Comment by disgruntledphd2

Look, I remember this being discussed at the time as a euphemism to avoid the necessity for intervention.

The wikipedia article suggests that I'm not alone in this belief: "Both the definition and charge of ethnic cleansing is often disputed, with some researchers including and others excluding coercive assimilation or mass killings as a means of depopulating an area of a particular group,[6][7] or calling it a euphemism for genocide or cultural genocide.[8][9]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing