Case Study in Conflict Resolution: Bosna i Hercegovina (BiH)

Босна и Херцеговина (БиХ)

Outline:

I. Early History

II. Conflict 1992 – 1995

III. Post Conflict

History

Illyrians

Illyrians 1200BC

Romans 229BC

WAR 9BC

Roman Empire 395AD

Roman Empire officially splits

along

Drina River

ROMAN EMPIRE Rom

e

BYZANTINE EMPIRE

Constantinople

Roman Empire(Roman Catholic Church)

Latin Alphabet

WEST

Byzantine Empire(Christian Orthodox Church)

Cyrillic Alphabet

EAST

Dri

na

Riv

erAdriatic

Sea

BOSNIA SERBIA

Slavs Migrate 5AD - 10AD

BOSNIA

Golden Age of King Ban Kulin

1130AD – 1204AD

KOSOVO

Ottomans

Bosnians

Serbs

Kosovo Field Battle

28.6.1389

BOSNIA

Ottomans completely overtake in 1463

KARLOVAC TREATY REDEFINES BORDERS 1699

Ottoman Empire 1463AD -1878AD

BOSN

IA

Berlin Congress

1878

Ottoman Empire Austria

-Hungary

AUSTRIAHUNGARY

BOSNIA

1908

Yugo Slavia ???

Croatian Intellectuals

Austria-Hungary

Yugoslav Kingdom Serbi

aSlovenia

Croatia

Montenegro

Bosnia Macedonia

Vojvodina

Kosovo

TRASH

kingdom of

Slovenes,

Croats and

Serbs

Treaty of Versailles 1919

1929

Yugoslav Kingdom

Bosnia belongs to Croatia

SFRJ

Tito &

Partisans

End of

WWII

ALLIES

SFRJ – Sovereign Federal Republic Yugoslavia

II Conflict 1992-1995:

SFRJ

Slovenia

Croatia

Serbia

Bosnia

Dissolution of SFRJ 1990-1991

Collapse of SFRJ

1974 – decentralization of SFRJ;

4th May 1980, Tito died at the age of 88 in Ljubljana, Slovenia;

28th February – 1st March Bosnia holds referendum; Bosnian Serb boycott, Serb militia surrounds Sarajevo;

6th April 1992 – recognized by European Commission;

Timeline of Conflict1992• Prijedor: Testing ground for “ethnic cleansing”;• Croats attack Herzegovina

1993• Serbs capture a UN Convoy and kill Bosnia’s Prime

Minister;• Vance-Owen 15-16 May peace plan fails;• ICTY formally established by resolution 827;1994• Siege of Sarajevo ends in February;• Washington Peace Agreement between Bosniak and

Croat forces was signed;

1995 14th December – Dayton Peace Agreement signed ending the war;

Concentration camps:

Bosnia: Omarska, Keraterm, Manjaca,Trnopolje;

Herzegovina: Heliodrom, Dretelj, Gabela, Vojno and Šunje;

Srebrenica Genocide

1993 Naser Oric, Muslim guerilla commander overtakes a Serb city and commits atrocities;

January 1995 UN Dutch battalion arrives in Srebrenica and declares it a UN protected zone;

8,000 Bosniak men killed;

1948 UN Convention on Genocide: Article 2;

Rape Estimated 20,000 – 50,000

Bosnian women were raped;

Rape was systematic and aimed at tainting and discontinuing birth within the ethnic group;

Girls as young as 12 were victims;

Slavenka Drakulic wrote a book “S”, made into a movie “As if I am not there”

Mujahedin

 Islamist volunteers or missionaries arrived in Bosnia during the war, not just to fight for the Muslims against the Serbs and Croats, but to propagate a fundamentalist version of Islam to the secular or moderately religious native Bosnian Muslims;

 mujahedin did attract converts from a minority of local Bosnian Muslims; it was both the foreigners and their local recruits who spearheaded attacks on non-Muslim - primarily Croat - civilians, churches and government offices and individuals in the years following Dayton;

Foreign mujahedin failed to attract any Bosnian Muslims to the global jihad, but they succeeded at times in catalyzing locals to resist the reconstruction of multinational coexistence in Bosnia;

Foreign mujahedin who engaged in these crimes appear to have been quite content with their modest purposes;

Esad Hecimovic’s ‘Garibs: The Mujahedin in Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1992-1999’

III Post Conflict

ICTY/ ICTJ

The Tribunal has contributed to an indisputable historical record, combating denial and helping communities come to terms with their recent history. Crimes across the region can no longer be denied. For example, it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that the mass murder at Srebrenica was genocide; 

Judges have also ruled that rape was used by members of the Bosnian Serb armed forces as an instrument of terror, and the judges in the Kvočka et al. trial established that a “hellish orgy of persecution” occurred in the Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje camps of northwestern Bosnia;

 ICTY has charged over 160 persons;

Political Structure

Republika Srpska and Bosnia Herzegovina, independent Brcko –internationally supervised;

3 seat presidency, rotating every 8 months; Zelko KOMSIC, BAKIR IZETBEGOVIC, NEBOJSA RADMANOVIC;

Elections held every 4 years;

President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Zivko BUDIMIR, Vice Presidents Spomenka MICIC, Mirsad KEBO; President of the Republika Srpska: Milorad DODIK;

Parliamentary Assembly: House of Peoples (15 seats, 5 Bosniak, 5 Croat, 5 Serb)and the state-level House of Representatives 42 seats, 28 seats); 

Foreign Minister – Sven Alkalaj

Bosnia today

Reconciliation

Military intervention;

Presence of peacekeepers;

Returning refugees;

Haag tribunals;

Svetozar Marovic 2003 issues a public apology;

No Truth and reconciliation Commission;

ICJ decision – Bosnia not a genocide;

Revisionism

Local communities;

Redirecting blame;

Perpetrators free in Bosnia;

Belgrade protest to Karadzic’ arrest;

Darko Trifunovic at the ICT Conference at IDC Herzeliya 2011;

QUESTIONS?