Humanitarian Interventions
and Ethnic Conflicts
Lsn 24
Post-Cold War Environment
• Cold War threats were
potentially catastrophic but
they were also measurable
and somewhat predictable
• The bipolar structure and
the desire to avoid
superpower confrontation
had provided a certain
degree of order and
stability
• The post-Cold War period
was much more
ambiguous and uncertain
and many new threats
emerged
CIA Director James Woolsey
described the post-Cold War
environment by saying, “We have
slain a large dragon (the U.S.S.R.) —
but we now live in a jungle filled with a
bewildering variety of poisonous
snakes. In many ways, the dragon
was easier to keep track of.”
Ethnic Conflict and Humanitarian
Crisis in the 1990s
• The Cold War structure had kept in check ethnic
divisions in many countries and limited military
interventions
• The end of the Cold War changed all that
– UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
advocated the “legitimate involvement” of the UN in
“peace enforcement” and “peacemaking” operations
– President Clinton proclaimed a “National Security
Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement”
• After the Cold War, the United Nations went from
an average of three or four peacekeeping
operations a year to 13 in December 1992
Ethnic Conflict and Humanitarian
Crisis in the 1990s
• “In a globalized war, bad things that happen in
other countries spread more quickly to our
shores. Genocides spawn refugees, who
destabilize their neighbors. Corruption sparks
financial meltdowns, which rock the world
economy. Pandemics hopscotch across the
globe.”
– Peter Beinart in explaining why the US intervened in
Kosovo where there was “no direct threat to the US”
(Time, 23 Apr 2007, 28)
International Efforts
• The United Nations Charter proclaims one
of the UN’s principle purposes as being “to
maintain international peace and security”
• Sometimes the UN effectively intervened
in these crises, sometimes it didn’t
– Same for the United States
UN Charter
• Chapter VI
– “Pacific Settlement of Disputes”
– Security Council can investigate any dispute, or any situation
which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute
– Council can recommend action but the recommendations are not
binding on its members
• Chapter VII
– Council is not limited to recommendations
– Can take action, including the use of armed force, to maintain or
restore international peace and security
• Peace enforcement operations often are called “Chapter
VI and a half”
Peace Operations
• Peacekeeping Operations
– Require consent of all parties involved in the
dispute
– Monitor cease fire, truce, etc
– Support diplomatic efforts to support long term
political settlements
– Force used as last resort
• Peace Enforcement Operations
– Apply or threaten military force to
• Compel compliance
• Restore or maintain peace
– Do not require consent of all parties
Peace Enforcement
• Subordinate Operations:
– Forcible separation of belligerents
– Establishment and supervision of protected
areas
– Sanction and exclusion zone enforcement
– Movement denial and guarantee
– Restoration and maintenance of order
– Protection of humanitarian assistance
Limitations of the UN
• No army of its own
– Reliant on ad hoc
contributions from its
members
• Can never divorce itself
from the political
agendas of its members
• Inadequately trained
staff of military
professionals and
managers
Case Studies
Rwanda, Bosnia, Haiti, East
Timor, and Kosovo
Rwanda
• Tension and violence
between the Hutu and
Titsi tribal groups in
Rwanda was
longstanding
– The Titsi had long
held power even
though the Hutu were
the majority
• In 1959, three years
before independence
from Belgium, the Hutus
overthrew the ruling
Tutsi king
Rwanda
• Over the next several years,
thousands of Tutsis were
killed, and some 150,000
driven into exile in
neighboring countries
– The children of these
exiles later formed a
rebel group, the
Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF), and began a civil
war in 1990
• The violence reached its
peak in April 1994 in the
genocide of roughly
800,000 Tutsis and
moderate Hutus
Deep gashes in the skulls of
victims of the Rwanda
genocide evidence the
violence of their deaths
Rwanda
• The Tutsi rebels ultimately
defeated the Hutu regime
and ended the killing in
July 1994
• Approximately 2 million
Hutu refugees, many
fearing retaliation, fled to
neighboring Burundi,
Tanzania, Uganda, and the
former Zaire
– Many perpetrators of the
genocide secretly blended
into the refugee camps and
escaped justice
Rwandan children in the
refugee camp at Ndosha,
Zaire
Rwanda
• Outside powers such as the United Nations
urged peace, but coming on the heels of the
disaster in Somalia, there was no meaningful
intervention
• The world basically stood by until the bloodshed
finally ran its course
– “…The world must deeply repent this failure… Now
we know that what we did was not nearly enough--not
enough to save Rwanda from itself, not enough to
honor the ideals for which the United Nations exists.
