The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992-95 In the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, conflict between the three main ethnic groups, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims in Bosnia. Bosnia is one of several small countries that emerged from the break-up of Yugoslavia, a multicultural country created after World War I by the victorious Western Allies. Yugoslavia was composed of ethnic and religious groups that had been historical rivals, even bitter enemies, including the Serbs (Orthodox Christians), Croats (Catholics) and ethnic Albanians (Muslims). Related Maps Former Yugoslavia Ethnic Groups During World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany and was partitioned. A fierce resistance movement sprang up led by Josip Tito. Following Germany's defeat, Tito reunified Yugoslavia under the slogan "Brotherhood and Unity," merging together Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, along with two self-governing provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina.

Tito, a Communist, was a strong leader who maintained ties with the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War, playing one superpower against the other while obtaining financial assistance and other aid from both. After his death in 1980 and without his strong leadership, Yugoslavia quickly plunged into political and economic chaos. A new leader arose by the late 1980s, a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic, a former Communist who had turned to nationalism and religious hatred to gain power. He began by inflaming long-standing tensions between Serbs and Muslims in the independent provence of Kosovo. Orthodox Christian Serbs in Kosovo were in the minority and claimed they were being mistreated by the Albanian Muslim majority. Serbian-backed political unrest in Kosovo eventually led to its loss of independence and domination by Milosevic. In June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia both declared their independence from Yugoslavia soon resulting in civil war. The national army of Yugoslavia, now made up of Serbs controlled by Milosevic, stormed into Slovenia but failed to subdue the separatists there and withdrew after only ten days of fighting. Milosevic quickly lost interest in Slovenia, a country with almost no Serbs.

Instead, he turned his attention to Croatia, a Catholic country where Orthodox Serbs made up 12 percent of the population. During World War II, Croatia had been a pro-Nazi state led by Ante Pavelic and his fascist Ustasha Party. Serbs living in Croatia as well as Jews had been the targets of widespread Ustasha massacres. In the concentration camp at Jasenovac, they had been slaughtered by the tens of thousands. In 1991, the new Croat government, led by Franjo Tudjman, seemed to be reviving fascism, even using the old Ustasha flag, and also enacted discriminatory laws targeting Orthodox Serbs. Aided by Serbian guerrillas in Croatia, Milosevic's forces invaded in July 1991 to 'protect' the Serbian minority. In the city of Vukovar, they bombarded the outgunned Croats for 86 consecutive days and reduced it to rubble. After Vukovar fell, the Serbs began the first mass executions of the conflict, killing hundreds of Croat men and burying them in mass graves. The response of the international community was limited. The U.S.

under President George Bush chose not to get involved militarily, but instead recognized the independence of both Slovenia and Croatia. An arms embargo was imposed for all of the former Yugoslavia by the United Nations. However, the Serbs under Milosevic were already the best armed force and thus maintained a big military advantage. By the end of 1991, a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire agreement was brokered between the Serbs and Croats fighting in Croatia. In April 1992, the U.S. and European Community chose to recognize the independence of Bosnia, a mostly Muslim country where the Serb minority made up 32 percent of the population. Milosevic responded to Bosnia's declaration of independence by attacking Sarajevo, its capital city, best known for hosting the 1984 Winter Olympics. Sarajevo soon became known as the city where Serb snipers continually shot down helpless civilians in the streets, including eventually over 3,500 children. Bosnian Muslims were hopelessly outgunned.

As the Serbs gained ground, they began to systematically roundup local Muslims in scenes eerily similar to those that had occurred under the Nazis during World War II, including mass shootings, forced repopulation of entire towns, and confinement in make-shift concentration camps for men and boys. The Serbs also terrorized Muslim families into fleeing their villages by using rape as a weapon against women and girls. The actions of the Serbs were labeled as 'ethnic cleansing,' a name which quickly took hold among the international media. Despite media reports of the secret camps, the mass killings, as well as the destruction of Muslim mosques and historic architecture in Bosnia, the world community remained mostly indifferent. The U.N. responded by imposing economic sanctions on Serbia and also deployed its troops to protect the distribution of food and medicine to dispossessed Muslims. But the U.N. strictly prohibited its troops from interfering militarily against the Serbs. Thus they remained steadfastly neutral no matter how bad the situation became. Throughout 1993, confident that the U.N., United States and the European Community would not take militarily action, Serbs in Bosnia freely committed genocide against Muslims.

