The War in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995)

 

The War in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995)

Introduction

Bosnian War was ethnically rooted war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former republic of Yugoslavia with a multiethnic population comprising Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs and Croats. 

The Bosnian War began in 1992 and lasted until 1995. The war led to the deaths of around 100,000 civilians and soldiers, with millions of civilians displaced. This bloody war has seen some of the worst atrocities in Europe since the Second World War. 

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

In the aftermath of the Second World War in 1945, the Balkan states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia became a part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a communist country held together by its leader Josip Broz Tito.

Tito rebuilt Yugoslavia as a Communist federation of six republics. Tensions in the Balkans were common and ethnic conflict was never far from the surface, but once Tito came to power in 1945, he ruled with an iron fist and was typically able to keep them in check through a dictatorship. Though he was considered to be a"benevolent dictator" and at times quite ruthless, Tito's efforts ensured that no ethnic group dominated the country, banning political mobilization and seeking to create a unified Yugoslav identity.

However, after his death in 1980, the order he imposed began to unravel.

The Break-up of Yugoslavia

In the 1980s the rapid decline of the Yugoslav economy led to widespread public dissatisfaction with the political system. Although many different ethnic and religious groups had resided together for 40 years under Yugoslavia’s repressive communist government, this changed when the country began to collapse during the fall of communism in the early 1990s. By the 1990’s growing tensions between the different republics saw a nationalist revival in the region. The various ethnic groups and republics inside Yugoslavia sought independence, and as the end of the Cold War neared, the country spiraled out of control.

The Raise of nationalism in Serbia

Serb nationalism was fueled as Slobodan Milosevic rose to power in 1987. Milosevic was a leader who deliberetely created conflict between Serbians, Croatians and Muslim Bosniaks. Milosevic used nationalist feelings to his advantage, making changes to the constitution favoring Serbs, creating a military that was 90 percent Serbian, and extending his power over the country's financial, media, and security structures. With the help of Serbian separatists in Bosnia and Croatia, he stoked ethnic tensions by convincing Serbian populations that other ethnic groups posed a threat to their rights. By using old grudges, stirring up nationalistic emotions, and inciting dreams of a "Greater Serbia," a country made up only of Serbians, Milosevic succeeded in rallying support for himself.

Slobodan Milosevic

First Elections

Independent political parties appeared by 1989. In early 1990, multiparty elections were held in Slovenia and Croatia. When elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina in December, new parties representing the three national communities gained seats in rough proportion to their populations. A tripartite coalition government was formed, with the Bosniak politician Alija Izetbegovic leading a joint presidency. Growing tensions both inside and outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, made cooperation with the Serb Democratic Party, led by Radovan Karadzic, increasingly difficult.

In 1991, Yugoslavia's republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bosnia) had a population of 4 million, composed of three main ethnic groups: Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim, 44%), Serb (31%), and Croat (17%), as well as Yugoslav (8%).

Independence

Yugoslavia began to collapse in June 1991 when the republics of Slovenia and Croatia declared independence. The Yugoslav army, largely composed of Serbs, invaded Croatia under the guise of trying to protect ethnic Serb populations there.

When the European Community recognized the independence of Croatia and Slovenia in December, it invited Bosnia and Herzegovina to apply for recognition also. Bosnia, with a complex mix of Serbs, Muslims and Croats, was next to try for independence. A referendum on independence was held during February 29–March 1, 1992, although Karadžić’s party obstructed voting in most Serb-populated areas and almost no Bosnian Serbs voted. Of the nearly two-thirds of the electorate that did cast a vote, almost all voted for independence, which Bosnian President Izetbegović officially proclaimed on March 3, 1992.

The War

The Beginning of the Bosnian War

The war in Bosnia officially started in April 1992. Following their independence, and two days after the European Community and the United States recognized Bosnia's independence, Serbian forces accompanied by Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadzic and backed by Milosevic, attempted to ethnically cleanse the territory of the Bosniaks. Using former Yugoslavian military equipment, they surrounded Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital city.

The Serbs wished to remain part of Yugoslavia and create a nation only for Serbians. Serbia - under Slobodan Milosevic's leadership - invaded with the claim that it was there to "free" fellow Serbian Orthodox Christians living in Bosnia.

Ethnic tensions were brought to the forefront, and people who had lived peacefully for years as neighbors turned against each other and took up arms. 

Ethnic Cleansing and Civil Victims

Ethnic cleansing "is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas”.

Widespread ethnic cleansing accompanied the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as large numbers of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Bosinian Croats were forced to flee their homes. Beginning in 1991, political upheavals in the Balkans displaced about 2,700,000 people by mid-1992, of which over 700,000 of them sought asylum in other European countries.

The methods used during the Bosnian ethnic cleansing campaigns included "murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, extra-judicial executions, rape and sexual assaults, confinement of civilian population in ghetto areas, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian population, deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, and wanton destruction of property".

By the end of the war, approximately 55,000 civilians were murdered.

Although there is no official data, it is estimated that over 600 camps and detention centers existed in Bosnia during the war. Most of the inmates were civilians, but there were also camps for prisoners of war and deserters. Some detainees were held in several camps for years.

