ABSTRACT
Ethnic cleansing refers to “the expulsion of an ‘undesirable’ population from a given territory due to religious or ethnic discrimination, political, strategic or ideological considerations, or a combination of these” (Bell-Fialkoff 1993: 110). On the most basic level, it is the deliberate policy of homogenizing the ethnic makeup of a territory. As this definition suggests, ethnic cleansing comprises not only ethnic expulsions and extermination during war, but also policies of ethnic homogenization undertaken during times of relative peace. In strategic terms, it involves the removal of targeted minorities from a given territory and the subsequent resettlement of members of the dominant group in the minorities’ abandoned homes and property. In sum, ethnic cleansing consists of policies of ethnic expulsion and resettlement, which may be implemented either violently or non-violently. These policies are all undertaken with the purpose of achieving ethno-territorial homogenization.
