Entry 7: Works Cited

Works Cited

"Bosnian Genocide | World Without Genocide." Bosnian Genocide | World Without Genocide. N.p., 2012. Web. 02 Mar. 2013.

Ching, Jacqueline. Genocide and the Bosnian War. New York, NY: Rosen Pub. Group, 2009. Print.

Danner, Mark. "Ethnic Cleansing in Former Yugoslavia." Ethnic Cleansing in Former Yugoslavia. N.p., 1992. Web. 02 Mar. 2013.

Horvitz, Leslie Alan., and Christopher Catherwood. Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide. New York: Facts on File, 2006. Print.

Lindquis, David. Ethnic Cleansing Yes, Genocide No; Textbook Coverage of Ethnic Violence in Former Yugoslavia by David Lindquis. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

Massimo, Calabresi. "The Lessons of Bosnia." TIME 05 Apr. 2012: n. pag. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. 
http://www.humanityinaction.org/

Entry 2: Organizers & Leaders

Organizers and Leaders of the Bosnian Genocide

         

Ratko Mladić

First, I will talk about the leaders on the Serb side.  In my last post, I touched on the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS).  Well, since this post is about organizers and leaders, it’s only right to mention Ratko Mladić, general of the VRS.  Before commanding the VRS, Mladić was a high ranking officer in the Yugoslavian army.  Because of his horrific acts against the people of Bosnia, he was arrested and accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. He was directly responsible for the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as, the Srebrenica Massacre which is the largest mass murder Europe has seen since Nazi Germany. Mladić’s trial began in May 2012.  Ratko declared he was acting out of fear of a new Islamic push through Balkans to Europe” (“The Lessons of Bosnia”) Right after the trial began, the judge overseeing it, claimed that the prosecution had mismanaged evidence, and the trial was suspended. 

Slobodan Milošević

      Another power player in the genocide was Slobodan Milošević, a communist leader and president of Serbia from 1989 to 1997.  Milošević was also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity during the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).   His trials began in 1999, and it was important, because it was the first time that an indictement was handed down to a head of state. Milošević was found dead in his cell in 2006, with the final phase of his trial still ongoing.  A sentence was expected to be handed down later that year. 

 

Radovan Karadžić

The last major organizer for the Serbs was Radovan Karadžić. Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician. In 1990, he formed the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) and in 1992, made himself the leader of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and began his role in the ethnic cleansing process of Bosnia. In 2008, after 12 years in hiding, Karadžić was finally made to stand trial for his part in the Bosnian Genocide.

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.

Entry 4: World Response

World Response to the Bosnian Genocide

          

    By the time the Bosnian conflict had drawn to a close in November 1995, over 200,000 Muslim civilians had been murdered, more than 20,000 were missing and feared dead and 2,000,000 had become refugees.  

How did peace come about? What made the fighting end?  Even though the Muslim Bosniacs received weapons from neighboring Muslim countries like Pakistan, it was ineffective.  

 During his campaigning, Bill Clinton had promised to come to the aid of the Bosnian Muslims, and the time to act was at hand.  The U.S. entered into diplomatic talks to join the Bosnian Muslims with the Croats to fight against the Serbs, but that didn’t work. The Serbs continued bombing the Muslim “safe havens” set up by the United Nations and even took U.N. aid worker as hostages, using them as human shields.  When the realization hit that there was no other choice, the U.S. let a massive military strike against the Serbs.  This was in August, 1995.   

My Dad, Nathan Smith

 

When the Serbs realized they were finished, that sat down to carry out peace talks and agree to a cease fire.  After the talks concluded, NATO sent 60,000 troops to the area for a peace keeping mission. 20,000 of them were U.S. Troops, including my father, Nathan Smith, who deployed to the area of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary from August 1996-February 1997.  “According to Richard Holbrooke, the chief architect of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the country would not have survived without the presence of the troops.” (“Bosnian Genocide”) 

    

 That’s how the battling ended, but what happened to the refugees?  Around 1 million of the refugees stayed within the borders of the former Yugoslavia, but more than 400,000 fled to other countries.  Germany has admitted the largest number of refugees, 200,000; however, they were allowed to stay temporarily and were tolerated rather than welcomed. Hungary took in about 60,000, Austria- 50,000, Sweden- 44,000.  The United States took in nearly 20,000. Many other countries helped with the refugee crisis as well; England, Australia, and Denmark, just to name a few.

Entry 3: Victims

Victims of the Bosnian Genocide

  

Bosniac Refugees

      During the Bosnian Genocide there were only two major ethnic groups targeted, the Muslims and the Croats. In ancient times, when the Ottoman Turkish Empire invaded Bosnia they told the residents currently living in Bosnia to convert to Islamic faith or be persecuted.  At the time, most of the people who lived in the region were Christian, and they majority of them chose to convert to save their ways of life.  This was an outrage to the Christians who stood firm in their faith, and the hatred of the act was passed down through the generations.

  
  Hundreds of years later, Yugoslavia was about to break up.  The Bosnian Serbs saw their chance to not only reclaim what was once theirs, but to get revenge on the Muslims who ravished their lands centuries before. Could it have been fear of the unknown that drove the Serbs to committing ethnic cleansing?  Perhaps they felt they should rid Bosnia of all Muslims before they would be forced to convert like their ancestors were. Regardless of motive, ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity and goes against everything that both the Bible and the Koran teaches. 
   

Bosniac Concentration Camp

   More than 200,000 civilians were killed in Bosnia during the war. Tens of thousands of women were raped, some over 100 times.  “Rape victims’ sons and husbands were beaten and tortured in concentration camps like Omarska and Manjaca” ( Danner, “Faces of Sorrow”).  Omarska is found in northern Bosnia, it was used to hold men and women after the Prijedor Massacre. 5,000-7,000 Bosniaks and Croats were held in terrible conditions for 5 months. Manjaca is a concentration camp found on Mount Manjaca. There were estimated 5,400- 6000 people in the camp also in horrific conditions. When the camp was captured by Bosnian police in 1995 there was 85 dead bodies due to the killing going on in the camp. 

Mass Grave

As horrific as all that is, that’s not the worst of it. The Srebrenica genocide, is the worst in European History since WWII.  Nearly 8000 Muslim men and boys were killed in Srebrenica as part of the Serbs ethnic cleansing.  After all is said and done, the entire country was victimized by these cruel people. Now instead of them living together in one proud country, their country was split in two: The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina control 51% of the country for the Muslim and Croats, and the Republika Srpska  make up the other 49%, for the Serbs.