, its people, its way of life. And for the most part we did just that.
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Senator Richard Lugar, who will not be in politics much longer, offered a bill that would recognize the Miami back in the late 1990s. It was never accepted. His home state didn't even seem to realize the importance of this bill. His fellow Hoosiers don't remember the Miami despite their capitol city being founded upon a Miami village.
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The war to eradicate the Miami did not end with the removal of the majority of the Miami people. It continues in the history books. It continues with every denial that comes forth through the simple deletion of their history from that of the Indiana State History. It is a war without end as long as the American federal government continues to refuse to recognize the Miami people as a whole and not just focus on those they have subjugated in a foreign land.
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Yeniche

2011-05-10T11:31:00.003-04:00

...The Other Gypsies.

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Here at Alder's Ledge we focus primarily on the most at risk societies around the world. As for the "Gypsies", we almost always talk about the Roma community in Europe. However today we will be focusing on the Yeniche people and their lives in Western Europe.
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The Yeniche have lived in Europe for as long as anyone can remember. Huddled around the Rhineland area of Germany their population has been targeted for extermination time and time again. Switzerland, up to the 1970's, used a system of separating parents from their children to attempt to destroy the nomadic culture.
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Today it seems that the ever shrinking world, and the deterioration of European culture, is helping to achieve the Swiss goal.
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According to current estimates the Yeniche people population is spread out as follows:
Germany 412,000
France 300,000
Italy 293,000
Netherlands 81,000
Hungary 60,000
Belgium 52,000
Austria 41,000
Belarus 11,000
Luxembourg 2,500
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Note that Switzerland does not have a number to report or remains unwilling to record the Yeniche population currently residing within its borders.
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Historically the Yeniche have claimed to be of Celtic origins. Their is no real proof of this claim nor is their proof that it isn't true. After all, nobody alive today knows what happened to the vast Celtic society or its peoples during its decline. Even our best Historians can't prove this claim to be false.
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Nowadays the Yeniche rightfully claim to be citizens of the nations in which they have lived for centuries. They are mostly Roman Catholic and other forms of Christianity. And, like most Europeans, they speak both the Yeniche language and the languages of those societies around them.
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By no means however can they be called Romani. They are ethnically, culturally, and linguistically unique. Despite the fact that many Yeniche side with the Roma and Sinti when it comes to politics, they don't claim to be part of those two different cultures.
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Most important of all, and the reason I write about them today, the countries in which they live are all ramping up their far-right. These countries are moving to expel or destroy the Yeniche culture. And the reason simply is that the Yeniche culture resembles that of the Roma. And for that reason the Yeniche culture seems foreign to the sedimentary cultures of Western Europe.
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The First Genocide Of The 20Th Century

2011-05-03T11:26:00.004-04:00

... And the Second Reich.

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By the time the camps were closed and the slavery was ended the Herero had lost three quarters of their population. The Namaqua had lost around half their population. And Germany had stolen the lives and land of Namibia. It had also perfected the use of death camps and the art of modern genocide.
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The model that Germany made in Namibia would be used again and again. Turkey used it on the Armenians, Serbia used it on Bosnia, and Hitler expanded upon it when it killed 6 million Jews.
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Never Forget.

Romea.cz - Three Roma Families repeatedly attacked in Slovakia over Easter

2011-05-02T17:02:00.001-04:00

Article from Romea.cz
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The village of Gemerská Poloma in the Rožňava district of Slovakia experienced three days of terror against Roma families during the Easter weekend. The families were attacked in their homes by a group of youths whom the victims say were "skinheads". Local activist Stanislav Kučerák reported the incident to the Roma Press Agency (Romská tisková agentura - RPA).
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Kučerák said there are about three youths living in the village who are sympathizers of the neo-Nazi movement and that they called on other men from around the district to come to the village. Approximately 40 - 50 men gathered there and attacked the Roma families directly in their homes, destroying everything they could get their hands on, from dishes to furniture to windows, even tearing doors off their hinges. They also beat some of the Roma residents. Small children witnessed all of the violence committed against their families.
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The Roma who were assaulted sought help from Mr Kučerák. He called the police and insisted that a patrol arrive as quickly as possible because of the threat not only to health and property, but to the lives of the citizens concerned. Mr Kučerák said two police officers arrived on the scene within five minutes.
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"The officers raised their voices to me and asked me questions like, 'Who are you? You seem like a real smart guy...' They were unpleasant to me and did their best to show me that I am nobody. They told the Roma people who had been attacked that they would not guarantee their protection and that the best thing for them to do would be to call a taxi and flee to their relatives. They stayed on the scene for about 20 minutes, taking photos and writing something up. Then they commented that some other body was going to have to handle it anyway and said the Roma families hadn't even had a gate up in front of their homes so that the area in front of the houses was basically free space," explained Kučerák.
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Kučerák went on to say that the mayor of Gemerská Poloma's only comment was that the Roma had not been attacked without cause. He recommended them to lock their doors.
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"The mayor is said to have reached an agreement with the three people responsible from the village. He wanted to prevent, by all available means, this information from reaching the public through the media," Kučerák said.
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Kučerák says the attacks on the Roma families in Gemerská Poloma took place late Friday night and in the early morning hours of Saturday and again late Saturday and in the early morning hours of Sunday during the Easter holiday. He also said a similar attack took place last year in the village. The Roma Press Agency asked the Regional Police in Košice for a statement and will publish it once they receive it.
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Romea.cz - Three Roma families repeatedly attacked in Slovakia over Easter

Screamers

2011-04-29T12:03:00.004-04:00

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Some days my soul cries out with such anger, such passion, that it can not be silenced... it can not find satisfaction. It needs to know that the world has seen its sins cast upon a banner raised for all to see. It needs to know that all others have been made to bear witness to the perverted crimes of their fellow man. It needs to scream.
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I urge all of you to see this film. I urge all of you to be Screamers.

"Hell, No Better Word Can Describe It..."

2011-04-29T09:36:00.008-04:00

The Liberation of Dachau.
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"Lieber Gott, mach mich dumm, damit ich nicht nach Dachau kumm"
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Dear God, make me dumb, that I may not to Dachau come. That was the short little song that many German children were taught. They seemed willing to forget that this camp was meant for the "enemies of the Reich... the Jews.
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It is a known fact that common Germans, not of Jewish or Roma decent, were also sent to Dachau. They went their for reasons that the song above hints at. They knew too much, they talked too much, they didn't give the Hitler salute just right... for whatever reason they could end up in Dachau. They could die with the Jews.
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The purpose for building Dachau is also a well known fact. To prepare the first true death camp. To make the model for all others that would follow. It was a prototype in many ways. In other ways it was its own unique corner of Hell itself.
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The prisoners sent to Dachau could expect to be forced into hard labour, work designed to bring about a slow death, and then in the end be forced to push their predecessors' corpses into the camp's furnaces. By the time this camp was liberated by the United States Army on April 29Th of 1945 the permanent smell of death lingered in the air about it. The scent of burnt human hair and singed flesh seemed to permeate the very bricks that built the camp crematoriums.
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In March of 1933 the Dachau furnaces were ignited and would not be extinguished till the camps liberation. In the beginning of the camp's existence it was mainly political opponents of the Nazi party that would be sacrificed to the fires of Dachau. This changed as the Nazis began their drive to exterminate the Jewish population of Germany and the newly occupied territories. By the end of the camp's existence there would be a larger number of Poles being fed to Dachau's fires than any other ethnic group.
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Officially there were around 200 sub camps that reported to and supported the operations of Dachau. Most were camps where weapons and ammunitions were constructed with the use of slave labour. Others were sites where the overflow of dead were burnt. All however were linked to the main camp through the use of trails or "Green Toms" (trucks used to gas prisoners on their way to the crematoriums).
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As the war drew to an end more and more prisoners were being transported from outlying camps of the crumbling Third Reich. In late April of 1945 the last train from the soon to be liberated camp of Buchenwald arrived. Of the 4,800 prisoners on the train only 800 were received alive. The corpses of those who had died or been shot in transit were left on or around the train till the 5Th Army of the United States arrived.
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On April 28Th the head of the camp, Camp Commandant Martin Gottfried Weiss abandoned his post and fled as the United States Army approached. History is kinder than I am to this cowardice Nazi. It is clear to me that Martin Gottfried Weiss did not simply fear capture but had left the SS Totenkopfverbande (Death's Head Unit) to destroy the camp and its prisoners as he and his loyal camp guards fled for Berlin. His orders were clear... kill them all.
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(7Th Army Soldiers force Hitler Youth boys to examine the trains they helped to deliver to Dachau)
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Late in the day the SS Commander Heinrich Wicker finally surrendered Dachau to the United States Army. From the report that was issued it is clear that Heinrich Wicker believed that the United States would pick up where the Nazis had left off. This is why he left his SS soldier with guns facing in on the remaining prisoners of Dachau.
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"As we moved down along the west side of the concentration camp and approached the southwest corner, three people approached down the road under a flag of truce. We met these people about 75 yards north of the southwest entrance to the camp. These three people were a Swiss Red Cross representative and two SS troopers who said they were the camp commander and assistant camp commander and that they had come into the camp on the night of the 28Th to take over from the regular camp personnel for the purpose of turning the camp over to the advancing Americans. The Swiss Red Cross representative acted as interpreter and stated that there were about 100 SS guards in the camp who had their arms stacked except for the people in the tower. He said he had given instructions that there would be no shots fired and it would take about 50 men to relieve the guards, as there were 42,000 half-crazed prisoners of war in the camp, many of them typhus infected. He asked if I were an officer of the American army, to which I replied, "Yes, I am Assistant Division Commander of the 42ND Division and will accept the surrender of the camp in the name of the Rainbow Division for the American army."
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Officially it is noted that the Seventh United States Army had liberated the death camp of Dachau. However it is commonly believed that units of the Fifth United States Army had been the first to enter Dachau and its outlying camps. In either case the camp's operations were put to an end and the Nazi SS soldiers were lined against the walls of Dachau and shot. No trial was needed for these dogs. No need for forgiveness for these worthless soulless monsters.
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Army records report that only about fifty SS soldiers were shot that day. Other reports show that the number could have been 120 to 520 SS soldiers. These numbers are hard to accept since their was fewer than 300 SS soldiers manning Dachau and its surrounding camps when it was surrendered. In any case they should all have been shot as they knelt before their former prisoners. May their souls rot in Hell.
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Trials of those who remained after the days that followed the surrender of the camp began in November of 1945. The coward SS Commander Martin Gottfried Weiss was hung as a result of these trials.
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Today we should remember the heroic acts of our boys in arms. We should recall their bravery in coming face to face with the greatest evil our nation has faced in its history. And we should be proud of their reaction to it... the bloodying of evil men.
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May we also keep in mind the fates of those who perished at Dachau and its supporting camps. We should never forget what was done as the world turned its eyes away from the suffering of innocent men and women. We should honestly and without exception finally be able to say "Never Again".
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Out of Sight, Out of Mind

2011-04-13T10:30:00.004-04:00

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France has once again begun its racist agenda of deporting its Romani population. It still insist that the Roma it is deporting are citizens of Romania. However it is doubtful that French authorities aren't taking advantage of the opportunity to deport as many of the French Roma as possible. And thus the numbers of Roma being flown out of France may be rather disproportionate to the numbers of Roma who immigrated from Romania when the borders opened.
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This time around it does not appear that the UN or the EU will offer any resistance to the mass deportations. Instead it appears that the EU in particular is offering its support by refusing to condemn the racist agenda proposed by France.
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Yesterday also marked the start of the rather prejudice burqa ban laws in France. And much like the Roma deportations, the EU is just ignoring the Islamiphobia currently growing if France.
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So where are things going from here?
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It is my opinion that the Roma, much like they were used in World War Two Germany, are being used to measure the resistance of the populace to racist based socialism. Obviously France is already a liberal socialist society but up until the past ten years or so they hadn't be moving toward national socialism as represented by the Hitler ideology.
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Yet as we all know from history, it is a slippery slope from good intentions to the Hell that Stalin and Hitler thrusted upon the world in the 1930s. Socialist agendas such as "free health care" were perfected when the first victims of the holocaust were slaughtered... when Hitler had the "mentally ill" or handicapped killed, some even were gassed in the same manner as the Jews in Auschwitz. Nationalist agendas were perfected when Hitler then had the first wave of "social undesirables" deported.
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One of those two has already been accomplished by the current French government. The other usually comes hand in hand with the step France has already taken. So that brings me to the question of why France is hiding its reasons for targeting a particular group of "social undesirables"?
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Are they simply having a dress rehearsal or is France just stumbling into a historically flawed version of government? Is France becoming ethnocentric and rather xenophobic or is France just trying to cope with the economic and political environment of the day?
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In either case it isn't working out for France's Romani population. This is an unlawful targeting and racistly motivated attack upon the freedoms France promised these immigrants. It is also an attempt to rid France of its centuries old population of Roma along with the new comers from Eastern Europe. And it seems that the world is just going to stand back and watch... much like we did when Stalin purged his country of its "enemies".
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Source Documents
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2336

"Peace! Rule of Law! No fascists!"

2011-04-05T09:55:00.005-04:00

And the Jack-Boots Go Marching On...
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And on... and on...
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The Roma of Hejoszalonta united against the storm troopers the Magyar Garda. With their community linked arm in arm they shouted "Peace! Rule of Law! No Fascists!". And yet the black uniformed Jobbik army still went marching on.
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Stomping their jack-boots and lifting torches the neo-Nazi army stormed the village of 850, only 350 of which are Roma. Their angry tone was amplified in the blaring of their heavy metal rock music. The sound of the bass drum mocked the sound of war drums as the "Magyars" attempted to spread terror amongst their intended victims.
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In March the Jobbik party had organized a larger march in Gyongyospata where around 3,000 of the black shirts raised their torches and whips. There they had marched up and down the village streets as they shouted their anti-Semitic and anti Roma chants. All in the name of Nationalistic pride.
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"Jobbik were deliberately provoking them. Parents held the teenagers back because the fascists wanted an excuse to attack. It would have been a bloodbath," an observer noted in Hejoszalonta. Had the Roma youth been allowed to lash out the battle would have been a "bloodbath". The homes of Roma and suspected Roma would have been set ablaze. The women and children would have been beaten to an inch of their lives and their men shot. This is how Jobbik treats Hungarian Roma.
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When Roma and Human Rights Activist petitioned the government to form a "human chain" between the Magyar Garda and the Roma houses the government forbid them to do so. Instead they allowed the Jobbik clan to march right up to the Romany houses with torches ready. Armed men with fire in hand were allowed to terrorize the Roma children held captive behind chicken wire.
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In the past Hungary and much of the Eastern Block nations have witnessed and participated in pogroms that start much like the scenario listed above (thankfully this one ended without bloodshed). Jobbik and its Magyar Garda allies have committed such acts of genocidal ferocity. Men, women, and children are all considered "targets" simply because they are Rom.
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Most of the time these scenes end with Roma houses being burnt out. In the Czech Republic these scenes end with a Roma body found filled with holes. In Romania these scenes end with a Roma boy found bloody face down in a muddy river. Yet Jobbik still seems capable of holding its seats in Hungarian government?
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This sort of fascist behaviour can not be rewarded by the outside world. Other European countries need to apply pressure on Hungary and force change in its ever leaning right culture (but most of them too are leaning the same direction these days). And most of all, America needs to be more vocal in its defense of what we consider to be inalienable human rights. We need to condemn these kind of acts where ever and whenever they occur... regardless of who is committing them.
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"Peace! Rule of Law! NO FASCISTS!"
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Civil society resistance to Nazis rising in Hungary

2011-04-04T12:23:00.003-04:00

From Romea.cz
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First joint protests held by anti-racism NGOs
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Last Saturday the Hungarian opposition Jobbik party held a demonstration against alleged "Gypsy terror" in the settlement of Hejoszalonta, roughly 150 km to the east of Budapest. Hungarian civil society confronted the demonstration.
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Roughly 600 sympathizers and MPs of the neo-Nazi Jobbik party met in Hejoszalonta. The party won 17 % of the votes in last year's parliamentary elections, the first time it has ever held seats in the Hungarian Parliament. Some demonstrators were wearing uniforms of the Hungarian Guard, an organization which the courts have dissolved for its similarity to the Hungarian fascist brigades in operation at the end of the Second World War. The Hungarian Guard, like the dissolved Workers' Party in the Czech Republic, has been exacerbating inter-ethnic relationships in society for years. Their agitation eventually led to homicidal attacks against Roma people during which a minimum of nine people, some of them children, died and dozens of people have been injured, some of them severely. After the Hungarian Guard was dissolved, alternative organizations immediately sprang up with names such as the "New National Guard" or "Hungarian Crew".
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At the rally, Jobbik representatives also criticized the government's economic policy. The governing Fidesz party, in their view, has become the party of the rich. Hungarian MP Marton Szegedi (Jobbik) told the rally: "They take absolutely no care of the ordinary farmer in this country.”
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Organizations for the protection of civil and human rights, such as Amnesty International, organized a counter-demonstration last Saturday. In their call for a counter-demonstration, they declared that "it is not possible to pronounce Roma people the generators of all evil. It is unacceptable for various extremists to attempt to take justice into their own hands." They also demand an end to the discrimination of Roma in the country.
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Agnes Daroczi, a Roma political writer and chair of the Roma association Pralipe, speaking in front of roughly 150 counter-demonstrators on Saturday, said: "Many of us are terribly poor only because we were born Roma. We need a color-blind policy that will reach those on the fringes of society."
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Ilonka Balogh, a Roma woman from Hejoszalonta, was aghast at the fact that police did not prevent the neo-Nazi gathering from taking place near her home and feared for her family's safety. Jozsef Anderko, the mayor of the village who unwillingly permitted Jobbik to hold the gathering there, admitted that pickpocketing is a problem in Hejoszalonta, but generally evaluated relations among people in the village as good.
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A tutor from the local school who is an ethnic Hungarian also participated in Saturday's neo-Nazi march. Roma women from the village are now drafting a petition to have her removed from her position. "At the nursery school, 90 % of the children are Roma. It is not appropriate that she teach there now," Ilonka Balogh said.
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The Jobbik party is demanding that authorities keep files on so-called Roma criminality. According to party representatives, members of the Roma minority are the main cause of increased crime in the countryside. Other parliamentary parties have now jointly taken a strong exception to the Jobbik demands for the first time ever.
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Hungarian Guard brigades also recently marched through Gyöngyöspat, a village in the northeast of the country. For more than two weeks they literally terrorized Roma inhabitants there, who stopped leaving their homes or sending their children to school as a result. Under pressure from police and protests from abroad, they eventually had to end their marches. This is the first time representatives of various civic associations have met to protest these racist actions.
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Amnesty International and other organizations from around the world demanded of the Hungarian government in March that it better ensure security for members of the Roma minority. At the end of March, the trial began in Budapest of four men charged with organizing a minimum of nine homicidal attacks on Roma families throughout the entire country in 2008-09.
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This coming Saturday, the Czech political party DSSS is organizing a similar march in the North Bohemian village of Krupka. Various civic associations are organizing counter-demonstration
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Article Taken From Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2313
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Volatile mix of Roma, Vigilantes Faces Hungary Town - Reuters