Bosnian Serbs operated under the local leadership of Radovan Karadzic, president of the illegitimate Bosnian Serb Republic. Karadzic had once told a group of journalists, "Serbs and Muslims are like cats and dogs. They cannot live together in peace. It is impossible." When Karadzic was confronted by reporters about ongoing atrocities, he bluntly denied involvement of his soldiers or special police units. On February 6, 1994, the world's attention turned completely to Bosnia as a marketplace in Sarajevo was struck by a Serb mortar shell killing 68 persons and wounding nearly 200. Sights and sounds of the bloody carnage were broadcast globally by the international news media and soon resulted in calls for military intervention against the Serbs. The U.S. under its new President, Bill Clinton, who had promised during his election campaign in 1992 to stop the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, now issued an ultimatum through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) demanding that the Serbs withdraw their artillery from Sarajevo. The Serbs quickly complied and a NATO-imposed cease-fire in Sarajevo was declared. The U.S.

then launched diplomatic efforts aimed at unifying Bosnian Muslims and the Croats against the Serbs. However, this new Muslim-Croat alliance failed to stop the Serbs from attacking Muslim towns in Bosnia which had been declared Safe Havens by the U.N. A total of six Muslim towns had been established as Safe Havens in May 1993 under the supervision of U.N. peacekeepers. Bosnian Serbs not only attacked the Safe Havens but also attacked the U.N. peacekeepers as well. NATO forces responded by launching limited air strikes against Serb ground positions. The Serbs retaliated by taking hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers as hostages and turning them into human shields, chained to military targets such as ammo supply dumps. At this point, some of the worst genocidal activities of the four-year-old conflict occurred. In Srebrenica, a Safe Haven, U.N. peacekeepers stood by helplessly as the Serbs under the command of General Ratko Mladic systematically selected and then slaughtered nearly 8,000 men and boys between the ages of twelve and sixty - the worst mass murder in Europe since World War II.

In addition, the Serbs continued to engage in mass rapes of Muslim females. On August 30, 1995, effective military intervention finally began as the U.S. led a massive NATO bombing campaign in response to the killings at Srebrenica, targeting Serbian artillery positions throughout Bosnia. The bombardment continued into October. Serb forces also lost ground to Bosnian Muslims who had received arms shipments from the Islamic world. As a result, half of Bosnia was eventually retaken by Muslim-Croat troops. Faced with the heavy NATO bombardment and a string of ground losses to the Muslim-Croat alliance, Serb leader Milosevic was now ready to talk peace. On November 1, 1995, leaders of the warring factions including Milosevic and Tudjman traveled to the U.S. for peace talks at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio. After three weeks of negotiations, a peace accord was declared. Terms of the agreement included partitioning Bosnia into two main portions known as the Bosnian Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The agreement also called for democratic elections and stipulated that war criminals would be handed over for prosecution.

60,000 NATO soldiers were deployed to preserve the cease-fire. By now, over 200,000 Muslim civilians had been systematically murdered. More than 20,000 were missing and feared dead, while 2,000,000 had become refugees. It was, according to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, "the greatest failure of the West since the 1930s." Copyright © 1999 The History Place All Rights Reserved Bosnia Civil War 1992-1995 The Bosnian Civil War 1992-1995 [ 1992 - 1995 ] Beginning several months later than fighting in the republics of Slovenia and Croatia, the Bosnian civil war was the most brutal chapter in the breakup of Yugoslavia. On February 29, 1992, the multi-ethnic republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs, and Muslim Slavs lived side by side, passed a referendum for independence -- but not all Bosnian Serbs agreed.

Under the guise of protecting the Serb minority in Bosnia, Serbian leaders like Slobodan Milosevic (1941-) channeled arms and military support to them. In spring 1992, for example, the federal army, dominated by Serbs, shelled Croats and Muslims in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. Foreign governments responded with sanctions (not always tightly enforced) to keep fuel and weapons from Serbia, which had (in April 1992) joined the republic of Montenegro in a newer, smaller Yugoslavia. Bosnian Serb guerrillas carried out deadly campaigns of "ethnic cleansing," massacring members of other ethnic groups or expelling them from their homes to create exclusively Serb areas. Attacks on civilians and international relief workers disrupted supplies of food and other necessities just when such aid was most crucial: in what became the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, millions of Bosnians (and Croatians) had been driven from their homes by July 1992.

Alarmed by ethnic cleansing and other human rights abuses (which Croats and Muslims also engaged in, though to a lesser extent than did the Serbs), the United Nations resolved to punish such war crimes. In early 1994 the fierce three-way fighting became a war between two sides. In February and March the Muslims and Croats in Bosnia called a truce and formed a confederation, which in August agreed to a plan (developed by the United States, Russia, Britain, France and Germany) for a 51-49 split of Bosnia, with the Serbs getting the lesser percentage. Despite the Muslim-Croat alliance, the peace proposal, and an ongoing arms embargo against all combatants (an embargo criticized abroad for maintaining Bosnian Serb dominance in weaponry), the fighting did not stop. In 1994 and 1995 Bosnian Serbs massacred residents in Sarajevo, Srebenica, and other cities that the United Nations had in May 1993 deemed "safe havens" for Muslim civilians.

