This is a blasted, haunted landscape, populated by demonic child soldiers and a shadowy guerrilla army that slaughters in the bush or under the cover of night.
In by far the most devastating of what president Giorgio Napolitano called a "succession of true slaughters of innocents" to occur off Italy's coast, at least 114 African migrants, including at least three children, died after their boat sank in waters near the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.
Targeting victims because of their class, for example, was not classed as genocide: Stalin would hardly have signed if it meant being held to account for his mass slaughters of "middle peasants" and the like.
The timeline below shows just some of the mass slaughters in the past century, including some that have been acknowledged as genocide and some that do not fit within the UN's definition.
And from such abuses, as Bosnians, Croats and Kosovars know, only too easily do mighty slaughters grow.
After killing a defenceless turtle on a remote beach with little possibility of getting caught, the gangs can sell the skin, eggs and meat on the black market.Officials are particularly concerned by a new gang in the state of Guerrero, which slaughters turtles on the beaches north of the seaside resort of Acapulco.
Shuanghui's chairman, Wan Long, who built his firm from scratch, is known as China's "number one butcher" because the company slaughters more than 15m pigs a year.Smithfield's shareholders appear to be delighted to receive 31% more for their shares than they were worth before the deal.
Spring is still in the air Silence in class ReprintsThe group routinely slaughters unbelievers as well as Muslims, establishing its writ through fear.
For them, the holocaust has contemporary echoes in the slaughters of Rwanda, Burundi and Cambodia.
IT REMAINS a violent country, but the mass slaughters of peasant farmers that were common in Colombia over much of the past decade had become much rarer since Álvaro Uribe became president in August 2002.
This week, from Japan to Java, further mass slaughters were under way.
