Identity cleansing

{{Short description|Confiscation of personal documents to prevent refugees from returning}}

{{global|date=December 2014}}Identity cleansing is defined as "confiscation of personal identification, passports, and other such documents in order to make it difficult or impossible for those driven out to return".{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hKFkrCvkuwAC&q=%22Identity+cleansing%22&pg=PA100|title=Sustainable Development in Crisis Conditions: Challenges of War, Terrorism, and Civil Disorder|first1=Phillip J.|last1=Cooper|first2=Claudia Maria|last2=Vargas|date=November 5, 2008|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780742531338|via=Google Books}}

Kosovo War

During the Kosovo War in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), expelled Kosovo Albanians were systematically stripped of identity and property documents including passports, land titles, vehicle registration plates, identity cards and other documents.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=htfEczkCHjcC&q=%22Identity+cleansing%22|title=Human Geography in Action|first1=Michael|last1=Kuby|first2=Patricia|last2=Gober|first3=John|last3=Harner|date=September 11, 2001|publisher=Wiley|isbn=9780471400936|via=Google Books}} In conjunction with the policy of expelling Kosovo Albanians from the province, Yugoslav Army would confiscate all documents that indicated the identity of those being expelled. File:Passport of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.jpg]]

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reports that nearly 60% of respondents to its survey observed the Yugoslav Army removing or destroying personal identification documents.[http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/kosovo/reports/document.html Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo: An Accounting] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522100942/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/Kosovo/Reports/document.html |date=2011-05-22 }} Human Rights Watch (HRW) also documented the common practice of "identity cleansing"; refugees expelled toward Albania were frequently stripped of their identity documents and forced to remove the registration plates from their vehicles.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1n8DrZg2rb8C&pg=PA6|title=Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo|first=Fred|last=Abrahams|date=November 5, 2001|publisher=Human Rights Watch|isbn=9781564322647|via=Google Books}} This criminal practice suggesting the government was trying to block their return.

In addition to confiscating the relevant documents from their holders, efforts were also made to destroy any actual birth certificate as well as other archives which were maintained by governmental agencies, so as to make the "cleansing" complete,[http://belgrade.usembassy.gov/policy/regional/030331.html Human Rights Practices - 2002] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923021126/http://belgrade.usembassy.gov/policy/regional/030331.html |date=September 23, 2006 }} which sometimes was being referred to as "archival cleansing".{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1deR-jiYJgC&q=%22archival+cleansing%22&pg=PA64|title=Libricide: The Regime-sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century|first1=Rebecca|last1=Knuth|first2=John|last2=English|date=November 5, 2003|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780275980887|via=Google Books}}

This practice received worldwide condemnation, and evidence of it has been brought at the war crimes trials held at The Hague after the situation in Kosovo was stabilized following the NATO bombing of the Yugoslavia and the subsequent collapse of its nationalist government in October 2000.{{cite web |date=10 January 2001 |title=Neke vođe štrajka nisu bile na proslavi godišnjice |url=http://www.blic.rs/vesti/politika/neke-vode-strajka-nisu-bile-na-proslavi-godisnjice/f03y2f9 |access-date=8 April 2018 |website=blic.rs}} Despite difficulties due to "identity cleansing", the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) registered 1.3 million voters until the October 2002 municipal elections.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4h42AAAAIAAJ&q=%22Identity+cleansing%22|title=Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Report Submitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives and Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate by the Department of State in Accordance with Sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as Amended|date=November 5, 2003|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|via=Google Books}}