DOCSLIB.ORG

5 3 . 3 . . 3 Awn? Azimleu

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
5 3 . 3 . . 3 Awn? Azimleu z... .1 ‘ i=:l:w .r-‘anwkg I“. L) I). t.tv}£...i}X r. a... r58 vii)!» §Léuia «‘|I 5):). \ 11: T . .3 | A.) _flrI I 4 ‘r‘ A: I .. n.53.3..3 \ . i A \ 191‘ hi Ao-t (5.3.72 s . 5.. o ( 9 .Sh .n.oam§.n.. mania .. a 47s. 1 . ‘xx. ha! .. it .. 4' v azimLEu V awn? E43... 9... 3mg x, A . ‘ . , 12:93... i... r .. z x. ".1 :17: . 7?: 30:71.)... J:. :ii ‘ h! OI L... , x...- :...,‘a A 3 .: .K\ét .I . .31.. ”“3 " LIBRARY / ,2/ Michigan State ‘5" IO University This is to certify that the dissertation entitled FROM THE TIGRIS TO THE ROUGE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF CHALDEAN GENDERED ETHNICITY AND GENDER TRANSITION presented by CHARLES JOHNSON SPURLOCK has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD. degree in Sociology /’“"‘\ K“ A. )\ ‘7‘ (I f // \I ‘T if) /\ QM I) ‘ C) Ca (V MEjor Professor’s Signature \ May, 14, 2010 Date MSU is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record. To AVOID FINES return on or before date due. MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested. DATE DUE ' DATE DUE DATE DUE 5/08 K:IProj/Aoc&PrelelRC/DateDue.indd FROM THE TIGRIS TO THE ROUGE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF CHALDEAN GENDERED ETHNICITY AND GENDER TRANSITION By Charles Johnson Spurlock A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPY SOCIOLOGY 2010 ABSTRACT FROM THE TIGRIS TO THE ROUGE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF CHALDEAN GENDERED ETHNICITY AND GENDER TRANSITION By Charles Johnson Spurlock The literature on gender adaptation and migration has illuminated a general pattern of changing gender relations within immigrant families and communities. Immigrant women are accomplishing this task with the aid of economic and power resources they obtain in the host society. Still little theoretical or empirical attention has been directed at immigrant groups that maintain patriarchal gender relations. To fill this void, this study examines Iraqi Chaldean immigrants who are a group from an understudied region of the world and who retain patriarchy authority in their families and community organizations. Patriarchal dominance is a cultural feature particular to Near East and Central Asia given that the extended family is the dominant household arrangement. Beyond households, kinship networks provide access to most social, political and economic opportunities, making kinship ties persistent and the gender order patriarchal. Evaluating the social processes immigrants from this geographic region experience is crucial given the current political involvement of the United States and with the increasing number of immigrants and refugees arriving for settlement. To address our needs for more primary research on Near East immigrants, life history data is collected from fifty-one respondents to address the issue of patriarchal persistence. Respondents explain their migration motivations, community building and family history in a dialogical interview. The interviews are low intervention and seen as polyphonic dialogues understandable to in-group members. The theoretical approach builds on a structuration model identifying that emotional and symbolic structures in gender relations create normative constraints against immigrant and second-generation men and women. Within this fi'amework, social reproduction occurs. Men accept these constraints acting as responsible patriarchs for their extended families, while women negotiate within woman-to-woman networks for desired concessions without a wholesale challenge to existing patriarchal gender relations. This research provides an additional case study and expands our theoretical horizons beyond power and economic factors. Further, pre-migration factors indicate that men dominate most social and economic resources leaving women in a dependent state. After migration, ethnic traditions within the community and family build formidable emotional and symbolic structures that extend patriarchal customs into the second generation. Cepyright by Charles Johnson Spurlock 20 1 O ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend special thanks to Steven Gold whose tireless efforts brought this work to completion. He acted as a patient adviser while reviewing multiple versions of this dissertation. I marvel at his near encyclopedic knowledge of books, regional studies, special reports and journal articles on cultural adaptations of multiple immigrant and ethnic groups of which he has apprised me to contextualize this study within several rich intellectual traditions. He certainly made more content available than I utilized for this study. I appreciate Maxine Baca Zinn for her guidance on gender research and directing this study towards greater methodological clarity. Toby Ten Eyck offered encouragement along the way and schooled me to understand my status as a young sociologist. Leslie Moch provided a steady hand during the completion phase of the research making multiple suggestions for clarification and presentational style. My colleague Raymond Liedka provided feedback and comments which have been instrumental in the completion of my project as well. I save my last comments for the sacrifices my family made while I finished this endevour. To my son Danni Zhu, who wrote a poem at ten years of age describing his daddy as a vampire for staying up all night writing this dissertation, I find you a constant source of inspiration. Without a doubt my greatest appreciation extends to my Lao P0, Zhu Suyun. Without her constant and intense support, this project may have never come to fruition. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 GENDER ADAPTATION AND MIGRATION: THE CHALDEAN CASE STUDY ................................................ 