Topic: “The Devil Came on Horseback”-

Ethnic Cleansing and Genocides

• Aim: For what reasons do ethnicities clash?

Clashes of Ethnicities

• Ethnic competition to dominate nationality– Ethnic competition in the Horn of Africa

– Ethnic competition in Lebanon

• Dividing ethnicities among more than one state– Dividing ethnicities in South Asia– Dividing Sri Lanka among ethnicities

Sub-Saharan Africa:Sub-Saharan Africa:

• This region has been particularly plagued by ethnic conflicts. The Horn of Africa and central Africa are two regions wherein the conflicts have been particularly complex and brutal.

• The HOA encompasses Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia

Definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nations institutions

Conflicts have been widespread within the East African countries in the area known as the

Horn of Africa, because each contains numerous ethnicities.

Ethnic Diversity – a Legacy of Colonialism

• Tensions among Nigeria’s main ethnic groups erupt into open conflict in the streets of Lagos.

Source: http://www.msu.edu/course/iss/325/stein/revolt.htm#Nigeria

Ethnic Conflict Puts Nigeria at Risk:

• 53,787 people died in ethnic and religious clashes between Christians and Muslims in Plateau State between September 2001 and May 2004

NY Times (October 8, 2004)

Plateau State

Chad-Sudan Border Zone

• Border zone marked by ethnic diversity

• Open conflict has destroyed villages

• Thousands have fled to refugees camps on both sides of the international border

Source: Human Rights Watch [http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/darfur/map.htm]

Source: http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/sudan/images/satellite/index.html

Source: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/darfur_villages_0802_2004.jpg

More than 1 million people have fled as Arab militias attack black African populations.

Refugee Camp in Darfur, Sudan

Farmers from Darfur in western Sudan have been chased from their homes by agents of the Sudanese government.

The High Price of Conflict:

• Two families arrive in Bredjing camp after walking for many days from Sudan bearing on their heads all the possessions they were able to grab when soldiers drove them from their villages in Darfur.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/africa_chad_refugee_camp/html/5.stm

Ethnicities in Lebanon:

• Fig. 7-15: Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, and Druze are dominant in different areas of the country.

Ethnic Division of South AsiaEthnic Division of South Asia

• Fig. 7-16: At independence in 1947, British India was divided into India and Pakistan, resulting in the migration of 17 million people and many killings. In 1971, after a brutal civil war, East Pakistan became the country of Bangladesh.

Jammu and Kashmir:

• Fig. 7-17: Although its population is mainly Muslim, much of Jammu and Kashmir became part of India in 1947. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over the territory, and there has been a separatist insurgency in the area.

Train Station in Amritsar, India, October, 1947

The station is filled with Hindu refugees who have fled from the new country of Pakistan.

Sri Lanka’s Complex Cultural Environment:

Source: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/ltte.htm

• Ethnic diversity– Sinhalese – 74%– Sri Lankan Tamils – 12%

– Indian Tamils – 6 %– Other minorities – Muslims, Burghers, Veddas

• Religious diversity– Sinhalese – Buddhist

– Tamils – Hindu– Muslims - Sunni

Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka:

• Fig. 7-18: The Sinhalese are mainly Buddhist and speak an Indo-European language, while the Tamils are mainly Hindu and speak a Dravidian language.

Kurdish Refugees from Iraq, 1991

• Many Kurds fled Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War when Saddam Hussein’s armed forces attacked Kurdish regions in northern Iraq.

Ethnic Mosaic of the Former Soviet Union:

Russia’s Ethnic Republics

Chechen (58%) + Russian (23%) = Formula for Conflict

• Chechen boy with a toy helmet and toy gun leads his sister through Grozny. A Russian mortar shell is in the foreground on the left.[AP/Wide World Photo]Source: http://www.warchildren.org/images/

children_shell.jpg

Source: http://www.mirrorimage.com/ai/actions/russia/trip/nazran-2.html

Ethnic Cleansing in Europe:

• Ethnic Cleansing - process in which a more powerful ethnicity forcibly removes a less powerful one to create an ethnically homogenous region

• Largest forced migration in Europe during World War II - Jews, gypsies, other ethnic groups escaped persecution

• Post war boundary changes forced Germans, Russians, Poles, and others to migrate

Forced Migrations after World War II:

Fig. 7-19: Territorial changes after World War II resulted in many migrations, especially by Poles, Germans, and Russians.

The Balkans in 1914

The northern part of the Balkans was part of Austria-Hungary in 1914, while much of the south was part of the Ottoman Empire. The country of Yugoslavia was created after World War I.

Balkanization:

• Geopolitical term which refers to the process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among ethnicities

• Ethnic rivalry and desire for self-determination was one of several primary causes of World War I

Languages in Southeastern

Europe

Fig. 7-21: Several new states were created, and boundaries were shifted after World Wars I and II. New state boundaries often coincided with language areas.

Ethnic Regions in Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia’s six republics until 1992 included much ethnic diversity. Brutal ethnic cleansing occurred in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo during the civil wars of the 1990s.

Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo:

Fig. 7-1.1: Aerial photography helped document the stages of ethnic cleansing in western Kosovo in 1999.