The line between politicide and genocide is fairly liquid. Some believe they are one in the same while others think they are different from each other. It is something that one person will have an opinion for while the next individual with have another. No answer is wrong or right, it is simply how one interprets it. If one looks at the dictionary definitions of each, they can come to their own conclusion. Politicide is a gradual but systematic attempt to exterminate an independent political entity. While genocides definition is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. The definitions are fairly similar, but the part that struck me is that politicide was an “attempt” to exterminate, while
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There is practically no difference between the two because both politicide and genocide require the extermination of a group. The victims that had been murdered were not the only ones, any citizen that had to go through a time like this is a victim. If the group one was in were being targeted they would be under constant fear that they would be found and killed. Being under constant stress takes a toll on one’s body. No one can recover going through something as horrible as genocide or politicide. “I don’t feel that comfortable with life. I cannot think beyond the present anymore” (Hatzfeld 26). This quote comes from a woman who survived the Rwandan genocide. Her life will never be the same. She can never trust a stranger ever again, she has nightmares of what she has seen almost every night, unless she speaks about what happened with someone on that day, and she doesn’t feel safe, even in her own home. One can’t bounce back from watching loved ones die and both victims of genocides and politicide had to witness similar acts. Genocide and politicide are alike. They both require the extermination of some group, for different motives. Genocides motive is to usually exterminate an ethnic or national group, while politicides motive is to eradicate a group based on their ideology. Both perpetrators of the two act in the same way, the experiences for the victims is the same, and the long-term impacts of the two are the same. Looking at accounts of each politicide and genocide, one can see they are
There is practically no difference between the two because both politicide and genocide require the extermination of a group. The victims that had been murdered were not the only ones, any citizen that had to go through a time like this is a victim. If the group one was in were being targeted they would be under constant fear that they would be found and killed. Being under constant stress takes a toll on one’s body. No one can recover going through something as horrible as genocide or politicide. “I don’t feel that comfortable with life. I cannot think beyond the present anymore” (Hatzfeld 26). This quote comes from a woman who survived the Rwandan genocide. Her life will never be the same. She can never trust a stranger ever again, she has nightmares of what she has seen almost every night, unless she speaks about what happened with someone on that day, and she doesn’t feel safe, even in her own home. One can’t bounce back from watching loved ones die and both victims of genocides and politicide had to witness similar acts. Genocide and politicide are alike. They both require the extermination of some group, for different motives. Genocides motive is to usually exterminate an ethnic or national group, while politicides motive is to eradicate a group based on their ideology. Both perpetrators of the two act in the same way, the experiences for the victims is the same, and the long-term impacts of the two are the same. Looking at accounts of each politicide and genocide, one can see they are