The Bosnian Genocide

200,000 Killed

“Ethnic cleansing” and “The failure of the West”

Present Day Bosnia:

Bosnian ethnic groups Bosnia is home to three ethnic groups: Serbs, Croats,

and Muslims Each of these groups follows a different religion

Serbs – Orthodox Christian Croats – Catholic

Historically these groups have been at odds with one another and even bitter enemies at times

Serbian flag-Left

Croatian flag-Right

WWII and Yugoslavia Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazis and partitioned

Resistance movements sprang up led by Josip Tito After the Nazis were defeated Tito helped to

reunify Yugoslavia Tito was a strong leader and maintained ties with

the US and USSR during the Cold War Obtained financial aid from both nations playing

them off each other When Tito died in 1980 the nation plunged into

political and economic chaos

Marshal Josip Broz Tito

Yugoslavia’s new leader By the late 1980s a new leader emerged in Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic, a former communist, rose to power

using nationalism and religious hatred to gain power Inflamed tensions between Serbs and Muslims

Milosevic, a Serb, wanted to take control of all areas where ethnic Serbs lived Sought to protect interests of Serbs

Violence ensued when Croatia and Slovenia declared independence in 1991

Slobodan Milosevic 1941-2006

YugoslaviaOn 31 January 1946, the new constitution of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, modeled after the Soviet Union, established six republics, an autonomous province, and an autonomous district that were part of SR Serbia. The federal capital was Belgrade.

Break up of Yugoslavia1991 - Slovenia and Croatia, Macedonia

1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mass killings begin Milosevic invaded both Slovenia and Croatia

Quickly loses interest in Slovenia because invasion failed and there are almost no Serbs

Croatia had a 12% Serb population New Croatian government passed discriminatory laws against Serbs

Milosevic invaded to “protect” the Serbian minority Bombarded city of Vukovar for 86 days reducing it to rubble After Vukovar fell hundreds of Croatian men were slaughtered and

buried in mass graves International community responds with an arms embargo Late 1991 saw US brokered cease fire between Serbs and Croats

Bosnian atrocities begin April 1992: US recognizes independence of Bosnia

Bosnia majority Muslim with 32% Serb minority Milosevic responds to independence by invading Sarajevo

Sarajevo known as city where Serb snipers continually shot civilians Eventually 3500 children were among the sniper deaths

Serbs gain ground and begin rounding up Muslims Forced relocation of entire towns Men were put into concentration camps and slaughtered Women were systematically raped by the Serb soldiers

These actions were labeled as “Ethnic Cleansing” Bosnia’s National Library shelled and burned

National and University Library engulfed in flames following shelling by Serb Nationalist Forces, Sarajevo, August 26, 1992

World response Despite the camps, rapes, and killings the UN and others did little

UN imposed economic sanctions and sent troops to distribute food UN troops were prohibited from taking military actions The arms embargo imposed by Western nations only hurt Bosnians

because Serbians were already most armed group in the area Throughout 1993 the Serbs, confident that there would be no

military intervention from the West, freely committed genocide Bill Clinton campaigned in 1992 to intervene in Bosnia to

assist ethnic minorities President Bush held the same view

Was not until 1994 that Clinton and NATO demanded Serbs withdraw from Sarajevo following the bombing of a marketplace

UN involvement US tries to foster an alliance between Croats and

Muslims against Serbs New alliance fails to stop Serbian advances in Bosnia UN sets up six “safe havens” for Muslims in Bosnia

Serbs attacked these safe havens and UN peacekeepers US responds with limited air strikes

It was at this time that the genocide was at its worst

Srebrenica so called safe haven Srebrenica was one of the safe havens set up by the UN

The French and Dutch governments were responsible for this haven 1995 Serbian troops attack and shell Srebrenica

Food and water supplies begin to dwindle An amateur radio operator was heard in Sarajevo from Srebrenica

saying “Please do something, whatever you can. In the name of God, do something.”

