ethnic cleansing
ethnic cleansing. The officially sanctioned forcible and systematic diminution or elimination of targeted ethnic minorities from a geographic area, usu. by confiscating real and personal property, ordering or condoning mass murders and mass rapes, and expelling the survivors. • In theory, the purpose of ethnic cleansing is to drive all members of the victimized group out of a territory. In practice, ethnic cleansing is nearly synonymous with genocide because mass murder is a characteristic of both. Ethnic cleansing additionally includes mass rapes for two cultural reasons: (1) the victims are often put to death by their relatives or commit suicide, and (2) any children born are regarded as belonging to the father’s ethnic group, not the mother’s. Both acts — murder and rape — are intended to diminish or extinguish the victimized minority. Cf. GENOCIDE.