We will not deny that, in their greatest hour of need,
the world failed the people of Rwanda ...” (UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, 1998)
Bosnia
• During the Cold War,
Yugoslavia was a
multi-ethnic state
successfully held
together by
communist
totalitarianism
• When the strong
communist leader
Josip Broz Tito died in
1980, ethnic divisions
became more open
Bosnia
• Yugoslavian republics began
to seek independence
– Slovenia, Croatia, and
Macedonia broke away in
1991
– When Bosnia-Herzegovina
declared its independence in
1992, an ethnic civil war
ensued
– Bosnian Serbs, with external
support from Serbia, initiated
an “ethnic cleansing”
campaign against Bosnian
Muslims
Unearthed mass grave
containing the bodies of
some of the 7,000 Bosnian
Muslim men and boys
murdered when Serbs
overran the UN “safe area” of
Srebrenica
Bosnia
• United Nations
peacekeepers entered
Bosnia in 1992 but were
extremely ineffective
• The United States was
very reluctant to commit
ground troops to what
promised to be a messy
and long-term situation
– The US did begin air and
naval patrols in 1993
The Serbs took UN
peacekeepers hostage and
chained them to potential
target areas to prevent
airstrikes
Bosnia
• Finally in 1995 President
Clinton responded to
mounting European
pressure and, the US
and NATO conducted air
strikes against the Serbs
and forced them to the
bargaining table
• The Dayton Peace
Accords of November
1995 ended the fighting
and authorized a NATO
peacekeeping force of
over 60,000 troops
Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic, left, Bosnian President
Alija Izetbegovic, center, and
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman,
right, initial the DPA at WrightPatterson Air Force Base in Ohio
Bosnia
• The US participated in
IFOR (Implementation
Force) and SFOR
(Stabilization Force) until
2004 when NATO passed
the mission off to the
European Union’s EUFOR
• The military tasks
associated with the DPA
were completed within a
year
– Still SFOR was necessary as
a security presence while
civilian implementation took
place
Haiti
• A 1991 military coup in
Haiti ousted the
democratically elected
president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide
• UN embargoes and other
sanctions against the
military government failed
to bring about a return to
the legitimately elected
government
Haiti
• Thousands of Haitians
fled to the US in fragile
boats
• In 1994, President
Clinton ordered a
5,000- man force to
occupy Haiti in
Operation Uphold
Democracy
Haiti
• A last minute diplomatic
effort led by former President
Jimmy Carter and including
Senator Sam Nunn and
former Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell
was in Haiti on Sept 18 when
elements of the 82nd Airborne
were broadcast on TV
departing Fort Bragg, NC
• The synergy of this
diplomatic-military effort
motivated the junta to agree
to a peaceful solution
Haiti
• Upon landing, the
American force met
almost no opposition and
Aristide was returned to
power in October
• Token American and
international forces
remained in Haiti through
1998 maintaining order
and conducting nation
building operations
Haiti
• In 2004 an armed rebellion forced the
departure of Aristide and violence and
technical delays postponed democratic
elections until 2006
• Haiti continues to be beset by a host of
problems including being the poorest
country in the Western Hemisphere
– 80% of the population lives under the poverty
line and 54% in abject poverty
East Timor
• Portugal had colonized the island of Timor in the midsixteenth century and ceded control of the western half
of the island to the Dutch in 1859
• Japan seized control of Portuguese Timor during World
War II, but after the war Portugal reasserted its control
• In 1974, Portugal sought to establish a provisional
government and a popular assembly that would
determine the status of East Timor.
– Instead, civil war broke out between those favoring
independence and those wanting integration with Indonesia
– Unable to control the situation, Portugal withdrew and Indonesia
intervened militarily
East Timor
• Indonesia integrated
East Timor as its 27th
province in 1976 and
waged an unsuccessful
campaign to pacify the
population, during which
some 100,000 to
250,000 individuals were
killed
• The United Nations
never recognized this
integration, and both the
Security Council and the
General Assembly called
for Indonesia’s
withdrawal
East Timor
• In 1999, Indonesia allowed East
Timor to vote on whether it
preferred autonomy within
Indonesia or independence
• 78% of East Timor’s residents
voted for independence, but rather
than allowing a peaceful
transition, pro-integration militias
and Indonesian security forces
instituted a reign of terror
– Over 1,000 people were killed
and between 300,000 and
500,000 were forced from their
homes
• In the violence, the majority of the
country’s infrastructure and nearly
all its electrical grid were
destroyed
East Timor
• International condemnation
of Indonesia’s actions was
followed on September 12
by Indonesia’s decision to
accept an offer by Australia
to lead an international effort
to restore peace
• This effort became known as
International Force East
Timor (INTERFET)
• By late September
Indonesian forces had been
replaced and order
reestablished
East Timor
• In October 1999, the UN Transitional Administration in
East Timor (UNTAET) deployed to East Timor to replace
INTERFRET
• On May 20, 2002, Timor-Leste was internationally
recognized as an independent state.