1 CHALDEAN S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ................................ 2 GENDER APPROACHES TO SOCIETY ......................................... 7 Structuration ............................................................... 7 Social Reproduction .................................................... 12 GENDERED ADAPTATION AND MIGRATION: THE LITERATURE ............................................................... 15 Transgressive Practices ................................................ l7 Fragmented Structure .................................................. 19 CHALDEAN STUDIES SO FAR ................................................ 20 GENERATIONS .................................................................... 23 PLAN OF DISSERTATION ...................................................... 24 CHAPTER 2 LIFE HISTORIES ........................................................................... 27 EXPERIENCES IN THE FIELD ................................................. 28 OVERCOMING OUTSIDER STATUS ........................................ 31 CHALDEAN MOTIVATION TO PARTICIPATE .......................... .35 LIFE HISTORY DATA AND LIFE STORY INTERVIEWS ............... 37 RESEARCH PROCESS ........................................................... 41 SAMPLING .......................................................................... 42 CAUTION ON PSUEDONYMS ................................................. 43 DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................. 43 CONCLUSION ...................................................................... 45 CHAPTER 3 MIGRATION: A CENTURY IN THE MAKING ...................................... 47 MIGRATION NETWORK THEORY AND THE GENDER ORDER. 47 IMMIGRANT COHORTS ........................................................ 52 CHALDEAN COHORTS ......................................................... 53 POLTICAL AND ECONOMIC CONTEXT: THE FIRST COHORT ...... 56 SOCIAL TIES, SOCIAL CAPITAL AND PATRIARCHY ................. 58 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONTEXT: THE SECOND COHORT ......................................................... 61 SOCIAL TIES, SOCIAL CAPITAL AND PATRIARCHY .......................... 70 THIRD COHORT ........................................................................... 75 CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 75 vi CHAPTER 4 EMOTIONAL AND SYMBOLIC STRUCTURES OF GENDER RELATIONS ................................................................. 77 ISSUES OF FAMILY STRUCTURE .............................................. 78 CHALDEAN FAMILY STRUCTURE ............................................ 81 WELLSPRINGS OF CHALDEAN CLASSICAL PATRIARCHY .......... 84 Migration Networks ........................................................... 85 Chaldean Sociability ........................................................ 87 Family Traditions ............................................................ 90 CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 96 CHAPTER 5 SOCIAL REPRODUCTION OF CONNECTIVE PATRIARCHY ................... 98 CHALDEAN HABITUS ........................................................... 99 Gender Socialization ....................................................... 100 Dating ....................................................................... 1 03 Education .................................................................... 105 Summary of the Chaldean Habitus ....................................... 106 SOCIAL FIELD ..................................................................... 107 Dating ....................................................................... 107 Symbolic Violence ........................................................... l 12 CONCLUSION ....................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • UNDER ORDERS: War Crimes in Kosovo Order Online
    UNDER ORDERS: War Crimes in Kosovo Order online Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Glossary 1. Executive Summary The 1999 Offensive The Chain of Command The War Crimes Tribunal Abuses by the KLA Role of the International Community 2. Background Introduction Brief History of the Kosovo Conflict Kosovo in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Kosovo in the 1990s The 1998 Armed Conflict Conclusion 3. Forces of the Conflict Forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslav Army Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs Paramilitaries Chain of Command and Superior Responsibility Stucture and Strategy of the KLA Appendix: Post-War Promotions of Serbian Police and Yugoslav Army Members 4. march–june 1999: An Overview The Geography of Abuses The Killings Death Toll,the Missing and Body Removal Targeted Killings Rape and Sexual Assault Forced Expulsions Arbitrary Arrests and Detentions Destruction of Civilian Property and Mosques Contamination of Water Wells Robbery and Extortion Detentions and Compulsory Labor 1 Human Shields Landmines 5. Drenica Region Izbica Rezala Poklek Staro Cikatovo The April 30 Offensive Vrbovac Stutica Baks The Cirez Mosque The Shavarina Mine Detention and Interrogation in Glogovac Detention and Compusory Labor Glogovac Town Killing of Civilians Detention and Abuse Forced Expulsion 6. Djakovica Municipality Djakovica City Phase One—March 24 to April 2 Phase Two—March 7 to March 13 The Withdrawal Meja Motives: Five Policeman Killed Perpetrators Korenica 7. Istok Municipality Dubrava Prison The Prison The NATO Bombing The Massacre The Exhumations Perpetrators 8. Lipljan Municipality Slovinje Perpetrators 9. Orahovac Municipality Pusto Selo 10. Pec Municipality Pec City The “Cleansing” Looting and Burning A Final Killing Rape Cuska Background The Killings The Attacks in Pavljan and Zahac The Perpetrators Ljubenic 11.
