genocide

genocide The systematic policy of destruction of a group or nation on grounds of race or ethnic origin. Following the Nazi policy of genocide of the Jews and of ethnic groups such as gypsies, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the UN in 1948. Since the signing of the Convention, many conflicts in the world have split groups along ethnic or tribal lines, and claims of genocide have been made. Examples include the Nigeria-Biafra conflict in 1969; Uganda in the 1970s; the Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea (Cambodia) (1976–79); Iraq's treatment of the Kurds (1986– ); the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims by Christian Serbs (1992–95); and the attempts by Hutus and Tutsis to annihilate each other in Burundi and Rwanda (1993– ). The international community has failed in most cases to respond effectively to claims of genocide: firm evidence is hard to obtain and states are reluctant to intervene in the domestic affairs of another state on the grounds that this is a violation of national sovereignty.