Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Postwar Era
Overview
Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide since World War II: The Cambodian Genocide
As the news and scope of the Holocaust came to public light following World War II, and especially in the 1960s, it seemed that the world would never again engage in such barbaric and inhumane treatment. Surely, the death of 6 million Jews had taught humanity that we must never again engage in genocide. And yet, tragically, the moral lessons of the Holocaust all-too-soon faded. The promise of “Never again!” transformed into a crude reality, “Not again!”, as genocide unfolded in the Pacific, Asia, Europe, and Africa in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the importance of the Cambodian Genocide.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Cambodia: country in Southeast Asia between Vietnam and Thailand
Cambodian Genocide: 1975 – 1979 event in which large portions of the middle and upper classes, as well as minorities, were exterminated in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge
Ethnic cleansing: forced removal of a population from an area, usually violently
Genocide: term created by Raphael Lemkin in 1944, and taken from Greek and Latin roots, to mean literally the “killing of people”
Khmer Rouge: communist party in Cambodia from 1975 – 1979 that was responsible for the Cambodian Genocide
Killing fields: sites throughout Cambodia in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodian civilians were murdered by the Khmer Rouge
Pol Pot: Communist leader of Cambodia from 1963 – 1981
Ethnic Cleansing vs Genocide: Background
Nearly eighty years have passed since the end of World War II when the world first learned of the Holocaust. Since then, multiple cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing have occurred around the world.
The term genocide is relatively young. After much effort, Polish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944. Genocide literally translates to the “killing of people.” In particular, the term implies a deliberate, centralized attempt to systematically destroy an entire race, ethnic group, or group of people. The Holocaust is the most commonly agreed-upon genocide in history. Nations and governments are often skeptical of applying the word “genocide” to other events, such as the Armenian Genocide, because it implies that a government was deliberately involved in the planning and murder of a group of people. For this reason, many genocides are still contested.
Closely tied to genocide is the concept of ethnic cleansing. In contrast to genocide, which is intent on the systematic destruction of a specific group of people, ethnic cleaning is a term used to describe the forced removal of a group of people from a specific area to make the area homogenous. Under international law, ethnic cleansing constitutes a war crime because the targeted groups are often subjected to brutal treatment, poor living conditions, physical abuse, and destruction of property.
Cambodian Genocide
During the Cold War, Chinese leader Mao Zedong supported communist leaders throughout the world. In the 1970s, he strongly supported neighboring leader, Pol Pot, who came to power in Cambodia with his political party: the Khmer Rouge. The goal of the new, communist government was the creation of an entirely self-sufficient agrarian society. To achieve this, the Khmer Rouge launched a campaign of eradication. Men, women, and children of the middle and upper classes were targeted. Among the groups targeted were individuals connected to the previous government, intellectuals, monks, and professional people such as doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and journalists. Racial and religious minorities were also targeted. All of these groups were considered “subversive” by the Khmer Rouge and a potential threat to their communist state.
Victims were arrested, and frequently summarily killed. Most famously, the Khmer Rouge took their victims to the killing fields where mass murders unfolded. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, often by pickax or machete to conserve ammunition. Across the country, dozens of sites have been discovered where these mass murders occurred. Based on the findings, historians estimate that 1.5 – 2 million people were systematically murdered by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 – 1979. The killings finally ceased in 1979 when the Vietnamese Army invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge.
The Cambodian Genocide remains one of the most definitive examples of genocide since the Holocaust. It was a four-year campaign to not only systematically eradicate specific groups of people but also can be considered a classicide in which there were attempts to destroy the educated and professional, middle and upper classes.
Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide since World War II: The Bosnian Genocide
Learning Objectives
Identify the importance of the Bosnian Genocide
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Balkans: group of countries in southeast Europe bordering the Aegean, Black, and Adriatic Seas
Bosniak: Bosnian-Muslim
Croatian War of Independence: 1991 – 1995 conflict between Croatia and Serbia
Dayton Accords: 1995 cease-fire agreement that established the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Republika Srpska: political territory established inside Bosnia Herzegovina’s southern and eastern regions that is predominately inhabited by Serbs
Slobodan Milošević: Serbian leader 1989 – 2000 who was instrumental in facilitating the Yugoslav Wars and Bosnian Genocide
Srebrenica: site of one of the most infamous mass murders in the Bosnian Genocide
Tito: communist leader of Yugoslavia from 1944 – 1980
Yugoslavia: communist nation comprised of six Balkan countries from 1945 – 1991
Yugoslav Wars: series of conflicts following between Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and other Balkan nations from 1991 – 2001
Vukovar: city in eastern Croatia that experienced heinous war crimes in the Croatian War of Independence
The Yugoslav Wars
If the Holocaust introduced the world to the concept of genocide, the Yugoslav Wars of the late 1980s and 1990s made the world more aware of ethnic cleansing.
