Figure 1.--Here 7-year-old Nermin Divovic lies in a pool of blood, shot in the head by an expert Serb sniper who kneww full well that he was killing a child. Any sniper placing a head shot knows precisely who he is killing. American and British U.N. firefighters arrived almost immediately and put their bodies in between Nermin and the sniper. (U.N. firefighters were needed because the Serbs targeted Bosnian firemen.) Nermin was tragically already dead, killed in the center of Sarajevo November 18, 1994. Nermin was just one of hundreds of men, women, and children, killed by Serb snipers positioned in high-rise apartment buildings creating Sniper Alley. The U.N. firefighters were at his side at once, but the boy died outright. This image as well as countless other incidents gives lie to Islamist lies that America is making ar on Muslims. Photographer: Enric Marti.

Tito and the Yugoslav Communist Party kept Yugoslavia with all of its ethnic and religious tensions together for over four decades. With the fall of Communism (1989), the glue that kept the country togther suddenly was gone. The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) attempted to keep the country together by using force to crush the secessionist governments. Not fully prepared for what was happening, they made only a half-hearted attempt in Slovenia. They then made a more forceful effort in Croatia and Bosnia. As this was transpiring non-Serbs began leaving the JNA which came to be essentially a Serbian Army dominated by former Communist and now Serbian nationalist, Slobodan Milošević. He championed latent Serbian nationalist sentiment to cement his position in Serbia and cointrol of the Yugoslav government enabled to rob the national treasury trough a variety of tax and currency manipulations. All of this accelerated the unraveling of the country. Slovenes, Croats, Kosovar Albanians, Bosniaks, and Macedonians saw Milošević as not preserving Yugoslavia, but as trying to turn it into a Serbian state. Slovenia achieved indepependence without much fighting. Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo proved to be a different matter. Bosnia was the most diverse of all the different Yugoslav republics. Unlike most of the rest of Yugoslavia (except Kosvo), substantial numbers of people over time had converted to Islam. There was no overwhealing movement for independence. Rather Serbia and Croatia wanted a piece of Bosnia and they had ethnic suppoters in Bosnia. The Muslims tendedcto favor an independent Bosnia, in part for self protection. Fighting in Bosnia brokeout and became a vicious civil war (1992). Estimates suggested that 250,000 people were killed in the Bosnian Civil War. Another 20,000 people are missing and believed to have been killed. Over 300 mass graves have been found throughout Bosnia. Not all have been exhumed but the remains of about 18,000 have been exhumed as of mid-2004. Those killed include members of all three major groups (Croats, Muslims, and Serbs), but the majority of those killed were Muslims killed (in many cases executed) by Serb nationlists intent on creating a greater Serbia and supported by the Serbian Government and well-armed Army. The worst sinle incident occurred at Srebrenica. The United Nations guaranted the safety of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. The United Nations had declared Srebrenica to be a safe haven. In the end Dutch U.N. peace keepers were ordered to abandon the Muslims to the Serbs. Bosnian Serb military and police units aided by special para-military forces proceeded to murder as many as 8,000 Muslim boys and men (1995). Bosnian military commander Ratko Mladic has been called 'the spiritual father and executioner of ethnic cleansing'. The chilling photograph on the previous page shows Mladic patting a Bosnian Muslim boy on the cheek. At the time, his men were killing Muslim men and older youth. Mladic even passed out candy to the children in the town square. Meanwhile his men were preparing the slaughter of the men and older boys. The younger children and women were allowed to leave. This has been well documented, although denined by the Serbs. Bosnian Serb officials in 2004 finally admitted Serb complicity. [Krilic] The U.N. War Crimes Tribunal have declared it an act of genocide. The U,N. and Bosniann investigators have found the remains of about 5,000 bodies in numerous mass graves throughout eastern Bosnia. More are being found all the time. About 1,200 victims have been identified as from Srebernica through DNA testing. Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb leader, and Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb military commander, have been indicted by the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal for the Srebrenica and other Serb attrocities. The Srebrenica massacre was the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. Most Europeans thought that such attricities were no longer possible. The shock finally promoted an American led NATO intervention. The fighting in Bosnia ended with the Dayton Peace Accords (1995). Bosnia is now divided into a Serb-Bosnia Federation and a Croat-Muslim Federation. NATO troops act as peace keepers. Karadzic was arrested (2008), Mladic managed to hide until (2011).

Milošević and Greater Serbia (1989-92)

Tito and the Yugoslav Communist Party kept Yugoslavia with all of its ethnic and religious tensions together for over four decades. With the fall of Communism (1989), the glue that kept the country togther suddenly was gone. The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) attempted to keep the country together by using force to crush the secessionist governments. Not fully prepared for what was happening, they made only a half-hearted attempt in Slovenia. They then made a more forceful effort in Croatia and Bosnia. As this was transpiring non-Serbs began leaving the JNA which came to be essentially a Serbian Army dominated by former Communist and now Serbian nationalist, Slobodan Milošević. He championed latent Serbian nationalist rhetoric to cement his position in Serbia and cointrol of the Yugoslav government enabled to rob the national treasury through a variety of tax and currency manipulations. All of this accelerated the unraveling of the country.

