23.10.2015 ethnic cleansing -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia

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Victims of ethnic cleansing at the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Ger., 1945.

H. Miller—Hulton Archive/Getty Images

ethnic cleansingethnic cleansing, the attempt to create ethnically homogeneous geographic areas through the deportation or forcibledisplacement of persons belonging to particular ethnic groups. Ethnic cleansing sometimes involves the removal of all physicalvestiges of the targeted group through the destruction of monuments, cemeteries, and houses of worship.

The term ethnic cleansing, a literal translation of the Serbo-Croatian phrase etnicko ciscenje, was widely employed in the 1990s(though the term first appeared earlier) to describe the brutal treatment of various civilian groups in the conflicts that eruptedupon the disintegration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. These groups included Bosniacs (Bosnian Muslims) in Bosnia andHerzegovina, Serbs in the Krajina region of Croatia, and ethnic Albanians and later Serbs in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Theterm also has been attached to the treatment by Indonesian militants of the people of East Timor, many of whom were killed orforced to abandon their homes after citizens there voted in favour of independence in 1999, and to the plight of Chechens whofled Grozny and other areas of Chechnya following Russian military operations against Chechen separatists during the 1990s.According to a report issued by the United Nations (UN) secretary-general, the frequent occurrence of ethnic cleansing in the1990s was attributable to the nature of contemporary armed conflicts, in which

Ethnic cleansing as a concept has generated considerable controversy. Some critics see little difference between it and genocide.Defenders, however, argue that ethnic cleansing and genocide can be distinguished by the intent of the perpetrator: whereas theprimary goal of genocide is the destruction of an ethnic, racial, or religious group, the main purpose of ethnic cleansing is theestablishment of ethnically homogeneous lands, which may be achieved by any of a number of methods including genocide.

Another major controversy concerns the question ofwhether or not ethnic cleansing originated in the 20thcentury. Some scholars have pointed to the forcedresettlement of millions of people by the Assyrians inthe 9th and 7th centuries BC as perhaps the first casesof ethnic cleansing. Among other examples cited arethe mass execution of Danes by the English in 1002,attempts by the Czechs to rid their territories ofGermans in the Middle Ages, the expulsion of Jewsfrom Spain in the 15th century, and the forceddisplacement of Native Americans by white settlers inNorth America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Othersargue that ethnic cleansing, unlike earlier acts offorced resettlement, is the result of certain uniquely20th-century developments, such as the rise ofpowerful nation-states fueled by nationalist andpseudoscientific racist ideologies in conjunction withthe spread of advanced technology andcommunications. Examples of ethnic cleansingunderstood in this sense include the Armenianmassacres by the Turks in 1915–16, the Nazi Holocaustof European Jews in the 1930s and ’40s, the expulsionof Germans from Polish and Czechoslovak territoryafter World War II, the Soviet Union’s deportation ofcertain ethnic minorities from the Caucasus andCrimea during the 1940s, and the forced migrations

and mass killings in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s. In many of these campaigns, women were targeted forparticularly brutal treatment—including systematic rape and enslavement—in part because they were viewed by perpetrators asthe “carriers,” biologically and culturally, of the next generation of their nations. Because many men in victimized populations lefttheir families and communities to join resistance groups once violence began, women and children were often defenseless.

The precise legal definition of ethnic cleansing has been the subject of intense scrutiny within various international bodies,including the UN, the two ad hoc international tribunals created in the 1990s to prosecute violations of internationalhumanitarian law in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda (the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [ICTY]and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [ICTR], respectively), and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which begansittings in 2002. In 1992, in reference to the hostilities in Yugoslavia, the UN General Assembly declared ethnic cleansing to be “aform of genocide,” and in the following year the Security Council, citing widespread and flagrant violations of internationalhumanitarian law within the territory of the former Yugoslavia, established a tribunal to investigate allegations of war crimes andcrimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing. In its examination of the capture of the town of Kozarac by Bosnian Serbs,the ICTY described the ethnic cleansing that took place there as the process of rounding up and driving “out of the area on footthe entire non-Serb population.” In a subsequent case, the tribunal recognized similarities between acts of genocide and ethniccleansing, noting that both involve the targeting of individuals because of their membership in an ethnic group. The significant

difference between the two remains, however:

civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure are not simply by-products of war, but theconsequence of the deliberate targeting of non-combatants…. [I]n many conflicts, belligerents target civilians inorder to expel or eradicate segments of the population, or for the purpose of hastening military surrender.

23.10.2015 ethnic cleansing -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia

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Hutu refugee camp in Ntamba, Burundi, where tens of thousands became victims of ethniccleansing in …

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Three faces of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, who was indicted by the …

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difference between the two remains, however:whereas ethnic cleansing aims to force the flight of aparticular group, genocide targets the group forphysical destruction.

The establishment of the ICC reinforced the linksbetween ethnic cleansing and other offenses such asgenocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Inits finalized text on the elements of the crimes in thecourt’s jurisdiction, the Preparatory Commission forthe International Criminal Court made clear that ethniccleansing could constitute all three offenses within theICC’s jurisdiction. Genocide, for example, was definedas an act that may include the systematic expulsion ofindividuals from their homes; the threat of force orcoercion to effect the transfer of a targeted group ofpersons was recognized as an element of crimesagainst humanity; and the “unlawful deportation andtransfer,” as well as the displacement, of civilians wererecognized as elements of war crimes.

Despite continuing controversies over its definition,the concept of ethnic cleansing has become firmlyanchored within international law. It remains to beseen how mechanisms to prevent and deal with ethniccleansing will develop and be implemented.

George J. Andreopoulos

"ethnic cleansing". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 23 Oct. 2015<http://www.britannica.com/topic/ethnic-cleansing>.