Background
In southeast Europe there are a stretch of countries collectively known as the Balkans. These countries include Greece, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and a handful of others. These countries historically are rich in language, religion, and culture. Because of their ethnic and religious diversity, as well as territory squabbles, countries in the Balkans also have a long history of conflict in and among themselves.
During the Cold War, political strongman, Tito, came to power and the Balkans were united under the communist banner. Six countries formed the Cold War state of Yugoslavia: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovenia. While under Tito’s rule, Yugoslavia remained united, despite religious and ethnic tension. Predominately, the Serbs had been Eastern Orthodox, the Croats were Catholic, and the Bosnians were Muslim. These religious differences would set the stage for the Yugoslav wars. While Tito remained in power, the six nations cooperated. Anyone who dissented was summarily dismissed from their post by Tito. Tito’s policy of “state above all else” was extremely popular. And when he died in 1980, millions throughout Yugoslavia mourned his death.
Tito’s successors tried desperately to keep the Yugoslav state together. Despite their efforts, old rivalries and tensions soon emerged. As one of Tito’s successors remarked, “Will we all just go back to shooting each other?”
In 1987, a Serbian socialist politician entered the forefront of the Balkan stage: Slobodan Milošević. More than any other man, he divided people in the Balkans by promoting Serbian nationalism. Slowly, he transformed the Yugoslav Army into a predominately Serbian Army, and he refueled old hatreds between groups. To achieve his purpose of promoting Serbian dominance in the Balkans, and Serbian nationalism at home, Slobodan Milošević masterfully employed the use of television. He broadcast messages to the Serbian people, showing images of the developing Serbian military. Famously, when Serbian people were beaten by policemen from Kosovo and Albania, the videographer caught Milošević’s response as he lifted a Serb to his feet, “You will not be beaten again.” The image of the downtrodden Serbs being physically lifted by Milošević before their rivals sent a power signal throughout Serbia. At home, Milošević’s popularity skyrocketed, and he was hailed the next Tito. But Milošević had bigger ambitions for Serbia than unity with its neighbors. His chance to elevate Serbia’s place in the Balkans came in 1991 when the Soviet Union, and by extension, the Yugoslav state, collapsed.
The Yugoslav Wars Begin
The collapse of the Soviet Union struck Serbia and Milošević hard. Serbia and Russia had a deep history of economic and political alliances. And for Milošević, it became clear he would never become the next Tito. He would have to settle for president of Serbia. But he would make sure the Balkans remembered him too.
In 1991, Croatia voted for independence. A year later, Bosnia did the same. The acts infuriated Milošević because both countries had large Serbian populations. He would not allow them to become independent nations with so many of “his people” without a fight.
Croatian War of Independence
In the spring of 1991, skirmishes between the Serbs and the Croats began, mostly in Croatian territory where there was a strong Serbian minority. By the summer, Croatia had officially declared independence. In response, the Serbian army escalated the conflict. They launched violent attacks against the Croats on the battlefields, but also launched furious bombardments of their cities, including Dubrovnik.
In November 1991, the Serbian forces surrounded the Croatian city of Vukovar. Soldiers and citizens were subjected to heavy artillery bombardment from the advancing Serbian army. Severely outnumbered, the Croatian forces were quickly overrun. Inside the city, Serbian soldiers executed the Croatian soldiers and civilians at will. Many soldiers and civilians had sheltered in the Vukovar hospital. The Serbian army secured the hospital and quickly seized two hundred people, mostly civilians. They were then transported to a pig farm outside the city and shot. Additional mass murders followed.
