Conflicts Divide Nations

1
Conflicts Divide Nations

• Chapter 17
• Section 1

2
Ethnic Differences Lead to Conflicts

• In recent decades, many wars and conflicts have
  arisen over ethnic differences
• Example in Sri Lanka, Sinhalese Buddhists are
  the majority
• Sinhalese nationalists forbade the use of the
  Tamil language and made Sinhalese the official
  language
• This and other policies led to a civil war
  between the Buddhists and Tamils
• Tamils agreed to a ceasefire when the government
  agreed to negotiations over a separate Tamil
  government

3
Malaysia and Singapore
Malaysia and Singapore have great ethnic and
religious diversity but little internal conflict.
Both countries enjoy peace because they have
tried to distribute economic resources and
political power fairly among their ethnic and
religious groups.
4
Sri Lanka
5
Peaceful Resolution of Conflict

• In some countries, conflicts have been peacefully
  resolved
• In Canada, the democratic government helped
  prevent French-speaking Quebec from seeking
  independence
• Occasionally, residents of Quebec vote to decide
  if they want to remain part of Canada or if they
  would like to secede from Canada

6
Northern Ireland

• Northern Ireland was the scene of another
  long-term conflict
• In 1922, the Protestant majority in six northern
  counties voted to remain part of Britain when
  Ireland became independent
• However, many Catholics in those counties wanted
  to join with Ireland, which has a Catholic
  majority
• Beginning in the 1960s, extremists on both sides
  turned to violence and fighting (religious
  conflict)
• Peace talks dragged on for years as violence
  continued

7
Map of Ireland and Northern Ireland
8
Northern Ireland (continued)

• Finally, in 1998, Protestants and Catholics
  signed the Good Friday Agreement, a peace accord
  that finally ended the violence between
  Protestants and Catholics.

9
Ethnic Tensions in the Former USSR

• After the fall of the Soviet Union, any
  minorities in several former republics wanted
  independence
• For example, ethnic Armenians fought for freedom
  against Azerbaijanis
• The fiercest struggle occurred in Chechnya where
  Muslim Chechen nationalists fought to free
  Chechnya from Russian control
• Russia crushed a Muslim Chechen revolt in the
  mid-1990s that killed many civilians
• Both sides committed war crimes against humanity
• When a 1997 peace treaty failed, some Chechens
  turned to terrorism and extreme violence

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Former Soviet Union
11
Chechnya
12
Yugoslavia

• Ethnic tensions tore apart Yugoslavia in the
  1990s
• Before 1991, Yugoslavia was a multiethnic,
  communist country
• The Serbs dominated Yugoslavia, which was
  controlled by the Communist Party
• The fall of communism resulted in nationalist
  unrest and fighting between Serbs and Croats in
  Croatia
• Soon the fighting spread to neighboring Bosnia

13
Former Yugoslavia
14
Yugoslavia (continued)

• During the war, all sides committed horrible
  human atrocities
• In Bosnia, the Serbs conducted a vicious campaign
  of ethnic cleansing, the killing or forcible
  removal of people of different ethnicities from
  an area by aggressors so that only the ethnic
  group of the aggressors remains
• Thousands of Bosnians and Croats were murdered in
  mass executions and placed in mass graves
• Croatian and Bosnian fighters took revenge
• Croats launched an ethnic cleansing campaign to
  drive ethnic Serbs from parts of Croatia
• The ethnic cleansing ignited painful memories of
  the Holocaust
• In 1995, the war in Bosnia ended with the signing
  of the Dayton Accords (peace agreement)

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Yugoslavia (continued)

• Then, however, another ethnic crisis broke out in
  the Serbian province of Kosovo
• Ethnic Albanians made up about 90 of Kosovos
  population
• The rest of the population was mostly Serbian
• In 1989, Serbian nationalist president Slobodan
  Milosevic began oppressing the ethnic Albanians
  in Kosovo
• Milosevic wanted to exterminate the ethnic
  Albanians living in Kosovo
• Ten years later in 1999, NATO launched air
  strikes against Serbia to stop the ethnic
  cleansing campaign
• NATO air strikes eventually forced the former
  Yugoslavia to withdraw its forces from Kosovo
• UN and NATO forces eventually restored peace
  through military intervention and effective air
  strikes on Bosnian Serb targets

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Kosovo
Serbia wanted to ethnically cleanse (eliminate)
Kosovo of the ethnic Albanian population.
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Ethnic Cleansing
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Ethnic Cleansing
Horrific crimes against humanity.
19
Slobodan Milosevic
Former President of Serbia who authorized ethnic
cleansing campaigns against ethnic minorities in
Serbia.
Milosevic was arrested and ordered to stand
trial for charges of war crimes. Milosevic
conducted his own defense in the five-year long
trial, which ended without a verdict when he died
on March 11 2006 in his prison cell in The Hague
(Netherlands). Milosevic, who suffered from heart
ailments and hypertension, died of a heart attack.
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NATO Air Strikes
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Powerpoint Questions (13 points)

• 1. The war in Sri Lanka was between ___ and ___
  (2 points).
• 2. Which multi-ethnic society has avoided
  violent conflict? (2 points)
• 3. What event led to nationalist unrest in the
  former Yugoslavia?
• 4. While Yugoslavia was multi-ethnic it was
  dominated by the __.
• 5. Who was Slobodan Milosevic?

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Powerpoint Questions (13 points)

• 6. Define ethnic cleansing.
• 7. What happened to thousands of Bosnians and
  Croats?
• 8. What peace agreement concluded the war in
  Bosnia?
• 9. In what break-away rebel republic did Russia
  fight Muslim separatists?
• 10. Whom did Slobodan Milosevic begin oppressing
  in 1989 that triggered NATO intervention in 1999?
• 11. What agreement ended the violence between
  Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland?

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The End