2011-03-31T09:03:00.004-04:00

From AlertNet, A Thomson Reuters Foundation Service
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Volatile mix of Roma, vigilantes faces Hungary town
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Hungary, March 30 (Reuters) - In the past three years Hungary's Roma, or gypsies, have been shot dead in their homes, killed by hand grenades and attacked with petrol bombs. Now they are going to be policed by right-wing vigilantes.
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Next month, the far-right Jobbik party, which gained its first toehold in parliament last year on a right-wing tidal wave that put the Fidesz party in power, will field 200 vigilantes in the hardluck northeastern town of Hajduhadhaz.
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"This will be a kind of demonstration," said Gergely Rubi, a Jobbik MP and the local leader of the Brighter Future Vigilante Association.
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"The government likes to sweep gypsy crime under the rug but that leads nowhere," Rubi said. "If the government can't guarantee our safety they shouldn't wonder we organise our own defence."
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Hajduhadhaz, a town of 13,000, some 30 percent of whom are Roma, was once a prosperous agricultural centre with a wood-products factory but is pretty much a perfect breeding ground for trouble today.
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Unemployment is 40 percent, many households survive on $150 month and on a recent visit there was little activity beyond a handful of publicly employed gardeners tending the main square.
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"The lack of order and security in Hajduhadhaz is horrid," said Marika Ferenczi, a 65-year-old retired railway worker. "A lot of people dare not sleep, fearing who might lurk outside."
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She is not a Roma, but she does not think vigilante justice is the way to go.
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"For (vigilantes) to insult and provoke everyone on the streets, I'm against that... All this is tied to extremists.
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"Should I name them? Jobbik."
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Mayor Denes Csafordi said the police would not stop the vigilantes from patrolling, as long as they break no laws, but predicted they would not cure the town's ills.
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"I find it deeply unsettling that self-styled arbiters of truth should descend upon this town and try to tell us how to get our house in order. They come here for a week or two... They will not solve anything, only generate more problems," he said.
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STRUGGLE FOR INTEGRATION
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Hungary has long struggled to reintegrate its Roma, who lost their jobs en masse when communism collapsed. A Roma generation has grown up since then with few memories of regular work, many of them living on welfare and a revolving door to jail.
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Friction between Roma and the rest of population is endemic. In 2008, two Roma were shot dead in their home in northeastern Hungary, firebombs were lobbed into three Roma homes west of Budapest and shots were fired at three homes nearer the capital.
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A group of men accused in those killings, and woundings of dozens of Roma, went on trial in Budapest last week, but the effort to solve the crimes does little to ease the tensions, which are compounded by recent economic woes.
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The centre-right government, which parted ways with the IMF last year and needs market trust to roll over the highest debt burden in the region, recently bowed to market pressure to trim social spending.
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Unemployment benefits will be cut to three months from nine and public employment -- often the only type of job going in places like Hajduhadhaz -- is capped at four hours a day, with a monthly pay of $150 per month.
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"The $150 doesn't pay our bills, let alone cover our living costs," Balint Bernath, a local Roma leader, said.
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"We voted for this government because they promised hundreds of thousands of jobs. It's been nearly a year. We can't see them."
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"They want us to stop crime," he added. "If it goes on like this, they take the jobs and they take the aid, then crime will rise in Hajduhadhaz, and all over the country, I assure you."
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FAR RIGHT RIDES IN
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While Jobbik got into parliament on rhetoric vilifying the Roma, Fidesz grabbed a two-thirds majority on promises of a million new jobs in 10 years and a return of public safety in two weeks.
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However, Fidesz has struggled to boost the economy and has yet to bring unemployment lower.
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Meanwhile, Jobbik continues playing the Roma card. Its vigilantes held a rally in a conflict-ridden village in northern Hungary earlier this month where 2,000 people, many in black uniform, marched through the Roma settlement on the outskirts.
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"Had we not ordered police to critical scenes in significant numbers, ugly things could have happened," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said afterwards.
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In Hajduhadhaz, Roma say the vigilantes only add oil to the flames, and promised they would not back down.
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"They have not dared come to these areas yet," Bernath said, speaking near a litter-strewn shanty town where a few brick houses stood among a scattering of adobe shacks and makeshift huts with walls made of blankets cast on wooden poles.
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"If the vigilantes don't escalate this, we won't either. If they declare war on us, I will declare war on them, too."
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Csafordi, elected mayor in October, said the local Roma were isolated, impoverished and that unemployment will take years to erase.
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"I believe the country, like our town, cannot afford pseudo measures any more," he said. "We need to do more than trying to be popular. We need to dig down to the root of the problem."
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CIVIL UNREST
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The government says it plans to boost public employment again, but welfare benefits will be linked to work.
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"The only way to get welfare will be through work," Mihaly Varga, state secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, told state radio.
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Peter Kreko, an analyst for the research firm Political Capital, rejected this approach.
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"There is no way public works projects alone can employ all these people," he said.
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He warned that in a worst-case scenario, Hungary's Roma could end up in revolt, much like Slovakia's Roma revolted in 2004 when government measures stripped them of aid with few alternatives and they broke into stores in search for food.
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"Of course, it's not automatic, it needs an ideological catalyst, which is a given now because of Jobbik," Kreko said.
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"All we need then is a spark for the mix to explode."
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Source
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http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/feature-volatile-mix-of-roma-vigilantes-faces-hungary-town

Helsinki Youth Department...

2011-03-31T08:29:00.003-04:00

... Just Missing Arm Bands.
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When it came to organizing the populous against a targeted community Hitler and Stalin knew exactly how to do it. Command the youth and strangle the elderly. The children of the nation can alter the fate of a people. That is why Hitler's most indelible legacy of Socialist order was his "Hitler Youth" program.
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In Finland this mission is accomplished with the Youth Departments. These help lead action against Europe's least desirable minority (their largest minority), the Romani.
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Today the Helsinki Youth Department will be using force to remove Roma from a camp that their government had set up. To make their actions legitimate they have asked the local authorities to "help" them destroy the Roma camp. A method that has worked in places like Italy (where the police actively attack and beat Roma when offered the chance to "help").
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The camp is an abandoned civic building in the Kalasatama area. It has running water, electricity, and a reputation that keeps the local authorities out. In other words it is perfect for a people who want to be left alone.
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The local government has offered the Roma another camp, a temporary one, in the Hietaniemi service center. The Roma have declined.
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”They would rather stay in a place where they would have water, electricity, and where the authorities would not disturb them. Moreover, they would not like to take up space needed by homeless Finns”, Keiju Oksanen reported Wednesday.
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And this is a fact that the Youth Department does not want to realize. In putting the Roma into a "homeless shelter" they force them into competition with homeless Finns. Thus creating an even harsher environment than the local homeless already have to live with.
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Jarmo Räihä, a chairman with the Roma working group with the City of Helsinki Social Services Department, reported that other reasons for the Romas' declining of the offer was the fact that the service center had little parking and no cooking space. It also was much more "guarded" with many more police and government officials around. In short, the service center looks and feels to much like a government camp being offered to concentrate them in one area... under watching eyes.
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Source Documents
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Helsingin Sanomat
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Helsinki+Youth+Department+urges+police+to+empty+Roma+camp/1135265059254
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Helsinki Times
http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/domestic-news/general/14827-helsinki-city-council-evicts-kalasatamas-roma-beggars-.html
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Hungary Hungry for Pogroms

2011-03-26T11:43:00.006-04:00

Fuel for the Fire
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With the rise of the far-right taking Europe like wild fire the eastern parts of Europe are falling fast. Hungary has long been a flirt when it comes to the Nazi style politics spreading westward. Worst yet, Hungary has a long past as a fascist conspirator (hence their arrow flag and arm bands). And that history just doesn't seem to want to go away.
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Hajduhadhaz, a small town of around 13,000 people is just the next battle field for the far-right in Hungary. With the government's recent law linking welfare (a source of income that many Hungarians rely upon) payments to the cleanliness of your home and property. This fascist inspired law was directed by the far-right to target the Romani living in places like Hajduhadhaz.
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One Rom, Balint Bernath claims that the government makes it a habit to come into their homes and check their bathrooms and toilets. He also claims that a neighbor lost his welfare payments because a snooping official found a single spot of dog excrement in his yard. It isn't clear if the government is enforcing this law on all Hungarians or only the Roma minority.
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It is clear however that in places like Hajduhadhaz the far-right political party Jobbik is calling the shots. The parliamentary deputy, 32 year-old Gergely Rubi, for example. People like him claim that the Roma, and the Roma alone, are the cause for all ills that have befallen Hungary. He claims that the Roma are thieves, rapist, violent criminals, and just plain plunderers and pillagers.
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Mr. Rubi does not however admit that the policies his party is pushing have suppressed the local economies by restricting the ability of the common man to start up business or engage in business of his own choosing. Instead his party has sought to restore their mythically pure Magyar race back to its position of authority in Hungary. So like the Nazi's Aryans, the Jobbik party is attempting to divide the races and conquer the minorities.
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One portion of the Jobbik argument claims that the Roma are outsiders in the belief that they are "pagans", "Muslims", or even "witches". However in Hajduhadhaz the Roma are seemingly flocking the new Pentecostal Church. They are "finding religion" in the depths of economic repression. And this in a way feeds the Jobbik belief that the Roma are outsiders. The Jobbik party flocks to the old Calvinist Church.
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As of late the differences between the two not so different ethnic groups (most Roma are not nomadic anymore due the old policies of the Communist Eastern Block). Jobbik has set up programmes through out the Hungarian countryside. Their goal is clear, if only to them, to restore "law and order". To the outsiders (us and the Roma) their goal is even more clear... to defeat and destroy an entire ethnic group... genocide.
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Unlike the good old days of Hungarian socialism and even communism these days at least some of the criminals are being brought to justice (or a version of it). Trials of Hungarian murders are scheduled to begin soon. However these small steps are most likely just to appease the EU and UN. It is unclear as of now if the Hungarian government will actually make any real strides in stopping the Jobbik party and its plans for more pogroms. Or if Hungary will simply respond to the crimes after the fact.
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"They now face sentences between 15 years and life in prison, depending on their degree of culpability. The case greatly exacerbated the atmosphere at the time, Roma people even prepared to emigrate en masse," said Attila Petöfi of the Hungarian National Bureau of Investigation.
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Kill and maim people based on race and hatred for an entire people in Hungary and you might get off with just 15 years. A portion of that might not even be served in prison either. This is why I am sceptical about Hungarian commitment to stopping the Jobbik fascist and their demented minions.
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Source Documents
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BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9435803.stm
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2290
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AP
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCz5qY2k_d0HERoJBBkszj0UwlGQ?docId=c3e91b5a8d184e48a1b45bf69d1d5a89
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Caboodle.Hu
http://www.caboodle.hu/nc/news/news_archive/single_page/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8899

Romea.cz - Stehliková: Human rights trampled under the hooves of horses

2011-03-16T21:36:00.001-04:00

Romea.cz - Stehliková: Human rights trampled under the hooves of horses

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Was yesterday's police intervention against the Roma people and others demonstrating against the neo-Nazis proportionate?
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This story started long before groups of right-wing extremists decided to meet on the morning of Saturday, 12 March and march through the Roma quarter of Nový Bydžov in order to terrorize the residents. It started long before the 51 mayors met in Nový Bydžov to discuss tactics for "how to take on the socially inadaptable" (to use the term introduced by former Mayor of Chomutov Ivana Řápková (Civic Democrats - ODS) instead of the more correct term of "the socially excluded"). The mayors agreed on a "Mayoral Declaration", the content of which was a proposal for repressive measures that would intrude into the private lives of all citizens, not just the socially excluded.
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Our story started when the Mayor of Nový Bydžov, Pavel Louda (ODS), decided to bank solely on denouncing and repressing the socially deprived instead of guiding the town toward integration of the socially excluded. Instead of applying for assistance from the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion in Roma Localities, he found a quick shortcut to the rapid scoring of political points.
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When a recidivist who is reportedly "half-Roma" allegedly raped a 21-year-old girl in Nový Bydžov last November, the mayor's issued a statement labeling "Gypsies" as the culprits for this brutal crime. In that statement, the mayor does not distinguish between the "orderly" families of longtime Roma residents and the newly-arrived "problematic" families, but tars all Roma people with the same brush, even though escalating hatred against a particular group because of its alleged criminality in the town is no solution. The mayor's statement divided locals even more and strengthened the anti-Roma mood.
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It is therefore not surprising that right-wing extremists are welcome in Nový Bydžov. Ever since the conflict at the Janov housing estate in Litvínov, we have seen that the extremists' tactic is to seek the support and sympathy of local populations in problematic localities.
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These extremists, aided by their marches through excluded localities predominantly inhabited by Roma people, are promoting themselves in public life and striving to enter politics. Perhaps the most active and best-known of these groups is the extreme-right Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS), the successor to the banned Workers' Party (Dělnická strana - DS). This is the party that convened the demonstration in Nový Bydžov on Saturday, 12 March 2011, allegedly at the request of local residents and despite a call from the mayor not to come to the town.
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The illegal Movement of Autonomous Nationalists then affiliated itself with the demonstration. According to Green Party chair Ondřej Liška, who was present at Saturday's events, other neo-Nazi and ultra-right groups including the National Resistance also joined the call for the DSSS demonstration through their web pages. Such extremely unconstitutional activities and relationships were one of the reasons the Workers' Party was banned in the first place.
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Liška says these relationships were sufficient reason either to ban yesterday's gathering before it even began, or to disperse it once it had begun. The town hall leadership, however, did none of this. It permitted the radical right-wing march and did not disperse the gathering even after it took an illegal turn and Ondřej Liška filed criminal charges against the organizers at the local department of the Police of the Czech Republic. For their part, the police intervened very harshly against the group of Roma and other people counter-demonstrating against the neo-Nazis and attempting to block the extremist march.
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Let's look at the events in Nový Bydžov in chronological order. In addition to the right-wing radicals, Roma people and others also announced a gathering for 12 March and the "Nový Bydžov is not alone!" Initiative was created. This call was endorsed by NGOs including the Romea civic association, human rights activists, politicians, members of the Green Party, guests from abroad and other sympathizers.
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As many as 300 people total met in the town who were united in the opinion that a "protest against neo-Nazism and racism is a natural position to hold in society and the obligation of every respectable person". The recently appointed Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner, Monika Šimůnková, was also invited to attend.
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The Workers' Social Justice Party had planned to march through streets where many Roma families live, such as Na Šarlejích street, where the entire drama later culminated in a police intervention in which riot police, on horseback and carrying shields, dispersed the counter-demonstrators with nightsticks and firecrackers. The majority of Roma families in that locality, out of concern there would be a pogrom, had already sent their children, the elderly and the women out of town to stay with relatives. The tension in the town was so thick you could have cut it with a knife.
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On Saturday 12 March, police checkpoints were set up in the morning for those driving into Nový Bydžov. Police stopped the buses that the Green Party had organized for their supporters and the car being driven by former Czech Human Rights Minister Michael Kocáb. That morning some of the retailers in town had closed their shops and boarded up their display windows. There were only a few shops where visitors, including the skinheads, were welcome. The streets of the town of 7 000 were empty.
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Roma and other citizens supporting the Nový Bydžov is not alone! Initiative gathered for their march by the football pitch. Those in attendance included former Czech Human Rights Minister Michael Kocáb, the actor Achab Heidler, the chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu) Čeněk Růžička, the German journalist and sociologist Markus Pape, members of the Green Party, members of the Czech Pirate Party, and many others.
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The organizers of the event, Miroslav Brož and Drahomír Radek Horváth, announced just before 11:00 that the planned march had been canceled and that there would be a religious gathering instead. Such a gathering would not be subject to reporting requirements, which meant the procession could travel anywhere it wanted.
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The group was led by a clergywoman from the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, Mgr. Michaela Kajlíková. She led the march into the center of town to the nearby Catholic church of St. Lawrence (sv. Vavřinec).
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After advancing 200 meters, the peaceful procession was stopped by police to verify whether it could be allowed to continue on as a religious gathering. Michaela Kajlíková began a common prayer, after which the marchers linked arms and created a human chain to symbolize their union and common resistance to evil. Negotiations with the secretary of the town hall took an hour, but were successful.
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At around noon the procession arrived at the church and started to pray. In the interim, the first small groups of right-wing radicals carrying DSSS flags began heading for the main square, which is near the church of St. Lawrence (sv. Vavřinec). Standing several meters away from the religious gathering, the neo-Nazis followed it and yelled insults at specific people. Police officers formed a barrier between those who were praying and the extremists.
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Shortly after noon, Michaela Kajlíková concluded the religious gathering, announced that fact to the town hall, and led the procession back to its original gathering place. Most of the demonstrators decided to stay in Na Šarlejích street, which is predominantly inhabited by Roma families, to blockade the extremists' march. Those who remained with the Roma included both former Human Rights Ministers and the chairs of the Green Party and the Pirate Party and their supporters. Radical representatives of the anti-fascist group Antifa joined the gathering as well.
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DSSS party chair Tomáš Vandas began speaking on the main square. Police asked the DSSS to change the route of their march so as to avoid Na Šarlejích street, which was being blocked by the counter-demonstrators. Vandas refused this request and insisted on the original route.
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The Roma counter-demonstrators were determined not to let the extremists march beneath the windows of their homes. One of the organizers, Drahomír Radek Horváth, declared he would remain there even at the price of committing civil disobedience.
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For almost one hour, the peaceful crowd created a blockade with their own bodies. "Black people, white people, join forces," chanted the group of roughly 200.
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The police anti-conflict teams attempted to convince the demonstrators to let the DSSS march through. A few steps away on the square, anti-Roma and racist slogans were being chanted which were criminal violations of the Constitution, so the people forming the blockade were willing to commit the misdemeanor of standing their ground.
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Green Party chair Ondřej Liška then announced to Mayor Pavel Louda that he had information according to which the illegal National Resistance movement was participating in the DSSS gathering, as was obvious from the content of their web page. In his view, this meant the DSSS gathering was unconstitutional as it was inciting racial intolerance and violence against a particular group. Liška asked the mayor to disperse the gathering. The mayor referred to the discipline of those participating in the permitted gathering on the square and said he saw nothing in the content of their speeches or the purpose of the march that would lead him to ban it. The Green Party head did not give up and set off to negotiate with the commander of the police intervention, Petr Krása.
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It seemed the commander of the intervention had more understanding for our arguments. He suggested filing official charges at the local police department. He told us that this would create an opportunity for dispersing the DSSS march, which had not yet left the square. Ondřej Liška, Michael Kocáb and Džamila Stehlíková immediately set off for the closest police department to file charges.
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Mere minutes after Liška and the two former ministers had entered the police building to file their motion to have the DSSS march dismissed, the police intervened in a flash against the counter-demonstrators and very harshly dispersed them. After calling once for those assembled to disperse, the police officers spurred their horses to a gallop and charged the demonstrators. Officers on horseback delivered blows to the demonstrators with long nightsticks.
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Riot police set off firecrackers and then randomly arrested the confused and startled counter-demonstrators. Eyewitnesses say the brutality and rapidity of the intervention confounded everyone. At least 10 demonstrators report having been struck with a night stick or an "encounter with a horse", as we might euphemistically describe the situation in which a rider charges at a person sitting on the ground who does not have enough time to get up and run. At least three people were treated for injuries caused by the horses.
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Those of us at the police station received word of this unexpectedly brutal intervention and immediately headed back to Na Šarlejích street. We were too late - the street was empty. The demonstrators had been pushed into the next street, Havlíčkova, to make room for the DSSS march. We managed to hand a copy of the charges to Petr Krása. He promised to see what could be done and disappeared in the direction of the square. We never saw him again.
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After several minutes, the streets leading away from the square were full of DSSS marchers chanting the slogans "Bohemia for the Czechs" and "Stop Black Racism". The march was protected by many riot police, far more than had protected the counter-demonstration march by the Roma and their supporters.
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The Mayor of Nový Bydžov later praised the course of the police interventions on the town hall website: "The Police of the Czech Republic demonstrated perfect preparedness and accompanied the march of the properly announced DSSS gathering. Thanks to a deployment of large numbers of men and equipment, public order was protected in the town during the gathering and immediately after it ended."
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Ondřej Liška and Drahomír Radek Horváth consider the police intervention to have been brutal and disproportionate. Horváth is preparing to file a motion for the intervention to be investigated.
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A sad ending to this Saturday was a clash during which 13 DSSS supporters attacked three Roma men. One of the Roma victims, after being kicked and receiving blows to the head, fell unconscious and was hospitalized with a concussion. DSSS chair Tomáš Vandas announced that he was satisfied with his party's action.
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"Special Education"