Neither NATO air strikes (beginning in April 1994) nor the cutoff of supplies from Serbia (as of August 1994) nor the cutoff of supplies from Serbia (as of August 1994) deterred the Bosnian Serbs, who blocked convoys of humanitarian aid and detained some of the 24,000 UN troops intended to stop hostilities. Like their allies in Serbia, the Bosnian Serbs wanted to unite all Serb-held lands of the former Yugoslavia. By September 1995, however, the Muslim-Croat alliance's conquests had reduced Serb-held territory in Bosnia from over two-thirds to just under one-half -- the percentage allocated in the peace plan for the Serb autonomous region. On December 14, 1995, the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia signed the Dayton peace accords, officially ending the wars in Bosnia and Croatia after about 250,000 people had died and more than 3 million others became refugees. NATO troops numbering 60,000 entered Bosnia to enforce the accords.

In early 1998 about 30,000 NATO peacekeepers were still in Bosnia, which remained scarred by war and divided between the Muslim-Croat confederation and the Bosnian Serb region. Dozens of suspected war criminals had been indicted by the UN tribunal, including Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic (1945-) (who had resigned in June 1996), although many had not been arrested or tried. Bosnian Genocide - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Background In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Balkan states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia became part of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. After the death of longtime Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980, growing nationalism among the different Yugoslav republics threatened to split their union apart. This process intensified after the mid-1980s with the rise of the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who helped foment discontent between Serbians in Bosnia and Croatia and their Croatian, Bosniak and Albanian neighbors.

In 1991, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia declared their independence; during the war in Croatia that followed, the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army supported Serbian separatists there in their brutal clashes with Croatian forces. Did You Know? In 2001, Serbian General Radislav Krstic, who played a major role in the Srebrenica massacre was convicted of genocide and sentenced to 46 years in prison. In Bosnia, Muslims represented the largest single population group by 1971. More Serbs and Croats emigrated over the next two decades, and in a 1991 census Bosnia’s population of some 4 million was 44 percent Bosniak, 31 percent Serb, and 17 percent Croatian. Elections held in late 1990 resulted in a coalition government split between parties representing the three ethnicities (in rough proportion to their populations) and led by the Bosniak Alija Izetbegovic.

As tensions built inside and outside the country, the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his Serbian Democratic Party withdrew from government and set up their own “Serbian National Assembly.” On March 3, 1992, after a referendum vote (which Karadzic’s party blocked in many Serb-populated areas), President Izetbegovic proclaimed Bosnia’s independence. Struggle for Control in Bosnia Far from seeking independence for Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs wanted to be part of a dominant Serbian state in the Balkans–the “Greater Serbia” that Serbian separatists had long envisioned. In early May 1992, two days after the United States and the European Community (precursor to the European Union) recognized Bosnia’s independence, Bosnian Serb forces with the backing of Milosevic and the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army launched their offensive with a bombardment of Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo.

They attacked Bosniak-dominated town in eastern Bosnia, including Zvornik, Foca, and Visegrad, forcibly expelling Bosniak civilians from the region in a brutal process that later was identified as “ethnic cleansing.” (Ethnic cleansing differs from genocide in that its primary goal is the expulsion of a group of people from a geographical area and not the actual physical destruction of that group, even though the same methods–including murder, rape, torture and forcible displacement–may be used.) Though Bosnian government forces tried to defend the territory, sometimes with the help of the Croatian army, Bosnian Serb forces were in control of nearly three-quarters of the country by the end of 1993, and Karadzic’s party had set up their own Republika Srpska in the east. Most of the Bosnian Croats had left the country, while a significant Bosniak population remained only in smaller towns. Several peace proposals between a Croatian-Bosniak federation and Bosnian Serbs failed when the Serbs refused to give up any territory.

The United Nations (U.N.) refused to intervene in the conflict in Bosnia, but a campaign spearheaded by its High Commissioner for Refugees provided humanitarian aid to its many displaced, malnourished and injured victims. Attack on Srebrenica: July 1995 By the summer of 1995, three towns in eastern Bosnia–Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde–remained under control of the Bosnian government. The U.N. had declared these enclaves “safe havens” in 1993, to be disarmed and protected by international peacekeeping forces. On July 11, however, Bosnian Serb forces advanced on Srebrenica, overwhelming a battalion of Dutch peacekeeping forces stationed there. Serbian forces subsequently separated the Bosniak civilians at Srebrenica, putting the women and girls on buses and sending them to Bosnian-held territory. Some of the women were raped or sexually assaulted, while the men and boys who remained behind were killed immediately or bussed to mass killing sites.

Estimates of Bosniaks killed by Serb forces at Srebrenica range from around 7,000 to more than 8,000. After Bosnian Serb forces captured Zepa that same month and exploded a bomb in a crowded Sarajevo market, the international community began to respond more forcefully to the ongoing conflict and its ever-growing civilian death toll. In August 1995, after the Serbs refused to comply with a U.N. ultimatum, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) joined efforts with Bosnian and Croatian forces for three weeks of bombing Bosnian Serb positions and a ground offensive. With Serbia’s economy crippled by U.N. trade sanctions and its military forces under assault in Bosnia after three years of warfare, Milosevic agreed to enter negotiations that October. The U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Dayton, Ohio in November 1995 (which included Izetbegovic, Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman) resulted in the creation of a federalized Bosnia divided between a Croat-Bosniak federation and a Serb republic.

