User:SweetSpicySour/sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The South African farm attacks (Afrikaans: plaasmoorde; "plaas" = farm, "moorde" = murders) are an ongoing trend of violent attacks on farmers in South Africa, with a disproportionate number of victims being White.[3] Between 1994 and March 2012, there have been 361,015 murders in South Africa.[4] Estimates suggest a murder rate for commercial farmers four to six times the national average.[5] While criminal raids on rural properties are not uncommon to the region, attacks on South African farms occur at a rate several hundred times higher than those in any other country.[6] The South African government estimates that there are 31 murders per 100,000 people per year, or 50 in a day.[3]
Many white farmers perceive the attacks to be racially motivated.[7] The murder rate of white South African farmers is four times higher than the national average.[3] Fact checking organisation Africa Check has stated that black and coloured farmowners account for less than 38.4% of victims of farm attacks, while accounting for 89% of South Africa's population.[8][9] The farm attacks have been likened to a potential genocide of White people in South Africa by various conservative commentators, including National Review[3] and FrontPage Magazine.[1] Non-profit organization Genocide Watch head Gregory Stanton has expressed concern, whom concluded after a fact-finding mission in South Africa that he believes there is "a coordinated campaign of genocide being conducted against white farmers", as the murders can be separated from common crimes due to the "barbarity used against the victims".[1] This resulted in Genocide Watch raising South Africa to Stage Six on the Genocidal Scale, or "Preparation".[1] In January 2015, AfriForum reported that there has been an increase in farm attacks and murders in the previous five years.[10]
This characterization of the murders as racially motivated hate crimes[3] have been challenged by some. Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has stated that attacks were not motivated by race but by greed.[11] Moreover, the South African Police Service has declared that there is no evidence of organised attacks.[12] The disbandment of the predominantly rural South African Commando System has been linked to the escalating level of farm attacks.[13] Human Rights Watch has criticized usage of the term "farm attacks" and the "disproportional" attention they received, although this notion has been rejected by other prominent international organisations.[14]