ethnic cleansing, n.
Brit. /ˌɛθnɪk ˈklɛnzɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈˌɛθnɪk ˈklɛnzɪŋ/
[‹ ethnic adj. + cleansing n. Compare Serbian and Croatian etničko čišćenje (probably later as a phrase than in English, but see also cleansing n.), Russian ètničeskaja čistka. Compare earlier ethnically clean adj. at ethnically adv. Additions]
The purging, by mass expulsion or killing, of one ethnic or religious group by another, esp. from an area of former cohabitation. Cf. earlier cleansing n.
Originally used of (and afterwards most strongly associated with) the actions of the various nationalities in the wars of the Yugoslav succession of the 1990s. This and associated terms are often regarded as simple euphemisms.
| 1991 Washington Post 2 Aug. a22/5 The Croatian political and military leadership issued a statement Wednesday declaring that Serbia's ‘aim..is obviously the ethnic cleansing of the critical areas that are to be annexed to Serbia’. 1994 N. Malcolm Bosnia xvi. 246 Ethnic cleansing was not a by-product of the war. It was a central part of the entire political project which the war was intended to achieve. 1996 M. Chapman Southern Afr. Literatures iv. ii. 283 When..[he] talks wildly of restoring Angola to Africans—he probably means to the majority Ovimbundu—he is not simply threatening ‘ethnic cleansing’ against the Mbundu. 2001 Daily Record (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 3 Aug. His crimes were so repulsive they forced the West to intervene to stop the horror of ethnic cleansing. |