International Response Though the international community did little to prevent the systematic atrocities committed against Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia while they were occurring, it did actively seek justice against those who committed them. In May 1993, the U.N. Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague, Netherlands. It was the first international tribunal since the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-46 and the first to prosecute genocide, among other war crimes. Radovan Karadzic and the Bosnian Serb military commander, General Ratko Mladic, were among those indicted by the ICTY for genocide and other crimes against humanity. Over the better part of the next two decades, the ICTY charged more than 160 individuals of crimes committed during conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Brought before the tribunal in 2002 on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Slobodan Milosevic served as his own defense lawyer; his poor health led to long delays in the trial until he was found dead in his prison cell in 2006.

In 2007, the International Court of Justice issued its ruling in a historic civil lawsuit brought by Bosnia against Serbia. Though the court called the massacre at Srebrenica genocide and said that Serbia “could and should” have prevented it and punished those who committed it, it stopped short of declaring Serbia guilty of the genocide itself. Tags Bosnia-Herzegovina country profile - BBC News Bosnia-Herzegovina country profile Read more about sharing. Close share panel Bosnia-Herzegovina is recovering from a devastating three-year war which accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The 1992-1995 conflict centred on whether Bosnia should stay in the Yugoslav Federation, or whether it should become independent. It is now an independent state, but under international administration. Its three main ethnic groups are Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Croats and Serbs. The war left Bosnia's infrastructure and economy in tatters. Around two million people - about half the population - were displaced.

The 1995 Dayton peace agreement set up two separate entities; a Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, and the Bosnian Serb Republic, or Republika Srpska, each with its own president, government, parliament, police and other bodies. Overarching these entities is a central Bosnian government and rotating presidency. In February 2016 the country formally requested to join the European Union. Area 51,129 sq km (19,741 sq miles) Major languages Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Major religions Christianity, Islam Life expectancy 73 years (men), 78 years (women) Currency convertible marka Getty Images LEADERS President: The presidency rotates every eight months between a Serb, a Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and a Croat. The responsibilities of the presidency lie largely in international affairs. In addition, the Muslim-Croat entity and the Bosnian Serb Republic each have their own presidents.

Prime minister: Denis Zvizdic Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Denis Zvizdic of the Muslim Party of Democratic Action became federal prime minister in February 2015, after the party won the most votes in the October 2014 elections. A former architecture teacher, born in 1964, Mr Zvizdic set himself the goal of pressing ahead with Bosnia's aim of joining the European Union, and made significant progress in March when EU foreign ministers approved a long-delayed Stabilisation and Association Agreement. The prime minister is a long-standing member of the Party of Democratic Action, and served as prime minister of Sarajevo Canton in 2003-2006. MEDIA Image copyright AFP/Getty Images During the Bosnian war, most media became propaganda tools of the authorities, armies and factions. Since then, efforts have been made - with limited success - to develop media which bridge ethnic boundaries. TV is the chief news source. The most influential broadcasters are the public radio and TV stations operated by the Bosniak-Croat and Serb entities. The Office of the High Representative (OHR), the leading international civilian agency in Bosnia, oversaw the development of national public broadcasting.

The OHR wanted to create a non-nationalist, civic media. There are more than 200 commercial radio and TV stations. There is free access to local and global information sources. But media outlets and journalists are prone to pressure from state bodies and political parties in both the Bosniak-Croat and Serb entities. Some key dates in the history of Bosnia-Herzegovina: 1908 - Bosnia-Herzegovina annexed to Austria-Hungary. 1914 - A Bosnian Serb student, Gavrilo Princip, assassinates the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. This precipitates the First World War. Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption The Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia on their fateful visit to Sarajevo in June 1914 1918 - Austria-Hungary collapses at the end of the war. Bosnia-Herzegovina becomes part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. 1941 - Bosnia-Herzegovina annexed by pro-Hitler Croatian puppet state. Thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies are sent to the death camps.

1945 - Bosnia-Herzegovina liberated following campaign by partisans under Tito. 1945-1991- Bosnia is part of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Civilians and Bosnian troops under Serbian sniper fire during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992 1991 - Following collapse of communism, nationalists win first multi-party elections and form coalition. 1992 - Croat and Muslim nationalists form tactical alliance and outvote Serbs at independence referendum. War breaks out and Serbs quickly assume control of over half the republic. 1992-1995 - Bitter ethnically-rooted civil war involving Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, and Croats. Dayton peace accord signed in 1995 creates two entities of roughly equal size, one for Bosnian Muslims and Croats, the other for Serbs. An international peacekeeping force is deployed. 1996 - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia begins work in the Hague.