Yugoslav Civil War

Slovenes, Croats, Kosovar Albanians, Bosniaks, and Macedonians saw Milošević as not preserving Yugoslavia, but as trying to turn it into a Serbian state and to create a Greater Serbia. Slovenia achieved indepependence without much fighting. Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo proved to be a different matter. Bosnia was the most diverse of all the different Yugoslav republics. Unlike most of the rest of Yugoslavia (except Kosvo), substantial numbers of people over time had converted to Islam. There was no overwhealing movement for independence. Rather Serbia and Croatia wanted a piece of Bosnia and they had ethnic suppoters in Bosnia. The Muslims tendedcto favor an independent Bosnia, in part for self protection.

Figting in Bosnia (1992-96)

Fighting in Bosnia brokeout and the war of independence quickly morphed into a vicious civil war (1992). Unlike the other Yugoslav wars it ptrived to be not only a war of independence from Serbia, but an even more vicious civil war. The war was predominantly a three way territorial conflict between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina chiefly supported by Bosniaks, the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska, and the self-proclaimed Herzeg-Bosnia, who were led and supplied by Serbia and Croatia who wanted to partition Bosnia to create a Greater Serbia and Greater Croatia. The YNA by 1992 had disintegrated into a largely Serb Army. Milošević's Yugoslavv Government was a thinly veiled Serbian Government intent on creating a Greater Serbia. The Serbs were stronlyb opposed to the Bosnian-majority led government's agenda for independence. Along with Serbian militia forces, the JNA attempted to prevent Bosnian citizens from voting in the independence referendum (1992). [Meštrović, p.56.] This strong-arm tactic failed and only helped convince non-Serbs to vote for indeoendence. This as well as a Serb boycott of the election resulted in a 99 percent vote for independence. The Serbs in resoponse launched a military sollution (June 19). Actually the Siege of Sarajevo had already begun (April) with Bosnia and Herzegovina declaring their independence. The conflict most closely folloed with the bloody siges of Sarajevo and Srebrenica. These were the most deadly actions of the War, both areas coveted by the Serbs for greater Serbia. The fighting was more vicious than other areas of Yugoslavia. The Bosnia's Serb faction was led by ultra-nationalist and war criminal Radovan Karadžić. He sought independence for Serbs from the majority-Bosniak governmenta. The problem for Karadžićand the Serbs was Bosnia's great diversity. Serb populated areas were clustered and not connected. Karadžić strategy thus became bloody and systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing to seize non-Serb populated areas to connect the Serb-populated clusers. This involved the massacre and forced removal of Bosniak populations. Civilians thus became a primary target in the war. While this was the principal military campaign, the Croats also set their sights on annexing Croat populated areas. As a result the Bosnia conflict was the most deadly of all the Yugoslav wars. Estimates suggested that 250,000 people were killed in the Bosnian Civil War.

Atrocities

Another 20,000 people are missing and believed to have been not killed in the fighting, but murdered in the worst atricuies in Europe since World War II. Over 300 mass graves have been found throughout Bosnia. Not all have been exhumed but the remains of about 18,000 have been exhumed as of mid-2004. Those killed include members of all three major groups (Croats, Muslims, and Serbs), but the majority of those killed were Muslims killed (in many cases executed) by Serb nationlists intent on creating a greater Serbia and supported by the Serbian Government and well-armed Army. The worst sinle incident occurred at Srebrenica. The United Nations guaranted the safety of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. The United Nations had declared Srebrenica to be a safe haven. In the end Dutch U.N. peace keepers were ordered to abandon the Muslims to the Serbs. Bosnian Serb military and police units aided by special para-military forces proceeded to murder as many as 8,000 Muslim boys and men (1995). Bosnian military commander Ratko Mladic has been called 'the spiritual father and executioner of ethnic cleansing'. The chilling photograph on the previous page shows Mladic patting a Bosnian Muslim boy on the cheek. At the time, his men were killing Muslim men and older youth. Mladic even passed out candy to the children in the town square. Meanwhile his men were preparing the slaughter of the men and older boys. The younger children and women were allowed to leave. This has been well documented, although denined by the Serbs. Bosnian Serb officials in 2004 finally admitted Serb complicity. [Krilic] The U.N. War Crimes Tribunal have declared it an act of genocide. The U.N. and Bosniann investigators have found the remains of about 5,000 bodies in numerous mass graves throughout eastern Bosnia. More are being found all the time. About 1,200 victims have been identified as from Srebernica through DNA testing. Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb leader, and Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb military commander, have been indicted by the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal for the Srebrenica and other Serb attrocities. The Srebrenica massacre was the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. Most Europeans thought that such attricities were no longer possible. The shock finally promoted an American led NATO intervention. The fighting in Bosnia ended with the Dayton Peace Accords (1995). Bosnia is now divided into a Serb-Bosnia Federation and a Croat-Muslim Federation. NATO troops act as peace keepers. Karadzic was arrested (2008), Mladic managed to hide until (2011).

Sources

Krilic, Samir. "Bosnian Serbs admit to massacre," Washington Post (June 12, 2004), p. 11. The findings are based on the work of the Srebrenica Commission cwhich was omposed of Serb judges and lawyers, a represenarve for the victims, and an international expert.

Meštrović, Stjepan Gabriel. Genocide After Emotion: The Postemotional Balkan War (Routledge: 1996).

Created: 9:57 AM 3/1/2015
Last updated: 5:11 PM 6/4/2018