In
the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, conflict between the three
main ethnic groups, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, resulted
in genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims in
Bosnia.
Bosnia
is one of several small countries that emerged from the break-up
of Yugoslavia, a multicultural country created after World
War I by the victorious Western Allies. Yugoslavia was composed
of ethnic and religious groups that had been historical rivals,
even bitter enemies, including the Serbs (Orthodox Christians),
Croats (Catholics) and ethnic Albanians (Muslims).
During World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany
and was partitioned. A fierce resistance movement sprang up
led by Josip Tito. Following Germany's defeat, Tito reunified
Yugoslavia under the slogan "Brotherhood and Unity,"
merging together Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro,
Macedonia, along with two self-governing provinces, Kosovo
and Vojvodina.
Tito,
a Communist, was a strong leader who maintained ties with
the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War,
playing one superpower against the other while obtaining financial
assistance and other aid from both. After his death in 1980
and without his strong leadership, Yugoslavia quickly plunged
into political and economic chaos.
A
new leader arose by the late 1980s, a Serbian named Slobodan
Milosevic, a former Communist who had turned to nationalism
and religious hatred to gain power. He began by inflaming
long-standing tensions between Serbs and Muslims in the independent
provence of Kosovo. Orthodox Christian Serbs in Kosovo were
in the minority and claimed they were being mistreated by
the Albanian Muslim majority. Serbian-backed political unrest
in Kosovo eventually led to its loss of independence and domination
by Milosevic.
In
June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia both declared their independence
from Yugoslavia soon resulting in civil war. The national
army of Yugoslavia, now made up of Serbs controlled by Milosevic,
stormed into Slovenia but failed to subdue the separatists
there and withdrew after only ten days of fighting.
Milosevic
quickly lost interest in Slovenia, a country with almost no
Serbs. Instead, he turned his attention to Croatia, a Catholic
country where Orthodox Serbs made up 12 percent of the population.
During
World War II, Croatia had been a pro-Nazi state led by Ante
Pavelic and his fascist Ustasha Party. Serbs living in Croatia
as well as Jews had been the targets of widespread Ustasha
massacres. In the concentration camp at Jasenovac, they had
been slaughtered by the tens of thousands.
In
1991, the new Croat government, led by Franjo Tudjman, seemed
to be reviving fascism, even using the old Ustasha flag, and
also enacted discriminatory laws targeting Orthodox Serbs.
Aided
by Serbian guerrillas in Croatia, Milosevic's forces invaded
in July 1991 to 'protect' the Serbian minority. In the city
of Vukovar, they bombarded the outgunned Croats for 86 consecutive
days and reduced it to rubble. After Vukovar fell, the Serbs
began the first mass executions of the conflict, killing hundreds
of Croat men and burying them in mass graves.
The
response of the international community was limited. The U.S.
under President George Bush chose not to get involved militarily,
but instead recognized the independence of both Slovenia and
Croatia. An arms embargo was imposed for all of the former
Yugoslavia by the United Nations. However, the Serbs under
Milosevic were already the best armed force and thus maintained
a big military advantage.
The
end of 1991 brokered a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire agreement
between the Serbs and Croats fighting in Croatia.
In
April 1992, the U.S. and European Community chose to recognize
the independence of Bosnia, a mostly Muslim country where
the Serb minority made up 32 percent of the population. Milosevic
responded to Bosnia's declaration of independence by attacking
Sarajevo, its capital city, best known for hosting the 1984
Winter Olympics. Sarajevo soon became known as the city where
Serb snipers continually shot down helpless civilians in the
streets, including eventually over 3,500 children.
Bosnian
Muslims were hopelessly outgunned. As the Serbs gained ground,
they began to systematically roundup local Muslims in scenes
eerily similar to those that had occurred under the Nazis
during World War II, including mass shootings, forced repopulation
of entire towns, and confinement in make-shift concentration
camps for men and boys. The Serbs also terrorized Muslim families
into fleeing their villages by using rape as a weapon against
women and girls.