2011-03-11T09:56:00.005-05:00

Czech Republic Still Segregating Schools
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For decades now the Eastern Bloc has used its public schools as a tool to economically and socially segregate Roma from the rest of society. By placing Rom children in "practical schools" for the mentally handicapped they deny the Romani population a chance at an education. The excuses provided range from the fact that a handful of Roma don't speak the same language, some Roma don't stay in school past elementary levels, and many aren't simply up to social standards. None of the excuses provided however prove that any of the Roma have a "mental handicap".
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The leading watchdog in Europe for human-rights, Thomas Hammarberg (the commissioner of the Council of Europe), publicly rebuked the Czech Republic this week for this exact reason. He states that if the Czech Republic does not move forward with integration of its Roma students than thousands of Roma will be sent to "special education" classes this September. And once again they will receive an education greatly inferior to their peers in the rest of the Czech public schools.
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Three years ago the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgement that condemned this behavior in any European country as being "discriminatory". This practice of segregation was thus ordered to be put to an end. And yet now three years later no real progress has been achieved in the Czech Republic. And no reasonable action has been taken by the European Union to see that this practice be stopped. Instead Roma children still remain 27 times more likely to be sent to "practical schools" for the mentally handicapped.
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To date the Czech government has received money to desegregate their schools and yet has spent absolutely nothing to do so. Around 10% of the money received from the EU to implement the National Action Plan for Inclusive Education has been spent on projects not related to the designated project. The remainder of the money has simply set idle and is now in danger of being handed back to the EU having spent absolutely nothing on the Romas' education.
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Actions actually taken by the Czech (right leaning) government on the issue have been quite the opposite of what the National Plan stated. The Czechs have instead dismantled any part of the Education Ministry that actually has attempted to implement the National Plan. All the while the EU has done nothing to stop the Czech government from setting up roadblocks to prevent the EU funds from working.
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So now the Czech's (nonbinding) National Plan is not expected to begin being implemented till at least late 2014. And even then that all depends on the given political climate and economic situations facing the Czech Republic. It is more likely that the liberals in the EU will loose interest and the Czech Republic will be allowed to sway even further toward its Nazi past.
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Source Documents for this Post.
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European Voice, Author James A. Goldston
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/another-intake-of-second-class-children/70520.aspx
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Prague Daily Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2011/03/09/european-centre-criticises-prague-over-romani-kids-education
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2228
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"Who Alive Today...

2011-03-09T10:50:00.011-05:00

... Remembers the Armenians?"
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(The Armenian Genocide From 1914-1915)

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The lack of an international outcry against the Turkish slaughter of unarmed Armenians led Adolf Hitler to say the quote above. This was his justification for the slaughter of an estimated 6 million Jews (the number is most likely much higher). The horrific events that became the hallmarks of the Holocaust were inspired by the lack of condemnation for the Ottomans' genocidal slaughtering of Christians.
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On February 21St of 1914 the Ottomans began their planned attacks on the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. This initial assault came not with arms or ammunition but the forced boycott of Armenian businesses. Economics, just as Hitler would do to Germany's Jews, became the initial bulwark of Turkish frustrations with the helpless Armenians.
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On August 18Th of 1914 however the public humiliation and economic boycotts would take the next step toward the goals of the Young Turk's planned genocide. In the provinces of Sivas and Diyarbekir looting and vandalism are used to destroy the remaining Armenian businesses. Violence against Armenians is reported and yet goes unpunished. 1,080 shops and businesses owned by Armenians in Diyarbekir are burnt to the ground by the end of the day.
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As the war in Europe gets underway the Turkish Army conscripts all Armenian men between the ages of 20 and 45. These young men will not however be sent to battle. These men are to be used as forced labor in the initial killing phase of the Armenian Genocide. The date of their conscription is August 22Nd of 1914.
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By the end of 1914 the Young Turks will have done everything Hitler did in Germany in the 1930s. However the Young Turks will have gone much farther. In September of 1914 the Young Turks had already denied the commercial and legal rights of Europeans and Americans in the Ottoman Empire. That same month the Young Turks close the Dardanelles Straits to foreign shipping and commerce. By October the Ottomans had cut off all foreign mail services within their empire. That same month the Young Turks would arrest as many Armenian teachers, politicians, religious leaders, and philosophers. These steps would set the Young Turks up for a genocide that even Hitler could not replicate.
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As the year came to a close the Young Turks began using chete forces (irregular soldiers given 'freedoms' the regular soldiers are not) to carry out attacks against Armenian villages along the borders of the Ottoman Empire. These attacks were carried out against towns and villages that were claimed to be "conspiring with our Russian enemies". It is important to note that these are villagers who had already be stripped of any weapons (including cooking knives) and were unable to flee due to a lack of transportation. It is also important to recall that the Armenian men in these villages had already been taken off to be used as forced labor. So those left were often raped and then killed by the chete forces.
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These chete forces in November would get a boost from Halil Pasha who decided it would be useful to release prisoners to inflate their numbers. These "Special Organizations" were then provided arms from the Ottoman War Ministry. They were now ready to step up their attacks against the Armenians.
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On November 30Th the commands come down from Constantinople to provide the "Special Organizations" or chete bands with vehicles, money, and other military equipment... mainly more expensive arms than just the standard rifles.
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By the end of the year the Young Turks would even be able to drive the foreign missionaries out of the heart of the Ottoman Empire. They outside world was now watching as their enemy's (Germany's) ally continued to carry out a campaign aimed at the destruction of Armenian society in Turkish territories.
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On the very first day of the new year, 1915, the Turkish Army in Van Provence were given orders to kill all Armenian "soldiers" (slaves) in the Turkish Army. The orders are taken a little less seriously as "reports" are received by the Turkish Army in Sivas that the Armenian bakers in their ranks are "poisoning the bread". These bakers are beaten and some killed. But unlike the slaves in the Van Provence army not all are killed.
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The goal of the lies circulating in the Turkish Army are proof that at the very least the Young Turks were attempting to amp up the attacks on Armenians by inciting massacres of Armenians by the regular army. This goal was achieved by January of 1915 to an extent due to the fact that the regular soldiers had already helped force Armenian civilians into slavery to the Turkish Army. During the previous winter they had forced Armenian civilians to be "porters" during the worst part of the winter with the soul purpose of causing death due to exposure.
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On January 8Th the chetes (Turkish and Kurdish) descend upon Assyrian and Armenian villages in Northwest Persia. Attacking Tavriz and Urmia the chete forces maintain their assault from the 8Th till the 29Th of January. In Urmia the Turkish forces are able to drive out 18,000 Armenians. These 18,000 Armenians are forced to flee into the Caucasus.
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On January 12Th the Young Turks order the destruction of Tavra-Koy and other villages around Sivas. They then take over strategic buildings within Sivas. These attacks are used to turn the strategic village of Sivas into a virtual concentration camp.
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On January 19Th of 1915 the Young Turks actively begin to strip the Germans of their right (granted by the Ottomans' pledge of allegiance to the German Army) to give orders to the Turkish regular army. This move now gives the Young Turks the ability to actively use the actual Turkish Army to attack the Armenian population. The Minister of War, Enver, gave the order first in Sivas.
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On January 22Nd Enver would arrive in Constantinople to give a speech congratulating the Armenians still remaining in the Turkish Army. This speech however was obvious to the Turks as a ploy to appease the large number of Europeans still remaining in the city. By the next day Enver had given the order to shoot "all those still opposing my orders".
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As January 1915 came to a close the German-Turkish tensions began to mount. The German ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire were now sending messages back to Germany about the "crimes against humanity" being committed and carried out by the orders of Talaat (the Ottoman leader). Americans in Constantinople were doing the same, but they weren't allied with the Ottomans.
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On February 2Nd of 1915 Talaat reveals his own Final Solution to the German Ambassador Count Hans von Wangenheim. Talaat puts it rather bluntly. In Talaat's opinion the war was the only opportune moment to finally deal with the "Armenian Question". This was the same sort of phrase that Hitler would use for Germany's Jews.
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The reassurances of Talaat would go in one ear and out the other due to the blatant murder of Pasdermadjian (February 10Th 1915) directly in front of German Major-General Posseldt. The German General reported that no investigation was ever done to find the guilty party. Nor was the obvious murder even apprehended.
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February 14Th 1915, Tahir Jevdet claims that the Turkish Army (now liberated from German command) should do anything it can to "cleanse Van Provence" of all remaining Armenians. This outcry from provincial leaders is quickly becoming a regular thing as February of 1915 drags on and on.
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On February 19Th 1915, the Turks begin to realize the war with the allies could slow their slaughter of the Armenians down. Talaat orders the distribution of kerosene and explosives to all the police forces in Constantinople. The orders given are to "burn the city to the ground" in the event that allied warships press their way up the Dardanelles. All Christian inhabitants and European citizens are to be "butchered" at once if the city must be razed.
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On the 27Th of February 1915 the Turkish army steps up its attacks in Sivas Provence. The attacks are marked by rapes, pillaging, and the murdering of entire villages. At the same time the village of Chomaklu, in the Kayseri Provence, is stripped of its remaining weapons (even kitchen knives) ahead of the coming massacres.
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March 1St, the Armenians in the Turkish Army in Marash are stripped of their weapons and uniforms. These are some of the last Armenians still serving their nation.
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By March 5Th of 1915 the chetes are reported to be attacking villages in Van Provence once again. This time however the rate of killing is stepped up as the chetes are reinforced by Turkish regulars. The attacks are the most "efficient" thus far in the genocide.
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On March 9Th the chetes and Turkish regulars attack Zeitun. The Armenians there are able to fight back for a short time before the village is overrun. The bloodbath that followed as once again carried out by chetes forces.
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On March 12Th of 1915 the chetes begin more advanced attacks on Armenian villages in Alashkert District. Rapes, robberies, and mass executions are carried out in the targeted villages. These Armenians are unable to defend themselves due to the fact that the Young Turks had already "repossessed" their privately owned weapons. Meanwhile in Dortyol the Young Turks carry out mass arrest of Armenians, mainly men they consider to be "able bodied". These Armenians are sent out to the wasteland near Aleppo and are never heard from again.
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By the end of March the Armenian population in Sivas Province was declared "unarmed". As a result the chete attacks were stepped up and Turkish regulars began mass executions on a regular schedule. The fear of resistance was now completely gone in Sivas.
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On March 18Th the allied forces begin to attack the Dardanelles. Constantinople is not razed.
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As April of 1915 approached the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire had already been stripped of their arms, suffered regular beatings and torture at the hands of chete forces, been forced into death marches, and had their homes burned or bombed out in; Zeitun, Aleppo, Papert, Terchan, and Adana.
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On March 31St the deportations of Armenians in Zeitun began. These Armenians would still be marching into the Konia Desert on April 1St. Their march into the wasteland would lead to most of their deaths. Rape, beatings, and beheading would kill even more of them. This was the Final Solution for the Armenian Question being carried out at the direct orders of the Young Turk leadership.
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As of April Fools Day 1915 the bad joke handed down to the Armenians was the sudden mass arrest in Sivas Provence. These arrest would allow the Ottomans to bring the majority of Armenians to a central location. It allowed the Turks to build concentration camps for their new "prisoners".
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On April 2Nd of 1915 mass arrest in Bitlis and Erzerum Provinces would step up the collection of Armenians in those regions. At the same time Turkish soldiers in Sivas were helping chete forces to destroy Armenian villages that had either been left untouched thus far or suffered "less harassment" than the others. The brutality unleashed in these targeted villages showed the increasing hatred for Armenians amongst Turks.
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On April 3Rd (the beginning of Easter week) the Turkish Army began its attempts to collect all weapons from Armenians in Marash and Hadjin. Brutal rapes were reported even by Turkish soldiers during the attacks.
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On April 5Th the Turkish Army "claimed" 5,000 mules from Armenians in Marash. Part of this was to make a gesture of symbolism to Jesus and the fact that the Turks believed the Armenians would need these mules for food.
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On April 8Th the famous monastery in Zeitun is burnt to the ground by Turkish regulars.
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On April 11Th Talaat tells Armenians in Parliament that there will be no massacres (no further massacres).
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April 12Th, widespread massacres of Armenians are reported from Bitlis and Erzerum Provinces.
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April 15Th of 1915, Armenian refugees arrive in the city of Van. They inform the Armenian inhabitants there that around 80 Armenian villages around Van had already been razed. They claim that around 24,000 Armenians had been killed in just the last three days alone.
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On April 17Th the Armenians of Van city mount an advanced defense of their city. The attack by Turkish regulars (with support of artillery units) begins. The Armenian civilians of Van are able to hold out till May 23Rd of 1915 when a Russian Army unit (composed of Armenian volunteers) arrives to save them.
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On April 19Th the Armenians in Diyarbekir suffer as the Turkish regulars search and destroy their homes. An unknown number of Armenians are killed and raped.
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By April 20Th of 1915 the deportations of Armenians in Zeitun is completed. It is believed that most had been sent into the desert to die. Meanwhile in Diyarbekir the first mass arrest are carried out by the Turkish Army. At the same time in Constantinople the remaining Armenian politicians are brought to the Central Prison for a mock trial... they will be hanged on June 2Nd of 1915.
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On April 24Th 250 Armenian community leaders and intellectuals are gathered up in Constantinople are gathered up and then slain.
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April 26Th three Armenians are hanged in Mush without trial. This marks the public will to follow and help the Young Turks in their goal of "purging the enemy within" or the destruction of the Armenian society.
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On April 29Th Armenian citizens in Constantinople who are of Russian origin are arrested and beaten to death.
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May 1St of 1915 the Armenian professors of the American Euphrates College are arrested in Kharput. This even marks the ending of Armenian intellectual presence in the Ottoman Empire.
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On May 2Nd the Turkish Army suffers massive defeats against the Russian forces in the Caucasus and Northern Iran. The Turkish regulars retreated to Van, Bitlis, and Mush where they retaliated for their humiliating defeats by slaughtering the local Armenian populations.
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That same day 3,000 Engish and French citizens are arrested in Constantinople.
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On May 3Rd the mass deportations of Armenians in Erzerum begins. These Armenians are once again being sent to areas where no water or food can be found. No shelter is provided and death by starvation or exposure to the elements is intended.
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The next day, May 4Th of 1915 200 Armenian leaders in Erzerum are arrested.
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On May 5Th the arrest and killings of Armenians in Kharput begins.
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The next day allied nationals in Beyrut are deported to Damascus where they will be sent to their home countries from there. That same day, on May 6Th, the New York Times reports that the Turks have adopted a campaign of annihilation against the Armenians... nobody back home in the United States really cares.
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On May 10Th of 1915 950 Armenians in Diyarbekir are arrested. Most will never be heard from again. Meanwhile in Marash the Armenian refugees from Zeitun are deported to the Syrian Desert. The aim is once again to let the natural surrounding kill the Armenians and to preserve bullets for the invading Russian Army.
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May 14Th, 38 Armenian community leaders in Chomaklu are arrested and then killed. That same day the English and French prisoners are deported.
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May 15Th of 1915, Armenian community leaders in Bayburt are arrested and then murdered. Meanwhile Armenians in Erzerum Provence are deported with the intent of letting them die in the wilderness.
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On May 19Th the Russian Army (an advance unit of it consisting of Armenian volunteers) reach Van city in the Van Provence. They are able to lift the siege of the town and defeat the chete forces who are still harassing the city.
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On May 21St the Regular Russian Army arrives in Van. The cremations of the dead begin as the Russians identify the 55,000 dead as being Armenians.
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May 24Th of 1915, the Allied forces finally send a letter to the Turks that holds the Young Turks responsible for the slaughtering of the Armenians. However this letter is not perceived to be of any legal concern.
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May 27Th, The Temporary Law of Deopration is enacted officially. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians have already been deported by this time. Yet that same day 2,000 Armenians are deported from Marash and are forced to march into the nearby desert. At the same time 300 Armenians that had been arrested in Diyarbekir are killed.
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On May 29Th 630 Armenians who had been arrested in Diyarbekir are slain in village of Bisheri. Their corpses are thrown into the Tigris River.
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On May 31St the German Ambassador to Turkey advises Germany not to get in the way of the Turkish deportations of Armenians. His is oddly silent on the massacres of the Armenians still trapped inside the Ottoman Empire.
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June 7Th of 1915, the first forced march of Armenians from Erzinjan leave on their way into the Syrian Desert. That same day the Armenians who had been arrested in Sivas on April 1St are marched into the woods of Meshedler-Yeri, they are all murdered there.
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On June 8Th the second group of Armenians leave Erzinjan for the Syrian Desert.
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The next day, June 9Th, the third Armenian death march leaves Erzinjan for the Syrian Desert.
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From June 10Th to June 13Th Armenians from Erzerum Provence are butchered at Kematch. These massacres are so large that they take four days to complete. Turkish regulars and chete are used to complete this massive campaign.
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On June 13Th the War Commission demands that all animals (and other food sources) be taken from all remaining Armenians in the Ottoman empire. This same day (the fourth day of the slaughter at Kematch) 25,000 Armenians die at the hands of the 86Th Cavalry Brigade and the 2Nd Reserve Cavalry Division.
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On June 14Th another 300 Armenian community leaders are arrested in Shabin-Karahisar. They are to be killed just like other Armenian community leaders captured by the Young Turks.
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The next day, June 15Th, 12 Armenian leaders are publicly hung in Sivas.
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By June 17Th Talaat is publicly proclaiming that he and his Young Turks are on a mission to "uproot" and destroy the "enemy within"
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On June 18Th 160 Armenian families are deported from Erzinjan.
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On June 19Th 300 Armenian families are deported from Erzinjan.
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June 23Rd the first mass execution of Armenian men takes place in Kharput. That same day the remaining Armenians around Bitlis are gathered up for execution.
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On June 25Th the Armenians gathered up around Bitlis are massacred.
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June 26Th the remaining Armenian men in Sivas are arrested so as to be executed.
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On June 25Th and 26Th Armenians in Trebizond, Erzerum, and Samsun are ordered to leave within 5 days.
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June 28Th, Armenian teachers and educators in Kharput are sent to the central prison and executed.
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On June 30Th of 1915, 3,000 Armenians are killed while being deported from Erzerum. At the same time 6,000 Armenians arrived in the Konia Desert where they will starve or die from malaria.
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As the summer of 1915 dragged on the deaths continued to stack up. On July 1St 2,000 Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army who had been used as forced labor were killed outside the city of Kharput. That same day the first convoy of Armenian deportees leaves Trebizond.
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As of July 2Nd of 1915 the chete forces around Erzinjan begin attacking the Armenian deportees being forced to march into the Southern wastelands. That same day the deportations in the city of Mush begin.
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On July 4Th the Turkish Army leaves Sivas with three regiments of artillery to subdue the Armenians resisting arrest and deportation in Shabin-Karahiser.
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On July 5Th the first convoys of Armenians are forced into the Syrian Desert from Sivas. 400 families are forced out on the first day. A total of 48,000 Armenians will be deported from Sivas by July 20Th. The majority will be killed on their way into the Syrian Desert.
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July 6Th, a 1,000 families of Armenians have left Trebizond for the south.
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July 7Th 1915, 800 Armenian men are slaughtered in Kharput. Their families are left defenseless.
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July 10Th, 2,700 Armenians are massacred in Mardin. This is the second massacre in Mardin.
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July 11Th, this is the first day of a four day massacre in the city of Mush. This same day the Ministry or the Interior orders that any remaining Armenian villages be settled with Muslims and the remaining Armenians vacate the areas.
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July 12Th, the Ottoman Empire orders that Armenian orphans be given to Muslim families to be raised as Muslims instead of Christians like their parents.
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July 13Th, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins. During this holy month the massacres and deprotations are increased both by the passion the holy month brought with it and the government's exploitation of it.
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July 13Th, the last of the Armenians in Kharput leave for the Syrian Desert.
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July 14Th, the leader of the Turkish district of Aleppo's Fourth Army Corps protest that the dead bodies of Armenians are choking the Euphrates River. During the period of June 22Nd to July 17Th of 1915 the Euphrates River is clogged with dead Armenians bodies.
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July 16Th, German officers in Jerablus identify the bodies of dead Armenians from the Ottoman cities of Kharput and Erzerum... the bodies arrive in Jerablus by floating down the Euphrates.
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On July 18Th the Turkish Army massacres 3,000 Armenians in the Dersim region. The Kurdish population there refuses to participate in the slaughter. Many even shelter fleeing Armenians. For this the Turkish Army retaliates against all "enemies within".
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July 21St, the Turkish Army begins its attack on Musa Dagh.
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On July 23Rd an Italian consulet reports the attacks he has witnessed thus far in Trebizond. This is the same day the restoration of the Ottoman Constitution is celebrated.
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As of July 24Th Talaat decides to give the order to bury the Armenians who have "died while being deported" or have been slain along the roadside. This order is given to help stop the tainting of the water and clogging the ditches and rivers.
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From July 24Th to August 1St the Armenians in Sivas are rounded up and classified with the central authorities. This is done in preperation of the coming massacres and deportations.
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July 28Th, deportations begin in the Turkish cities of Aintab, Kilis, and Adiaman.
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On July 30Th the mass arrest of Armenians in the city of Angora is carried out. An unknown number of Armenians are then marched out of the city and massacred six hours from Angora. At the same time the Russian Army begins to withdraw from the Turkish city of Van.
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July 31St, the mass murder of Armenian community leaders is carried out in Constantinople, Ayash, and Chankri.
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August 1St 1915, 25,000 Armenians are deported from the city of Adabazar (near Constantinople. 20,000 deported Armenians arrive in Aleppo, from there they will be sent into the Syrian Desert to die. Meanwhile the mass torture is inflicted upon the 500 Armenians being held in Adabazar prisons.
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August 2Nd, from this night on for six nights Armenian community leaders and intellectuals are taken out of the prisons in Sivas and murdered.
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On August 3Rd of 1915, 150,000 Armenians arrive in Aleppo from unknown regions of the Ottoman Empire. That same day 4,500 Armenians arrive in Aleppo from Seghert and an additional 2,000 arrive from Mezre.
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August 3Rd, 15,000 Armenians arrive in Der-el-Zor.
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Late August 3Rd, 60,000 more Armenians arrive in Aleppo from unknown regions of the empire.
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On August 6Th of 1915, 18 Armenians are publicly hung in the Turkish city of Everek.
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August 7Th, all the Armenians in Mersin are deported.
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August 8Th through the 12Th, Armenian intellectuals are taken out of the prisons of Sivas and murdered. There are now 36 execution centers in and around Sivas. 5,000 Armenians are taken to these killing zones and massacred in these five days alone.
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August 11Th, any Armenian women married to Turkish men are now officially deprived the right to inheritance.
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August 12Th, the three day holiday of Bairam begins. No massacres are supposed to be carried out during this time. That same day 200,000 Armenians are sent out of Aleppo into the Syrian Desert. These Armenians are harrased and killed on their way into the desert. Those who survive are meant to die from exposure to the elements and lack of water.
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August 13Th, deportations of Armenians begin in Izmid, Baghchejik, Bursa, and Adabazar. Those deported are harrased and killed on the highways despite Talaats orders to "rape and kill" victims in the bush and not in sight of the roadways.
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From August 13Th to the 17Th 15,000 Armenians are massacred in Siva's 36 killing zones. The 13Th and 14Th are still considered part of Bairam (so is the morning of the 15Th... till sunrise... if you are really picky).
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August 16Th, 50,000 Armenian deportees are harrased on the road from Bozanti to Aleppo.
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On August 18Th the New York Times reports that the Ottomans plan to destroy the entire Armenian Nation (or population). Not many Americans seem to be concerned.
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August 19Th, the Turkish army kills 250 Armenians in the city of Urfa. The locals and the Armenians in Urfa begin the defense of their city from Turkish Army attacks.
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On August 23Rd a second massacre in the city of Urfa is organized. Nobody knows how many were killed in the second attempt to "uproot" the Armenians in Urfa.
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August 26Th, 60,000 Armenians in Aleppo (a Turkish area of modern day Syria) are ordered to leave for the Hawran district. Hawran is an Arab district in modern day Jordan. That same day the Armeians in Angora are arrested.
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September 2Nd 1915, 4,750 Armenians are murdered in Jezire.
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September 3Rd, 10,000 survivors of the Armenian deportations of Bursa and Izmid arrive in Konia. 15,000 deported Armenians are reported at Eskishehir, 5,000 at Alayund, and 2,000 at Chai.
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September 7Th, massacres of Armenians are carried out in Yozgat.
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September 8Th, 5,000 Armenian deportees reported from Bozanti.
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September 10Th, on the 53Rd day of the Armenian defense of the city of Musa Dagh a recorded 4,058 Armenians are rescued by three English and one French warships. They are taken to the Egyptian port of Said.
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September 11Th, 6,000 Armenians are forced to leave Adana and head for Der-el-Zor Desert.
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September 16Th, Talaat sends out a letter explaining that the reason for sending Armenians into the Der-el-Zor Desert is to let them die from exposure and lack of water.
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September 23Rd, 300 Armenians are massacred in Urfa. That same day 11,000 Armenians are deported to Afiyon-Karahisar.
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On September 25Th the Sanitation Department of the War Ministry take all medical supplies away from the Armenians. That same day 24 Armenian schools in Kayseri are requisitioned.
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By September 29Th of 1915 the deportees at Afiyon-Karahisar number 10,000 Armenians, 50,000 had arrived at Konia, 10,000 had arrived at Intille, and 150,000 at Katma.
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On September 30Th of 1915 the deportees from Yalova, Angora, and Kastomuni number as high as 250,000.
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October of 1915, on the first day of October 600 orphaned Armenian boys are considered to be "Turkified" in the Ottoman city of Herek.
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By October 7Th the number of Armenian deportees still in the Ottoman Empire is estimated to be around 360,000. The number of Armenians dead is estimated to be around 800,000... this number is a low estimate.
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Under political pressure Talaat orders that all Turkish governors deliver documents proving "Armenian treason" so as to justify the massacres. This demand goes out on October 8Th.
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October 10Th, 46 Armenians are arrested in Edirne. A total of 1,600 would be deported.
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October 12Th, the Ottomans pass a law that officially forbids the marriages with Armenian women. This means that any Turk still married to an Armenian is now free to turn her in so that she might be deported.
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October 15Th a remaining 16,000 Armenians are reported at Afiyon-Karahisar and 80,000 at Konia.
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On October 15Th a group of 6,000 Turkish soldier stage their last attack on Urfa. 400 of the Turkish soldiers are killed in the attack. The Armenians in Urfa defend to the very last man.
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October 16Th, Talaat assures all those committing attacks and massacres of Armenians in Der-el-Zoir that they will not be brought to justice.
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October 16Th, 20,000 deportees are murdered while passing Urfa.
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October 27Th, 20,000 deportees are reported in Konia.
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October 31St of 1915, orders are handed down to arrest and prosecute any Armenian who is caught discussing the deportations or massacres with outsiders (or the "West").
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November 3Rd, German Doctor Schacht reports to his military commander that he had counted around 7,000 Armenians heads in the Sebgha District. Many were just the skulls.
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November 5Th, 10,000 Armenians deportees are reported in Bozanti, 20,000 deportees in Tarsus, 40,000 deportees in Islahiye, and 50,000 Armenians in Katma. While 150,000 Armenians are reported crossing the Amanos Mountain Range near Adana and Aleppo. With a remaining 20,000 Armenians remaining in Adana alone.
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On November 8Th the Turkish Government begins to deport 200,000 Armenians from Constantinople.
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On November 13Th a reported 20,000 Armenian deportees are reported in Hawran. Of these only about 450 will be alive by November 15Th.
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On November 16Th a report arives in Constantinople that thousands of Armenian bodies are littering the fields in the Bakche District.
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By November 25Th and estimated 500,000 Armenian deportees are estimated to have passed through the villages northwest of Adana.
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November 26Th, 1,010 Armenians are deported from the village of Mamure (in the Adana district).
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December 1St of 1915, the fields north of Mamure are reported to be filled with thousands of Armenian bodies.
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December 4Th, 10,000 Armenian men are deported from Constantinople. A list of 70,000 more Armenians is prepared, all are to be deported.
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December 9Th, 400 Armenian orphans are deported from Aleppo. Their parents have already been murdered or deported.
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December 12Th, 180,000 Armenians arrive in Tbilisi. All are reported to be starved or diseased.
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December 14Th, orders are given to the chete forces and Turkish Regulars to kill any remaining Armenian priest.
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December 16Th, orders are given to keep up the deportations and massacres despite the coming winter.
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December 25Th, the Ottoman Empire gives Armenian children (many orphans) a Christmas gift... they are all to be deported or killed unless they "forget" their parents.
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December 29Th of 1915, of the 210,000 Armenians who had reached the Caucasus only an estimated 173,000 are reported to still be alive. An estimated 40,000 have been reported to have died from starvation and disease alone. Of those still alive 105,000
were from Van, 48,000 were from Bayazid, and 20,038 were known to be from Mush.
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On the last day of 1915 a letter went out to all Armenians that declared that if they wished to convert to Islam they would have to convert from their "final destination". This letter put it rather bluntly that they would have to die before being permitted to enter into the common faith of the Ottoman Empire. The Young Turks were ready to kill the "infidels" before allowing the to practice Islam.
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Much of this post has been taken from the website www.armenian-genocide.org . This post only covers the first two years of the Armenian Genocide. We will be exploring the rest of the genocide in peices so that those interested can read and study the Armenian Genocide in more digestable pieces.
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Thank you for your support and you can follow us on Facebook by searching "Alder's Ledge" and joining our Facebook group.
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The Greeks' Last Stand