    [Show full text]
  • Breaking up Is Hard to Do: Nations, States, and Nation-States
    CH13.qxd 6/3/06 1:09 PM Page 367 Activity 1: The Rise of Nationalism and the Fall of Yugoslavia ᭣ 367 Name: ______________________________ Instructor: ____________________________________ Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Nations, States, and Nation-States ᭤ ACTIVITY 1: THE RISE OF NATIONALISM AND THE FALL OF YUGOSLAVIA Activity 1 requires you to read six selections about the former Yugoslavia and then answer questions about them. The first article (Goodrich, 1993) is from The Christian Science Monitor. It is one of several articles we have selected from the Monitor because of its world-famous coverage of international affairs—not because of its religious affiliation. The Goodrich article provides a 1,500-year historical overview that is not usually available in newspapers. We have added a few key points to this article [in square brackets], and some useful maps (Figures 13.6–13.8, Table 13.1). The second reading consists of excerpts from a United Nations research arti- cle by Ali Karaosmano´glu (1993) that offers a concise summary of how and why the former Yugoslavia fell apart. It highlights the most important fact about the politi- cal geography of the area: that the former Yugoslavia was a multination state, but breaking it into its individual republics (i.e., provinces) did not solve the problem because both Bosnia and Croatia were also each a mix of nations. In the third article, photojournalist Lee Malis of The Christian Science Monitor tells the harrowing tale of one young Muslim woman’s nightmare at the hands of the Bosnian Serbs. We warn you of the graphic nature of this short feature article; you could find it disturbing.
    [Show full text]
  • Greater Albania – the Next Crisis in the Balkans?
    School of Social Science Department of Peace and Development Studies Master Thesis Spring 2009 Greater Albania – The Next Crisis in the Balkans? Author: Mimoza Ardolic Tutor: Manuela Knapp ABSTRACT University of Växjö, School of Social Sciences, Department of Peace and Development Studies Master Thesis Title: Greater Albania – The Next Crisis in the Balkans? Author: Mimoza Ardolic Tutor: Manuela Knapp Date: 2009-06-08 The Balkans has suffered from quite a few problems as a result of the countless ambitious endeavors for great states of the ethnic groups residing in the peninsula. The most recent great state idea to have caused troubles in the region is the Serbs’ Great Serbia (i.e. Yugoslvia), which caused a cycle of wars, the latest one being the war in Kosovo in the late 1990s. This thesis attempts to evaluate the rumors of yet another great state in the making – or rather awakening again: the attempt at a Greater Albania, and whether the Albanians in the Balkans are still harboring the idea of any such state. Particular emphasis is placed upon the following questions: Where does the idea of a Greater Albania stem from? Is a Greater Albania today still on the Albanians’ agenda as a real political plan? What speaks for and against a Greater Albania? Is the idea even feasible? The findings indicate that none of the Albanian communities residing in the Balkan region wish for a Greater Albania, nor do their leaders. The Serbs nonetheless maintain that an Albanian threat exists and has done so ever since 1878 when the idea of a Greater Albania first arose.