The non-Serbian civilians who survived the massacres were forced from the city by the Serbians who drove them into ramshackle concentration camps lined with barbed wire. Deplorable conditions existed inside the camps, and thousands of Croats perished either from disease and malnourishment, or executions. The removal of all non-Serbian peoples was undertaken to ethnically cleanse the city. Vukovar, which sustained heavy damage, was the first European city to be mostly destroyed in war since 1945.
The Croatian War for Independence, the first major Yugoslav War, ended in 1995 after two successful offensive campaigns launched by the Croats. In four years, Croatia had lost 20,000 people and roughly a quarter of their economy was devastated. It appeared as if their experiment as an independent, democratic nation was off to a shaky start.
The Bosnian War
The Bosnian War far exceeded the violence of the Croatian War for Independence. In the Bosnian War, the Serbian army launched an all-out campaign to eradicate the Bosniaks—Bosnian Muslims. In the summer of 1992, Europe again saw genocide, less than fifty years after the end of World War II.
Serbian nationalists promised to “liberate” towns and cities throughout Bosnia. In this mission, they employed thousands of Serbian troops. In addition to the army, they recruited paramilitary forces, including the highly feared Arkan’s Tigers. Under the command of the popular, Željko Ražnatović (Arkan)—an international mobster on Interpol’s Most Wanted List—the Tigers were feared because of their readiness to carry-out excessively brutal murders against both Croats and Bosniaks.
Overnight, Serbians living in Bosnia turned against their Bosniak neighbors. Many joined the Serbian armed forces and paramilitary groups. These neighbors later participated in the round up and mass murder of the Bosniaks. Ethnic cleansing of Bosnia, rapes, looting, and prolonged sieges of major cities, like Sarajevo, reigned in Bosnia. Across the country, deplorable concentration camps sprang up to contain the Bosniak and Croat prisoners.
Across Bosnia, Serbians engaged in mass executions, primarily of Bosniaks. The most famous of the mass murders occurred at Srebrenica, on the eastern border of Bosnia near Serbia. An estimated 8,000 Bosniak boys and men were murdered and then thrown into mass graves.
The conflict in Bosnia ended in 1995 with the Dayton Accords. The peace treaty was signed at Warren Air Force Base outside of Dayton, Ohio. Chief to the success of the treaty was U.S. peace negotiator, Richard Holbrooke, and the American Secretary of State. The treaty established a separate, largely Serbian region in Bosnia, the Republika Srpska. Located on Bosnia’s southern and eastern sides, Republika Srpska remains largely inhabited by Serbians. The other side of Bosnia Herzegovina is home predominately to Croats and Bosniaks.
Kosovo
The Yugoslav Wars did not end until the early 2000s. In 1998 – 1999, war erupted in Kosovo—to the southeast of Bosnia. While Kosovars declared autonomy, they were challenged and attacked by forces from Serbia and Montenegro. Fears that Kosovars were being persecuted by the attacking forces escalated. In 1999, NATO launched a series of airstrikes over Serbia. For nearly three months, NATO forces bombed parts of Serbia and Montenegro until Serbian and Montenegrin forces withdrew. The NATO actions remain controversial because their airstrikes were never approved by the UN Security Council, having been vetoed by China and Russia. Moreover, the maneuver was technically illegal because no NATO nation had been directly attacked. Instead, the NATO airstrikes were conducted in the name of protecting humanity, without official approval from the United Nations.
Tension and insurgencies persisted in Kosovo and Montenegro into the early 2000s. Today, the region remains unsettled, and comprised of six independent nations. For their parts in the Yugoslav Wars, Slobodan Milošević and his inner circle were charged with war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. Before Milošević could stand trial, he died in prison of a heart condition. His close associates Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić were convicted of war crimes by The Hague and sentenced to life in prison.
Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide since World War II: The Rwandan Genocide
Learning Objectives
Identify the importance of the Rwandan Genocide.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Hutu: ethnic, majority group in Rwanda in the 1990s
Rwanda: landlocked country east of Congo in Africa
Rwandan Genocide: mass slaughter of Tutsis by Hutus and their collaborators in 1994
Rwandan Patriotic Front: Tutsi-led force that fought against the Hutus during the Rwandan Genocide
Tutsi: ethnic, minority group in Rwanda in the 1990s
The Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the mass slaughter of Tutsi people in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority government in 1994. An estimated 500,000 to one million Rwandans were killed during the 100-day period from April 7 to mid-July 1994, constituting as many as 70% of the Tutsi population and 20% of Rwanda’s overall population.
