On 23rd January 2020, some world leaders commemorated International Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem (Beit-ul-Moqaddas), 75 years after the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops on 27th January 1945. More than a million people, 90% of them Jews, had been murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the biggest German death camp in Poland.
It is a day (23 January) commemorated in Beit-ul-Moqaddas at the Yad Vashem memorial institute to mark atonement for the crimes against the Jewish people for the last five years.
The Western world also commemorate this day as if the whole world was responsible for this horrific crime against Jews during Second World War. But, we must remember that it was a European crimes committed in Europe against Jews. No right minded person will disagree with that.
The Holocaust was a “heinous crime” and “genocide” including imprisonment, displacement, humiliation, bombardment, home destruction, psychological torture, war crimes, etc. It was crime against humanity and must never be allowed to be repeated in any form. We all feel very sorry for what happened to Jews’ young and old. But the same mistakes are being made over and over again in the 1990s in Bosnia, Rwanda, Rohingiya, Kashmir etc.
Rwandan killings which is known as genocide against Tutsi in 1994 by Hutu was also a crime against humanity. About 70% of the Tutsi population (1 million) were killed and raped in four months. But, no country intervened to stop the genocide.
Srebrenica genocide during Bosnian war in 1990s where Bosniaks (Muslims) were raped and killed as part of ethnic cleansing by Serbs. This was the first time rape and confinement of a particular community was used as a weapon of war in the world.
In 2017, same genocide and rape were used by Buddhist monks and Myanmar Army against Muslims Rohingiya in Rakhine state of Myanmar. More than 1 million refugees are living in Coxs Bazar of Bangladesh. The children of these refugees have been deprived of primary education and health facilities in addition to proper foods and shelter.
Historians have written that the Western Powers had done the same against Muslims after 1876 Berlin Conference. They occupied all Muslim countries in Europe and Africa ruled by Ottoman Empire, like Romania, Bulgaria, Algeria and carried out genocide in these countries. We are still witnessing mass killing and genocide in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Sudan till today.
Yes, Holocaust is a heinous crime but continuous crimes against Palestinians is also another form of Auschwitz. Palestine have been suffering for last 70 years with illegal occupation of Palestinian territories , illegal settlement on Palestinian’s land, the occupation of Jerusalem, sacred to Muslims. The annexation of Golan Heights by Israel. The apartheid by Israel has been legalised by providing security to Israel by US. Are these not all illegal within the framework of International law?
We must all pledge and stop the genocide, rapes, illegal occupation of others territories and proxy wars all over the world and not use race, religion and ethnicity to create hate and division.
How amazing is God’s creation! This orchid species bloom once a year. Before bloom it looks like “praying saints” and when the flower blooms it look like a “flying dove”.
Dr. Mohammad Seemab Zaman, London-based Strategic Thinker and Political Analyst.