    [Show full text]
  • 2001 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor March 4, 2002
    Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Page 1 of 44 Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor March 4, 2002 (The report on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is discussed in three separate sections on Serbia, Kosovo, and Montenegro and addresses human rights situations in each of these entities. Since federal authority was exercised effectively only over the Republic of Serbia throughout the year, the human rights situations in Kosovo and Montenegro are dealt with in separate sections following this report.) The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia), a constitutional republic consisting of the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro, has a president and a parliamentary system of government based on multiparty elections. Vojislav Kostunica was elected President of the Federation in elections held on September 24, 2000 that were closely contested; President Slobodan Milosevic ultimately was unable to manipulate the elections. Massive public protests forced Milosevic to recognize his defeat and cede power on October 6, 2000. Under the constitutional framework, the Federation encompasses the Republics of Serbia and Montenegro; however, the Montenegrin Government has refused to participate in many of the functions of the Federal Government and has acted unilaterally in several areas. The Federal Government presides over a weakened structure, with responsibilities essentially limited to the Foreign Ministry, the Yugoslav Army (VJ), the Customs Administration, civil aviation control, and foreign economic and commercial relations. Although President Kostunica enjoyed wide popular support, significant power was concentrated at the republic level where, in Serbia, Prime Minister Djindjic exercises significant executive authority.
    [Show full text]
  • Tracing the Decline of Yugoslav Identity:A Case For
    SPrAWY NArODOWOŚCIOWe Seria nowa / NATIONALITIES AFFAIRS New series, 48/2016: 65–84 DOI: 10.11649/sn.2016.005 HANA SREbOTNjAk TRAcINg THE DEcLINE OF YugOSLAv IDENTITY: A cASE FOR ‘INvISIbLE’ ETHNIc cLEANSINg AbSTRAcT This essay explores the concept of invisible ethnic cleansing by examining the remaining group of self-identifying Yugo- slavs who continue to identify themselves as such despite the break-up of Yugoslavia, the country that shaped and con- stituted the focal point of their identity. The analysis argues that the lack of recognition of the Yugoslav identity during the country’s disintegration as well as afterwards in the indi- vidual republics befitted the new nationalistic and distinctly anti-Yugoslav narratives adopted by individual post-Yugoslav republics. The sheer existence and acknowledgment of the Yugoslav identity could therefore disprove the new nation- alistic tenets. The essay begins by setting up an analytical framework for the study of invisible ethnic cleansing and Yu- goslav identity by examining the concepts of ethnic cleansing, nationalism, group destruction and ethnicity. It goes on to es- tablish the historical background for Yugoslavia’s break up and looks at Yugoslavia’s ‘nationalities policy’, the break up itself and the role of the West and the Western media. Finally, the study identifies the hegemonic power of current nation-states reflected in the media, education and government-sponsored intellectual efforts, as those that control the image of the past can erase from it the memory of the disappeared states and the identities connected to them. The bulk of the analysis ............................... and the conclusions drawn were based on personal memoires HANA SrebOTNjAk and accounts of self-identifying Yugoslavs in order to preserve University of St Andrews, St.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo: an Accounting
    SECOND REPORT U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT DECEMBER 1999 Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo: An Accounting FORCED EXPULSIONS, LOOTING, BURNING, DETENTIONS, USE OF HUMAN SHIELDS, SUMMARY EXECUTIONS, EXHUMATIONS OF MASS GRAVES, SYSTEMATIC AND ORGANIZED MASS RAPE, VIOLATIONS OF MEDICAL NEUTRALITY AND IDENTITY CLEANSING TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Executive Summary 5 Introduction 7 Overview 9 Documenting the Abuses 13 The Refugee Interview Process 15 Postscript: Albanian Retribution and Missing Persons 17 Atrocities and War Crimes by Location 93 Appendix: List of Annotated Web Sites Prepared by the U.S. Department of State December 1999 Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo: An Accounting 1 Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo: An Accounting 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY thnic Cleansing in Kosovo: An Accounting is a buried in mass graves whose locations are unknown, (2) new chapter in our effort to document the what the ICTY reports is a significant number of sites Eextent of human rights and humanitarian law where the precise number of bodies cannot be counted, violations in Kosovo, and to convey the size and scope and (3) victims whose bodies were burned or destroyed of the Kosovo conflict. The information in this report is by Serbian forces. Press accounts and eyewitness drawn from refugee accounts, NGO documentation, accounts provide credible details of a program of press accounts, and declassified information from destruction of evidence by Serbian forces throughout government and international organization sources. Kosovo and even in Serbia proper. The number of The atrocities against Kosovar Albanians victims whose bodies have been burned or destroyed documented in this report occurred primarily between may never be known, but enough evidence has March and late June, 1999.