2011-03-08T16:14:00.003-05:00

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Not Exactly Spartans
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When the Spartans faced off with the invading armies of Middle East they died as warriors. When the Greeks of Asia Minor were forced to stand against the Ottomans they died in much the same fashion. This time however the enemy would not allow a brave last stand. This time the enemy was in a position to commit genocide.
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During the summer of 1914 the Ottomans' Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa (Special Organization) began its campaign to eliminate the Greeks by enlisting all young male Greeks into forced labor details. Most would die under the conditions imposed upon them. Others would die from disease. But this was just the beginning.
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Having shipped the young male Greeks into the barren countryside of Anatolia the Turks began to slaughter their captive workers. When the numbers of young male Greeks in Asia Minor began to drop at alarming rates the Ottomans began to target the rest of the Greek population.
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On the 12Th of June, 1914, the Turkish army surrounded the Anatolian town of Phocaea and began butchering its Greek residents. This strategy would continue for the rest of the summer. And its methods would be perfected as the Young Turks continued to produce their propaganda.
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As the summer of 1914 fell into the history books the year of 1915 would see a rise in the intensity of Turkish "white massacres" (deaths from starvation, forced labor, or poor conditions found in Ottoman concentration camps). The bloody butchering of Greeks by the Turkish Army would be stepped up as well as the spring of 1915 approached.
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Over the years leading up to the Greco-Turkish War (1914-1919) the Ottomans would use concentration camps, mass rapes, deportations, mass executions, starvation, death marches, forced labor, and the razing of Greek villages to destroy Greek society in Asia Minor. The United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau witnessed the actions from 1913-1916. The things he saw led him to claim that the Turkish government was committing acts of "outrageous terrorizing, cruel torturing, driving of women into harems, debauchery of innocent girls, the sale of many of them at 80 cents each, the murdering of hundreds of thousands and the deportation to and starvation in the desert of other hundreds of thousands, [and] the destruction of hundreds of villages and many cities". He then followed by stating that the Ottoman Empire had a "scheme to annihilate the Armenian, Greek and Syrian Christians of Turkey."
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By the beginning of the Greco-Turkish War around 1,500,000 Greeks had either been deported or killed. It is estimated that about half of those were killed. The beginning of the war would in effect be the Greeks' stand against the Turkish oppressors. However it is the very fact that the Greeks stood up and fought that has led to limited recognition of their genocide at the hands of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
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How Attached to Your Balls Are You? Part Two

2011-03-07T21:32:00.003-05:00

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Indiana and Eugenics
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Before the Nazis started using the "science" of eugenics Hoosiers had begun perfecting it. Indiana after all was the first state in the country (or the world for that matter) to pass a eugenic bases forced sterilization law in 1907. However even before the law was passed the Hoosier state had already begun forcibly neutering its "undesirables".
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Much like Hitler's Nazis, the Hoosier State used its first sterilization law to target the socially undesirable. Among the list were "confirmed criminal", "idiots", "compulsive masturbaters", "imbeciles", and "rapist". The mentally ill or handicapped were the main targets however.
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And like all things eugenic, the Hoosier law was designed to weed out the "2 percent of Indianans" who were "mentally defective". In other words, those the law deemed unfit to reproduce on the grounds that they were a burden to society would be fixed. The aim was to create a state that was free of the "undue burdens" that were holding Indiana's economy and society back.
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Now to be fair 22 other states would follow Indiana's lead by implementing similar laws. However Indiana stands out for the fact that it struck down the first law in 1921 only to re institute it in 1925. And the second of the Hoosier eugenic laws would last till 1974 when it was finally repealed.
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In all the sterilizations would amount to 2,424 people being sterilized under the guise of Eugenic "Science". Out of those 2,424 people there would be 1,167 males sterilized and 1,257 females sterilized. Of these 1,751 had been sterilized under the ruling that they had been found "mentally deficient while the remaining 667 were found to be "mentally ill". Dr. Harry Sharp however had done several hundred forced sterilizations before the law had passed so it is difficult to say how many people had been sterilized in Indiana for certain (Dr. Sharp was a eugenic believer and was estimated to have sterilized around 800 people before the law passed in 1907).
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Of the people sterilized it is believed that poor whites from Kentucky and Tennessee were targeted due to their "social backwardness" and lack of ability to adapt to a modernized world. This tendency to target the "mentally deficient" allowed followers of the "Eugenic Science" to throw a wide net around any group they deemed "deficient" due to their economic standings. After all, eugenics teaches that the poorer classes are economically lacking simply due to their genetic inefficiencies.
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This part of the history of Eugenics is not really talked about much or even studied in Indiana. Once can guess why. However in 2007 a marker was erected on the east lawn of the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis Indiana to commemorate those who were forcibly sterilized under the Indiana Sterilization Act. It reads:
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"By late 1800s, Indiana authorities believed criminality, mental problems, and pauperism were hereditary. Various laws were enacted based on this belief. In 1907, Governor J. Frank Hanly approved first state eugenics law making sterilization mandatory for certain individuals in state custody. Sterilizations halted 1909 by Governor Thomas R. Marshall."
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Continued on the reverse side:
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Indiana Supreme Court ruled 1907 law unconstitutional 1921, citing denial of due process under Fourteenth Amendment. A 1927 law provided for appeals in the courts. Approximately 2,500 people in state custody were sterilized. Governor Otis R. Bowen approved repeal of all sterilization laws 1974; by 1977, related restrictive marriage laws repealed."
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The related restrictive marriage law had forbid the marriages of people deemed to be "mentally deficient", those with a "transmissible disease", or the "habitual drunkard". This too had been enacted under the influence of eugenics (naively believing that only married people have sex).
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Destruction by Fire

2011-03-07T11:41:00.005-05:00

All Consuming...
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The term Holocaust refers directly to the destruction by fire. For those who went to the crematoriums in Auschwitz this name fit. For those who died in Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia the means of "destruction" was often a machine gun. And their killers, unlike in Auschwitz, were not SS guards.
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When Hitler's horde rushed over the border into the former Yugoslavia they brought with them the ideals of fascism and Nazism. The government in what is now Croatia would never again be totally free from this poisonous ideology. Instead they would embrace it with a rather bizarre level of enthusiasm.
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Like many countries the Nazis took control of during World War Two Croatia fell under the rule of a puppet government. Under the Nazi backed (NDH) Independent State of Croatia the Croatian people would submit to Hitler's will. Their country was now set to implement the "Final Solution".
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On July 21St of 1941 Hitler gave a speech to the Croatian "government" officials. In it he gave the marching orders that would lead to a fully operational Jasenovac camps.
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"The Jews are the bane of mankind. If the Jews will be allowed to do as they will, like they are permitted in their Soviet heaven, then they will fulfill their most insane plans. And thus Russia became the center to the world's illness... if for any reason, one nation would endure the existence of a single Jewish family, that family would eventually become the center of a new plot. If there are no more Jews in Europe, nothing will hold the unification of the European nations... this sort of people cannot be integrated in the social order or into an organized nation. They are parasites on the body of a healthy society, that live off of expulsion of decent people. One cannot expect them to fit into a state that requires order and discipline. There is only one thing to be done with them: To exterminate them. The state holds this right since, while precious men die on the battlefront, it would be nothing less than criminal to spare these bastards. They must be expelled, or – if they pose no threat to the public – to be imprisoned inside concentration camps and never be released." - from Hitler's speech to Slavko Kvaternik.
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In August of 1941 the Croatians began to build and operate the first two camps that would form the Jasenovac concentration camp complex. These two camps, Krapje and Brocica, would be closed by November but the next three would be open and running. The final three camps Ciglana, Kozara, and Stara Gradiska would be operational till the end of the war in Europe.
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The use of forced labor, starvation, exploitation of disease, daily beatings, and machine guns would drive the death toll up in Jasenovac. Their victims were always Serbs, Jews, and Roma. And the goal was always the same... extermination.
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At times the camps would rely on the use of local police units, national military battalions, domobrani units, Muslim auxiliary units, and Hungarian or German Nazi support units. However it was most often, and they were always present, the Ustaška Narodna Služba (Ustaše People's Service) gestapo that served as camp guards. It was the UNS that participated in Nazi "competitions" that would encourage them to invent new methods of torture and maltreatment of the Jewish prisoners.
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As with other Nazi operated camps Jasenovac guards greeted new arrivals with tattoos and Nazi camp badges. These colored clothing markers allowed camp guards to easily identify camp inmates by the shape and color of the badge. Serbs were given blue triangles, Communist were given red triangles (non-Serbian resistance fighters), Jews were given the yellow Star of David, while Roma were given no badge. By the end of the war however this practice was abandoned while tattoos remained till the end of the war.
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Nearly all the prisoners who identified themselves, or were sent to Jasenovac for being identified as such, as Serbs were immediately sent to execution sites near the camps (Granik and Gradina were the most commonly used). Other prisoners however were often worked to death. Only prisoners who happened to be from valued professions were kept alive for an extended period of time (doctors, electricians, and shoemakers for example).
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As far as the living conditions in Jasenovac... living was not the aim of the camps. Bodies were removed from the prisoners' living quarters at the leisure of the camp guards. Food consisted of what Nazis called "soup" but was simply hot water with a couple beans or a sliver of potato in it. A piece of bread may at times have been given to prisoners if the guards allowed it. But by the end of the war the prisoners were given what the guards called "turnip soup"... water the turnips were boiled in.
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Sanitation was an issue that was once again designed to kill the prisoners. Toilets were holes that the prisoners were expected to "keep up" themselves. However the prisoners were not given tools to clean or even dig new holes. So often the "work" involved was designed to spread disease.
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The water the prisoners were given was straight from the Sava river. This water was again given to the prisoners to kill them. The reason... it was contaminated with "ren" (a local horseradish). And thus the prisoners were once again drinking water that could spread disease amongst them.
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Jasenovac however was a special camp in the Nazi program in one respect. In Jasenovac the camp guards helped introduce the practice of forcing its forced labor to work among the dead. This was achieved by hanging the corpses of the deceased from the rafters or along the walls of "workshops" in the camps. Then there was the lack of removing corpses from the barracks were prisoners had to sleep. All these methods helped to enforce the inherent fear of death amongst those not yet dead in the Jasenovac camps.
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Jasenovac was also special to the Nazis for the simple fact that death was a reality from the first day a prisoner walked into the camp. The guards had already introduced the Nazi supervisors to the "Serb Cutter" or the srbosjek (a knife strapped to the guards wrist... used in mass beatings or new arrivals, mainly Serbs). The Croatian guards then implemented the use of gassing prisoners in "green Thomas" (vans with their exhaust being forced into the cargo compartment). The UNS would finally implement the stationary gas chambers in such a way as to rival Auschwitz.
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By the end of the war these methods all combined would lead to Jasenovac being a leader in the Balkans camps. When liberated the camp had already killed 10% of all those who died in the Yugoslavia during World War Two. Nearly half of all the Serbs killed in the Balkans during World War Two died in Jasenovac. Nearly all the Jews that had lived in Yugoslavia at the beginning of the war were now dead at the hands of Jasenovac camp guards. And the entire Roma population of Yugoslavia were now deported or dead upon having been sent to Jasenovac.
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As for the figures, Jasenovac led to the deaths of an estimated 52,000 to 70,000 Serbs, an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Jews, an estimated 50,000 Roma, and an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 communist and other minority ethnic groups (Ukrainians, Romanians,Slovenes and Montenegrians).
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But what makes this camp unique to me is the fact that at no time in its history was it run by the Nazi SS. It was a camp run by and operated by the Croatian people. Its goals and history cannot be ignored. And yet the history of this camp is not taught in most of our history books... let alone in the country that founded such a Hellish place of torment and death.
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Killing by Hunger

