Ethnic Cleansing - An Attempt at Methodology

Drazen Petrovic¹

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The continuing war in Bosnia and Herzegovina has contributed a new term to the vocabulary of international relations with the expression `ethnic cleansing'.² This word describes a set of human rights and humanitarian law violations in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.³ The term was initially used by journalists and politicians who applied it later to other crisis situations,⁴ but it has also been adopted as part of the official vocabulary of UN Security Council documents and by other UN institutions and governmental and non-governmental international organizations. In fact, the reasoning behind this terminology and its relationship to the system of international law are not very clear.

This study will compare the description of this phenomenon given in different documents, and analyse its substance in order to determine if it has any meaning in international law. As a necessary first research step, given that no agreement exists about the very definition of ethnic cleansing, some basic notions should be discussed. As this is one of the first papers on this issue, extensive references and quotations have sometimes seemed inevitable. The main reason for such an approach is that, although there is widespread use of this new term, its actual meaning is not precise.

I. Questions of Terminology

Ethnic cleansing is a literal translation of the expression `etnicko ciscenje' in Serbo-Croatian/Croato-Serbian. The origin of this term, even in its original language, is difficult to establish. Mass media reports discussed the establishment of `ethnically clean territories' in Kosovo after 1981. At the time, it related to administrative and non-violent matters and referred mostly to the behaviour of Kosovo Albanians towards the Serbian minority in the autonomous province within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The term derived its current meaning during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina,⁵ and was also used to describe certain events in Croatia. It is impossible to determine who was the first to employ it, and in what context. As military officers of the former Yugoslav People's Army had a preponderant role in all these events, the conclusion could be drawn that the expression `ethnic cleansing' has its origin in military vocabulary. The expression `to clean the territory'⁶ is directed against enemies, and it is used mostly in the final phase of combat in order to take total control of the conquered territory. In general terms, the idiom `cist'-`clean' means `without any dirt' or `contamination'. The word `ethnic' has been added to the military term because the `enemies' are considered to be the other ethnic communities.⁷

In English, reference is also made to `ethnic purification'. In French, including French versions of relevant UN Security Council resolutions, different terms are used: la purification ethnique, nettoyage ethnique and épuration ethnique. It would be difficult to establish any rule in the use of these different terms, and they may be considered as synonyms.

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1 Senior assistant of the Sarajevo University Law School; Research student at the European University Institute Florence; Ph.D. Student of the Geneva University Law School.

2 Commission of Experts in its First Interim Report of 10 February 1993, UN Doc. S/25274: `The expression ethnic cleansing is relatively new.' See also Roux, `A propos de la purification ethnique en Bosnie-Herzégovine', Hérodote (1992) 49. See also by Roux, `Lo scenario bosniaco: Pulizia etnica e spartizione territoriale', LIMES Rivista italiana di geopolitica (1/1993) 29-46.

3 Ethnic cleansing has been compared with Nazi policies during World War II. See, Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the opening of the International Meeting on Humanitarian Aid for Victims of the Conflict in the former Yugoslavia, held under the auspices of the UNHCR, Geneva, 29 July 1992, Statement of Mr. Eagleburger, US Secretary of State, International Herald Tribune 17 December 1992, at 1; Féron, `Yougoslavie, Origines d'un conflit', Le Monde (1993) 91.

4 For example in Cyprus, Rana, `Pulizie etniche - Cipro', Avvenimenti 15 December 1993, Georgia, Hockstader, `In Georgia, Tales of Atrocities', International Herald Tribune 22 October 1993, at 5, Burundi, Dupraz, `La purification ethnique plonge à nouveau le Burundi dans l'horreur', Le Tribune de Genève 23 March 1994, at 11 and Caucasus, `Nettoyage ethnique dans le Caucase', L'Hebdo, 21 October 1994, at 10.

5 Patterns of ethnic cleansing are also found in the annals of history. See Bell-Fialkoff, `A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing', Foreign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (1993) 110.

6 For example, Burns, `Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia: A Savage Tale of Murder and Rape', International Herald Tribune 28-29 November 1992: `Although this expression is basically connected with the Bosnian war, similar patterns are also found in the annals ... he [Borislav Herak] said Serbian commanders called the Serbian operation in the village ciscenje prostora or the cleansing of the region, and had told the Serbian fighters to leave nobody alive.'

7 According to widespread opinion, the use of such designation is not adequate in Bosnia and Herzegovina due to the same ethnic origin of major national groups: Muslims-Bosnjaks, Serbs and Croats.

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