The Kosovo War - „Ethnic cleansing“ ?
(all the text and images were taken by @luledardane on twitter )
22 years after the war, there are still critical voices denying the ethnic cleansing of the Albanian population by the Serbian regime. So, let's make a thread out of it and explain the term "ethnic cleansing“
It was first used during the Yugoslav Wars in the 90s. The Yugoslav Wars marked the start of a new kind of warfare, that had less expansionist intentions and was much more ethnically motivated.
These ethnically motivated wars increasingly took place on the backs of the civilian population, which, in this new type of warfare, were the focus of the aggressors. „Ethnic cleansing“ has officially no legal definiton under international criminal law.
The United Nations definition of ethnic cleansing is: "rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove from a given area persons of another ethnic or religious group"
The United Nations Comission also stated that the coercive practices used to remove the civilian population can include: murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, extrajudicial executions, rape and sexual assaults, severe physical injury to civilians.... displacement of civilian population, deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, destruction of property, robbery of personal property, attacks on hospitals, medical personnel, among others (Source: UN Secourity Council 1992)
Examples of ethnic cleansing can be found in various places throughout history. Examples of ethnic cleansing would be; the Bosnian War, Rwanda War or the Myanmar War (and a lot of more). Comparing these special cases of ethnic cleansing and the different definition approaches with one another, the following indicators can be identified:
I. mass murders II. sexual violence III. mass evictions IV. robbery of personal property V. destruction of cultural or religious heritage VI. cultural homogenization
So, let's check if these indicators match to the happenings in Kosovo 1998/99-
I. Mass murders
nearly 9 thousand Albanian civilians were cruelly killed by the Serbian military in 1998-99. 1622 are still missed. 1024 children were killed. A total of 19 massacres by the Serbian military within Albanian communities can be dated.
Example; during the Meja massacre were 377 ethnic Albanians killed within one day, on April, 27 1999.
II. sexual violence
More than 20.000 women and children were raped by Serbian troops in the Kosovo war. It should be noted that the number of unreported cases of raped people is higher
Here you can see an interview of a survivor who talks about her torture and that of her young daughters (english subs):
III. mass evictions
90% of Albanians displaced during the war. 848.000–863.000 were expelled from Kosovo. 590.000 displaced within Kosovo. Here you can see a video from an Albanian refugee camp in Macedonia in 1999 (unfortunately, the video is in German)
IV. robbery of personal property
The Serbian troops robbed the property of the Albanian civilians. Especially among those who were already on the run - they were robbed of their valuables and their last money in order to be able to continue.
The robbery of valuables and the destruction of their houses (more than 70.000 homes) ensured that they would never return to Kosovo. In addition, their passports or similar documents were stolen and destroyed in order to conceal the identity and origin of the refugees.
V. destruction of cultural or religious heritage
Numerous Albanian cultural sites in Kosovo were destroyed during the Yugoslav rule and especially the Kosovo conflict. Of the 498 mosques ICTY documented that 225 mosques sustained damage or destruction by the Serb army.
Additionally 500 Albanian owned Kulla dwellings were destroyed, as well as a variety of Albanian libraries. Vandalisation of Albanian catholic churches also occurred (as example, the St. Anthony’s Church (Kisha e Shën Andonit) in Gjakova)
“The destruction of Kosovo's non-Serb architectural heritage was a planned and methodical element of ethnic cleansing“ (Andrew Herscher and András Riedlmayer)
VI. cultural homogenization
When Milosevic came to power, Kosovo was not only deprived of its autonomy, but also deprived of their minority rights. Albanians were degraded to second class people -
As a result, the public speaking of the Albanian language, the hoisting of the flag and the general practice of expression of cultural practices were punished in many parts of the country
Like you can see, it is inevitable to see the Kosovo war not as an ethnic cleansing. The Serbian government and its troops showed a new and gruesome way of warfare to the world in the 1990s. Horrible events in the middle of Europe at the end of the 90s.