2011-03-04T07:47:00.004-05:00

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The Holodomor.
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Joseph Stalin was the kind of dictator who saw enemies everywhere. From the rise of fascism in the west to the rise of imperialism in Japan, Stalin was surrounded by enemies. But his list of enemies in his mind didn't stop with just the outside forces. Stalin's most punished foes were those trapped in his Soviet Union.
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During the forced famine, the Soviet Famine of 1932-1933, the Ukraine became one of Stalin's main targets. The commands that come down the line were orders that incited the 20Th century's first peacetime genocide.
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To begin the genocide Stalin gave the order to punish the "peasant" class in the Ukraine. The order was evident from the very beginning seeing as how the famine suddenly stopped at the border between Russia and the Ukraine. Yet the leaders of the Ukraine SSR were still forced to refuse food aid and ship all food grown to their Russian leaders.
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Starved Ukrainians were then often shot if they were found with food or attempting to steal food from the fields protected by Soviet soldiers. Others would by the end of the famine resort to cannibalism to survive. By the end of 1933 there would be millions dead from starvation and 2,500 people convicted for cannibalism.
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Many historians have picked over the suspected reasons for the forced famine in the Ukraine. Some have even claimed that the Holodomor was not a genocide since other parts of the Soviet Union also suffered smaller famines (much smaller). As for Alder's Ledge, the famine in the Ukraine was nothing more than an attempt to subdue an imagined enemy... an enemy that Stalin had a long history of targeting, the Ukrainians themselves.
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No major rebellions were yet recorded within the Soviet Union's Ukraine SSR state. The "peasant" class had done nothing to stop the "collectivization" in the Ukraine. They hadn't even impeded the tyranny that Stalin's Soviets used to bring the Ukraine in line with Russia's policies. Yet Stalin still saw his "enemy within" when he looked toward the large landmass to the west. This socialist republic after all was his "buffer" between Russia and the West.
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However, despite any rational explanation for the famine... if there is any... the fact remains that it did happen. And during its nearly two year reign nearly 10 million ethnic Ukrainians would die. Their skeletal frames would simply be walking one moment and then stacked in heaps at the edge of their villages or towns the next. Men, women, and children were all the targets of Stalin's forced famine. Everything that needed food to survive were victims of the Soviets' master plan.
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In the spring of 1932 the Soviets initiated their policy of starvation by beginning the exportation of all food substances from the Ukraine. The grains that had over wintered in the fields were now cut down and sent to Russia. Many fields that were now ready to plant were left barren while those planted out for the fall harvest were suddenly being patrolled by Soviet guards. The famine had begun.
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As hunger sat in the Soviets began distributing Agitprop movies in the urban areas of the Ukraine to support the "cause"... to support collectivization. These movies all portrayed the peasants as greedy "rats" that were hiding wheat and potatoes while the urban workers were dieing. These videos did not however point out the fact that the rations from Moscow were now dwindling with each passing day. They were simply movies to incite class warfare and as the movies pointed out (due to a law passed in August of 1932 that stated all food was "state property") food was a weapon.
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As rations in the cities suddenly came to an abrupt stop in the winter of 1932 the number of dead spiked. To force the numbers even higher the Soviets would also cut power and heat from time to time. The famine's own killing power never seemed to suffice Stalin's rage... or paranoia.
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In the winter of 1932 and at the start of 1933 the Soviets began to print posters that read "To eat your own children is a barbarian act." The will to survive was now driving more and more people to unthinkable acts. This was the time period that the number of convictions for cannibalism rose the most.
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To make things worse, from November of 1932 to the following December the Soviets had taken all forms of livestock to the Russian border. They had claimed that this was because the peasant class had not met their "grain quota" for the fall of 1932. In reality it was to hurry up the number of deaths by depriving the Ukrainians of any protein (it was clear that the Soviets would have taken the rats if they could).
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By December of 1932 the peasants farms were put onto "blacklist" of the Soviets. This meant that if the farms could not meet their unrealistic quotas they would now be ordered to hand over 15 times the previous quota. In reality this meant that Russia wanted to take everything down to the last bread crumb.
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The blacklisted farms would now become death zones. The peasants who had been portrayed as "greedy hoarders" were now the most punished. Blacklisted farms could no longer legally receive rations or trade in any manner with other farms or villagers. Blacklisting was a way to hand out death sentences.
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As for the rest of the Ukraine, that same month they would all be required to hand over any grains or food sources they had on hand to meet the Russians' demands. They had been required in November to provide a third of all the Soviets grain harvest for 1932. Now they would be required to hand over anything they had left. To deny the Soviets their demands was considered treason and punishable by death.
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As January approached it became clear to the Russians that the Ukrainian borders had to be sealed. Thousands of ethnic Ukrainians were fleeing all through the winter and the numbers were sure to rise as spring approached. So by the end of February 1933 an estimated 190,000 "peasants" were turned around at the borders and forced to return to their villages to die.
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The main "enforcers" of the genocide however were not Soviet soldiers. Instead Stalin implemented his policy of "give me a child of 8 years old and I can make it into anything I wish". Taking the youth of the Ukraine, mainly the urban teenagers, under his wing Stalin formed his version of a Hitler Youth program.
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These brainwashed enforcers were upholders of the Soviet law that stated that all food was property of the state. These youthful socialist thus fanned out across the country to find and "prosecute" all those who would dare to commit theft against their beloved "state". They did it with such enthusiasm so as to construct watch towers all around the country.
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Like many gangs of young vigilantes these youth brigades didn't stop at just attacking peasants who happened to have their rations of food. Instead these brigades of rowdy teens were often known to force peasants to box one another for the children's entertainment. They would then make the peasants get on all fours and bark like dogs. Then if the peasants were lucky the youth brigades would simply kill them. Women who happened to outlive their male "comrades" were often the targets of rape by the same brigades of vigilantes.
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For those who happened to survived the famine the lingering memory of hunger and cannibalism would stick for generations. In the years that have passed since the genocide's end many governments have recognized the event for what it was. Others, like Russia, still do not admit nor allow the event to be taught in their public schools. However for Ukrainians it will forever be remembered as Holodomor... killing by hunger.
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Some historians claim that the death toll was only 5 million Ukrainians. The most accurate estimate puts the death toll of the Holodomor puts the number of deaths near 10 million.
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A Message To My Friends... Part Two.

2011-03-03T11:53:00.006-05:00

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Get Out.
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Dutch are again ready to send the message to their Jewish community. This time however the far right are attempting to use the law of the land to ban Jewish practices. This would make it nearly impossible to be a dedicated Jew in Holland.
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The last time around they were simply telling the Jews to get out by telling them to leave for Israel or America. Now the Dutch Parliament is trying to outlaw the ancient and central practice of shechitah (ritual slaughter of animals for consumption). Without this practice it is impossible for the Dutch Jews to adhere to the Kosher dietary laws. And thus it impossible for dedicated Jews to live in Holland.
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This is not the first time this sort of law has come up either. In December of 2010 the European Union struck down a proposed law on the practice due to its anti Semitic qualities. That law would have forced all kosher meats to be labeled as "meat from slaughter without stunning". And it would have made it impossible for Jews to purchase their meat without being identified as being a Jew.
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Now Holland is pushing for this law so as to make it impossible for Jews in Holland to purchase their meat at all. It would also make it impossible for Muslims in Holland to purchase meat from animals slaughtered in the Islamic halal method. And for the Dutch PVV Freedom Party (an extremely far right party) this is simply an animal rights issue (the PVD Party proposed the bill, they too are considered far right).
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Non European Union countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania already ban the shechita practice. However it is also important to note that countries such as Sweden and Norway have the largest number of "nationalist" political parties in Europe. But of course we are supposed to believe that these "open minded" countries simply put these bans in place due to "animal welfare" and "animal rights" reasons. Aren't we?
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The simple fact is that anti Semitic attacks continue to rise in numbers and frequency in Europe as the populous of these countries swing toward a 1920's style socialist agenda. This attack on the kosher dietary laws is simply a stepping stone to banning Judaism altogether. Let us not forget that even before Hitler began his "Final Solution" his government initially banned kosher practices.
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Source Documents for this Post.
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JTA, The Global News Service of the Jewish People.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/02/20/2743044/dutch-parliament-to-consider-shechita-ban-bill
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Meatinfo.co.uk
http://www.meatinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/12465/Holland_moves_to_ban_non-stun_ritual_slaughter_.html
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European Jewish Press
http://www.ejpress.org/article/49164
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The Ottomans' Other Victims

2011-03-03T07:51:00.005-05:00

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The Assyrian Genocide 1914 - 1920.
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"We have cleansed the Armenians and Syriac from Azerbaijan, and we will do the same in Van." Jevdet Pasha
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Suldouze, Iran; General Agha Petros leads his ragtag band of 1500 horse mounted soldiers to swiftly attack and defeat a force of 8000 Ottoman soldiers. This battle would be one of the many feathers in his cap. However it would also be one of the last successes in his campaign to free his Assyrian comrades from the routine attacks the Ottomans had submitted them to.
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As the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies dragged on the support for the Assyrians crumbled. Russian forces were quickly called up to take positions against the Germans so as to keep the Prussians pinned down in trench warfare. British needed to do the same toward the end of World War One. And thus the forces of the Ottoman Empire amped up their relentless attacks.
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To the North of Iran General Petros's battlefields in Iran were thousands of Turkish Assyrians. And in what is now modern-day Turkey the Assyrians were particularly vulnerable.
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Although the Northern Assyrians had attempted to fight back against the pogroms they had already been submitted to they would never had been prepared for what would come next. The attacks on Assyrians in Turkey and Mesopotamia were stepped up at the beginning of the World War. By the time attacks on Assyrians in modern-day Iran began in earnest the Assyrians to the North were already almost completely gone.
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In 1915 the "Butchers' Battalion", Kasap Taburu in Turkish, entered the Van Province with the soul mission to destroy the Assyrian villages in that region. With 8,000 soldiers the Ottomans slaughtered an estimated 20,000 Assyrian civilians. By the end of their attacks some 30 villages had been razed. (These numbers do not take into account any armed Assyrians that may have offered some resistance.)
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By the end of this attack in Turkey the Ottomans had realized that the Russians had fled modern-day Iran. This allowed the Ottomans to thus move their 36Th and 37Th battalions into the Northwestern region of Iran. It was there that the Ottomans in 1915 at the village of Urmia captured 61 leading Assyrian leaders (religious and political). Demanding their ransom the Ottomans waited till the village could produce money to fund the Ottoman army's campaign against the Assyrians. When the village paid the Ottomans the Turks decided to let 20 of the captives live. The rest had their heads cut off and piked at the stairs of the Charbachsh Gate. Among the severed heads was the head of the Bishop Mar Denkha (an Assyrian church Bishop).
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After the slaughter of Assyrian leaders in Urmia, the Turks moved deeper into Iranian lands. On February 25Th of 1915 the Ottoman forces invaded the Iranian villages of Gulpashan and Salamas. In Gulpashan the invaders moved so quickly that nearly the entire population of the village was massacred, leaving around 2,500 people dead. In Salamas the invaders suddenly found that the entire Assyrian population was nowhere to be found. The Persians in Salamas had hidden them in their own homes.
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Breaking down the doors of every home in Salamas the Ottomans found their unarmed victims. Roping the men together, the Turks led their captives out into the fields between Khusrawa and Haftevan. It was there that the Young Turks slaughtered their Assyrian victims in a number of ways... the Turks claimed however that they were all shot in the head.
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"Many Moslems tried to save their Christian neighbours and offered them shelter in their houses, but the Turkish authorities were implacable." A British Field Report from 1915.
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During the winter of 1915 an estimated 4,000 Assyrians died from exposure, disease, and starvation in and around the village of Urmia. The Ottomans there refused the Assyrians the "right to society" (or the common human rights). An additional 1,000 were directly killed by Young Turk soldiers.
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In early 1918 the Ottomans allowed an estimated 3,500 Assyrians to leave Turkey and reside in Khoi, Iran. Upon arrival the Young Turks in Persia had a sudden change of heart. Once the unarmed civilians were encamped the Turkish forces fell upon them in droves. The orgy of violence that followed was documented by one of the handful of survivors.
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"You have undoubtedly heard of the Assyrian massacre of Khoi, but I am certain you do not know the details..." Reverend John Eshoo, a survivor, began he recollection.
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He would go on to tell of how the Assyrians were rounded up and brought into small enclosures where they would be shot with rifles and revolvers. The "slaughter house" was so small that each group of new victims would have to stand upon the dead bodies of their fellow Assyrians before being shot themselves. This ritual of death would continue for hours as groups of 10 to 20 Assyrians were executed at a time.
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John told of how those found in the outer areas of the village were rounded up into courtyards and kept for around eight days before being taken to slaughter. They were starved and yet remained silent even when being marched to their deaths... John states that the only words they spoke was this... "Lord, into thy hands we commit our spirits."
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For these Assyrians death would come not by the rifle but by the sword. They were taken to courtyards or fields that had been prepared for their slaughter. Like "lambs" they were slain. First the Young Turks would cut off their fingers and then their hands. Then they would stretch their victims out upon the ground and force them to look up as they cut their throats in such a manner as to prolong their deaths. The Assyrian victims were made to bleed out slowly as they gasped for air and choked on their own blood. Most were beaten while they struggled to take their next breath. Some were tossed into mass graves while still bleeding out.
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As with most cases of genocide, the young women and little girls captured in this attack were forced into sexual slavery. A group of them were even raped to death at the moment of their captivity. All would be killed within days from either brutal butchering or continual gang rapes.
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If it had not been for Reverend John Eshoo nobody would have ever known of the Young Turks' bloody butchering of Khoi. We would be led to believe the long held Turkish lie that this, like they claim about the Armenian Genocide, was simply a military conflict. And once again genocide would be hidden by the "fog of war".
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By the end of the Assyrian Genocide a known 495,780 Assyrians were dead. A population of just over one million were suddenly no more than 250,000, many say only 100,000. So it is more likely that just around 750,000 Assyrians were killed by the Ottomans. In any case the once large minority in the region is now a very important minority in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey.
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This minority in the Middle East has suffered in Iraq every since the British deported them from Iran at the end of the Genocide. In 1933 thousands of them were killed in a mass pogrom at Simele, Iran. During the unrest in 1961 the Assyrians would suffer in Iraq. And under Saddam Hussein the Assyrian community would suffer thousands more of deaths during the dictator's Al Anfal Campaign.
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Bloody Past

2011-03-02T07:47:00.004-05:00

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The First Genocide of the 20Th Century.
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"I destroy the African tribes with streams of blood... Only following this cleansing can something new emerge, which will remain..." German General Trotha.

