You might think that this is possible in an absolute monarchy but not in countries which choose their rulers. Just consider this story from Kosovo. This was a province of Yugoslavia before its split. In this province the population was overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian. But in the entire country, Serbs were in majority. A narrow minded Serb nationalist Milosevic (pronounced Miloshevich) had won. the election. His government was very hostile to to the Kosovo Albanians. He wanted the Serbs to dominate the country. Many Serb leaders thought that Ethnic minorities like Albanians should either leave the country or accept the dominance of the Serbs.
This is what happened to an Albanian family in a town in Kosovo in April 1999:
“74-year-old Batisha Hoxha was sitting in her kitchen with her 77- year-old husband, Izet, staying warm by the stove. They had heard explosions but did not realise that Serbian troops had already entered the town. The next thing she knew, five or six soldiers had burst through the front door and were demanding
“Where are your children?”
“… they shot Izet three times in the chest” recalled Batisha. With her husband dying before her, the soldiers pulled the wedding ring off her finger and told her to get out. “7 was not even outside the gate when they burned the house”… She was standing on the street in the rain with no house, no husband, no possessions but the clothes she was wearing.”
This news report was typical of what happened to thousands of Albanians in that period. Do remember that this massacre was being carried out by the army of their own country, working under the direction of a leader who came to power through democratic elections. This was one of the worst instances of killings based on ethnic prejudices in recent times. Finally several other countries intervened to stop this massacre. Milosevic lost power and was tried by the International Court of Justice for crimes against humanity.
Language: English