• However a military strike and near collapse of law and
order broke out in April 2006
– Timor-Leste requested another Australian-led
contingent, the International Stabilization Force (ISF),
deploy to restore peace in late May.
• In August, the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste
(UNMIT) was established and began the replacement of
ISF soldiers with UN police officers
East Timor
• Timor-Leste held presidential and parliamentary
elections in 2007 amid in a largely peaceful atmosphere
and has been able to sustain operations with the support
and assistance of UNMIT and international donors
• However, security remains a critical problem
– There was an assassination attempt on President Jose RamosHorta in February 2008 by a renegade soldier
– The prime minister’s motorcade was also ambushed but Prime
Minister Xanana Gusmão escaped unharmed
• Though not without its problems, the international
intervention in East Timor is considered a relative
success.
Kosovo
• Ethnic Albanians
comprised about 14% of
Serbia’s population
– Most of the Albanians
lived in the province of
Kosovo
• Throughout the 1990s,
Serbian military and
police forces battled the
Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA or UCK)
• By 1998, the Serbs had
embarked on a
campaign to
systematically cleanse
Kosovo of its ethnic
Albanian population
Camp Stenkovich II in
Macedonia held approximately
20,000 refugees.
Kosovo
• Diplomatic efforts centering around talks at
Rambouillet, France broke down thanks to Serb
intransigence
• On March 24, 1999, NATO initiated Operation Allied
Force in order to
– Stop the Serb offensive in Kosovo,
– Force a withdrawal of Serb troops from Kosovo,
– Allow democratic self-government in Kosovo,
– Allow a NATO-led international peacekeeping force
into Kosovo, and
– Allow the safe and peaceful return of Kosovar
Albanian refugees.
Kosovo
• Still the West was
unwilling to commit
ground troops and
Operation Allied Force
was entirely an air
campaign
– An Army aviation task force
was positioned in Albania
but not used because of
numerous difficulties
– In one sense the KLA
served as allied the ground
force
F-16s at Aviano Air
Base, Italy preparing to
launch in support of
Operation Allied Force
Kosovo
• On June 9, 1999, Serbia
agreed to a Military
Technical Agreement
that ended the 11-week
war
• On June 12, KFOR
entered Kosovo under
the authority of UN
Security Resolution
1244
• Ironically, upon entering
Kosovo, one of KFOR’s
main duties was
protecting the Serb
minority
Kosovo
• Kosovo remains a difficult international problem
– Kosovar Albanians overwhelmingly support Kosovo
independence while the Serb minority in Kosovo and
Serbian officials in Belgrade oppose it
• On February 12, 2002 former Serbian President
Milosevic went on trial at the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
– He died in 2006 before a verdict was reached
• Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence
from Serbia on February 17, 2008
Kosovo
• From an international law
perspective, OAF got
mixed reviews
– It violated traditional
principles of
nonintervention and
nonaggression
– It could set a precedent for
using military force for
humanitarian reasons
– It represented the use of
force by a regional
organization (NATO)
without UN Security
Council authorization
The Legitimacy of Intervention
• “Is there some threshold
at which human rights
violations become
unacceptable and a
state’s sovereignty no
longer precludes
intervention? Is it the
500th slain ethnic citizen
or the next refugee after
10,000 have been forced
to leave home that
triggers intervention or
makes it legitimate?”
– Robert Tomes
Holocaust victims in a mass grave
Rwanda, Bosnia, Haiti, East Timor,
and Kosovo
• What are the common themes that
emerge from these case studies?
• What is the most important requirement in
correcting the situations?
• What are the capabilities and limitations of
the UN?
• Why should we care about any of these
situations?
Practical Exercise
• China militarily seized Tibet in
1951
• Tibet’s former ruler and
spiritual leader of the Buddhist
religion, the Dalai Lama, leads
a government in exile in India
• From time to time tensions
between Tibet’s government
in exile and China’s
Communist Party have boiled
over into protests or fighting
Practical Exercise
• Hypothetical Situation
– Violence erupted in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa after
Chinese military forces conducted a brutal crackdown
against Tibetan dissidents who China accused of
murdering several ethnic Chinese
– The Tibetan government in exile claims over 900
Tibetans were killed
– An estimated 4,000 Tibetans have fled to Nepal were
violence has also broken out with Nepali authorities
and the Tibetans have gathered in makeshift refugee
camps outside of Katmandu and demanded
assistance from the UN
Practical Exercise
• Role play
– UN
– China
– Tibetan government-in-exile
– Nepal
– US
– India
Next
• Final Exam Review