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Many people who have studied the genocides of the 20Th century have long begun with the Armenian Genocide. It seems appropriate to start with the World War One Holocaust. Yet the first genocide of the 20Th century was actually committed by the same country that would carry out the infamous World War Two Holocaust.
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In the race for supremacy in Africa Germany began its fight to subdue the tribes of Namibia in South West Africa. Its empire there was one riddled with violence. And in most cases this violence was intended not for the maintaining of peace but the expulsion of less desirable tribes.
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The Herero and Namaqua were two tribes that the German government decided were less than desirable. These two tribes had a long history of being warriors and proud defenders of their territories and possessions. And those two things, land and animals, were not allowed to be kept from white German "settlers". After all, in Namibia Germany would develop the ideas that would lead to the Holocaust itself.
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Lebensraum was first put into action in Namibia as German settlers pushed further and further into tribal lands. The idea behind the Nazi's most exploited of ideas was that the Father Land had a right to spread its legs so to speak. The people who happened to live on this new German land simply had to be enslaved or expelled. And the food grown here was to be used to grow Germany... not Namibia.
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The starvation and lack of ability to find water for themselves and their cattle would be the straw to break the camel's back for the Herero. In 1904 the Herero decided that expulsion and starvation were no longer an option. They became a people who wanted, or actually needed, their country back.
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In the battles that would follow the Herero and Namaqua quickly found themselves at the mercy of the German army. Unable to sustain their rebellion the two tribes were being taken prisoners by the thousands. Those who tried to run were forced into the arid lands at civilization's edge and denied water. The water holes they could find were often poisoned by the German army in an attempt to kill the rebels in hiding.
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"I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this letter to the Hereros. The Hereros are German subjects no longer. They have killed, stolen, cut off the ears and other parts of the body of wounded soldiers, and now are too cowardly to want to fight any longer. I announce to the people that whoever hands me one of the chiefs shall receive 1,000 marks, and 5,000 marks for Samuel Maherero. The Herero nation must now leave the country. If it refuses, I shall compel it to do so with the 'long tube' (cannon). Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare neither women nor children. I shall give the order to drive them away and fire on them. Such are my words to the Herero people." General Trotha.
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General Trotha failed to mention that he had by this time already killed nearly all the Herero who had ever carried a weapon. His goal in making this declaration to the Herero was to further intimidate the starving Herero still hiding in the arid bushland. He simply was conducting the orders to remove the "undesirables" from German held territory.
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The Generals own men and other Germans had already recorded his "German soldiers of good repute" brutal attacks on the said "rebels".
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"I was present when the Herero were defeated in a battle in the vicinity of Waterberg. After the battle all men, women, and children who fell into German hands, wounded or otherwise, were mercilessly put to death. Then the Germans set off in pursuit of the rest, and all those found by the wayside and in the sandveld were shot down and bayoneted to death. The mass of the Herero men were unarmed and thus unable to offer resistance. They were just trying to get away with their cattle." Jan Cloete, German guide.
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As for the Herero who were captured, if allowed to surrender, death would have been a better option.
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The second part of the genocide of the Herero and Namaqua came when Germans employed their second most infamous idea... the Konzentrationslager, concentration camps. And the camps they built were the early models that would be seen in the beginning of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Mortality rates in these camps would begin around 45% and then quickly spike.
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Shark Island was the most infamous of these camps. It was used for forced labor and later for medical experimentation. Those who died here were told that they would be turned into food for the sharks... hence the name of the camp. Those who lived were constantly reminded that they were not citizens of their own homeland. They were even more so reminded that they were not considered human to their captors.
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Food in the camps was limited to uncooked rice and salt. German prison guards denied the Herero pots to cook the rice and refused to allow the prisoners to build cooking fires. As a result the prisoners slowly starved and died of dysentery. While still living they were forced to work on German chain gangs.
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"There are hundreds of them, mostly women and children and a few old men ... when they fall they are sjamboked by the soldiers in charge of the gang, with full force, until they get up ... On one occasion I saw a woman carrying a child of under a year old slung at her back, and with a heavy sack of grain on her head ... she fell. The corporal sjamboked her for certainly more than four minutes and sjamboked the baby as well ... the woman struggled slowly to her feet, and went on with her load. She did not utter a sound the whole time, but the baby cried very hard." Percival Griffith.
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Medical experimentation included mainly the forced sterilization, injection with small pox, typhus, and tuberculosis. Herero women who had been raped and later gave birth were forced to hand their "mulatto" children over to people like Eugen Fisher who would study them as his test subjects; all the while calling them "Rehoboth bastards" and "of lesser racial quality". The studies Fisher did upon these children were the same studies later done on the Jews and Roma.
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Fisher would take his subjects away to study their eyes, the length of their noses, the width of their skulls, and the proportions of their bodies. When finished with them he would have them killed. It was at the end of his studies that Fisher decided that genocide was the only solution for "lesser racial quality" individuals. He noted, "whoever thinks thoroughly the notion of race, can not arrive at a different conclusion".
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In the end the German involvement in Africa would come to a close with the beginning of World War One. Until then the Herero and Namaqua would be continually subjected to the genocidal ambitions of the German government and its settlers. It wouldn't be till nearly a hundred years later that the German government, let alone its people, would even admit that "perhaps genocide may have occurred" in Namibia.
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As for the rest of the world the genocide in Namibia is somewhat forgotten. Much like other genocides this one has fallen away from our history books due to the depressing reality of what horrible things we have done to one another.
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Roma Still Being Persecuted In Bulgaria

2011-02-24T11:27:00.003-05:00

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The Place France Deported Them To...
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The facts behind their exclusion from Bulgarian society are indisputable. The government in Bulgaria has relentlessly pursued a nationalistic stance in which the minority has no rights whatsoever. They can't even represent themselves in the so called democracy's Parliament.
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"As a result, ¾ of them still live in segregated quarters, 20% of them are illiterate, and 70% - jobless, the latest data reveal. The Roma in Bulgaria are about 700 000 people, or 10% of the total population. This makes Bulgaria the European country with the highest percentage of Roma, and thus - with the most urgent need for their integration." - PressTV.com
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These figures should speak for themselves. However Europe seems to think otherwise. They have for decades now been silent for the most part on Bulgria's disgusting behavior. When France deported the Roma to this Hell hole Europe barely could muster a slap on the wrist for France's racist agenda. And thus other countries followed France's example.
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Conditions in Romania aren't much better... the other country France deported its Roma to. The Romanian government has pursued a legal action that would change the name of the Roma community to a racist slur. It only dropped this legal move so as to save face when Europeans raised an eyebrow. Romania still however does exclude Roma from Romanian government and society at large.
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Italy, Sweden, Germany, and France have managed to do the same. Norway has a history of forcing Roma to be sterilized when their number of children passes government approved numbers (to be fair, Norway hasn't done this for some time now). And England has a long established history of chasing Roma families out of any town they just happen to stop in.
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So the question remains, will Hungary... a country with a wretched history of discrimination against Roma... be able to actually make any progress in "Roma inclusion" across Europe?
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And for that we will have to wait and see.
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Source Documents for this Post.
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PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166745.html
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Artis Zoo, By The Grace Of God.

2011-02-23T21:00:00.004-05:00

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I'm hoping to read a book, The Zookeeper's Wife, that is about the story in the video below. This is a story that many do not know ever happened. A story of how a kind spirited couple saved Jews from the Nazis. How they did it is what makes the story almost unbelievable.
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one little word

2011-02-23T20:02:00.002-05:00

Hate. Such a horrible four letter word. Such a powerful thing that exists in this world regretfully. It can be attached to any agenda to purport it. It is dynamic and yet consistent in manner.
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Dynamic because it can be applied to any sentiment for justification. There are racist, sexist, and many more prejudices that all have the application of hate applied to them. Whether that hate stems from rooted fears, associated stereotypes or plain old ignorance- it is the same four letter word. Hate is consistent as the almost blind faith one has to have to it. Yes there is ignorance out there-literally people without resources or education to know any better. But for the majority out there- closing off all dialogue and debate is a choice to idiocy. Hate requires no logic or reason. Even when presented with truth and supporting facts- many cling to the prejudicial hate like a religion. For some it justifies their beliefs.
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Many horrendous acts have been done in the name of beliefs. Lives have been lost over differing beliefs in religion, politics, and economics. Demonizing a people makes it easier to see the enemy as less than human and thus allowing an easier division to segregate the “us versus them” that exists. It makes it okay to hate. Makes hate a reaction, a justified retaliation. Whether the offense is predetermined or not, hate is a perfect defense.
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Hate is a chameleon. It can wrap itself in any cause’s flag. It can be swapped side to side, flung from one argument to its rebuttal. Hate likes to sow itself in specks of truth taken out of context and grows into a twisted, distorted perspective of reality. So it can be seen in each side clinging to their facade. Some more blatant, some more subversive, but it can wriggle it’s way into any heart, mind or soul so easily. For hate is a parasite. Hate is a coward.
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Hate takes over. It doesn’t compromise, or pause to let reason and truth play a role. It generalizes and strips off the face of humanity. It makes it far easier to hate. Retaliation, self preservation, or simply selfishness is innate in the human heart. To go against nature in itself it seems to find a person or people not succumbing to hate.
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The world is becoming smaller with less isolated homes, cultures, and information. Hate will happen…whether out of the initial reaction of fear or ignorance- hate is looking for any band wagon out there to hitch a ride to- to give it a name. One can only hope and pray that with the shrinking of the world; that it may allow the opportunities to dispel the fear and bring truth to the ignorant. More people willing to fight the natural corruption. People who are willing to share, to learn and to educate. Reason and truth and love are needed. These are the weapons to fight hate. Reason to understand that differences between thinking exists, even dislikes, and to try to learn from them still. Truth that goes past generalizations and mere exceptions to the "rules." Most importantly to love- to see each person as more than a number or statistic. To acknowledge and try to see another soul. If we forget that major point- each person, each people is unique and has depth- then hate complains another victory. So fight hate with reason, truth, and most importantly love.

Article From Romea.cz

2011-02-23T18:32:00.003-05:00

Verdict tomorrow on attempted pogrom in Czech town after two and a half years of delay
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Tomorrow (Thursday 24 February 2011) the Regional Court in Ostrava should announce a first-instance verdict in the case of those accused of committing a targeted racist attack on randomly selected Roma people in two neighborhoods of the North Moravian town of Havířov. In 2009, the High Court in Olomouc decided the case could be qualified as attempted murder. The case was therefore removed from the docket of the District Court in Karviná and transferred to the Regional Court.
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Almost two and a half years have passed since the crime was committed, and the defendants have been at liberty during that time. The state prosecutor has charged eight young men with committing a racially motivated, targeted gang attack on Roma people in the neighborhoods of Šumbark and Prostřední Suchá in Havířov. One of the victims has suffered permanent damage to his health as a result of the attack. By law the trial will be closed, as one of the defendants was not yet 18 years old at the time of the crime. The announcement of the verdict, however, will be public.
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The prosecution charges that on the night of 8 November 2008, a large group of young men took to the streets of Havířov "as previously agreed and with the intention of attacking Roma passers-by." The youths, armed and masked, chased at least five young Roma men for the purpose of attacking them. In Šumbark, after a brief chase, they threw J. H., who was 16 years old at the time, to the ground, beat him and brutally kicked him, especially in the head, causing him serious life-threatening injuries. The assailants caused him intra-cranial injuries not only by kicking him, but by using a metal bar called a "gola" and a 65-cm long collapsible nightstick to beat him with. Police officers confiscated these assault weapons.
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After attacking J. H., the gang continued on their way, driving to Prostřední Suchá, another neighborhood of Havířov also predominantly inhabited by Roma people. Three carloads of assailants attempted to attack Roma people there as well. One victim managed to hide in a worker's dormitory, where migrant workers from Ukraine protected him.
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Eight defendants are now on trial for racially motivated attempted grievous bodily harm and for rioting. Prior to these assaults, police already had files on some of them as aggressive football hooligan supporters of the Baník Ostrava and Havířov clubs or as neo-Nazis. The High Court in Olomouc concluded that the perpetrators' behavior could be qualified as attempted murder and transferred the case to the Regional Court. The defendants remain at liberty due to significant delays in the criminal proceedings.
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The case for the prosecution rests primarily on circumstantial evidence. Police documented the defendants' mobile telephone signals as having been present at both sites at the times the attacks were committed. Even though the defendants have confirmed they were present at both places, they claim to have not participated in the attacks. When asked why they were present at the time of the crimes, they were unable to explain. Some eyewitnesses have refused to testify to either the police or the courts out of concerns for their own safety.
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In mid-October the presiding judge read into the record the testimony of eyewitnesses who had either failed to come to court or whose interrogation the judge considered necessary. A medical expert testified and confirmed that the main victim had been in danger of losing his life after the attack. He also described the victim's extensive injuries.
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The prosecutor's main problem is that the assailants riding in one of the three cars have never been identified by police. It is therefore theoretically possible that they were the ones who attacked J. H. and that the others only watched. However, it is a fact that all of the assailants continued to hunt more victims together after the attack on J. H., which would mean they were aware that what they were engaged in was highly violent and could lead to more attacks.
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If the court finds the defendants guilty, they face not only prison time, but will have to pay the victim damages in the hundreds of thousands of crowns. They will also have to reimburse his insurance for the costs of his medical treatment.
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Police are staying quiet about the case even today. The public has learned about it mainly thanks to the chair of the Roma association Europe Roma CZ, Ladislav Baláž, who visited the family of the main victim immediately after the attack and found a lawyer to represent them. Markus Pape has mapped the case and was the first to inform the public of it in detail. Daniela Horváthová, chair of the local branch of Europe Roma CZ in Prostřední Suchá, is communicating with the witnesses who have not yet testified out of fear for their own safety. News server Romea.cz is regularly reporting on the case.
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In mid-July 2009, the Anti-fascist Action group (Antifašistická akce- AFA) reported in detail on the overall activities of some of the defendants on the neo-Nazi scene. According to AFA, the defendants belong to a hooligans group called Thugs Havířov, and one of them is also said to be an active member of the militant group National Resistance (Národní odpor), which was banned by the Czech Supreme Court some years ago.
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In the past, violent neo-Nazi incursions against Roma people in Havířov were mainly committed in the Šumbark neighborhood. "Since news server Romea.cz and the other media started reporting on the trial, it has been calm," said Ladislav Baláž, who is monitoring the situation.
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The trial will start on 24 February 2011 at 8:30 AM CET at the Regional Court in Ostrava, Havlíčkovo nábřeží 1835/34. The main victim is being represented by Mgr. Roman Krakovka of the Law Office of Miketa and Partners with the financial support of the ROMEA association.
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To see this article on its original site, Romea.cz, visit this site.
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2186
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Gigi Ibrahim, A Hero

2011-02-22T13:06:00.002-05:00

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From PBS, Frontline.
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Racist on the Right, Idiots on the Left.

2011-02-22T11:37:00.011-05:00

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Failure of American Politics in the Middle East.
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Everyday we here in the United States wake to another day of freedom and liberty. We have never tasted the bitterness of true tyranny or the oppression under which the rest of the world lives. Even in our comrade nations across the pond there is a certain level of repression carried out by the so called Democracies. Yet when the Middle East erupts with the blood of its youth we stand on the sidelines waiting to see where this fight ends.
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In Libya the nation's youth are fighting for their lives to topple the tyrant they grew up with. This man they are fighting, Moammar Gadhafi, has ruled them with an iron fist since the very day they took their first breath. They have had their freedoms stripped from the moment they opened their eyes for the first time. And now they are fighting tooth and nail to defeat the barbarian government that has oppressed them for decades.
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The world we have called for far to long the "Islamic World" is awash in blood. For the first time this blood is being spilt in the name of liberty. It is a fight that gave birth to the very nation in which you live. It is a fight that we once took up against the tyranny of Great Britain. A fight we cherish in our own history. But when it comes to the freedoms of the Muslim we suddenly change our views.
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Amongst the right wing in our society you will easily find the racist undertone that fuels their scepticism of the protesters in Libya, Morocco, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, and Iran. The right seems to fear the rise of a free and self governing Muslim nation. And this fear always arises from their fear of Islam itself.
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Yes, it is true that a sect of Islam has fed the flames of hatred for the West. But it is also true that we ourselves helped to stoke those same flames. We exploited the Middle East once we found something we coveted more than freedom itself. We have propped up governments that were inherently corrupt so as to retain access to the oil upon which they sat. This is a fact the leftist like to fall upon. And it is historically correct.
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However, the left fails to act when liberty is being so diligently pursued. They too seem to fail to realize that these are people who do not want an American backed government. These are people who are sick and tired of outside hands working their own self determination and national fate. These are also people who are dieing to get free of governments who are trying to oppress them with their own religion. These are people who want to be free. They want their countries back.
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Today I listened to a radio host claim that we should be against these uprisings because they will "lead to the Muslim Brotherhood" taking power of all North Africa. He claimed that these are the same people who we "fought crusades against to kick out of Europe". And that is when he went on to claim that "radical Islam" was alive and well during the Moorish "occupation" of Spain and is still alive and well in Libya today.
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This is the sort of racist banter that should not be tolerated. It is the same sort of racist banter that contributes to our failure to uphold the pursuit of liberty where ever and whenever it arises around the world. The view that these coming elections in the Middle East will be a "one time thing" are fueled by this narrow view of the people doing the voting.
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In Iran the Green Movement took to the streets in protest of a rigged election. They fought for the toppling of a tyrant and even bleed in the streets while their oppressors took to bunkers. The United States did nothing during the 2009 uprising. Now the Green Movement is beginning to show up once more. They are ready to bleed for their cause once again. And once again they are ready to push for the fall of a tyrant.
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These brave Iran youth show just why these coming elections will not be a "one time thing". If the militant tyrants take power again through rigged elections... the youth of the Middle East are ready to fight. They are true patriots ready to die if need be for the cause of liberty.
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So why the American resistance to their fight for freedom?
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Democrats in this country have a long history of not supporting anything they can not control. If their hands can't be in the mix then they suddenly loose interest. And these "radicals" can not be controlled. They can not be made to follow talking points or an approved template handed down to them from Washington. That is why Obama will not support them without first pointing out how he wants them to behave.
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Republicans on the other hand have found themselves completely incapable of backing any Muslim uprising. If the word "Muslim" shows up than the Republicans instantly loose interest. Their racist views of the Middle East show up every time the Republicans talk about Islam or Muslims. They just can't seem to distinguish between the hijackers and the common man when it comes to Muslims.
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This was all too clear when Egypt took to the streets to end the rule of a dictator. The youth of Egypt turned the Capitol's square into a stage for their protest. And when the tyrant pushed back... they turned that square into a battle field. They did not want an election in which the hardliners would be present. They did not want a rise of radical Islam. They simply wanted to take their country back.
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When peace failed... I know, hard for a Democrat to believe... they took up any form of weapon they could find. Rocks, stones, concrete... anything that could be thrown was hurled at their armed assailants. That square was for a moment turned into Hell on Earth as David and Goliath went to battle once more. Yet the American media and American politicians failed to see this as an opportunity to defend freedom. We missed the bus so to speak.
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In Libya we are seeing that same fight. However this time Goliath has hired mercenaries to wipe little David of the map. Gun ship helicopters have begun firing upon helpless protesters. And yet the spirit of freedom fights on. The very soul of liberty itself is still taking to the streets to strike at the heels of the tyrant whenever and where ever they can. Yet America remains paralyzed with indifference.
-
In the words of Rage Against the Machine, these are people who are trying to "take the power back". So why do we straddle the fence?
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Many of the politicians who have been in power long enough in this country recall what happened when we got involved in Iran a couple decades ago. We backed the wrong side and we lost big. The people in power there today got there because we tried to serve our own self interest. We tried to manipulate the government of another country so as to prevent a government we did not like from coming to power. And what happened was just the opposite. That is why we don't help those seeking freedom in the Middle East today.
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For Republicans the people seeking to free themselves from oppression are simply "ingrates" who are "prone to violence" and simply "can't grasp true democracy". For the Democrats these are the backwater children of the world who are just throwing another tantrum. For both parties it is just another episode that shows why we can't help Arabs.
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For 24 yearold Gigi Ibrahim, an Egyptian woman, this fight shows just why the Arab World is ready for freedom. It is a fight that her twitter account has documented. It is a struggle that she has been helping gain ground since day one. For her and her comrades... they are down for the struggle no matter how long it takes. If another dictator comes to power than she and her fellow revolutionaries will take to the streets once again. They will fight... they will bleed... and if need be, they will die for the freedom we here in America live with every day.
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So to finish this up, I believe that the politicians here in America are doing nothing on behalf of the oppressed Arab world because they fear that they are next. They fear that this spirit of an angry populus will spread. They want to retain power in much the same way as the Middle Eastern dictators. The only differance... next year we vote. The oppressed in the Middle East are fighting for the that right.
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Source Documents for this Post.
-
Voice Of America
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Gadhafi-Loses-Support-of-Libyan-Officials-Denies-Fleeing-116643889.html
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Altmuslimah
http://www.altmuslimah.com/a/b/b/4171/
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PBS, Frontline
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june11/frontline_02-21.html

And the Jackboots Go Marching On...