2016 - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is convicted of genocide and war crimes for his role in the 1992-1995 war. Untitled Document Bosnia's Official Webpage Bosnian War Center for Balkan Development Timeline of the Bosnian War Dayton Accords (US State Dept) Bosnian Genocide Case Major Causes of the War Essentially, the Bosnian war was fought because Serbs and Croats living in Bosnia wanted to annex Bosnian territory for Serbia and Croatia respectively. There were several mitigating factors in addition to ethnic tensions. The Nationalist leader of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, was pushing for what he called a "Greater Serbia". The Bosnian Croats and Muslims, fearing that Milosevic would try to take their land if they were still under Yugoslavian control, called for Bosnian independence. Just before the war began, Radovan Karadzic created a renegade army within Bosnia with the support of Milosevic in Belgrade.

In 1992, under Karadzic's leadership, Bosnian Serbs began a policy of "cleansing" large areas of Bosnia of non-Serbs. After the war, a tribunal declared that the "cleansing" was actaully genocide, and convicted Karadzic and his military commander of war crimes. On April 6, 1992, the Bosnian Serbs began their siege of Sarajevo. Muslim, Croat, and Serb residents opposed to a Greater Serbia were cut off from food, utilities, and communication. For three years, food was scarce and the average weight loss per person was more than 30 pounds. More than 12,000 residents of Sarajevo were killed during the 43 months of siege. Throughout Bosnia, Bosnian Serb nationalists and the JNA began a program of ethnic cleansing in order to create a "pure" Serbian territory.. Entire villages were destroyedand thousands of Bosnians were driven from their homes, held in detention camps, raped, tortured, deported, or killed. Rape was a military tactic to destroy the bonds of families and communities.

An international arms embargo was in effect throughout the war, preventing the Bosnian government from obtaining the heavy artillery and arms that it needed to fight the more sophisticated arsenals of the Serbian and Croatian armies. (Above: Ethnica Majorities in Bosnia by area. Yellow: Croat; Green: Muslim; Red: Serb; Taupe: No Majority present) GENOCIDE - BOSNIA BOSNIA before the genocide Bosnia-Herzegovina is a mountainous country about a third the size of England. It lies next to the Adriatic Sea, to the south of Croatia and west of Serbia. Its population is less than half that of London. Bosnia was part of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire until 1878 and then of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the First World War. After the war it was united with other Slav territories to form Yugoslavia, essentially ruled and run by Serbs from the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

By 1980 the population of Bosnia consisted of 1.3m Bosnian Serbs (Orthodox Catholic Christians), over 1m Bosniaks (Sunni Muslim), and 0.7m Bosnian Croats (Roman Catholic Christians), all with strong historical and local claims to a homeland there. In 1980 Yugoslavia's communist president Tito died. His rule had held the federation together. Now Croats and Bosniaks began to look for independence, and Serbian nationalism, never dead, took on a new lease of life from 1987 when Slobodan Milosevic became Serbia's leader (and thus effectively Yugoslavia's as well). He encouraged Serb nationalism not only at home but also in the other republics where there were large Serb communities. Elections in 1990 brought nationalists to power in Croatia and Slovenia, which, together with Macedonia, declared independence in 1991 and were all recognised internationally. Alija Izetbegovic, the leader of Bosnia's multi-ethnic government, called for independence for Bosnia, too; it was recognised as independent by the USA and the EU in 1992.

Bosnia's Serbs, however, weren't happy: they saw themselves and the land they lived on as part of Milosevic's 'Greater Serbia'. The Yugoslav Army (mainly Serb) had just ended a year's fierce conflict with Croatia in an attempt to hang on to Serb communities there. Now it turned its attention to Bosnia, whose forces were restricted by an arms embargo because of recent violence in Bosnian Croatian territory. By the end of 1993 the Serbs (led by Radovan Karadzic) had set up their own Republika Srpska in the east and a Bosnian Serb army (under Ratko Mladic) was in control of nearly three quarters of the country; the Bosnian Croats had been mostly driven out, though a small force continued fighting for its Bosnian territory until 1994; the Bosniaks were hanging on only in the towns. The European Union (EU) tried mediation, without success. The UN refused to intervene, apart from providing some troop convoys for humanitarian aid.

Later its peace-keeping force, UNProFor, undertook to protect 6 'safe areas', mainly Muslim and including Sarajevo (the Bosniak capital) and Srebrenica; it failed. Each so-called safe area, except Sarajevo, fell to the Serbs and was 'ethnically cleansed'. This was the Serbian term accepted by the USA and other members of the UN Security Council to avoid any reference to 'genocide', which would by international law demand their intervention. It had become clear that what was happening in Bosnia was no longer a civil war fuelled by 'ancient feuds', if it ever had been. Bosnia was the victim of one group's determined wish for political domination, which it was prepared to achieve by isolating ethnic groups and if necessary exterminating them.

