Entry 1: Background

 Background of the Bosnian Genocide

   The name says it all; The Bosnian Genocide happened in no other place then the country of Bosnia. Before we talk about the genocide, here’s some background about Bosnia.  Bosnia is a remarkably small country; it is roughly the size of the state of West Virginia. What’s remarkable about it is West Virginia has an estimated population of 1.89 million people, whereas Bosnia has a population of about 4.5 million. Within that vast population, there are three main ethnic groups: 44% of the people living in Bosnia are Muslim, 31% are Serbian, and the smallest of the main three at 17% are Croatian.  The other 8% are made up of different ethnic groups, but all the people were living in the same area prior to the Bosnian Genocide.  Although the country was ethnically diverse, they got along pretty well.  “Religion tended not to divide Bosnia” (Ching, 10).  Genocide is a form of ethnic cleansing. Ethnic cleansing is eliminating a group of people based on ethnicity, race, or religion by forcing them to emigrate or by the act of genocide (which is killing off the “unwanted” group).  The crisis in Bosnia happened relatively recent; it began only 21 years ago, in 1992 and ended three years later in 1995.  This genocide might not have had the most victims but it was still tragic. 200,000 people were killed; in just one day, 8000 Muslim men and boys were murdered and another 25,000 to 30,000 Bosnian Muslims were evicted from the country by the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS). The VRS is made up of the Bosnian Serbs. During World War II, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed. The republic was made up of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo & Metohija, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, and Vojvodina,. After the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke up, the Serbs wanted more land, so they attacked their two greatest enemies, the Muslims and the Croats. As I said before, this specific genocide by far wasn’t the worst in history, but it was the worst since the Nazi’s destruction of 6 million European Jews.