    [Show full text]
  • UCLA Previously Published Works
    UCLA UCLA Previously Published Works Title Moving past: probing the agency and affect of recordkeeping in individual and community lives in post-conflict Croatia Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1hf5133c Journal Archival Science, 14(3-4) ISSN 1389-0166 Author Gilliland, AJ Publication Date 2014-09-02 DOI 10.1007/s10502-014-9231-3 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Archival Science Moving Past: Probing the Agency and Affect of Recordkeeping in Individual and Community Lives in Post-conflict Croatia --Manuscript Draft-- Manuscript Number: ARCS-D-14-00015R2 Full Title: Moving Past: Probing the Agency and Affect of Recordkeeping in Individual and Community Lives in Post-conflict Croatia Article Type: S.I. : Antonym Forgetting Keywords: affect; Bosnia; Croatia; post-conflict recovery; recordkeeping and human rights; Slovenia; Yugoslav Wars Corresponding Author: Anne J. Gilliland, PhD University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA UNITED STATES Corresponding Author Secondary Information: Corresponding Author's Institution: University of California, Los Angeles Corresponding Author's Secondary Institution: First Author: Anne J. Gilliland, PhD First Author Secondary Information: Order of Authors: Anne J. Gilliland, PhD Order of Authors Secondary Information: Abstract: Reporting on ongoing research, this paper reviews stories, drawn from recent literature as well as gathered through ethnographic research, that people tell about records and recordkeeping during and since
    [Show full text]
  • Full Issue 5.2
    Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal Volume 5 Issue 2 Article 1 August 2010 Full Issue 5.2 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp Recommended Citation (2010) "Full Issue 5.2," Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal: Vol. 5: Iss. 2: Article 1. Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol5/iss2/1 This Front Matter is brought to you for free and open access by the Open Access Journals at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Editors’ Introduction This special section focuses on genocide and related mass violence in Latin America. Clearly there is a long history of genocide of indigenous peoples, from the arrival of Columbus and other conquerors to the present day. Perpetrated first by European colonial powers, particularly Spain and Portugal, genocidal activities continued in postcolonial settler states following the revolutions of the nineteenth century. Government shifted from Europe to local Euro-American, as well as in some cases indigenous, elites, who shared economic and thus political power with imperialist international actors—including, in many cases, the United States and some of its large corporations. Human-rights abuses continued. In the second half of the twentieth century, the Cold War–era National Security Doctrine, as well as state- specific tensions and agendas, played out in various Latin American contexts in a new round of repression, genocide, and other forms of mass violence. The Guate- malan Genocide of the 1980s and systematic killings and general military repression under dictatorships in Chile and Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s are perhaps the best-known cases, but others abound.