Ratko Mladic | Bosnian Serb military leader | Britannica.com Bosnian Serb military leader Sir Michael Rose Ratko Mladić, (born March 12, 1942, Božinovići, Yugoslavia [now in Bosnia and Herzegovina]), Bosnian Serb military leader who commanded the Bosnian Serb army during the Bosnian conflict (1992–95) and who was widely believed to have masterminded the Srebrenica massacre , the worst episode of mass murder within Europe since World War II . Ratko Mladić, 1993. © Northfoto/Shutterstock.com Mladić was born in an isolated village in Bosnia during World War II. His father, a Partisan leader, was killed in fighting with the Ustaša , the Croatian fascist movement that controlled the government of the Independent State of Croatia (the puppet state created by the invading Axis powers ). Mladić grew up in Josip Broz Tito ’s federated Yugoslavia . After joining the Yugoslav People’s Army, Mladić rose quickly through the officer ranks.

When Yugoslavia splintered in 1991, Mladić was sent to Knin, Croatia, where he eventually took command of the Yugoslav army’s 9th Corps against Croatian forces. He was then assigned to Sarajevo to take charge of the army’s Second Military District in May 1992. Only days after Mladić’s arrival in Sarajevo, the assembly of the self-declared autonomous Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic) appointed him commander of the Bosnian Serb army, which—with a few changes in personnel and nomenclature—the forces of the Second Military District effectively became. In that capacity, Mladić played a major role in the three-and-a-half-year siege of Sarajevo, during which Bosnian Serb forces rained artillery, mortar, machine-gun, and rifle fire on the terrorized citizenry, indiscriminately killing and wounding thousands.

In March 1995 the Bosnian Serb president, Radovan Karadžić , ordered that the military “create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life for the inhabitants of Srebrenica.” Mladić is widely believed to have overseen the subsequent Srebrenica massacre , in which at least 7,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys were killed. After the Bosnian conflict, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) concluded that the killings at Srebrenica , along with the mass expulsion of Bosniak civilians, constituted genocide . The ICTY charged Mladić with genocide and crimes against humanity, stating that he “was a member of a joint criminal enterprise whose objective was the elimination or permanent removal of Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat, or other non-Serb inhabitants from large areas of [Bosnia and Herzegovina].” Mladić fled to Belgrade , where he lived openly under the protection of Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević .

When Milošević (having been indicted in 1999) was extradited to The Hague in 2001, Mladić disappeared. Britannica Stories Radovan Karadzic Begins Genocide Defense at Hague - The New York Times The New York Times Europe |Former Bosnian Leader Begins His Defense at Genocide Trial Search Continue reading the main story PARIS — He was once known for his virulent speeches throughout Bosnia , but on Tuesday as Radovan Karadzic began his defense in a new phase of his genocide trial, he told international judges that he was a “mild and tolerant man” and that instead of standing accused, he should be “rewarded for all the good things I have done.” It was Mr. Karadzic’s turn to have his say, after prosecutors had presented him as the architect of a brutal three-year war. “Everybody who knows me knows I am not an autocrat, I am not aggressive, I am not intolerant,” Mr. Karadzic, 67, a former psychiatrist who became the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, told the court.

“On the contrary, I am a mild man, a tolerant man with great capacity to understand others.” He said he wrote children’s poetry, did not hate Bosnian Muslims — he added that he had a Muslim barber — and did “everything in his power to reduce the war.” From the public gallery at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, there were noisy cries of “He’s lying!” Other angry survivors of the war gathered outside. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Among the close to 70 trials held at the tribunal, Mr. Karadzic’s case involves perhaps its most famous chameleon. Indicted on charges of war crimes, he went into hiding in 1996, emerging 13 years later in the guise of a new-age healer, bearded and longhaired. These days, Mr. Karadzic spends long hours in the dock in a business suit, politely conducting his own defense. The list of charges against him include some of the worst episodes of violence in Europe since World War II .

Prosecutors, who called more than 200 witnesses, said he bore responsibility for the campaign to drive the Croat and Muslim population from parts of Bosnia, for the bloody three-year siege of Sarajevo and for his role in the mass murder of captive prisoners in Srebrenica. Photo Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, began his defense against war crime charges at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Tuesday. Credit Pool photo by Robin Van Lonkhuijsen Acting as his own lawyer, while assisted by a court-financed team of lawyers and clerks, Mr. Karadzic said he would call 300 witnesses to prove his innocence and has demanded more time. The court has reminded him that while prosecutors used 300 court hours to make their case and present lead witnesses, Mr. Karadzic used more than 700 hours to cross-examine them during that period. He has long denied the charge of genocide, stemming from the massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys who were captives in Srebrenica in 1995.