The
actions of the Serbs were labeled as 'ethnic cleansing,' a
name which quickly took hold among the international media.
Despite
media reports of the secret camps, the mass killings, as well
as the destruction of Muslim mosques and historic architecture
in Bosnia, the world community remained mostly indifferent.
The U.N. responded by imposing economic sanctions on Serbia
and also deployed its troops to protect the distribution of
food and medicine to dispossessed Muslims. But the U.N. strictly
prohibited its troops from interfering militarily against
the Serbs. Thus they remained steadfastly neutral no matter
how bad the situation became.
Throughout
1993, confident that the U.N., United States and the European
Community would not take militarily action, Serbs in Bosnia
freely committed genocide against Muslims. Bosnian Serbs operated
under the local leadership of Radovan Karadzic, president
of the illegitimate Bosnian Serb Republic. Karadzic had once
told a group of journalists, "Serbs and Muslims are like
cats and dogs. They cannot live together in peace. It is impossible."
When
Karadzic was confronted by reporters about ongoing atrocities,
he bluntly denied involvement of his soldiers or special police
units.
On
February 6, 1994, the world's attention turned completely
to Bosnia as a marketplace in Sarajevo was struck by a Serb
mortar shell killing 68 persons and wounding nearly 200. Sights
and sounds of the bloody carnage were broadcast globally by
the international news media and soon resulted in calls for
military intervention against the Serbs.
The
U.S. under its new President, Bill Clinton, who had promised
during his election campaign in 1992 to stop the ethnic cleansing
in Bosnia, now issued an ultimatum through the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) demanding that the Serbs withdraw
their artillery from Sarajevo. The Serbs quickly complied
and a NATO-imposed cease-fire in Sarajevo was declared.
The
U.S. then launched diplomatic efforts aimed at unifying Bosnian
Muslims and the Croats against the Serbs. However, this new
Muslim-Croat alliance failed to stop the Serbs from attacking
Muslim towns in Bosnia, which had been declared Safe Havens
by the U.N. A total of six Muslim towns had been established
as Safe Havens in May 1993 under the supervision of U.N. peacekeepers.
Bosnian
Serbs not only attacked the Safe Havens but also attacked
the U.N. peacekeepers as well. NATO forces responded by launching
limited air strikes against Serb ground positions. The Serbs
retaliated by taking hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers as hostages
and turning them into human shields, chained to military targets
such as ammo supply dumps.
At
this point, some of the worst genocidal activities of the
four-year-old conflict occurred. In Srebrenica, a Safe Haven,
U.N. peacekeepers stood by helplessly as the Serbs under the
command of General Ratko Mladic systematically selected and
then slaughtered nearly 8,000 men and boys between the ages
of twelve and sixty - the worst mass murder in Europe since
World War II. In addition, the Serbs continued to engage in
mass rapes of Muslim females.
On
August 30, 1995, effective military intervention finally began
as the U.S. led a massive NATO bombing campaign in response
to the killings at Srebrenica, targeting Serbian artillery
positions throughout Bosnia. The bombardment continued into
October. Serb forces also lost ground to Bosnian Muslims who
had received arms shipments from the Islamic world. As a result,
half of Bosnia was eventually retaken by Muslim-Croat troops.
Faced
with the heavy NATO bombardment and a string of ground losses
to the Muslim-Croat alliance, Serb leader Milosevic was now
ready to talk peace. On November 1, 1995, leaders of the warring
factions including Milosevic and Tudjman traveled to the U.S.
for peace talks at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio.
After
three weeks of negotiations, a peace accord was declared.
Terms of the agreement included partitioning Bosnia into two
main portions known as the Bosnian Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat
Federation. The agreement also called for democratic elections
and stipulated that war criminals would be handed over for
prosecution. 60,000 NATO soldiers were deployed to preserve
the cease-fire.
By
now, over 200,000 Muslim civilians had been systematically
murdered. More than 20,000 were missing and feared dead, while
2,000,000 had become refugees. It was, according to U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, "the greatest failure
of the West since the 1930s."