2011-02-21T13:20:00.007-05:00

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And On... And On...
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Jobbik... in one word this nationalistic Hungarian political party can be summed up as "Racist". Like their ancestors, the Hungarian Guard, these Nazi minions are on a mission. To seek and destroy their enemies. Enemies they label as "damn Gypsies" and the looming "Left". (Quotes taken from "Attila")
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Armed with the political muscle their party has garnished in recent elections, the minions are massing. Their ignorant masses are gathering. And the jackboots are being laced up with ever growing vigor.
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In a recent posted article on Politics.Hu (Hungary) a columnist decided to attack the ever popular nationalistic party. Despite the fact that the article was far from an iron fist in a velvet glove the minions of Jobbik showed up for the battle. And their verbal abuse, if it can be called that, showed just how fervent they are when it comes to the Roma.
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But before I can get to their little verbal volleys I may need to explain Hungarian xenophobia first.
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In Hungary the Jobbik party is still rather small and at times disproportionately represented in local government. But their reach from the halls of government out onto the streets is far from "small". It is on the streets that Jobbik first grew its numbers. It was there that they found a link with the common man. And it is there that they fed the general public their racist hook, line, and sinker.
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Using the Roma as a target of opportunity, the Jobbik leaders have exploited fears that had long resided under the surface of the Hungarian public. They claim that the Roma are parasites upon the Hungarian public by associating the Roma with "welfare".
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When Jobbik leaders come before Hungarian Parliament in a Nazi era uniform (currently banned in Hungary) nobody seems to care enough to levy fines or jail the politicians. Instead the skinheads appear to be patting their "brave leader" Gábor Vona on the back. They don't even seem to mind his usual rants, rather racist in nature, about the Roma.
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This is how the racist banter of the Jobbik party resonates with their voters:
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"Vona Gábor is, was and always will (I hope) be a militant nationalist," Elle began. "You know, people who faults Vona for doing this are very short-sighted. And a society that sees the steeply climbing number of births of children for whose provision the parents rely on the state, then does not intervene, is culpably negligent. What do these people want to see happen in Hungary: something like in Brazilian, where the army or police regularly gun down the legions of abandoned street children, or human organ harvesters catch them for lucrative spare parts?
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Let’s face it: Hungary is under heavy international attack from the so-called ‘left’. The Hungarian ‘left’ appear to have friends throughout the API and the Bretton Woods institutions. The possibility of Hungary being brought down economically by this combination is not remote. What, in such an event, will happen to the ever-growing number of Gipsy children whom the state can no longer support? Vona is absolutely right. The government must assess and correct heavy Gipsy dependence on the state for child support."
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We are supposed to ignore the racist remarks of this Elle character however. The reason... we are just members of the "left" and are conspiring with the Hungarian "left". Anyone who sides with the Roma are clearly just "short-sighted".
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But Elle's remarks were just the tip of the Jobbik spear.
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"Agreed, the last thing Hungary needs is to be out numbered by those dam gypsies FFS or at least deport them to Mongolia" -Attila
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Just so those of you know... FFS stands for "For **** Sake". That is how great public speakers demonstrate their grasp of oration.
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Eisenhower (the poster not the President) pointed out the following...
"According to a recent poll by Szonda Ipsos, Fidesz
approval rate among likely voters is 60 percent, a 3
percent drop from the previous month. The socialist
support is 20 percent.
In February, Jobbik approval rate stands at 12
percent, which is a 2 percent increase from the
previous month. LMP approval rate is 6 percent.
So where is the decrease in Jobbik parties
popularity? Again this liberal article is deceptive."
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He failed however to defend his party's racist banter.
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Elle than rejoined the fight with the following:
"Jewish Holocaust is still priority to Hungarian Holocaust.’ The latter’s supporters are clamorous. We could become more so. And there has been a milestone here. Becsület Napja is now established, and the anti-nationals do not dare to deride it too loudly. The Kitörés was commemorated this year by Hungarians and Germans, with only some police harassment. It had to be cancelled last year. There’s progress, here.
I am hoping that now that Jobbik is back on the tarmac, the above will be consolidated"
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This is Jobbik's only defense and way to hide its blatant anti-Semitic remarks. They simply make more remarks of the same manner.
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By the way, Hungarians were not killed in the Holocaust. They did however kill hundreds of thousands of Jews as they sided with the Nazis.
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But then the Jobbik minions always turn their war of words back toward the Roma...
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"laughable. Orban wants to increase the voting rights
of gypsy people in the elections. Orban wants to
give extra voting rights for parents in the basis of
the number of their children. Therefore gypsy people
can decide general parlamental elections."
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They just can't resist the opportunity to attack the Roma. They need the Roma so as to feed the flames of their blind hatred. They need the Roma to justify their xenophobic fears of the outside world. And for them, the Roma justify the so called wrongs and hardships that have befallen them and their beloved Hungary. Amazingly all the Roma have to do to be targeted is to simply breathe.
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You can read more if you want by visiting the link below. I however will refrain from pointing out anymore of their mind numbingly stupid racism.
-

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Source Document for this Post.
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Politics.Hu
http://www.politics.hu/20110218/no-more-mister-nice-radical-nationalist-jobbik

Sweden Democrat is Against "Race Mixing"

2011-02-19T22:18:00.004-05:00

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Isak Nygren Says Europeans Should Not Have Children With "niggers, Asians, ext."
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The rise of the far-Right in Europe has been speeding up over the past few years in places like Germany and England. In Sweden however the far-Right has been climbing the ranks for around a decade now. The Sweden Democrats are the latest in the rising tide of neo-Nazi style politicians. And their Hitler Youth style membership is starting to show their dark underside.
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Some in Sweden may not agree with the racist party, but then again the Nazis didn't exactly win 100% of the vote either. So the rise of the Sweden Democrats is not a surprise to those of us who have been watching from the sidelines. And their race-baiting rhetoric isn't much of a surprise either.
-
Isak Nygren is just the first Sweden Democrat I have found to be so open with his hatred for minorities.
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"It would be good for the child if the parents are similar in appearance," Isak Nygren told Expo Magazine.
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That is how a Swedish Nazi begins his tirade. Calling Islam a "a violent pedophile cult" is how Isak usually ends his tirades. This time however he just decided to drop the word "nigger" into the ending of the tirade he gave this past Saturday.
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So what happened next?
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Isak may or may not be removed from his post in the Katrineholm, Sweden. However, if the removal... all be it temporary... of the drunken Sweden Democrat MP William Petzall is any indicator than Isak Nygren may just be given the boot. After all, William Petzall simply got drunk... Isak Nygren made blatantly racist comments in multiple media outlets.
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But will it affect the Sweden Democrats' outlook on politics? Not a chance in Hell. They still will be calling for the mass deportations of Roma and the continued "reeducation" of Swedish Muslims. They will still be looking for every reason to further isolate and attack all and any minority group found within Sweden's boarders.... and possibly a few outside.
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In the end it will take an outright rejection of the Swedish Democrats by the citizens and voters of Sweden to end their ascension to power. No amount of embarrassments or criticism from the outside will change them or the course they have chosen for Sweden.
-

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Source Documents for this Post.
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The Local, Sweden's News In English
http://www.thelocal.se/32008/20110213/
http://www.thelocal.se/31878/20110207/
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Waiting For the Hammer to Drop

2011-02-18T11:54:00.007-05:00

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Iran Ready For Revolution Once Again...
-

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Obama ready to let the enemy slaughter its youth once again.
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Not to long ago the world sat back and watched as the "great leader" stood by and allowed a golden opportunity to fade into history. We watched as the beautiful face of Iran's youth was gunned down without provocation. Her bloody face still haunts us as the Islamic Hell of Iran begins its march into revolution once again.
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The jackbooted leaders of Iran are gearing up for the slaughter to come. They have already begun attacks on "public enemies". If the Green Revolution does come out in force once again we will surely see the snipers come back to Tehran. And like in Egypt, this time around we will most definitely stop seeing what is going on inside Iran... the fascist will most definitely shut down the Internet and all connections to the outside world.
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In the rest of the Middle East we have seen what a handful of tyrants are willing to do to retain power. Letting loose their thugs, targeting the "ring leaders", and forcing out protesters with extreme force... these are the hallmarks of the Middle East dictators. The demands of the protesters will surely only make these hallmarks increase in measure and become more intense in how they are applied.
-
So how will the West respond?
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It was obvious during the peak of the Egyptian uprising that Obama's White House had no clue what to do. The obvious decision would have been to jump on the bandwagon and support the protesters... people who were seeking actual democracy. Instead Obama straddled the fence just long enough to see how the uprising would end. This is why the Middle East views us as weak.
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Egypt has now made it rather clear how Obama will respond to Iran... he wont. Like the last uprising in 2009 Obama will fail to even say anything till the dead are piling up. He will once again fail to see that these are people who want their countries back. He will once again fail to see that these are people who are sick and tired of oppression through religion and politics mingling to no end.
-
Iran's pro-government puppets have already begun to demand the executions of opposition leaders such as Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. They chanted during their last rally for the deaths of these two leaders by name. And yet Obama's White House remains silent despite these clear attacks on common liberties and inalienable human rights.
-
During Obama's meeting with the press this week he said, "What has been different is the Iranian government’s response which has been to shoot people, beat people and arrest people."
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He should have also added that his White House doesn't plan to do anything about all those shootings, beatings, rapes, and unlawful arrest. But that would have gone against his messianic image.
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So to end this I just have one message for Obama.
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We don't need the friends we currently have in the Middle East. We need the friends that will come from backing these protest. We need a democratic Middle East in which the freedoms of the individuals are put above the so called right of government to rule. We need to honor the deaths of brave people like Neda Soltani by backing the movement she died for... the right of the peoples of these countries to determine their own nations fate and not be oppressed by the religious views of a select few.
-

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Source Documents for this Post.
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Voice of America
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Irans-Opposition-Stays-Afloat-Despite-Heavy-Crackdowns-116440504.html
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Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0218-iran-20110218,0,278099.story
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ISN
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/ISN-Insights/Detail?lng=en&id=126945&contextid734=126945&contextid735=126944&tabid=126944
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Payvand
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/feb/1173.html
-

Serbian Mass Murder Finally Arrested

2011-02-13T16:16:00.004-05:00

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Miodrag Momic Finally to Face His Sins
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Wanted since the end of the Bosnian War, "Guy Monier" has finally been arrested by French police. He was wanted for participation in the mass murder of 8,000 or more Bosnian Muslims. It has taken nearly twenty years for the paramilitary dog to be dragged to jail.
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Momic will soon be extradited to Serbia where he will most likely only receive 20 years in prison for his participation in the deaths of thousands. His confession or conviction will mean little to the Serbs seeing as how four of his counterparts received the same measly sentence. This is how Serbian courts reward "Scorpion" mercenaries.
-
The crime he is being convicted with falls under the title of "Crimes Against Humanity"... or Genocide.
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The reason...
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During July of 1995 the Scorpions, and possibly the Greek Volunteer Guard, seized the UN protected "safe zone" of Srebrenica, a Bosnian city. They then went on to round up all the Muslims they could find within the city. The Hell they unleashed became rather reminiscent of the Nazi SS in action. Their victims were given no chance to flee or fight.
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Many of the witnesses told UN forces just how the "fighting" was being done. The "civil war" was being fought by armed Serbs and defenseless Muslim Bosnians. The Bosnians in this case were often being impaled or clubbed to death so as to save ammunition. Others were tortured and then killed. None were given an opportunity to flee.
-
At the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia the presiding judge, Theodor Meron stated...
-
"By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the 40,000 Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity."
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The Scorpions also participated in the mass rapes of Muslim women and children so as to deprive the population of any form of dignity. They slaughtered pregnant women and infants in an attempt to destroy the next generation of Bosnian Muslims. Young women and girls were often used as "sex slaves" and treated as property by Serbs. And yet Miodrag Momic decided to hide from his sins by fleeing to France... an option he openly denied his victims.
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If it were up to me he would be publicly executed in the worst way possible. Perhaps he should be drawn and quartered or just simply hung. But most likely he will be able to walk out of prison a free man at the age of 67... something his 8,000 or more victims never got a chance to do... be free.
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Instead they were bombarded by artillery and harassed by snipers the entire time the UN forces "protected" them. Then they were overrun and rounded up like animals. Those who were not killed in the days that followed would be shipped off to concentration camps where guards would take their time torturing them to death. The women would be sold or destroyed by the rapist and perverts on the Serbian side of the war.
-
May Momic's soul rot in Hell.
-

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Source Document for this Post.
-
Voice of America
-
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Serb-War-Crimes-Suspect-Arrested-in-France-115036519.html
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"They Turn You Into A Racist"

2011-02-09T12:37:00.007-05:00

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Roma or Romanian? Doesn't really matter much in Italy.
-

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In America a child born on United States' soil is automatically born an American citizen. In Italy a Roma born upon Italian soil is not an Italian citizen. It doesn't matter if the child is born to parents who were also born in Italy. The fact that they are Roma puts them into a state of "political limbo". Their ethnicity automatically denies them citizenship to the country in which they were born and raised.
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Many Roma children in Italy can look back at their ancestry and find generation after generation of Italian born Romany ancestors. Their fathers were Italian and their father's fathers were Italian. But they are not... not according to the Italian government that is.
-
If you look at any Roma who have been long term residents of Italy you will not be able to find much of a distinction between them and other Italians. Of course their skin color might be a little off white I suppose. But their hair, their clothes, and their language are all Italian.
-
The quote I started this post with however shows the distinction white Italians seem to be making between themselves and the Rom. It is a distinction that ironically does not apply to the difference between a Romanian and a Roma.
-
So I will be making that distinction for them.
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The Romany are an ethnic group with vast differences between one group of Roma in one country and another group of Roma in another country. One might even notice a distinct difference between a family of Roma living in one house to the family of Roma living in the next. But that difference can be said to exist between any group of people from any ethnic or nationalistic background. The thing that makes a Romanian different from a Roma is the fact that a Romanian is a person of any ethnic origin who happens to be a Romanian citizen. A Roma is a person of Romany ethnicity.
-
So the main reason for race baiting in Italy does not persist from the idea that Roma immigrated to Italy (some as far back as the 14Th to 15Th century) but from the fact that the EU's borders are "open".
-
With the gates having been flung open and the ascension of Romania and Bulgaria to statehood in the EU the flood of immigrants began. Romanians hungry for work and a chance for a better life rushed into the Western Europeans' world. Italy was no exception.
-
Other immigrants have appeared in recent years as northern Africans have begun flowing into Europe. They seem to have favored France and Italy as places to settle. Muslims from the Middle East have also taken to the two xenophobic states. And this is what has led to Italian resentment of all immigrants.
-
TOP IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES
Romania: 625,278
Albania: 401,949
Morocco: 365,908
China: 156,519
Ukraine: 132,718
Philippines: 105,675
Tunisia: 93,601
Source: Caritas/Migrantes, Istat
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The Roma are just setting between a rock and a hard place. If they leave Italy, their long lived home, they become immigrants in other neighboring countries... countries that also resent immigrants. If they stay they remain the "targets of opportunity" for the ever increasing xenophobic Italians.
-
So what to do?
-
Hungary currently holds the presidency in the EU. They have made the Roma a priority in Europe. A priority group to be dealt with in a way that Europe has only promised for nearly a decade now. Hungary wants to address the crimes the Roma have been forced to suffer at the hands of European states and to fix the issues these mistreatments have caused. After that they want to integrate Roma into the European societies in which they currently live. And this is the issue with which they will most likely meet the most resistance.
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It has been a long standing policy in Italy, France, and neighboring countries that the Roma can not be integrated in their societies. This past summer they (and even Germany) proved this point by deporting Roma they accused of being in their countries illegally. The fact was that none of the deported Roma were ever proven to have been illegal immigrants. But that wasn't the point... France and Italy proved they don't want Roma in their countries.
-
These countries have however shown that they believe countries like Hungary, where Roma have suffered attacks, should be integrated there. They just don't seem to believe that the Romany should be allowed to enter into the Western societies.
-
So how can Hungary force these xenophobic countries into the "multicultural" utopia that the "progressives" in the EU Parliament dream of?
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They can't.
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History shows us that in a time of economic depression that the people of Europe seem to seek out nationalism in its worse form. They crave a "white" Europe when times go sour. And that is what we are witnessing right now. A Europe that is suffering from a new strain of xenophobia.
-
The only way Hungary can stem the tide of the far-right in Europe is to first purge itself of political parties like Jobbik... a party that is growing in Hungary. It must then make it a mission to fight and destroy the new jackboots in the EU government itself. From its seat of power in the EU it needs to destroy the "tolerance" of antisemitism in places like Holland. And it must force countries to punish and isolate the new Nazi style groups in Europe.
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However we will most likely not be seeing that aggressive of a policy coming out of Hungary. We will be lucky if we even see them accomplish anything that the EU has promised the Roma since 2005.
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Source Documents for this Post.
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BBC World News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7858012.stm

Failure to Comply

2011-02-04T22:18:00.006-05:00

A Lack of Conformity...
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How is that people like President Barack Obama can commonly be heard preaching the tenants of democracy... one being the inalienable Human Rights... and yet we watch as our fellow democratic societies violate the rights of their own citizens? I'm not talking about China. I'm not talking about Saudi Arabia. I'm talking about European democratic societies. Our old friends from across the "pond".
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If you have been reading Alder's Ledge for long you should now be aware of the growing issues with the Europeans' violations of human rights. Not only has anti-Semitism made a comeback in the European mindset but the xenophobia has isolated Romani living in Europe. Targeting of Roma has grown rather intense over the past few years alone as France and Italy have deported Roma in great numbers.
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It is my opinion that European countries are trying to strip legal citizens of the European Union of their rights as citizens simply because the targeted community's ethnicity. By deporting the Roma to countries outside the European Union the governments are making it impossible for the Roma to claim the said rights. Instead the Roma find themselves in worse poverty than they had suffered back in France and Italy. And to make things worse, the deported Roma are considered less than second-class citizens in their new homes.
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It is hard to prove such allegations and near impossible seeing as how news from across the pond is hard to come by and difficult to believe. Most of the news agencies and news papers from Europe appear to mask what they find embarrassing about their home countries while pointing toward the United States as a "model violator of human rights".
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However when you hear the slogan "Hamas, Hamas, All the Jews to the Gas" being chanted at "football" games you have to realize that human rights is an issue in Europe. You can't ignore the reference. It doesn't happen by accident. And the fact that the fellow Europeans, the ones not shouting it, don't stop it... they become complacent to the violent rhetoric.
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In England the following video brought to us by CNN shows how violent the attacks on human rights (the right to live in peace) in even the moderate country of England have become.
-

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Meanwhile in Italy, a breeding ground for xenophobic hatred, the attacks on human rights take on an entirely different appearance.
-

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But none of this should be news for those of you who have been reading this blog over the past few months. So why do we care? Why does it matter what Europe does to its own citizens?
-
We have been witnessing the violations of human rights in China for decades. But we can't do or say anything about those violations because of our own. And we will never be capable of being taken seriously due to those violations.
-
Western democracies can not nor should not be taking part in the degradation of human life and the value of it. It is obvious that we do not out right destroy human life but rather attack the value of it. We isolate the targeted group and punish them nearly relentlessly. In doing this we usually deprive the targeted community of the common liberties we here in western democracies cherish most.
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For the Jewish community in Holland this has been a way of life for the past several years. The Holland community has blamed it upon the "immigrant population". They claim that the Jewish community has brought it upon itself since they continue to supposedly support the Israeli issues with the Palestinians. Yet most of the liberal minded Dutch don't seem to realize that they themselves are denying Holland's Jewish community of their civil liberties by allowing the persistent attacks.
-
So why can't we here in the west preach "Human Rights" to the countries that need it most?
-
Simple. They view us as being weak on the enforcement of common Human Rights laws. They appear to believe that if we can't enforce the laws here at home than we can't be trusted to enforce them abroad.
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Take Rwanda for example. This is a country that has suffered a genocide in its very recent past. Yet it continues to suppress the rights of its citizens in much the same ways as before the 1994 genocide. America and its European allies however do not seem willing to address the issue. And China, who has investments in Africa, will not dare talk about Rwanda's current human rights violations.
-
And if we did talk to China about Rwanda... well there is always the issue of France's Roma deportations to bring up. We are blocked from taking on such clear violations and the violators themselves due to our own weaknesses. We can't act against China or Rwanda due to our own weakness when it comes to our allies in Europe.
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Those of you reading this blog can take action however. Unlike our government, you can make your voices heard. By writing your Congressman you can let him/her know that this issue does matter to you. By writing your Senator you can make our government listen.
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You can even write President Barack Obama himself if you want. After all, Barack did promise to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide... which he has not.
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Source Documents for this Post.
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VOA News
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Human-Rights-World-Report-Quiet-Diplomacy-Failing-to-Protect-Human-Rights-114479969.html
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2127

