Cascadia Community College hosts debut of PBS documentary on understanding genocide

The Nazis of World War II Germany are probably the most infamous practitioners of genocide, but they are hardly alone.

Place on the list with them the Serbish forces who acted in the mid-1990s in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, the Hutus accused of the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis in Rwanda. The political leaders of Darfur, Sudan, accused by some of attempting to wipe out three tribal groups because of their ethnicity. There are other examples one quickly can find with a simple Internet search.

In total, according to one statistic presented recently at Cascadia Community College, attempts at genocide — the complete erasure of a culture or its people — have ended the lives of 100 million people during our lifetimes. That is a larger number of deaths than resulted from all the wars that have taken place over that same time frame combined.

Sponsored by the school’s Global Human Rights Alliance, Cascadia held its annual Human Rights Week beginning Jan. 18. Highlights clearly included two screenings of the genocide documentary, “Worse Than War.”

Scheduled to air nationally on PBS in April, the documentary highlights the work of genocide researcher Daniel Goldhagen, who narrates the film and has released a book of the same name.

“Worse Than War” co-producer Adam Hyman was one of the panelists who discussed the film following a shortened showing at Cascadia on Jan. 20.

Hyman admitted that after creating the film, he found it difficult not to develop some cynicism about the human race in general.

“It’s far easier to not deal with genocide… or the evils of human kind,” he said.

But Hyman also mentioned being amazed by the survivors interviewed for the documentary.

“You have to respect them and be true to what their voice is,” he added.

Even a shortened version of the film is not always easy to watch. Toward the beginning of the documentary, Goldhagen interviews a Hutu now apparently imprisoned for his role in the Tutsi massacre. The man compares using a machete to kill a Tutsi with chopping down a tree, talks vividly of the deaths of pregnant woman and the killing of children.

In the film, and presumably in his book, Goldhagen argues genocide is not, as many seem to think, an emotional, spontaneous eruption of hate. Instead, he describes it as the result of careful, calculated planning by political leaders acting on either political or ideological beliefs.

Answering a question from the audience of about 50 students and visitors, Hyman asserted that genocidal leaders move both their military and general populations to act in what seems a totally inhumane manner by exploiting existing prejudices or some perceived historical wrong done by a specific group to another. Such leaders generally control the media of their countries.

At another point, Hyman said advocates of genocide even genuinely feel they are doing the right thing for their people.

In the film, Goldhagen argues that clearly the international intervention in cases of genocide generally has been far too slow or nonexistent. He advocates the creation of a multi-national task force — completely separate from the United Nations — and authorized to respond militarily when genocides occur.

Again in answer to an audience comment, Hyman admitted the use of military force is controversial.

“This is obviously a loaded topic,” he said, adding that nations often lack the will to put troops in harm’s way to deal with situations that are possibly in far-away regions and that don’t directly threaten them. Still, Hyman argued that political sanctions haven’t worked.

Hyman did offer some hope for ending what Goldhagen describes as a “very prevalent disaster among humankind.”

“People do evolve and they learn,” Hyman said.