ethnic cleansing
ethnic cleansing — noun
1. a planned effort by one racial or religious group to drive out, or sometimes kil
a planned effort by one racial or religious group to drive out, or sometimes kill, all the people of another group living in a region so that only their own group remains
The court ruled that the army's attacks on the villages amounted to ethnic cleansing.
amounted to ethnic cleansing — describing an act as this crime
Thousands of families fled across the border to escape the ethnic cleansing.
flee to escape the ethnic cleansing — typical victim context
Niran reported on the ethnic cleansing for an international newspaper.
World leaders condemned the ethnic cleansing and demanded that it stop at once.
Historians have studied the ethnic cleansing that emptied the city of its minority population.
- genocide
stronger; centres on mass killing aimed at destroying a whole people, while ethnic cleansing centres on forced removal
- expulsion
neutral term for forcing people out; lacks the racial-targeting and violence built into ethnic cleansing
- deportation
official removal across a border; can be lawful, whereas ethnic cleansing is always a crime
用法筆記
Almost always uncountable and used in serious news, legal, or historical contexts. Common verbs are 'carry out', 'commit', 'condemn', and 'amount to'; the agent is usually an army, militia, or government.