Ethnic cleansing is a policy designed by one group to remove, by violent and terror-inspiring means, the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas. The term is most often used in reference to attempts by the Serbs of the former Yugoslavia to purge that country’s non-Serb populations during the wars there in the early 1990s. But it has also been applied to Idi Amin’s expulsion of Ugandan East Indians and to the efforts by white settlers in North America to drive out Native Americans.
Tribunals that have considered charges of genocide have struggled to establish a clear legal standard for what constitutes genocidal intent. Few perpetrators have left behind detailed plans outlining their intent to eradicate a specific population. However, tribunals have ruled that if an intentional attempt is made to eliminate a particular group, it can be called “ethnic cleansing” even if the goal is not to wipe out that group completely.
While there is debate over the exact definition of the crime, international bodies, including the UN and the ad hoc tribunals that prosecuted crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, have recognized links between acts of ethnic cleansing and other offenses, such as murder, torture, and forced displacement, that are categorized as crimes against humanity. The ICC’s Rome Statute recognizes that those who commit the crimes of murder, persecution, rape, and other violations of humanitarian law in order to achieve or perpetuate an act of ethnic cleansing may be subject to prosecution.
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