Preparation for Genocide
Historians do not agree on a precise date on which the idea of a “final solution” to kill every Tutsi in Rwanda was introduced. The Rwandan army began training Hutu youth in combat and arming civilians with weapons, such as machetes, in 1990. Rwanda also purchased large numbers of grenades and munitions starting in late 1990. The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) also expanded rapidly during this time, growing from fewer than 10,000 troops to almost 30,000 in one year. Throughout 1993, far right nationalists imported machetes from China on a scale far larger than required for agriculture, as well as other tools that could be used as weapons, such as razor blades, saws, and scissors. These tools were distributed around the country, ostensibly as part of the civil defense network. And, in March 1993, the Hutu Power group began compiling lists of “traitors” who they planned to kill.
In October 1993, the President of Burundi, Melchior Ndadaye, who had been elected in June as the country’s first ever Hutu president, was assassinated by extremist Tutsi army officers. The assassination caused shock waves throughout the country, reinforcing the notion among Hutus that the Tutsi were their enemy and could not be trusted.
The idea of a Tutsi “final solution” now occupied the top of Hutu party agendas and was actively planned. The Hutu Power groups were confident of persuading the Hutu population to carry out killings given the public anger at Ndadaye’s murder, the persuasiveness of propaganda, and the traditional obedience of Rwandans to authority. Power leaders began arming militia groups with AK-47s and other weapons, whereas previously they possessed only machetes and traditional hand weapons.
Assassination of Habyarimana
On April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying President Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi—was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali, killing everyone on board. Responsibility for the attack was disputed. Despite disagreements about the perpetrators, the attack and deaths of the two Hutu presidents served as the catalyst for the subsequent Tutsi genocide.
Genocide
The genocide itself began on April 7, 199. The commanders announced the president’s death, blamed the Tutsis, and then ordered the crowd to begin killing Tutsi people. The genocide quickly spread throughout the country. For the remainder of April and early May, the Presidential Guard—gendarmerie —and youth militias continued killing at very high rates. These groups were aided by local populations, as Hutu neighbors turned on their Tutsi neighbors. Historian Gerard Prunier estimates in his book, The Rwanda Crisis, that up to 800,000 Rwandans were murdered during the first six weeks of the genocide. That statistic represents a rate of killing that was five times higher than the Holocaust in terms of time. The goal of the genocide was to kill every Tutsi living in Rwanda, and except for the advancing Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), there was no opposition force to prevent or slow the killings.
Escape proved nearly impossible. Each person who encountered a roadblock was required to show their national identity card that included ethnicity, and anyone carrying a Tutsi card was slaughtered immediately. Many Hutus were also killed for a variety of reasons, including demonstrating sympathy for moderate opposition parties, being a journalist, or simply appearing Tutsi. The RPF made slow and steady gains in the north and east of the country, ending killings in each area they occupied.
Impact
Given the chaotic nature of the situation, there is no consensus on the number of people killed during the genocide. Unlike the genocides carried out by Nazi Germany or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, authorities made no attempts to document or systematize deaths. The succeeding RPF government has stated that 1,071,000 were killed in 100 days, 10% of whom were Hutu. Based on those statistics, it could be derived that 10,000 people were murdered every day.
End of Rwandan Genocide
The infrastructure and economy of Rwanda suffered greatly during the genocide. Many buildings were uninhabitable, and the former regime had taken all currency and movable assets when they fled the country. Human resources were also severely depleted, with over 40% of the population having been killed or fled. Many of the remainder were traumatized: most had lost relatives, witnessed killings, or participated in the genocide. In 1994, the UN established a criminal tribunal to try Rwandan war criminals. It convicted 85 individuals. Rwandan courts also tried individuals for their participation in war crimes during the genocide.
Attributions
Images Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Boundless World History
“Rwandan Genocide”
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-rwandan-genocide/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The Holocaust and other Genocides: History, Representation, and Ethics. Helmut Walser Smith, Ed. Vanderbilt Publishing; Nashville, TN: 2002.