The United Nations University is an organ of the United Nations established by the General Assembly in 1972 to be an international community of scholars engaged in research, advanced training, and the dissemination of knowledge related to the pressing global problems of human survival, development, and welfare. Its activities focus mainly on peace and conflict resolution, development in a changing world, and science and technology in relation to human welfare. The University operates through a worldwide network of research and postgraduate training centres, with its planning and coordinating headquarters in Tokyo. The United Nations University Press, the publishing division of the UNU, publishes scholarly books and periodicals in the social sciences, humanities, and pure and applied natural sciences related to the University’s research. Ethnicity and power in the contemporary world Note to the reader from the UNU This is the final volume to emerge from a five-year research and training programme conducted by the United Nations University on governance and conflict resolution. The programme examined the underlying conditions giving rise to internal conflicts, particularly where they are manifested through direct violence. It also focused on the conceptual and theoretical problems related to such conflicts, early warning of potential conflicts, and conflict transformation. This volume investigates the causes and consequences of violent conflict and the options for its prevention, resolution, and transformation in regions as diverse as Africa, the former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, and certain Soviet successor states. The chapters, written by multicultural scholars, are based on revised versions of papers originally presented at a UNU symposium held in cooperation with the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in March 1992. The companion volume, entitled The Culture of Violence, was published by the UNU Press in 1994. Ethnicity and power in the contemporary world Edited by Kumar Rupesinghe and Valery A. Tishkov United Nations a University Press TOKYO u NEW YORK u PARIS ( The United Nations University, 1996 The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations University. United Nations University Press The United Nations University, 53-70, Jingumae 5-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150, Japan Tel: (03) 3499-2811 Fax: (03) 3406-7345 Telex: J25442 Cable: UNATUNIV TOKYO UNU Office in North America 2 United Nations Plaza, Room DC2-1462-70, New York, NY 10017 Tel: (212) 963-6387 Fax: (212) 371-9454 Telex: 422311 UN UI United Nations University Press is the publishing division of the United Nations University. Typeset by Asco Trade Typesetting Limited, Hong Kong Printed by Permanent Typesetting and Printing Co., Ltd., Hong Kong Cover design by Jonathan Gullery/Abel Graphics, Thornwood, New York, USA UNUP-908 ISBN 92-808-0908-3 03500 P Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Kumar Rupesinghe and Valery A. Tishkov 1 Governance and conflict resolution in multi-ethnic societies 10 Kumar Rupesinghe 2 Ethnic conflict in the Horn of Africa: Myth and reality 32 Hizkias Assefa 3 Ethnic conflicts in the context of social science theories 52 Valery A. Tishkov 4 Settlement of ethnic conflicts in post-Soviet society 69 Emil Payin v Contents 5 Dynamics of the Moldova–Trans-Dniester ethnic conflict (late 1980s to early 1990s) 83 Airat R. Aklaev 6 Ethnic conflict in the Osh region in summer 1990: Reasons and lessons 116 Abilabek Asankanov 7 From centre–periphery conflict to the making of new nationality policy in an independent state: Estonia 125 Klara Hallik 8 Conflict management in the former USSR and world experience 143 Victor A. Kremenyuk 9 The dissolution of multi-ethnic states: The case of Yugoslavia 159 Silvo Devetak 10 Ethnic conflict, federalism, and democracy in India 179 S.D. Muni 11 An intractable conflict? Northern Ireland: A need for pragmatism 199 John Darby 12 Political autonomy and conflict resolution: The Basque case 210 Jose´ Manuel Castells and Gurutz Jauregui 13 Ethnic and racial groups in the USA: Conflict and cooperation 236 Mary C. Waters 14 Ethnic conflicts and minority protection: Roles for the international community 263 Asbjørn Eide vi Contents 15 The right to autonomy: Chimera or solution? 