    [Show full text]
  • Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural
    SPACES OF IDENTITY With Germany reunited and Europe no longer divided by the Iron Curtain, where does ‘Europe’ end? Against which Other (besides America) is Europe to be defined, if not against Communism? How is the emergence of a new vision of Japan disrupting cultural dynamics through which Europe, America and the Orient have traditionally understood their mutual relations? The book has a double focus throughout. At a theoretical level the prime concern is with the question of identity under the conditions of a postmodern geography—specifically with the complex and contradictory nature of cultural identities and with the role of communications technologies in the reconfiguration of contemporary cultural (and often diasporic) identities. These issues are addressed in the context of the contemporary politics of the relations between Europe and its most significant Others—America, Islam and the Orient—against whom Europe’s own identity has been and is now being defined. The key questions have become those of power, boundary- marking and exclusion processes, both nationally and internationally. If identity is crucially about difference, the politics of identity necessarily raises questions of authenticity, of roots, tradition and heritage which, in turn, lead into questions of race and ethnicity. Spaces of Identity is a stimulating account of the complex and contradictory nature of contemporary cultural identities, and important reading for all concerned with the threads from which the pattern of our contemporary identities are being woven. David Morley is Reader in Communication Studies at Goldsmiths’ College, London. Kevin Robins is Reader in Cultural Geography and a Researcher at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
    [Show full text]
  • War Crimes in Kosovo
    UNDER ORDERS War Crimes in Kosovo HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH new york • washington • london • brussels Copyright © 2001 by Human Rights Watch. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Photo Credits/Captions: Cover photo: tk Page ??: tk ISBN tk Library of Congress Catalog Number: tk Addresses for Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor, New York, NY 10118-3299 Tel: (212) 290-4700, Fax: (212) 736-1300, E-mail: [email protected] 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009 Tel: (202) 612-4321, Fax: (202) 612-4333, E-mail: [email protected] 33 Islington High Street, N1 9LH London, UK Tel: (171) 713-1995, Fax: (171) 713-1800, E-mail: [email protected] 15 Rue Van Campenhout, 1000 Brussels, Belgium Tel: (2) 732-2009, Fax: (2) 732-0471, E-mail:[email protected] Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org Listserv address: To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail message to [email protected] with “subscribe hrw-news” in the body of the message (leave the subject line blank). Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive prac- tices and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the interna- tional community to support the cause of human rights for all.
    [Show full text]
  • Caitlin Chase Kosovo Final Paper
    This Land Is Your Land, This Land is My Land Narrative Healing Through Affective Engagement in Kosovo Caitlin Chase December 29, 2010 Chase. Caitlin 2015 reserved. © rights All Copyright 2 INTRODUCTION In the late 1990s, the American community slowly became conscious of a burgeoning crisis in Kosovo. Television screens flashed with images of refugees and shocking stories of ethnic cleansing. Watching from afar, secure within the parameters of another culture, another country, and another reality, such profound violence seemed incomprehensible. The American public demonized the perpetrators: evil, maniacs, terrorists, killers. We condemned. There was refuge in the notion that such brutality was borne of a few errant individuals. The safety of distance fostered the fantasy that such atrocity would never penetrate the American existence. Chase. PART I A Brief History of the Conflict in Kosovo: 1974-2000 Caitlin In order to better grasp the universal vulnerability to violence, and thus to effectively direct ethico-political action toward its prevention in Kosovo and other territories, we must first reserved. understand the history behind the atrocity.2015 For centuries, Serbian and Albanian ethnic communities have clashed over the© right to Kosovar territory. The shared history comprises a long, complex, and often unclear fight forrights political and economic power in the province. In 1974 a new Yugoslav Constitution grantedAll Kosovo the status of a sovereign republic. The years following marked “a veritable Albanian national renaissance” in the form of a flourishing academic and political presenceCopyright in Kosovo (Judah 38). The Yugoslavian president, Josip Broz Tito, who had mediated the creation of a united republic, died in May of 1980.
    [Show full text]
  • War Crimes in Kosovo
    WKAROCSRIOMEVS ION A Population-Based Assessment of Human Rights Violations Against Kosovar Albanians A report by: Physicians for Human Rights Boston • Washington DC In conjunction with: Program on Forced Migration and Health, Center for Population and Family Health, The Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Copyright © August 1999 by Physicians for Human Rights All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN 1-879707-26-8 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 99-075785 COVER INSET PHOTO: Glenn Ruga COVER AND REPORT DESIGN: Glenn Ruga/Visual Communications PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) mobilizes the health professions and enlists support from the general public to protect and promote the human rights of all people. PHR believes that human rights are essential preconditions for the health and well-being of all members of the human family. Since 1986, PHR members have worked to stop torture, disappearances, and political killings by governments and opposition groups; to improve health and sanitary conditions in prisons and detention centers; to investigate the physical and psychological consequences of violations of humanitarian law in internal and international conflicts; to defend medical neutrality and the right of civil- ians and combatants to receive medical care during times of war; to protect health professionals who are victims of violations of human rights; and to pre- vent medical complicity in torture and other abuses. As one of the original steering committee members of the International Cam- paign to Ban Landmines, PHR shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. PHR cur- rently serves as grassroots coordinator of the US Campaign to Ban Landmines.
    [Show full text]