29 January 2005
What's an atrocity?
A significant proportion of the six million Jews and other minorities murdered by the Nazi regime met their ends here. The people responsible for Auschwitz are long gone, the few of their assistants who survive are still relentlessly pursued and prosecuted. Their successors to the Nazi regime rightly abominate what was done.
Is the slaughter of ten times as many people ten times as bad?
Apparently not. The murderers of such vast numbers are still in power. They publicly assert the rightness of their behaviour on the rare occasion anyone bothers to confront them with it. Rather than being persecuted they are nevertheless courted, invited to join international institutions, and given aid and trade deals. Would we roll out the red carpet for Hitler's cronies and appointees were they in power today? Vile as they were, and however appalling their deeds, Hitler and his gang were complete amateurs compared to Mao Zedong and his, yet the red carpet is rolled out time and time again, as the loathsome participants in and beneficiaries of the brutality strut into town demanding the kow tow.
One key difference between the holocaust of the Second World War and the far more recent holocausts of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution is that the former is persistently publicised for modern political ends, and used to make criticism of Israel, even when that country's govenment is a party to other massacres (Shatila, for instance), almost impossible. The Chinese holocausts are, on the other hand, hushed up as much as possible both by the government responsible and by the foreign businessmen and governments who want to avoid awkward questions while they do trade deals.
Let's not forget Tian'an Men, since it's the only Chinese bloodbath anyone seems to be aware of, but let's also have memorial ceremonies for the tens of millions dead at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, and do the people of China a favour by publicly remarking (Condoleezza Rice take note) on its brutality, the numbers of its political prisoners, the numbers of all kinds in its gulags, its continuing suppression of any moves towards democracy, and its bland assertions that sending in the tanks to murder unarmed civilians, or threatening the invasion of a neighbouring democracy are all perfectly justified. Let's especially remember that, Bush and Rice, when we are reading news items about the beating of ordinary citizens just for wearing mourning at the time of the funeral of a former dictator with a microscopically greater quantity of humanity. Let's particularly remember when we are reading out lists of 'outposts of tyranny'.
An atrocity is apparently something which is well-publicised and not problematic for trade.
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