287 Hurst Hannum Contributors 296 vii Acknowledgements This volume is based on presentations made at the Conference on Conflict, Governance, and the Devolution of Power in Multi-ethnic States sponsored by the United Nations University, Tokyo, and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow in March 1992, under the UNU’s Ethnic Conflict and Governance Programme. We are also extremely grateful to the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology for hosting the conference and to the Institute’s staff, in particular Senior Researcher Mara Ustinova and Marina Martinova, Scientific Secretary. We would like to acknowledge the invaluable support of the UNU both in sponsoring the conference and through a lengthy editing process: particularly Dr Takeo Uchida, former Principal Academic Officer and in charge of the Ethnic Conflict and Governance Pro- gramme, for his guidance and great patience. To Rogie Kahlon and all the other staff at the UNU who helped with the production of the volume, we offer our sincere thanks. Stephanie Loomis ably assisted in the organization of the Moscow conference. We would also like to thank Susan Hoivik, David Israelson, Lucy Ackroyd, and David Lord for their work on the manuscript. ix Introduction Kumar Rupesinghe and Valery A. Tishkov The continuing agonies of Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia, Azerbaijan- Armenia, and Algeria, just to cite a few of the dozens of examples of the violent internal conflicts which are the predominant form of warfare in the world today, underscore the timeliness of this volume by pointing to the urgent necessity of improving the global com- munity’s understanding of the causes and consequences of violent conflict and options for their prevention, constructive resolution, or transformation. While covering a wide geographic and experiential range, this volume has no pretensions to providing an exhaustive or definitive overview of the relationships between ethnicity, power, and conflict in the modern world. In fact, in the following pages readers will find opposing perspectives, definitions, arguments, and conclusions, all of which are part of a rich and dynamic process of analysis, debate, and discovery. The material contained in this volume, which explores conflicts and conflict resolution approaches in the Horn of Africa, some of the Soviet successor states, the former Yugoslavia, India, Northern Ireland, the Basque country, and the United States, leads to the conclusion that solutions to the dilemmas posed by the resur- 1 Kumar Rupesinghe and Valery A. Tishkov gence of ethnicity and shifting power relationships in the post-Cold- War world involve a plethora of factors which do not lend themselves to superficial analysis or pat solutions. In reality, the nature of conflict is as complex as the global varieties of social life itself; a fact which should, but does not always, lead scholars to reject the temptation to make categorical classifications and avoid oversimplifications. Case-studies, whether drawn from the former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia, Western Europe, or the Americas, demonstrate varieties of entwined objective and subjective factors, as well as rational and irrational motives on the part of individuals and groups, that belie simple classification. The urgency of many current conflict situations also demands that scholars, policy makers, and ordinary people eschew blinkered methodological, political, or ethnic orientations when trying to understand conflict and build peace. The importance of the issue of self-determination in any discussion of conflict and conflict resolution in the contemporary world is indis- putable, an importance which is reflected in this volume in several of the case-studies, as well as in the more general discussions. But the viability of political arrangements between groups is only part of the intricate matrix of most conflicts, which can involve issues of gover- nance and authority as well as issues of ideology, identity, economic disparity, competition for resources, and other factors, most often in complex combinations. Co-editor Kumar Rupesinghe’s contribution, entitled ‘‘Governance and Conflict Resolution in Multi-Ethnic Societies,’’ describes some of the fundamental changes which will be needed in our perceptions of security and sovereignty if the global community is to manage peacefully the dynamics of ethnic conflict and the unresolved and largely unreflected issue of self-determination. The issues of gover- nance, ethnicity, and conflict resolution are explored in the context of the evolving new world order, which is still encumbered with increasingly obsolete and ineffective international systems, mecha- nisms, and approaches. Rupesinghe argues that conflicts involving claims or resistance to claims of self-determination remain among the most intractable, partly due to the absence of mechanisms to address such claims. In ‘‘Ethnic Conflict in the Horn of Africa: Myth and Reality,’’ Hizkias Assefa offers a definition of ethnic groups as collectivities of people who share the same primordial characteristics, such as com- mon ancestry, language, and culture. Ethnicity refers to the behav- iour and feelings that emanate from membership of an ethnic group.