Ethnic cleansing

The term ethnic cleansing refers to various policies of forcibly removing people of one

Origins of the term

The term "ethnic cleansing" entered the English lexicon as a loan translation of the Serbian/Croatian phrase etničko čišćenje (IPA {{IPA|/etnitʃko tʃiʃtʃʲeɲe/}}) (notice that literal translation of the phrase is "ethnic cleaning"). During the 1990s it was used extensively by the media in the former Yugoslavia in relation to the Yugoslav wars, and appears to have been popularised by the international media some time around 1992. The term may have originated some time before the 1990s in the military doctrine of the former Yugoslav People's Army, which spoke of "cleansing the territory" (čišćenje terena, IPA {{IPA|/tʃiʃtʃʲeɲe terena/}}) of enemies to take total control of a conquered area. The origins of this doctrine are unclear, but may have been a legacy of the Partizan era.

Related Topics:
Loan translation - IPA - 1990s - Yugoslavia - Yugoslav wars - 1992 - Yugoslav People's Army - Partizan

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This originally applied purely to military enemies, but came to be applied to ethnic groups as well. It was used in this context in Yugoslavia by the Serbian media as early as 1981, in relation to the policies of the Kosovo Albanian administration allegedly creating an "ethnically clean territory" (i.e. "cleanly" Albanian) in the provincehttp://www.siri-us.com/backgrounders/Archives_Kosovo/KLA-Terror-Cleansing.html. However, this usage had antecedents.

Related Topics:
Serbia - 1981 - Kosovo

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The earliest known usage of it may been in May 16, 1941, during the Second World War, by one Viktor Gutić, a commander in the Croatian fascist faction the Ustaše.

Related Topics:
May 16 - 1941 - Second World War - Viktor Gutić - Croatia - Ustaše

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An article in the Hrvatska Krajina newspaperhttp://www.pavelicpapers.com/documents/ndhnews/ndhn0004.html describing the visit to the Franciscan monastery in Petrićevac quotes Gutić's speech:

Related Topics:
Franciscan - Petrićevac

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: Every Croat who today solicits for our enemies not only is not a good Croat, but also an opponent and disrupter of the prearranged, well-calculated plan for cleansing ' our Croatia of unwanted elements

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The Ustaše did carry out large-scale ethnic cleansing in their time in the Second World War. It is possible that the revival of nationalism in the 1980s reintroduced ethnic cleansing into Yugoslavia's political debate and language.

Related Topics:
Second World War - 1980s

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A similar term with the same intent was used by the Nazi administration in Germany under Adolf Hitler. When an area under Nazi control had its entire Jewish population removed, whether by driving the population out, by deportation to Concentration Camps, and/or murder, the area was declared judenrein (lit. Jew Clean): cleansed of Jews. (cf. racial hygiene.)

Related Topics:
Nazi - Germany - Adolf Hitler - Jew - Concentration Camp - Murder - Racial hygiene

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