Peter Robinson, an experienced American defense lawyer on the Karadzic team, said that Mr. Karadzic would argue that the mass executions could not be his responsibility because there was no such policy. In court on Tuesday, Mr. Karadzic went further: “There is no indication that anyone was killed by us at Srebrenica.” Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy Ratko Mladic , the Bosnian Serb commander accused of masterminding the Srebrenica massacre, is on trial in separate proceedings at the same tribunal. Mr. Mladic, who was under Mr. Karadzic’s command, has often said he was following the politicians’ orders. The two men, who were often at odds during the latter part of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, face similar charges, and as their trials unfold they increasingly seem to blame each other. During the 90 minutes that Mr.

Karadzic was given to lay out his defense, he presented himself on Tuesday as a deeply wronged man, who was detached from the persecution campaign against civilians and from the notorious concentration camps for non-Serbs. He said he “did more than any side to avoid the war” and “succeeded in reducing the number of victims.” By most accounts, 100,000 people died in the Bosnian war and millions were displaced. In another courtroom on Tuesday, the tribunal’s last trial began, signaling that it is finally winding up its cases from the wars that broke up Yugoslavia. Goran Hadzic, the defendant, is a former leader of a Serbian rebellion in Croatia. He stands accused in the killing of hundreds of Croats and the expulsion of thousands from their homes as Serbian troops seized their lands. He managed to evade arrest in Serbia for seven years, but he finally landed in tribunal custody in July of last year. Prosecutors on Tuesday said that he was the point man of the former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, in Croatia, entrusted to occupy lands for Serbs only. They said that Mr.

Milosevic, who died in 2006 while on trial, made sure that Mr. Hadzic was provided with the weapons and money needed for his campaign. A version of this article appears in print on October 17, 2012, on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Bosnian Serb Defiantly Begins His Defense at Genocide Trial. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Genocide Charge Reinstated Against Wartime Leader of the Bosnian Serbs - The New York Times The New York Times Europe |Genocide Charge Reinstated Against Wartime Leader of the Bosnian Serbs Search Continue reading the main story Photo A Bosnian woman on Thursday at a coffin containing the remains of a relative, one of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. Credit Amel Emric/Associated Press PARIS — Appeals judges at a United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday reinstated a genocide charge against the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic , reversing a decision by a lower court last year. Thursday’s ruling means that Mr.

Karadzic will once again be facing two genocide charges for much of the brutal campaign across large parts of Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war that aimed to create lands for Serbs only. The lower court that is now trying Mr. Karadzic has said the entire campaign was clearly criminal, but last year it said that it found no evidence of genocide, except during the notorious Srebrenica massacre in 1995. The appeals ruling, read out at a public session of the court, appeared specifically timed to coincide with the day’s events in Bosnia. Tens of thousands gathered in Srebrenica on Thursday to commemorate the fall of the United Nations-protected enclave there on July 11, 1995, and the subsequent execution of more than 7,000 captured men and boys. Part of the day’s ceremonies included the reburial of 409 bodies at a special cemetery where remains from multiple mass graves are reinterred as they are identified.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story By scheduling the hearing on what has become a sacred date for Bosnian Muslims, the presiding judge, Theodor Meron, seemed to want to send a message to the war’s survivors as he recited an usually long and gruesome list of atrocities committed against Muslim civilians and prisoners of war. The tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, with Judge Meron as its president, had recently drawn sharp criticism from Bosnian victims, legal experts and even judges for acquittals of senior Serbian commanders. Those commanders, while based in neighboring Serbia, held crucial positions during the Bosnian war that was largely planned, financed and supplied by Serbia. The acquittals have turned even longtime supporters in the Balkans against the tribunal. Photo Radovan Karadzic appeared before a war crimes tribunal on Thursday in The Hague to learn the outcome of an appeal. Credit Michael Kooren/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images As he read the summary of the judges’ decision, Judge Meron said the trial chamber had erred in dropping the second genocide charge because there was enough evidence to suggest that Mr.

Karadzic had genocidal intentions during a 1992 campaign aimed at expelling Muslims and Croats from areas claimed by Serbs. For example, the judge said, evidence presented during the trial showed that “in meetings with Karadzic ‘it had been decided that one-third of Muslims would be killed, one-third would be converted to the Orthodox religion and a third will leave on their own’ and thus all Muslims would disappear from Bosnia.” The judge was quoting from the trial proceedings. Peter Robinson, an American lawyer who is the chief legal adviser to Mr. Karadzic, said by telephone from The Hague that his client was “disappointed with the result, and we will double our efforts to show there was no genocide across Bosnia.” Mr. Robinson said that Mr. Karadzic, who represents himself in court, will ask for additional time to call more witnesses to defend himself against the genocide charges. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy The trial began in late 2009, and the prosecution has rested its case. Mr.

Karadzic and his team are now halfway through their allotted time of 300 hours. Mr. Robinson said the defense team had called 161 witnesses so far, all of whom had been cross-examined by Mr. Karadzic himself. He said the defense wanted to call a total of 300 people. The appeals ruling carries great symbolic importance for survivors and victims of the campaign during which Serbian forces and extremist gangs — from both Bosnia and Serbia — systematically occupied multiethnic villages and towns, drove non-Serbs from their homes, incinerated dwellings, churches and mosques and mistreated and starved thousands in improvised camps. In 1992, the height of the campaign, about 44,000 people were killed, almost half of the total of 100,000 people who died in the Bosnian war. The tribunal found evidence of atrocities in 20 municipalities, comprising many towns and villages, but Thursday’s ruling suggested that the violence could meet the definition of genocide in seven municipalities.

