Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity
Ethnic Cleansing
- Definition in international context
- The term ethnic cleansing is not formally defined in international law as a standalone legal category (unlike genocide or crimes against humanity).
- However, since the 1990s, particularly during the Yugoslav wars, the United Nations has used a widely cited working definition.
- UN Commission of Experts (1993) definition
- Ethnic cleansing means rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by removing persons of specific groups through force or intimidation.
- It is described as: “A purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”
- Serbian crackdown (1998)
- Serbia treated the KLA as an insurgent threat and responded with brutal military crackdowns, including massacres and forced displacements.
- Growing support and ethnic violence
- This repression fueled support for the KLA among Kosovar Albanians.
- Ethnic cleansing affected both Albanians and Serbs, with Serbian forces displacing civilians and KLA elements attacking Serbian villages and Orthodox sites.
- Human rights abuses documented
- Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reported widespread abuses by Serbian forces: extrajudicial killings, massacres, and mass displacement.
- HRW’s 1999 report Kosovo: The Evidence of Ethnic Cleansing estimated tens of thousands of civilians were killed or displaced.
- According to UN data, by early 1999 more than 200,000 Kosovar Albanians had been forcibly displaced.
- KLA strategy and international engagement
- The KLA deliberately sought to provoke Serbian overreach to draw Western attention.
- After being ignored in the Dayton Accords (1995), the KLA concluded that violence was the only path to international engagement.
- Shift from Rugova’s peaceful approach
- Peaceful efforts by leaders like Ibrahim Rugova were seen as ineffective and ignored internationally.
- The KLA adopted a militant strategy, believing violence was necessary to “force the hands” of Serbia, the international community, and Kosovo’s political leaders.
- Targeting Serbian security forces
- The KLA attacked Serbian police and military positions, knowing reprisals would follow.
- This cycle of violence highlighted Serbian oppression and human rights abuses, making it harder for the West to ignore Kosovo.
- KLA’s justification
- KLA leader Hashim Thaçi later declared that armed struggle was “a necessity to free and democratize Kosovo,” aimed at gaining legitimacy and international sympathy.
- International recognition (1998)
