Suchergebnisse

Yugoslav society, held together for 45 years by communists, began to disintegrate in the 1980s & has deteriorated further due to forces of nationalism, resulting in ethnic cleansing. The broad concept of ethnic cleansing as ethnocide & its narrower connotation as genocidal annihilation are considered here. It is shown how genocide has traditionally been used in the Balkans to create pure ethnic territories. It is concluded that nationalist hostilities result in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Adapted from the source document.

The issue of whether interethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia during the early & mid-1990s is representative of genocidal killing is addressed. A literature review of contemporary genocide research is presented, focusing on Leo Kuper's (1981) study of the connection between war & genocide, Frank Chalk & Kurt Jonassohn's (1990) typology of genocide, Robert Jay Lifton's (1986) tripartite medical metaphor of genocide, & Robert Melson's (1992) study of the Armenian genocide & the Holocaust. The aforementioned models were all present in the former Yugoslavia. It is subsequently claimed that Serb & Croat nationalist leaders utilized aspects of WWII genocide before & during the interethnic conflict. Although the potential for the newly established European democracies to revert to authoritarian regimes remains, it is concluded that the creation of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda & the former Yugoslavia is an important step for addressing genocidal killing. J. W. Parker