ETHNIC CONFLICTS AND

PEACE KEEPING
(BY ANSA BINT-E-FAYYAZ)
ETHNIC CONFLICT

ETHNIC CONFLICT

 Ethnicity- derived from Greek word ‘Ethnos’ meaning ‘A community

of common descent’.

 An ethnic group is distinguished from the rest of society by common

ties of race, language, nationality or culture among its members.
ETHNIC CONFLICT

 ETHNIC CONFLICT:An ethnic conflict is a conflict about important

political, economic, social, cultural or territorial issues between two
or more ethnic communities.

 Ethnic conflicts may or may not involve violence.The velvet divorce

of Czechoslovakia in 1993 or the struggle of French Canadians in
Quebec against the government for more autonomy.

 The examples of situation where ethnic conflicts resulted into

violence include conflict in Rwanda, South Sudan and Bosnia.
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ETHNIC CONFLICT IN RWANDA

 The conflict in Rwanda occurred between two major ethnic groups, namely,
Hutus and Tutsis.
 The conflict resulted from discriminatory behavior towards Hutus by Belgian
colonists, prioritizing Tutsis.
 After 1945, UN demanded Belgians to leave the colony and give it
independence on majority rule.
 Since the Hutus were in majority, they were fated to win and avenge
themselves, on the other side, Tutsis were afraid of the same.
 On the way towards independence, the Hutus started an all out ethnic
cleansing of Tutsis in 1959 which resulted in massive killings, along with
300000 Tutsis exilement.
 The Tutsis that sought exile in Uganda assembled to form Rwanda political
front (RPF).
 The RPF attacked Rwanda in 1991, massively killing the Hutus and
penetrating into the land beating FAR (Rwandan army).
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 To solve this conflict, the government and the RPF entered into
Arusha Peace Accord (APA) in 1993.
 On 6 April 1994, the deaths of the Presidents of Burundi and
Rwanda in a plane crash caused by a rocket attack, led to all out
conflict by Hutus, targeting both the Tutsis and Moderates.
 Killings continued until 4 July 1994 when the RPF took military
control of the entire territory of Rwanda.
 More than 800000 people perished in this massacre, wiping out
40% of the state’s population.
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ETHNIC CONFLICT IN SOUTH SUDAN

 South Sudan got its independence on July 9, 2011,
through plebiscite resulting in 99%of the population
voting in favor of secession from North.
 Two major ethnicities in the state were Dinka and Neur.
They had been rivals for long, however the new
president, Salva Kirr, trying to eliminate differences
made Reik Machar of Neur ethnicity his prime minister.
 The civil war broke out in 2013, when the president
accused that the PM had been planning the coup. The
previously existing rivalries between the ethnicities came
into play, resulting in 400000 deaths and internal
displacements of even more.
 The September 2018 peace agreement, has haulted the
massive killings, making a fragile peace.
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ETHNIC CONFLICT IN BOSNIA

 Bosnia has three major ethnicities- Bosnian Muslims,
Croats and Serbs.
 After the fall of Yugoslavia, Bosnia found itself divided
among these three ethnic lines.
 The Serbs held a referendum in 1992 and announced
the republic of SRPSKA as a result, however, the
referendum was deemed unconstitutional and another
referendum was held, from which Serbs walked out. This
referendum resulted in 63% turnout for secession.
 The Bosnian Serbs, supported by Bosnian Serbs from
Yugoslavian army, started capturing land and Croats
started the same. Both the ethnicities clashed and a
stream of massive bloodshed started to flow.
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 To stop the conflict the Vance Owen plan was presented to divide
the provinces on ethnic lines.
 UN issued a ten days time to Serbs to withdraw from the captured
territory before NATO intervenes.
 Russian leader, told the Serbs to accept UN’s proposal and Russia
will deploy its forces there, and so he did.
 One Serb leader, acted out of the plan and attacked UN safe area,
resulting in retaliatory air strikes by NATO. Croatians land
maneuver, supported by NATO air strikes led to Croatians victory
and exilement of Serbs. Dayton Accords in 1995 ended the conflict.
 Reports on total death toll are conflicting, some claiming 200000
deaths while other claiming 100000 deaths.
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