Political cleansing of population is eliminating categories of people in specific areas for political reasons. The means may vary from

forced migration Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...

Politicide

Politicide is the deliberate physical destruction or elimination of a group whose members share the main characteristic of belonging to a political movement. It is a type of political repression and one of the means which is used to politically cleanse populations, with another means being

. It may be compared to

or ethnic cleansing, both of which involve the killing of people based on their membership in a particular racial group, racial or ethnic group rather than their adherence to a particular ideology. ''Politicide'' is used to describe the killing of groups that would not otherwise be covered by the Genocide Convention. Social scientists Ted Robert Gurr and Barbara Harff use ''politicide'' to describe the killing of groups of people who are targeted not because of their shared ethnic or communal traits but because of "their hierarchical position or political opposition to the regime and dominant groups." Harff studies genocide and politicide, sometimes shortened as ''geno-politicide'', in order to include the killing of political, economic, ethnic and cultural groups. Manus Midlarsky uses ''politicide'' to describe an arc of large-scale killing from the western parts of the Soviet Union to China and Cambodia. In his book ''The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century'', Midlarsky raises similarities between the killings of Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot. Under the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide generally applies to mass murder of Ethnic group, ethnic rather than Political group, political or social groups. Protection of political groups was eliminated from the United Nations resolution after a second vote because many states, including Stalin's History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), Soviet Union, anticipated that clause to apply unneeded limitations to their right to suppress internal disturbances. Scholarly study of genocide usually acknowledges the United Nations omission of socio-economic group, economic and political groups, and uses mass political killing datasets of democide, and genocide and politicide, or geno-politicide. Killings by the Khmer Rouge in Democratic Kampuchea have been labeled genocide or autogenocide, and the deaths under Leninism and Stalinism in the Soviet Union, and Maoism in History of the People's Republic of China (1949–1976), Communist China have been controversially investigated as possible cases; the Soviet famine of 1932–1933 and the Great Chinese Famine during the Great Leap Forward have been controversially "depicted as instances of mass killing underpinned by genocidal intent."

Typical reasons

Some groups attempt to eliminate the base of support for political opponents such as insurgents. This happens in many countries with high levels of insurgency such as Colombia. It may be a means for and referred to as pacification.

Politicide

Typical reasons

See also

References

Further reading