viernes, 1 de abril de 2011

Essay #4

Ethnic Conflicts

In many countries and many periods a person’s ethnic identity has had profound consequences for his or her physical safety, political status, and economic prospects. Violent confrontation along ethnic lines is the most apparent form of ethnic conflict, and it recently has claimed lives in such diverse places throughout the world. The three most terrible ethnic conflicts have been the conflict in Rwanda, in former Yugoslavia, and The Holocaust during World War II in Europe.

The conflict in Rwanda is an example of how ethnic differences could cause a war and end with the life of millions of people. According to the web site Con Tinta Negra the main cause of this conflict was the disputes between the two principal ethnics of the place: the Hutus and the Tutsis. These two ethnics could not live together so they started a war to decide who were going to take the control of the country (Con Tinta Negra). The Hutus decided to kill all the Tutsis, based only in their identity and there begins one of the biggest genocides of history. As a consequence a lot of innocent people died; BBC news reported that some 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda’s genocide in just 100 days.

The second example of an ethnic conflict happened in the former Yugoslavia. This country was compound by six republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and two autonomous provinces: Vojvodina and Kosovo (European Navigator, 2006) and it was under the domain of Tito, when Tito died the tension between all this ethnics groups increase. Some of this provinces stared to have desires of autonomy and power. The main provinces that start the conflict were Serbs in one side and Croats and Bosniaks in the other, but there were problems between Bosniaks and Croats too. Slovenia and Croatia were the first provinces that break up away, and that unleashed some other conflicts. The result of all this wars was the breakup of Yugoslavia in several countries and the death of a lot of people.

Finally we have the Holocaust during World War II. This incredible success started in 1933 when the Nazis take the power of German. Nazis believed that Germans were the only raze that should exist in the world and that the Jews and other races were inferior so they would be exterminated (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2011). This idea of superiority caused that people were classified only because of their race, so those ones who were Jews should be killed because according to the Nazi’s philosophy they were impure. Currently there is not an exact number about how many Jews were killed during the Holocaust but the number that some historians report is around six million people killed (Aswers.com). We could see how this people suffered and only for be part of a race.

Ethnic conflicts such as in Rwanda, former Yugoslavia, and The Holocaust during World War II triggered the worst feelings a human being can have. Any country or society can go through such terrors. Different religion, race, and beliefs are not good reasons to kill each other. It depends on new generations not to repeat the terrible crimes against.

Works Cited

Negra. (n.d.). Ruanda: Claves de un conficto. 03 – 07 - 2011, from <http://www.periodismo.uchile.cl/contintanegra/2005/2/ruanda.html>

BBC News. (12-18-2008). Rwanda: How the genocide happened. 03- 07 - 011, from <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1288230.stm>

European Navigator. (06 - 28 - 2006). The Yugoslav conflict. 03 - 07 - 2011, from <http://www.ena.lu/yugoslav_conflict-020102257.html>

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (01 - 06 - 2011). Holocaust Encyclopedia. 03 - 07 - 2011, from < http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143>

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