ETHNIC GROUPS THAT ARE AT WAR

Ethnic Groups That Are At War

Ethnic Groups That Are At War

Introduction

Ethnic conflict is one of the major threats to international peace and security. The conflicts in the Balkans, Rwanda, Chechnya, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Darfur are only among the best-known and deadliest examples. The destabilization of provinces, states, and in some cases even whole regions are everyday consequences of ethnic violence. Ethnic conflicts often accompanied by gross human rights violations such as genocide and crimes against humanity, economic decline, state failure, environmental problems, and refugee flows. Violent ethnic conflict leads to tremendous human suffering.

Despite the fact that the number of conflicts has declined over the past decades, ethnic turmoil remains one of the main sources of warfare and instability in major regions of the wor1d. Between 1945 and 1990, near1y 100 ethnic groups involved in violent conflicts. During the 1990s, about three quarters of conflicts were disputes between politically organized ethnic groups and governments. More than one third of the wor1d's states were directly affected by serious internal warfare at some time during the 1990s, and of these states, near1y two thirds experienced armed conflicts for 7 years or longer during the decade. In 2006, all 32 ongoing conflicts were internal, 5 of which were internationalized; most of them were caused by racial issues.

Discussion

Ethnic conflict has been the wor1d's most common source of warfare, insecurity, and loss of life. According to the Minorities at Risk database, 121 ethnic conflicts occurred between 1945 and 2003. Some 60% of conflicts started before 1990, and the other 40% started after 1990, thereby making the last decade of the 20th century the decade with the most ethnic conflicts. Since 1955, near1y 50 ethnic groups have been targeted in campaigns of genocides and ethnic cleansings that killed between 13 million and 20 million civilians (Marshall & Gurr, 2005). These civil wars, mass murders, and murderous campaigns led to more than 14 million internationally recognized refugees and about 17 million internally displaced people. Today, most ethnic conflicts occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (Gurr, 2003).

In recent decades, countries have witnessed a revival of tradition; often with political and ideological, it is like the modern economic, technological or social would have brought in the cultural movement towards the past and traditions in general. Although many Europeans appreciate the advantages of technology, increasing wealth and the liberalization of morals, should be considered interest that this return to tradition is related to more subtle reasons than just reluctance to change.

Many of these conflicts are protracted conflicts, meaning that they have lasted 10 years or more. The Sudanese civil war between the Arab-Muslim north and the Christian-Animist-African south, for example, is the longest and deadliest civil war in the second half of the 20th century. Most ethnic conflicts do not meet the threshold of wars (1,000 or more battle-related deaths in a year). Low-level rebellions, minor armed conflicts (at least 25 battle-related deaths per year), terror campaigns, and large-scale ...