The Dutch soldiers guarding the city could do little against Serbians Poorly equipped with little backup Appealed to French for help but nothing came

All men were transported out of the city and killed Women and children transported then raped and killed after

men

Srebrenica so called safe haven The population of Srebrenica was transported out over 4 days

7,500 Men were killed up to 3,000 killed while trying to escape Serb troops took the light blue helmets of UN peacekeepers to fool

other Muslims trying to escape A survivor says that the Dutch did little to help

Survivor says that the Dutch received a convoy of food and beer while the population of Srebrenica was being killed

Survivor also says that there was loud music coming from where the Dutch were staying in Srebrenica

After the massacre of Srebrenica NATO finally responds and on August 30th 1995 they begin a massive bombing campaign

US and NATO take action The heavy bombing and ground losses force Milosevic to seek

peace November 1st 1995 the warring factions travel to Ohio for peace

talks After three weeks a peace was reached 60,000 NATO soldiers were deployed to keep the peace Over 200,000 are dead and there are over 2,000,000 refugees from

Bosnia

November 21, 1995: Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, left, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, center, and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, right, initial the peace agreement after 21 days of talks at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Genocide continues in Kosovo The peace accords split the territory

of Bosnia in half between the Serbs and the Muslims settling the conflict in Bosnia

However, the Kosovar Albanians were still the targets of brutal attack from the Serbian army

The international community failed to come to the aid of the Kosovar Albanians while they were helping the Muslims of Bosnia

The Kosovar Albanians were also not allowed to participate in the peace talks in Ohio

This was a signal to the Kosovar Albanians that there would need to be massive bloodshed before the world would help them

Kosovo Kosovo was an autonomous

region located in Serbia before the rise of Slobodan Milosevic

When Milosevic took power he began to take away the autonomy of Kosovo

This was the beginning of another “ethnic cleansing” campaign

Some Kosovar Albanians formed the Kosovo Liberation Army to fight back against the aggression of Milosevic and the Serbian Army

Nature of the Beast The atrocities committed in Kosovo followed a tit for

tat pattern If the KLA killed a Serbian police officer the Serbian

army would burn a Kosovar village and kill the civilians living there

Milosevic felt that the lack of international response gave him a license to kill

The first mass killing of this episode occurred in the spring of 1998 when 51 members of an extended clan were killed in retaliation for supposed KLA aggression

The international community responded to this massacre with a simple warning to Milosevic

The actions taken against the Kosovar Albanians included mass killings and forced relocation or exile

Kosovar refugee

Kosovo’s Srebrenica The US has done nothing but warn Milosevic of his

actions in Kosovo for almost a decade at this point Because of this inaction Milosevic increased his troop

strength in Kosovo Milosevic also instituted a scorched earth policy destroying

entire villages This was done to wipe out the KLA but all it did was increase

the ranks with each destroyed village

January 1999: 41 civilians are killed and Milosevic claims that they are all KLA members Forensic evidence however proves that the 41 people are not

KLA

NATO actions

NATO is continuing to bomb strategic targets in Serbia through 1999

However, these bombings did not deter Milosevic in Kosovo and the killing and relocation continued

NATO refused to send in ground troops which would have easily put a stop to the killings in Kosovo

NATO originally had a goal to simply secure Kosovo and have the refugees return

This was unacceptable because the refugees would simply return to a land still controlled by Milosevic

Survivor’s story Only very small boys were left with us, one old man who had lost

his legs, and my handicapped brother, who can't walk because of spinal meningitis. So they took the ten to fourteen-year-olds to join the men. The boys' mothers were crying. Some even tried to speak to the Serbs, but the Serbs pushed them [away]. We were walking away very slowly because we were so worried about what would happen to our men. We stopped moving when we heard automatic weapon fire. We turned our heads to see what was happening, but it was impossible to see the men. We saw the ten-to-fourteen-year-olds running in our direction; when they got to us we asked them what was happening. They were very upset; no one could talk. One of them finally told us: "They released us but the others are finished."

Aftermath The total death toll in Kosovo will probably never be known for sure but

many have approximated it to be 20,000 – 30,000 killed or missing The Milosevic regime decided to end the campaign of killing in early

June of 1999 and almost immediately began pulling troops out of Kosovo

Shortly after this 150,000 Serbs fled Kosovo fearing revenge killings Milosevic finally agreed to accept the peace agreement set forth from

an earlier meeting in France that he rejected at first Milošević resigned as president amid demonstrations, following the

disputed presidential election of 24 September 2000. He was arrested by Yugoslav federal authorities on 31 March 2001 on

suspicion of corruption, abuse of power, and embezzlement Milosevic was scheduled to be tried for war crimes until his death in his

prison cell in The Hague on 11 March 2006