Ethnic Tensions & Modern Genocide

1. Ethnic Tensions & Modern Genocide

2. Cambodia • During the Vietnam War, Cambodia served as a supply route (Ho Chi Minh Trail) for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. • In 1969, American forces bombed and then invaded Cambodia to destroy that route. • After the Americans left, Cambodian communist guerillas known as the Khmer Rouge took control of the government.

3. Cambodia • Under the leadership of a man who called himself Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge began a reign of terror to remove all outside influence from Cambodia and reorganize Cambodian society. • Under Pol Pot’s leadership, the Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. • Ethic minorities such as Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese in Cambodia were also attacked. • Cambodian Christians, Muslims and Buddhists also faced persecution.

4. Cambodia • Pol Pot argued that Cambodia could not support the urban population, so Cambodia’s cities were evacuated and the population moved to the countryside. • The population of Cambodia had been shifted from the cities into the fields to work, and during these events somewhere between 1.4 and 2.2 million people died out of a total population of only 8 million people.

5. Cambodia • Of that number, most estimates say around 200,000 were executed, while the rest died from disease and starvation. • The Killing Fields, as they were called, were the final resting place of millions of people who died during this act of genocide. • Mass graves were discovered all over the rural areas of Cambodia, marking the final resting place of hundreds of thousands of Cambodian people.

8. Cambodia • After the end of the Vietnam War, neighboring Vietnam invaded Cambodia to put an end to this terrible bloodshed. • Unfortunately, the rest of the international community failed to act during this crisis. • It seemed to some analysts that people had quickly forgotten the lessons of the Holocaust.

9. Political and Ethnic Hotspots • Many people hoped that the end of the Cold War in 1991 would bring about a major change in the world. • While the change was dramatic, it didn’t stop the conflicts that had plagued the world since the dawning of mankind. • In fact, in many ways the end of the Cold War caused a great deal of smaller conflicts to erupt. • These conflicts have been fought over resources, religion, tribal connections, and ethnicity. • Much of this conflict is still brewing, while others have subsided in the name of peace.

10. Political Hotspots: Kashmir • The conflict between Hindu dominated India and Muslim dominated Pakistan has continued on into this new century. • The rivalry is still based a great deal on religion, but it is increasingly based upon land as well. • In the northern most parts of both countries is a region known as Kashmir. • Part of it belongs to India, and the other part belongs to Pakistan.

12. Political Hotspots: Kashmir • Both India and Pakistan want to control ALL of Kashmir, and this produces serious tensions. • In 2001, Muslim terrorists from Kashmir attacked the Indian government directly, escalating the potential for conflict, which is already dangerous. • The tensions between India and Pakistan are considered especially dangerous because of nuclear proliferation, of the spread of nuclear weapons. Both nations now posses a nuclear arsenal and have their weapons aimed at their neighbor. • Even as we speak, tensions remain high along the border between India and Pakistan because of these issues.

13. Political Hotspots: Korea • As we have previously talked about, the Korean peninsula remains a very dangerous region in the world. • Despite the end of the Cold War everywhere else, it still exists in Korea because of the divide between North Korea and South Korea. • Even as South Korea becomes wealthier, North Korea, under the rule of Kim Jong-Il clings to its communist ideas.

14. Political Hotspots: Korea • North Korea suffers from severe economic hardship, but still spends large sums of money on military equipment, including money spent on developing nuclear weapons. • It is this nuclear development, along with North Korea’s continued missile research that make the border between North and South Korea so dangerous.

15. Political Hotspots:Myanmar • Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, had been a British colony in the 1800s and early 1900s. • In the mid 1900s it gained its independence. Despite this, Myanmar has been plagued with ethnic tension between two opposing tribal groups, as well as a repressive military government that launched a coup in the 1980s. • Opposition to this government has increased significantly, but the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has only recently been released from jail after spending almost 20 years under arrest.

16. Political Hotspots: Iran • The government of Iran today is led by its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. • Iran is considered a nation that poses a potential conflict became the regime in Tehran, the capital of Iran, is currently working on developing nuclear weapons as well as missile technology. • In addition to that, Iran has known connections to terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East. • The United States and Iran have had poor relations since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

17. Iranian Revolution • In 1953, the United States helped a new government seize control of Iran, and install a king called the shah. • The shah was a United States ally, and helped to modernize Iran, but he also ruled as a dictator. • In the 1970s, opposition to the shah increased.

18. Iranian Revolution • This opposition was lead by a Muslim religious leader known as Ayatollah Khomeini. Ayatollah is a title of an educated Shi’ite Islamic official. • In 1979 a revolution erupted and the shah fled the country, while Khomeini returned and took power in Iran. • The new government of Iran was a theocracy and ruled based upon the ideas of Islamic fundamentalism, which believed that only strict Islamic beliefs could fix the problems of the modern world.

