Ethnic Cleansing

Ethnic cleansing refers to the implementation of a well-defined policy that aims to establish an ethnically homogenous group in a specific territory or society through the expulsion of an unwanted minority group in a systematic manner. Such a policy may be carried out directly through deportation, forced emigration, or violence, or it may involve the use of more passive forms of coercive action such as harassment or discriminatory legislation. A broader definition of ethnic cleansing includes the discrimination of one group against another civilian group, delineated by a demographic variable that extends beyond ethnicity to include other sociocultural divides such as race, religion, national origin, or ideological considerations. Ethnic cleansing of minorities is often motivated by a desire of a particular group to consolidate its power by eliminating the conditions for potential and actual opposition in order to create a political stronghold throughout a region. That is, although causes of ethnic cleansing are mainly rooted in political gain for a particular group, ethnic cleansing is embellished by, and inseparable from, prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory practices on the basis of ethnicity, race, or religion. Each of these forms of discrimination reflects the general tendency for human beings to fear dissimilarity.

Concerted efforts also may be made to remove all physical traces of the expelled group in the territory (e.g., the destruction of civilian infrastructure and cultural sites), thereby effecting radical demographic changes. Because ethnic cleansing is such a brutal tactic intended specifically to create a hostile, if not life-threatening, environment for members of the target group, it is characterized by widespread and flagrant human rights violations.

Included in the broad definition of ethnic cleansing is genocide. Among the most active and aggressive forms of ethnic cleansing, genocide is used to eradicate entire segments of a population, with the implicit or explicit aim of creating cultural, racial, and ethnic homogeneity. In an effort to prevent atrocities similar to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany during World War II, when an estimated 6 million European Jews were tortured and executed, the United Nations passed a resolution in 1948 that recognized genocide as a crime against humanity. This resolution, The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defined genocide as any criminal act committed by an individual, group, or government, in time of peace or in time of war, with intent to destroy a national, racial, ethnic, or religious group. These punishable acts include killing members of the target group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions that will bring about the group's physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures to prevent births within the group, and forcefully transferring children of the group to other groups.

Examples of ethnic cleansing include the forced displacement of Native Americans by White settlers in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Armenian massacres by the Turks in 1915–1916, the Nazi Holocaust, and the Soviet Union's deportation of certain ethnic minorities from the Caucasus and Crimea during the 1940s. Precipitating events among the recent cases of ethnic cleansing in the late 20th century often include complex regional struggles between different political constituencies that have pushed minorities to the edge of extinction. When ethnic clashes among factions occur, mass rape, sexual torture, and psychological trauma are common. Women and children are particularly vulnerable because many men leave their families and communities to join resistance groups. During the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, for example, the vicious treatment and massacre of ethnic groups was the consequence of belligerent mobs [Page 1133]targeting civilians to expel ethnic minorities in the population and hasten military surrender.

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