This site is
dedicated not solely to the memory of the Cathars, but to all those
persecuted because of race or religion and to those who have stood up to
defend them.
The 20th century
has seen the massacre of innocent civilians carried out in industrial
proportions made possible by improvements in technology and
transport.
Whilst the
crusaders were able to massacre 20 000 people in Beziers, it's now
possible to murder many times this.
Please take time to
remember victims of genocide and persecution: Armenians, Jews and the
other victims of Nazi brutality: gypsies, Slavs, the disabled and
political dissidents all of who were subjected to extermination
campaigns. More recently, in former Yugoslavia all sides
have carried out atrocities, in Africa there have been numerous acts of
genocide which have seen no intervention and little
publicity.
Possibly one of the
worst aspects of genocide is often people have massacred their own
fellow citizens or even neighbours.
World leaders stood
idly by as Pol Pot and Suharto exterminated many thousands of their own
people.
Leaders who commit
war crimes frequently go unpunished, Idi Amin for example was allowed to
live out his life in Saudi Arabia after his
overthrow.
Few people have the
courage to defend victims of genocide, it's easier to turn a blind eye,
especially for politicians.
One exception
was Raul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, who saved about
60 000 Hungarian Jews from the German Nazis and the Hungarian government
which collaborated with them. He was arrested in 1945 by the
Soviets and died in Lubianka
prison in Moscow.
Please have the
courage to stand up to crimes of violence, support organisations such as
Amnesty International who help defend human rights. Call upon the politicians who stand
idly by to act. Lobby,
complain.