"We Are Europeans"

2011-01-30T13:28:00.006-05:00

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"We are Europeans, let me remind you, and must have the same rights as any other resident, with the same opportunities available to every European," Zoni Weisz, Survivor of the Holocaust.
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Ede and Unku, was once a book that Nazi Germany deemed to be "un-German" due to its tale about a German boy falling in love with a Roma girl. It is now going to be the name of a Berlin road in commemoration of the estimated 500,000 Roma who died in the Holocaust.
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Johann Trollmann, a Sinti "Gypsy" who won the German light-heavyweight title but was not given the title by the Nazis in 1933. The Nazis then had him sent to die in a concentration camp. Now Germany is set to name a Berlin school after him in remembrance of the injustice he suffered along with the other "Gypsy" prisoners.
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This year the Germans will be unveiling a new monument to remember the thousands of Roma who died. It will be dedicated to Roma and Sinti.
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Yet despite all this the persecution of Roma continues in France and Italy without very much rebuke from Germany. England and other countries continue to segregate Roma and Sinti from the rest of society. Jobbik in Hungary remains relentless in its demonetization of the "Gypsy" class.
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However the move by Germany to have its first Roma Holocaust survivor as speaker at Germany's Holocaust Remembrance Day is a drastic leap forward. It was 1982 before Germany had even recognized the Roma and Sinti killed in the Holocaust. So the fact that they allowed both Zoni Weisz and Roma musician Ferenc Snetberger to be present at the ceremony was a monumental event.
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Mr. Weisz took the opportunity to point out the hardships currently faced by his people in Europe.
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"It is unacceptable that a people that has been discriminated against and oppressed for centuries is today, in the 21st Century, still shut out and robbed of any honest chance of a better future." Mr. Weisz declared.
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His point seemed to be taken more seriously than ever before as the Germans present applauded and validated his remarks. We still have yet to see if France and other European countries will take the German Parliament's lead. We also have yet to see if this display in German Parliament will fully filter out into the German society.
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At any rate this was a great way to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz, a camp in which both Jews and Roma were killed.
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Source Documents for this Post
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BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12295614
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7844797.stm
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ABC News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/28/3123662.htm?section=justin
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Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/27/us-germany-holocaust-roma-idUSTRE70Q6FW20110127
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Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty
http://www.rferl.org/content/polish_german_president_auchwitz_holocaust/2289012.html
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Deutshe Welle
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14798859,00.html

Islamophobia... Fact or Fiction?

2011-01-28T09:33:00.003-05:00

Hatred Knows No Bounds
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When many hear the term "Islamophobia" they think of some far left liberal media outlet pushing the latest PC term of the day. However many cases throughout the Christian dominated West have proven the term to be at least loosely based in fact. And for those who believe it to be "fiction", most seem to have a bias against Islam and Muslims to begin with.
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In Greece attacks on Muslims have risen like risen like a rocket over the last few years alone. More disturbingly is the fact that many of the attacks go without punishment or rebuke by the public in general. The fact that Greece sets right next door to a massive Muslim state (Turkey) doesn't exactly help either.
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In one attack Bangladeshi Muslims were attacked while attending prayers in a Muslim man's basement. The attackers, suspected to be members of a far-right group called Golden Dawn, began with simply screaming obscenities and hateful slurs down into the basement. When the attackers found that they could not deter the worshipers with their words they quickly turned to violence.
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Smashing the windows to the basement, the attackers began throwing gasoline filled beer bottles down amongst the worshipers. Flames quickly erupted and scattered the fifty some worshipers. With some luck the fire was put out and the basement was secured by local police. Yet no attackers were ever punished or arrested despite the attempt to lock the worshipers down in the basement while setting fire to it.
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It had taken three hours to free the worshipers while the attackers continued to attempt to set fire to the prayer room once again... with the worshipers locked in.
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Greece has promised its growing Muslim population a mosque of their own (all houses of worship are sponsored in one way or another by the state in Greece). Since the early 19Th century the Greeks have made this hollow promise. It wasn't until a mass attack on Muslims last year that Greece has even decided to find a plot of land. And even in this the Greek government has stalled in building the mosque due to arguing amongst the government officials.
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All the while attacks on Greek Muslims continue as bigoted attackers take out their frustrations with a seemingly ever growing minority. Many of the far-right groups in Greece even draw upon the "Spartan" heritage of their ancestors to recruit even the most mild of racist amongst them. Others simply try to paint the "immigrants" as the "hordes" that led to the fall of Rome... note they try not to remind the Greeks of their own fall to the Ottomans.
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In other parts of Europe the attacks on Muslims are still predominately hate speech at best. But as studies show, the attitude in Greece appears to indicate the future attitude in other parts of Europe... i.e. Italy, Spain, and France. Therefore it is not unreasonable to assume that if police and government officials in Greece are not likely to go after anti-Islamic attackers than other states may allow such attacks to occur too. And the rise in acceptance of hate speech in public forms (such as the European radio and newspapers... both online and in print) does show a trend toward the xenophobia that now hold Greece by its throat.
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Now I'm not saying that Europe should stifle or censor its "free press" in any way. However its governments should be more capable of noting the difference between simply discussing Islam and attacking those who follow its tenants. Yet it appears that most in Europe find the lack of distinction between these two to be acceptable.
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Here in America we have the far-left constantly accusing the far-right of being "Islamophobic". This is one reason that the lack of sensitivity to a persons religion has become far to common place in American society (i.e. Family Guy). Instead of polite discussion we resort to constant attacks on the stigmas surrounding the Islamic faith.
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For the far-right in American society the hate speech usually comes from the same fear of immigrants one might find when talking about Latinos. Yet when it comes to Islam they usually attack the ideas of "Shariah Law" or other extreme elements and stigmas of Islam. None seem to realize that under the current Constitutional law no such law in accordance with Shariah law could ever be passed. But that's not the point... the association with Muslims in America to Shariah Law is the same as association all Native Americans with the "peace pipe".
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For the far-left, the real forebears of Islamophobia, the attacks on Muslims comes from their need to "coddle" their potential voters. This need to be condescending toward an entire group of people does nothing to help them but more so toward crippling them. It is a well known fact that minorities in this country face some form of discrimination, that seems to be an unavoidable fact of living in a multicultural society. But it is also a well known fact that even the majority can be discriminated against in the same circumstance... Rwanda for example.
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In the end we should be looking toward Greece to study what we all wish to avoid... the growth of true hate crimes from primitive bigotry. We should look toward the 9/11 hijackers to see where such hatred leads. We should be looking at ourselves to understand just why we seem to be incapable of openly accepting this new group of people and those other minorities we have long lived amongst.
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Once we have done these things we should then be a little more willing to open our minds to the views of Muslims and be far more willing to study their religion with an open heart. I'm not saying we should convert or die in any way... but you cannot truly understand a people if you constantly refuse to understand the faith they follow. It after all does define them in its own way. It greatly contributes to the way they think, interact with others, and the way they love one another.
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In the end I believe we would be a better people and show the love of our God much more if we were to accept the Muslims as they are and not what we wish them to be. After all, did your God not meet you where you were? Or did he wait for you to raise yourself to his level?
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Source Documents for this Post
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The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/europe/rising-tide-of-islamophobia-engulfs-athens/article1856460/
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Norway Set to Study Anti Semitic Mood in Norway

2011-01-27T14:28:00.005-05:00

Never Again... perhaps.
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The Norwegian government is set to begin its study of anti Semitic attitudes that appear to be on the rise in Norway. With recent attacks on Norwegian synagogues and persistent public expressions of anti Semitic sentiments by new media the uptick of bigotry has sparked Norway's nerves.
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The Oslo-based Holocaust Center of Oslo's Bygdoy will be doing the study after having received the equivalent of 530,000 US dollars. This study will be targeted mainly at the rise of anti Semitic attitudes among common Norwegians and other bigotries targeting the Roma population and Muslims.
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Many groups on the right seem to be weary when it comes to studying their hatred for Islam and even more perturbed by the investigating of their disgust for Jews. The many political parties dedicated to the far right are even more perturbed by the fact that government money is being spent on such a study. They seem to believe that the said money should be spent like Sweden does... giving the Muslims a dollar and sending them out the door... so to speak.
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So why the resistance to such a study?
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Lately the government has been pushed to respond to the rise of anti Semitic "bullying" in Norwegian schools. The bullies have been documented calling their targeted victims "Jewish pigs" (Juden glisten in Norsk) and "Fucking Jew" (no clear translation at this time). The Teachers present at the time of the attacks, even during physical attacks, have done little or nothing to stop the bullying.
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During one attack near a school a Jewish child was threatened to be "taken out into the woods and hung because he was a Jew". When attacked the boy managed to break free and run for home... fleeing for his life.
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Many of the attacks are blamed on the "Muslim kids" in Norwegian schools. However many attacks happen when a traditional white, blonde haired, blue eyed Norsk child is the bully. But the attacker doesn't seem to be the main problem here... no matter what the race or religious background of the bully. Its the teachers and principles of the schools.
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One teacher is documented as defending the bully by claiming "these things happen to all of us". The kid the bully was targeting had received death threats on numerous occasions... the reason... for being Jewish. Yet the teacher claimed that we all receive death threats for no apparent reason instead of punishing the bully in any manner.
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When the attacker happens to be Muslim, teachers are even less likely to punish the bully. This appears to happen due to the commonplace opinion in Norway that Jews are the reason for the Muslim's problems... i.e. Palestine.
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Thus we come to the most anti Semitic attitude in Norway... blame the victim. No matter how removed from the problems in the West Bank the Jews in Norway are considered to be the source of the conflict. Despite the fact that almost none of Norway's Jews were born or have ever lived in Israel they are still associated with any unrest in the Middle East.
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Therefore the problems in Norway can be linked to the problems in Holland. In both countries the public attitude has been one of unity in its bios view of Judaism. Both countries pity all Muslims due to the bigoted view that all Muslims are like Palestinians. Both countries then blame all Jews due to the bigoted opinion that all Jews must think alike and therefore are just as "evil" as Israeli Jews.
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None seem to be capable of grasping the fact that no ethnic group is totally united in any manner in their individual ways of thinking or personal beliefs. The majority of any given group does not ever represent the opinions of the entire minority group. The majority of a country's population does however unfortunately represent the country's given opinion.
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As far as the Roma are concerned in this study... Norway is just like Sweden. They want the Romani gone. No government programme has ever been adequately funded or even fully set up to help Romani become incorporated into Norwegian society. Instead government sponsored programmes in Norway have historically been set up to attack Roma (in the past Norway has had state sponsored "spay and neuter" programmes to limit the ability of Romany to reproduce... which constitutes genocide by definition). So as far as this study goes... the Romani will be lucky if the Norse study does them any justice whatsoever.
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We here at Alder's Ledge should be grateful at the very least that a European country (not a member of the European Union) is attempting to curb anti Semitism in some manner. This is at the very least a step in the right direction. Perhaps Norway will be one country that doesn't have to tell its Jewish population to "get out" while they still can (like Holland did a week ago). Perhaps Norway will be a country that can honestly say they tried to live up to that famous phrase... Never Again.
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Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Lest we forget that all evil needs to succeed is for us to remain silent... wake up oh sleeping giant.
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You may now follow us on FaceBook. Keywords; Alder's Ledge.
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Source Documents for this Post.
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Views and News from Norway
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2011/01/27/state-set-to-survey-anti-semitism/
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The Foreigner
http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/holocaust-centre-to-chart-norwegians-semitic-views/
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http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/anti-semitism-common-in-norwegian-schools/
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Roma Expulsions Continue In French Riviera

2011-01-19T20:05:00.013-05:00

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Nazi Politics Being Perfected
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According to European Union law it is, and has been for some time, legal for countries like France and Germany to deport "foreign nationals". This law however is selectively applied seeing as how French insist that their deportations of Roma are legal due to them being from Romania and Bulgaria. And as far as the Union is concerned, it is legal to restrict the movement of certain "foreign nationals" due to the country of their origin.
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January 14Th, CLSPD (local security and prevention against delinquency contract) invaded 25 Roma dwellings and forced the evictions of 160 Romani. This was carried out under direct orders of Christian Estrosi in an attempt to rid Plaine-du-Var of its Roma population.
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This tactic of removing and deporting Roma while the outside world remains unaware has become France's new normal. They no longer are being as brazen as they were back in the summer of 2010. However they still are testing the waters one "camp" at a time. In 2011 we will most likely be seeing the trains that Germany used to ship the Jews to Auschwitz arriving in Paris soon enough... this is somewhat sarcastic seeing as how France has been using planes to deport its targeted populations.
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What is even more shocking than the deportations is the fact that under France law any town or village with a population of 5000 or more must provide land for the Roma. Two currently exist in the areas around Plaine-du-Var in Nice and Antibes. Neither of these are sufficient and neither has electricity or running water. But what does France say about it... "we have the right to deport any "foreign nationals" (this and the threat that any Roma caught in Alpes-Maritimes will face a 15,000 euro fine and one year in prison).
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All the while the Roma that remain in "designated areas" and act like "good little... (insert racist slur here)" have to deal with the fact that in France they are less than second class citizens. If they "stay on the reservation", so to speak, they don't have access to the basics of modern life. But they do get the opportunity to live without the looming fear of being attacked by SWAT style police in the middle of the night.
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Christian Estrosi on the other hand was able to force the evictions of 160 Roma without concern. His only other problems he has to deal with is how to get a high speed rail from Nice to Genoa by 2018. Oh, and he needs to finish his plans on how to get IKEA to refurbish France's fifth best chance at an iconic city.
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Nice's latest exploits in Nazi style politics only goes to show just how much Europe needs a new plan on how to cope with its Roma population. The Dutch have their "multiculturalism", which is new age Nazism, while the Germans tend to stick to their time tested forms of racism. England just tends to treat Roma like the red headed stepchildren of Europe. And all these methods are just not working.
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The Roma currently suffer under the rise of ethnocentric Europe as the rest of the world idly stands by and watches. It just goes to show that we tend not to bother with other countries affairs till we can in good conscience boldly declare "Never Again".
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Source Documents for this post...
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The Riviera Times
http://www.rivieratimes.com/index.php/provence-cote-dazur-article/items/roma-expulsions-continue-six-months-after-summer-fiasco-1901.html
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http://www.rivieratimes.com/index.php/provence-cote-dazur-article/items/nice-can-say-hello-to-ikea-at-last-1901.html
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http://www.rivieratimes.com/index.php/provence-cote-dazur-article/items/estrosi-plots-high-speed-line-to-connect-nice-to-genoa-by-2018-1301.html

Serbian Swastikas

2011-01-18T15:00:00.003-05:00

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"Roma,too, Out of Serbia"
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The odd slogan, neo-Nazi in origin, has begun to be heard around the Serbian town of Pozega. Nazi symbols including the infamous swastika have begun to appear around the town as racist vandals make their mark. Locals have even gone as far as to request the deportations of Roma from Pozega and other Serbian towns and cities.
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This rise of Nazi style racism comes upon the heels of last years attacks on Roma in Jabuka, Serbia. After that attack the Serbian police encouraged Roma to "lock themselves in their homes". This recommendation only led to making the Roma population vulnerable to the dreaded Molotov attacks.
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In neighboring countries Molotovs have been used against the Romani populations and small attacks with rifles and pistols have occurred. This is the threat the Roma now face in Serbia. The Serbian government however is not looking seriously into the crimes, despite their claims to be looking into "banning 14 groups" of extremist.
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In Serbia's break away territory, Kosovo, the Roma still have to worry about state backed terrorism. According to a report for the General Council of Europe the Kosovo Liberation Army leader, now president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci and his boys still use attacks on Roma and other minorities to maintain power. Romani citizens are said to be targeted for their organs which are then sold on the European black market. They are also attacked as "targets of opportunity".
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All this continues to happen as the EU backs majority parties such as the Jobbik Party which hate the Roma and Jews. Yet we are meant to believe that the European Union is seriously going to push for "Roma inclusion" into European society? I do not believe that the European Union has the courage to attack the far right or the far left amongst them. Instead they continue to "fortify Europe" so that only a certain class of European is allowed to live in peace.
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I do however hope that the European Union, ironically led by Hungary (the home of Jobbik and the Nazi Hungarian Guard), will make some form of progress in this somewhat noble cause. If they can at least decrease the number of deportations or attacks they will have made at the very least a small step toward "Never Again".
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You can now follow us on FaceBook by joining our FaceBook group; Alder's Ledge.
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Source Documents for this post
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New Kosova Report
http://www.newkosovareport.com/201101172236/Region/racims-in-serbia-deportation-of-roma-requsted.html
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Balkan Insight
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbia-press-review-january-12-2011
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World Politics Review
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/7488/kosovo-going-rogue

Brits Once Again Set to Push Roma Back Onto the Road

2011-01-17T12:22:00.003-05:00

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No Rest for the Weary
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Beausale, near Warwickshire England, 13 families are once again being pushed back onto the highways by local government. Their RV style homes are again being subjected to the stereotypes of local British "town planning" committees. The land they are currently staying on is not used and neither subject to any upcoming development plans.
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The community around the area however is dead set upon keeping the Roma out. It doesn't matter to them if the families need things like schools, health care, and permanent homes. They only view the Roma as a "stigmatic" population that is in their eyes certain to bring things like; prostitution, drugs, and crime.
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Since May of last year these families have not once been reported to have instigated or even partaken in such things as those listed above. They have however attempted time and time again to integrate into the society around them. It is British society however that continues to push the Romani back out onto the road with its boot up their arse for good measure.
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District councillor Sue Gallagher claims, “Nothing has changed. They are there without planning permission. It does not matter whether they are Gypsies or not. It’s a group of people on a greenfield site without planning permission. That’s what the appeal is for. “This is not a Gypsy hunt.”
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And yet the Brits continue to only enforce these sorts of laws and regulations when convenient... or when a "Gypsy" is the target.
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Locals have rallied behind Sue by forming a group they call Friends of Green Belt (FROG). This group is directly opposed to the Roma and their "development" of the Green Belt field. They would much rather see the field overgrown and unused than to allow the 13 families to live their.
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As of today the local community has lodged over 400 complaints and a petition with 333 signatures that directly opposes the 13 families. The petition includes opposition to exactly 13 mobile homes, 13 caravans of "travelers", and 13 utility rooms on the site.
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But we are supposed to believe that “This is not a Gypsy hunt.”
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You can follow this article and others like it by joining our FaceBook group. Key words for searching for us on FaceBook: Alder's Ledge.
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Source Document for this Article;
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Kenilworth Weekly News
http://www.kenilworthweeklynews.co.uk/news/local/inquiry_will_determine_if_gypsies_can_stay_or_go_1_2307430