19. Iranian Revolution • Impacts of the Revolution in Iran • New government was hostile to the West. • Western books, television shows and movies were banned. • The government requires that people strictly adhere to Muslim religious traditions. • Many rights were taken away from women. • Iran seized control of the American embassy and held the Americans there hostage for more than a year. • Iran encouraged other Muslim nations to overthrow their governments and establish Islamic Republics.

20. Iraq before 9/11 • Under the leadership of their former dictator, Saddam Hussein, Iraq has been involved in a number of conflicts with its neighbors. • For nearly a decade Iraq fought Iran over control of oil rich regions along the coast of the Persian Gulf. • In 1990, Iraq invaded the small nation of Kuwait to seize more oil fields. Iraq also threatened Saudi Arabia, another rich oil nation.

21. Iraq before 9/11 • This threatened the flow of oil to the world, and the United States, along with a number of allied nations threatened to get involved if Iraq did not peacefully withdraw from Kuwait. • Iraq did not back down, and the Persian GulfWar was fought between Iraq and a group of United Nations forces lead by the United States. • Iraq lost and was punished, but at that time Saddam Hussein was not removed from power.

22. Political Hotspots: Iraq and Afghanistan • After the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the United States deployed troops to two countries in an effort to find those responsible for the attacks against the United States. Those two countries are Afghanistan and Iraq. • Afghanistan • After Mikhail Gorbachev pulled all Soviet troops out of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the government of that country began to change. • A group known as the Taliban took power, and began to introduce Islamic fundamentalism to the nation.

23. Political Hotspots: Iraq and Afghanistan • Afghanistan Continued • After 9/11, credible intelligence was found that pointed toward Afghanistan as the home base of the terrorist al Qaeda, which was headed by Osama bin Laden. • The United States issued an ultimatum to the Taliban government, turn over bin Laden or face invasion. • The Taliban did not turn over al Qaeda, and the United States, along with other members of NATO, invaded. • The Taliban was taken out of power, but in some areas the fighting has escalated as the Taliban attempts to once again take control of the nation. • In response the United States has sent more troops to the troubled nation. • In April of this year, American special forces found and killed Osama Bin Laden in the neighboring country of Pakistan.

24. Political Hotspots: Iraq and Afghanistan • Iraq • After the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, Saddam Hussein was left in power. • By 2000, evidence began to suggest that his government was trying to build Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) such as chemical, biological of even nuclear weapons. • United Nations inspectors were denied access to the country, and the United States issued an ultimatum, either allow in inspectors of suffer the consequences.

25. Political Hotspots: Iraq and Afghanistan • Iraq Continued • We know that the ultimatum was refused, and the United States, along with Great Britain and several other nations invaded the Middle Eastern nation. • Saddam Hussein was overthrown and a new government created in Iraq. • Saddam was eventually caught and executed by this new government, but no WMDs were ever discovered. • The country continues to develop, but is still experiencing problems.

26. Political Hotspots: Russia • Despite becoming a democracy under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin in the early 1990s, in Russia there is still conflict brewing. • In the southern part of Russia, the tiny Muslim region of Chechnya continues to try to declare it’s independence from Russia. • Several bloody conflicts have been fought by Russia to maintain control of Chechnya despite guerilla resistance by the Chechen people. • The conflict between Russia and the Chechens from the fact that the people of Chechnya and Russia have different religious and cultural views on the world.

28. Political Hotspots: Russia • Even today the conflict in Chechnya is still in full swing. • On March 29th 2010, two suicide bombers carried out attacks on the Moscow subway system during rush hour. 40 people were killed and more than 100 were injured. • In January of this year, Chechen terrorists set off bombs at one of the largest airports in the Russian capital. • Over the course of the last twenty years thousands of innocent people have died in various bombings, hostage situations and suicide attacks. • That does not even take in to account the Russian military dead and those Chechen guerillas killed in battle. Factoring those numbers in takes the casualty numbers up to around 200,000 people.

29. Political Hotspots: Russia • Another factor that makes Russia a political hotspot is the current leadership of the country. • In 1999 Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia due to ill health. • His replacement was Vladimir Putin, who was president until 2008. • Putin was a former spy for the KGB, and ruled the country effectively. He made the country stronger by sometimes working with the West, and sometimes apart from the West.