The ruling addresses a question long debated by legal experts and human rights groups: Why was the large-scale killing of Muslims in one part of Bosnia — in and around Srebrenica — considered genocide, while the actions in other parts of Bosnia, where even larger numbers of civilians were deported, raped, persecuted and killed, were not? Advertisement Continue reading the main story A verdict in Mr. Karadzic’s trial is not expected before 2015. A version of this article appears in print on July 12, 2013, on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Genocide Charge Reinstated Against Wartime Leader of the Bosnian Serbs. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe The Genocide - Bosnian Genocide Bosnian Genocide The 5 W's Who were the victims? The (Bosniaks) Bosnian Muslims, mostly men and boys, were targeted by the Bosnian Serbs, as well as the Bosnian Croats, who were driven out of Bosnia by Serbian & Yugoslavian forces. Many people were deported or exiled from the country and flead to neighboring states.

When did it take place & over what time period? The attack on the Bosniak population started in 1991 and ended in 1996. The campaign for ethnic cleansing started in 1992 following the seperation & independance of Serbia. How was it accomplished? Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic (at the time) rallied Bosnian Serb forces and pushed for radical ultranationalist changes to Bosnia. Bosniak populated villages were constantly bombarded by Bosnian Serb forces; prior to the Genocide. Many people were displaced. Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito died in 1980. Slobodan Milosevic, who became Serbia’s leader in 1987, also became the leader of Yugoslavia. With the power that Milosevic had, he encouraged Serb ultranationalism in other states such as Bosnia. This resulted in ethnic cleansing, mass killings, as well as destruction of Muslim mosques and religious buildings. Despite attention from the media, the world remained indifferent.

Ratko Mladic(left) and Radovan Karadzic(right) What types of things were done? Each attack had a similar method. The Serbs would enter the small villages, and drive out or kill any Bosniaks living in the area, who offered no resistance to their forces. This resulted in a large number of refugees and many casualties. In the seige of many towns and villages, atrocities occured. Many women and girls were sexual abused, among other things. Many men were murdered in cold blood by Bosnian Serbs. Effort was made to capture all Bosniak men of military age. In fact, those captured included many boys well below that age and elderly men several years above that age. A Bosnian Serb commission's final report on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre acknowledged that the mass murder of the men and boys was planned. Mass killings occured. Unspeakable methods of execution were committed. People were rounded up by the thousands to be exported or executed. When executed, the bodies were thrown into mass graves and buried. The Serbs went to great effort to hide the evidence.

The Citizens: reaction to Genocide For many, by the time it had already happened, it was too late. Many Bosniaks lost friends and family to the massacre, aswell as the deportation of Bosniak citizens displacing many people. The Bosniaks were scared of the attrocities that were taking place against their people. Unfathomable acts of inhumane treatment had caused fear amongst all ethnic muslims and croats in Bosnia. The Bosnian Serb representatives later claimed that what had happened was infact not a genocide, saying that many people died as casualities of battle, and not as prisoners of Serb forces. IE: Tomislav Nikolić, President of Serbia, stated on 2 June 2012 that "there was no genocide in Srebrenica. In Srebrenica, grave war crimes were committed by some Serbs who should be found, prosecuted and punished.

It is very difficult to indict someone and prove before a court that an event qualifies as genocide." Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are both on trial on two counts of genocide and other war crimes committed in Srebrenica, Kljuc, Prijedor, and other parts of Bosnia. The Worlds reaction to genocide. The international community showed little to no interest in what was happening in Bosnia. They supplied them with several UN safe cities, guarded by lightly armed UN peacekeepers. Nothing was done to stop the genocide until NATO ordered air strikes on advancing Serb forces in August 1995. This was then suspended to oversee a peace agreement. What was done to stop it? Almost nothing; the small amounts of input from the international community did not make a significant impact, especially for many of the displaced Bosniaks and Croats. As the safe zones they established deteriorated, attention to the situation grew more urgent as NATO troops receded and headed back to Europe. NATO's later bombings assisted with ending the genocide, however their assistance of Bosniak troops was fargone by the end of the genocide. What has been done to Prevent it from Happening Again?

Several peace agreements were put into place, along with 80,000 heavily armed NATO troops to ensure the agreements were followed through. Many of the military leaders and major political players (at the time) that pushed for ethnic cleansing and raids against Bosniak Muslims have been or are currently being tried for genocide and war crimes, even a decade after the massacre. Create a free website

Question: Who became leader of the Bosnian Serbs in 1992?
Answer: Radovan Karadzic