The Anthropology Of Genocide - WNLibrary

204 annihilating difference
ethnic cleansing was used polemically and according to varying criteria (often dependent
on the political point the speaker wanted to make) by foreign commentators
as well.
THE POLICY OF ETHNIC CLEANSING
In the Final Report of the United Nations Commission of Experts, ethnic cleansing
is defined as “rendering an area ethnically homogenous by using force or intimidation
to remove from a given area persons from another ethnic or religious group.”
This is a very general definition that does not specify the violent means involved.
However, the report is more specific in referring to actual campaigns of “ethnic
cleansing”; it continues: “ ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ has involved means, such as the mass
killing of civilians, sexual assault, the bombardment of cities, the destruction of
mosques and churches, the confiscation of property and similar measures to eliminate
or dramatically reduce, Muslim and Croat populations that lie within Serb
held territories.” The report states that Croat forces, too, have engaged in ethnic
cleansing against Serbs and Muslims, and that “while Bosnian Muslim forces have
engaged in practices that constitute ‘grave breaches’ of the Geneva Conventions
and other violations of international humanitarian law, they have not engaged in
‘ethnic cleansing operations’ ” and that “the forceful population removal of Serbs
by Bosnian Muslims has happened but not as part of a policy.” Indeed, the organized
and systematic character of the “ethnic cleansing” campaigns, and the fact
that they were backed up with a propaganda led by a political leadership, should
encourage us always to preface references to ethnic cleansing with “the policy of ”
or “campaign of.”
It is not clear how the term ethnic cleansing originated. However, Bosnians have
told me that rascistiti, the word for “to clean up” or “to cleanse” (or cisdenje, the word
for “cleaning”) was used in the vernacular during World War II to describe a military
action akin to “mopping up,” as in the term rascistiti teren (“mopping up the
terrain”). I suggest that the term ethnic was added on by foreign journalists or human
rights rapporteurs. To my knowledge, ethnic (etnicki) was not a term widely
known or used in Bosnia except by sociologists. But older people were familiar with
the use of the term cisdenje (or rascistiti ) from armed attacks on villages during World
War II (including by Tito’s Partisan forces). Although the abhorrent practices associated
with ethnic cleansing are not new, the term that has become a generalized
expression of them is.
However, “ethnic purification,” which is the English translation of etnicki cisdenje,
may better convey the Nazi era ideas behind the violent and bigoted practices the
term is meant to stand for (see also Letica 1997). It could be argued that the wide use
of ethnic cleansing (usually leaving out a clarifying “policy of ”) in the media coverage
of the war in Bosnia during the first few years blurred the international public’s conceptions
of what was going on. “Ethnic cleansing” sounded like something peculiarly
“Balkan,” and indeed for some Balkan scholars who were applying their po-