30. Political Hotspots: Russia • The current president of Russia is Dmitry Medvedev. However, many people believe that Putin still is in control. • Russia today walks a unique path... • At times they have worked opposite of Western ideas, especially during their war against the country of Georgia in 2008. • On the other hand, in April of 2010 US President Barack Obama worked with Medvedev in signing the New START Treaty which reduced the nuclear arsenal of both countries. • STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

31. Political Hotspots:Northern Ireland • The majority of the island of Ireland won its independence from Great Britain in 1922. • Great Britain, however, did keep control of the six northern counties, which had a mostly Protestantpopulation. • The southern counties of Ireland, that became free, had a Catholic majority. • There were many people in the north that believed they too should join with the south in an independent country.

32. Political Hotspots:Northern Ireland • Violence in Northern Ireland erupted almost immediately between the majority Protestant population and the Catholic minority. • Extremists on both sides used terror tactics and guerilla warfare to try to drive out their enemies. • One Catholic group from The Troubles, as this time period was known in Great Britain, was the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

33. Political Hotspots:Northern Ireland • Bombings and other types of attacks became common place all across Northern Ireland, but the 1990s saw a major change. • Both sides began to put aside their guns and bombs and instead negotiate for peace. • In 1995 a cease-fire was declared, and while their have been some incidents here or there, peace has finally returned to Northern Ireland.

34. Ethnic Hotspots: Africa • Most current national borders in Africa were made up by European imperialism without any regard for ancient Africa tribal territories and ethnic groups. • This left tribes split between countries, and sometimes different tribes grouped into the same country. • The tribal association of individuals is often much stronger than national associations. • Tribalism is a major force in Africa today and has spawned a number of conflicts in Africa.

35. Rwandan Genocide • In 1994 tribalism caused a civil war between members of the Hutu tribe and Tutsi tribe in the small African nation of Rwanda. • Hutus took control of the nation an called for the extermination of the Tutsis.

36. During this conflict, Hutu militias executed somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsis, often with weapons no more sophisticated than a machete. Somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 Tutsi women and girls were raped in an organized campaign by Hutu forces. The United Nations sent 2,500 Peacekeepers in, but they were ineffective. Most nations, including the United States, simply ignored the genocide. Rwandan Genocide

37. The Balkans have always been a hotspot because of the many different ethnic groups that live there. We know that it was once known as the Powder Keg of Europe, and that is where World War I began. After World War I, part of the Balkans was organized into the country known as Yugoslavia. After World War II it became a communist country, ruled by a man named Josip Broz, who was better known simply as Tito. Despite being communist, Yugoslavia did not join the Soviet side in the Cold War and remained nonaligned. Ethnic Hotspots: The Balkans

38. Ethnic Hotspots: The Balkans • In the early 1990s, communism came crashing down after death of Tito, and Yugoslavia experienced serious trouble. • The various part of the country began to break away and establish independent countries. • First went Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia. • This caused a conflict with Serbia, which was the most powerful of the remaining parts of Yugoslavia. • The battle ground for much of this conflict was the area in between, Bosnia.

39. Ethnic Hotspots: The Balkans • Bosnia, even to this day, is a multi-ethnic nation that is home to Orthodox Christian Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats, Muslim Bosnians, and both Christian and Muslim Albanians. • When Yugoslavia began to break apart, Orthodox Christian Serbs began moving forces into predominantly Muslim parts of Bosnia. • Under the leadership of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian forces began destroying Bosnian cultural sites and forcibly removing Muslim Bosnians from their homes. This type of action is known as ethnic cleansing.

40. Ethnic Hotspots: The Balkans • Between March 1992 and November 1995 war raged across Bosnia. • Serb forces carried out war crimes against the Bosnian population at places like Sarajevo and Banja Luka. • In the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia, Serb forces cleansed the surrounding area of somewhere between 25-30,000 Bosnians, in the process somewhere around 8,000 Bosnian men were executed because of the ethnic background. This is an example of genocide.

42. Ethnic Hotspots: The Balkans • The conflict in Bosnia claimed the lives of somewhere around 100,000 people. (33,000 Bosnian civilians dead) • Somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 women and children were raped and sexually assaulted. These numbers are based on estimates became still many people are afraid to come forward. • Beyond the death was the destruction of Bosnia, which displaced around 1.8 million people. • Many became refugees and left the Balkans… some even came here to Utica. ------------------------------------------------------------- • Slobodan Milosevic, and several of his top military officials were arrested in the late 1990s, and were put on trial in international court for crimes against humanity. • In 2006 Milosevic died suddenly of a heart attack in a prison cell before he could be punished.

43. The Middle East is home to many areas of potential conflict, but it is also home to one of the largest groups of people without their own country. These people are known as Kurds, and millions currently Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, and Syria. Most Kurds are very proud of their heritage and want their own nation, which they call Kurdistan. Because of this they have been treaty brutally in many of the countries that they currently live in. Ethnic Hotspots: “Kurdistan”