20 Confronting Genocide:Never Again?

The Bosnian Genocide

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In 1984, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia was hometo the Winter Olympics. Known as a multicul-tural and cosmopolitan city, Sarajevo seemedto be an ideal host for the rvorld games.Fewer than ten years after the Olympics, thecity barely stood. Nearly every inch of it wasriddled with bullet holes, and Yugoslaviahad disintegrated into war. Sarajevo was nolonger seen as a symbol of successful multi-culturalism, but rather as a city of hatred andethnically motivated kill ing. The BosnianGenocide was underway.

What were the origins of Yugoslavia's unrest?Yugoslavia came into existence in 1918.

From its birth, the country struggled with thecompeting politics of the Eastern OrthodoxSerbs and the Roman Catholic Croats. Nazi oc-cupation during World War II brought severebloodshed to the country. More than one mil-lion Yugoslavs died, many in massacres. Serbs,Muslims, and Croats all perpetrated theseatrocities and all suffered severe losses. Tensof thouSands of Serbs, in particular, fell victimto wartime massacres. asthe Croats collabo-rated with the Nazis.

By 1945, the defeat of the Nazis and acruel civil war had brought Communist leaderMarshal Tito to power. Tito's iron-listed ruleand popularity as a wartime hero held Yugo-slavia together during the Cold War. UnderTito, an intricate federal system distributedpolitical power among Yugoslavia's etfrnicgroups. Despite his efforts,'l-ito could notcompletely erase the hatred and anger that hadtaken root during World War IL After his deathin 1980, the country's power-sharing arrange-ment fell apart. A political and economic crisisfollowed. Leaders on all fronts used ethnictensions to try to gain more political power. Inthe Republic of Serbia (part of Yugoslavia), forexample, Slobodan Milosevic rose to powerin the late 1980s by rekindling ethnic Ser-bian nationalism. Milosevic's moves to asserrSerbia's dominance in turn fueled nationalismin Yugoslavia's other republics.

5 SYugoslqvia's tragedy was notforeordained. It was the product ofbad, even criminal, political leaderswho encoutaged ethnic confrontationfor personal, political and financialgain."

-Richard Holbrooke, Chief BosniaNegotiator for the United States

In 1991 and tggZ, Yugoslavia's federalsystem completely disintegrated, with therepublics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, andMacedonia declaring independence. Fightingerupted in Slovenia and Croatia in 1991 andspilled over into Bosnia in early 1992. (Onlytwo republics-Serbia and Montenegro-re-mained part of Yugoslavia.) Bosnia became thesite of yet another twentieth century genocide.

Who wss targeted during theBosnian Genocide?

Muslim and Croat civilians-mostlymen-were targeted during the genocide.While they supported the creation of an in-dependent state, local Serbs saw themselvesand their land as part of Milosevic's "GreaterSerbia." The Serbs attempted to expel Muslimsand Croats from Serb areas. Specifically target-ing civilians, the Serbs used torture, gang rape,concentration camps, and massacres to carry

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out their "ethnic cleansing" against BosnianMuslims and Croats. During the war, Muslimsand Croats were guilty of atrocities as well.However, Serb forces were responsible formost of the brutality against civilians.

How did the world respand?The international community played a

complicated role in the Bosnian Genocide. As-serting that the stability of the continent was atstake in Bosnia, while denying that the eventsamounted to genocide, the European Unionunsuccessfully attempted mediation. The Ul.Ithen sent a peacekeeping force to ths countryin 1992 and established six "safe areas" usinglightly armed troops from European nations.Serbian aircraft were prohibited from flyingover the country and economic sanctions wereimposed on the Yugoslav government.

Nevertheless by 1993, Bosnian Serb forcescontrolled 70 percent of Bosnia's territory andtheir plan for "ethnic cleansing" continued.The European leaders were eager to asserttheir leadership and peacekeeping abilitiesand the United States was willing to step back.(The United States government was also reluc-tant to call events in Bosnia a qenocide.)

56We do not interfere in Americsnaffair* We hope that they do notinterfere in ours."

-facques Delor,Chairman of the European

Commission

The peacekeeping ef-fort proved to be largelyineffective in stopping thegenocide. The so-calledUN safe areas all fell to theSerbs and vvere "ethnicallycleansed, " most infamous-Iy perhaps in Srebrenicawhere UN troops, who hrrdpromised to protect Bos-nian Muslims, withdrew.Some eight thousand Bos-nians were massacred.

Confront ing Genocide:Never Again?

