Ethnic cleansing is a term used to describe the purposeful policy designed by one group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from specific geographic areas. It is distinct from, and can include aspects of, genocide.
Genocide involves a special intent, or dolus specialis, that combines physical destruction of a targeted group and their complete removal from the area. Perpetrators of the Holocaust and other instances of genocide, including the campaign to drive out East Indians from Uganda and the attempt to annihilate the Serbs in Yugoslavia, had such a dolus specialis.
In Western Tigray, Amhara regional officials and security forces, with the acquiescence of Ethiopia’s federal government, are carrying out such a campaign against Tigrayans. It includes murder, unlawful imprisonment and torture, forcible displacement, sexual violence and possible extermination.
But the United States has stopped short of declaring that the atrocities are genocide. Invoking the crime would have pushed for more aid and access to the region and possibly even for sanctions, but the U.N. cannot determine genocidal intent without an independent investigation, and the Security Council has countries that don’t want to impose sanctions.
Ultimately, the international community has to do more. In addition to imposing sanctions on the Myanmar government, it needs to press for a full investigation of the violence in Rakhine state and encourage the ICC, which has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity and war crimes, to investigate allegations of ethnic cleansing.