65The tragedy of Srebrenica willforever haunt the history ofthe United Nafions. This daycommemorates a mossocre on ascale unprecedented in Europe sincethe Second World War-a DrGr-:ur€of people who had been led tobelieve that the UN would ensuretheir safety. We cunnot undo tJristragedy, but it is vitally importtntthat the right Iessons be learnedand applied in the future. We mustnot forget that the srchitects of thekiilings in Srebrenica and elsewherein Bosnia, although indicted by theinternational criminql tribunal, arestill at large. This fact alone suggesfsthat the most important lesson ofSrebrenicu-thqt we must recognizeevil for what it is and confront it notwith expediency and compromisebut w ith impl ac able resisfonce-ft asyet to be fully leqrned and applied.As we mark the anniversary of thedeath of thousands of disarmed o.nddelenseless men and boys, I wish toexpress once again to their familiesand friends my deepest regret andremorse. Their grief cannot beassuaged qnd. must not be forgotten,"

-Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General,July 11, 2000

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22 Confront ing Genocide:Never Again?

Ethnic CleansingThe term "ethnic cleansing" is often used either in addition to or instead of "genocide" when

describing the Bosnian case. Some scholars contend that the deaths that occurred in Bosnia werepart of an ethnic cleansing campaign that was full of genocidal acts but was not an actual geno-cide. Those who characterize the Bosnian case solely as ethnic cleansing believe that rrre SerDs'intention was not the complete exteimination (i.e. genocide) of all Bosnian Muslims, but ratherthe forced and complete exportation of them [i.e. ethnic cleansing). This position holds that geno-cidal acts were used to attempt to instill the fear and devastation necessary to get the Muslims toleave their land and take refuge elsewhere, but that complete extermination was never a goal. Onthe other hand, many scholars claim that the number of genocidal massacres used to carry out theethnic cleansing campaign Ieaves little question that the events should be considered a genocide.In April 2004, the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal announced that the persecution and kill-ing of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs was indeed a genocidal campaign.

How did the tide turn in Bosnio?In 1995, an all iance between Croatia and

Bosnia's Muslims ti l ted the balance of poweron the battlefield against the Serbs. In addi-tion, as Serbian massacres of Bosnian Muslimvillagers and artillery attacks against Saraievocontinued, journalists and individual cit izensgalvanized public opinion in the United Statesand worldwide, calling for an intervention tostop the bloodshed.

Ultimately, it was the United States thattook the lead in bringing peace to Bosnia. TheNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)launched a bombing campaign against theBosnian Serb army. NATO's air war, led by

U.S. pilots, allowed Bosnian Croat and Muslimfighters to take the initiative on the ground.

By the fall of 1995, a new map of Bosniahad taken shape. The Serb-held portion ofthe country shrank to 49 percent, while theMuslims extended their control to Zg percentof the territory and the Croats to 22 percent.Ironically, the ethnic cleansing that the inter-national community had tried to prevent wasmostly complete; Bosnia consisted of threeIargely ethnically pure regions, each withits own army. In all, more than two hundredthousand people had died in the struggle and2.3 million had lost their homes.

A Muslim man and his grandson stand amid the destruction in stari Vitez

In October 1995, acease-fire was reached. Aformal peace agreementwas signed in Dayton,Ohio in December, 1995.The agreement was meantnot only to end the war,but also to build a demo-cratic, multi-ethnic state.To a large degree, it is theUnited States that hasstood behind the inter-national commitment tomaintain Bosnia's bordelsand to compel the yoringstate's three main ethnicgroups to share the respon-sibilities of government.When U.S. peacekeepers

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first entered Bosnia, President Bill Clintonpledged that they would stay no longer than ayear. By 1999, he conceded that accomplishinghis goals in Bosnia would require many years,even decades, of international involvement.

Today, thousands of refugees who werevictims of "ethnic cleansing" have returned totheir homes. The former leader of Yugoslavia,Slobodan Milosevic, was charged with "crimesagainst humanity," "violations of the laws orcustoms of war", and genocide by the Interna-tional Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia {ICTY)at the Hague. He died in March 2006, havingbeen held since 2001. Manv other officials are

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being tried in the International Criminal Courtas well, though motivation to track down thetop Serbian officials who remain at large iswanting.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in eco-nomic aid have been spent to restorr ;l:,eeconomy. The United States and its alliesremain hopeful that their investment willpay off. More than one million refugees havereturned to their homes. Politically, rrotersfrom all three ethnic groups have consistentlysupported candidates with nationalistic views.The multi-ethnic central government envi-sioned by the Dayton Treaty exists largely onpaper.