The Role of UN and NATO

Attempts at meditation by the European Union were unsuccessful and the United Nations (UN) refused to intervene, aside from providing limited troop convoys for humanitarian aid. Later on, the UN tried to establish six safe areas," including Srebrenica and Sarajevo, but these were ineffective. Peacekeepers did not have the capabilities to truly protect the people seeking refuge there, and all except Sarajevo eventually fell under Serb control.

The Siege of Sarajevo

On April 5 1991 Bosnian Serb Nationalists placed Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, under siege.

13,000 Bosnian Serb troops encircled the city, their snipers taking position in the surrounding hill and mountains. The very same mountains that had once provided residents with so much beauty and joy as a popular excursion site, now stood as a symbol of death. From here, residents were relentlessly and indiscriminately bombarded by mortar shells and suffered under constant fire from snipers. Serbs and Bosnian Serbs held positions inside the city, including the airport, as well as in the surrounding hills. By May 2, the entire city was surrounded.

Residents of 

From positions in the hill and in high-rises in the city itself, snipers shot anything that moved, whether they be men, women or children. All were deliberately targeted. Some of the worst streets under constant sniper fire had signs posted reading “Pazi – Snajper!” (“Watch out – Sniper!”) and were referred to as “sniper alleys”. It became a daily routine to crouch and run across many streets. Later, when UN observers were allowed in, citizens would run beside UN armored vehicles to get across.

During the course of the siege, an average of more than 300 artillery and mortar shells a day landed in the non-Serbian areas of the city. On the worst days, the city was hit by 3,000 shells. No place was spared: schools, markets, hospitals, libraries, industrial sites, government buildings-- all were targeted. 

The signing of the Dayton Agreement ended the war in December 1995 and on 29 February 1996 the Bosnian government officially declared the siege over. Sarajevo endured the suffocation of siege for almost four years, the longest siege in modern history-- a year longer even than the Siege of Leningrad during World War Two. By the end of the siege 13,352 people had died, including 5,434 civilians.

Surviving in Sarajevo

Snipers hid in the hills and shot at civilians as they tried to get food and water. As time went by supplies dwindled. There was no food, no electricity, no heat and no water. The black market flourished; residents burnt furniture to keep warm and foraged for wild plants and dandelion roots to stave off hunger. People risked their lives queuing for hours to collect water from fountains that were in full view of the snipers who preyed on desperation.

The worst loss of life occurred on February 5, 1994, when 68 people were killed whilst waiting in line for bread at the Merkale Market.  Once the heart and soul of the city, the market place became the scene of the single biggest loss of life during the siege.

Residents

In the face of unimaginable hardship, the people of Sarajevo remained resilient, developing ingenious ways to survive in spite of the devastating conditions they were forced to endure; from improvised water waste systems to getting creative with UN rations.

Despite everything, the people of Sarajevo continued to live. Cafes continued to open and friends continued to gather there. Women still styled their hair and painted their faces. In the streets children played among the rubble and bombed out cars, their voices mixing with the sound of gunfire. This was to be their most effective weapon against the relentless attempts to break them, and perhaps their biggest revenge.

Act of defiance - The Famous Photo of Meliha Varesanovic

It was 1994, in the middle of the siege of Sarajevo, Bosnia. An average of 3,000 grenades fell onto the city, bringing death and destruction to every street. Meliha Varesanovic dressed up in an elegant 1960s dress, put on a pair of high heels, styled her hair to perfection, and finished off with her look with lipstick. Then she walked through Sarajevo with her head held up high, while grenades and sniper bullets showered nearly every inch of the city. Little did she know that Todd Stoddard, a British photojournalist, was only a few meters away, hiding in a bunker from those same sniper bullets and grenades. He managed to snap a few photos of her walking by him without her knowledge.

Was Mrs. Varesanovic in grave danger? Most certainly. Was she living in deplorable conditions? Absolutely. Did she have electricity? A vast majority of the time, no. Running water? No, she had to walk, sometimes for miles, to get water. In fact, she told to a journalist  in 2014, “I remember that was the first morning that I went outside with short hair because there was no water and shampoo, I had to cut it; but I curled my hair and it came out really nice.”

Why, you might ask, would someone in such conditions and constant danger, even care and have the will to dress up and walk through the city like it was the most “normal” thing? A very simple reason, actually. That was just about the only thing she had left: her dignity.

This was an act of defiance.

Failed Peace Proposals and NATO intervention

During April many of the towns in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina with large Bosniak populations, such as Zvornik, Foča, and Višegrad, were attacked by a combination of paramilitary forces and Yugoslav army units. Most of the local Bosniak population was expelled from these areas, the first victims in the country of a process described as ethnic cleansing. Although Bosniaks were the primary victims and Serbs the primary perpetrators, Croats were also among the victims and perpetrators. Within six weeks a coordinated offensive by the Yugoslav army, paramilitary groups, and local Bosnian Serb forces brought roughly two-thirds of Bosnian territory under Serb control. 

From the summer of 1992, the military situation remained fairly static. A hastily assembled Bosnian government army, together with some better-prepared Bosnian Croat forces, held the front lines for the rest of that year. In 1994, Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks agreed to form a joint federation. The United Nations refused to intervene in the Bosnian War, but UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) troops did facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. The organization later extended its role to the protection of a number of UN-declared “safe areas.”

 

Several peace proposals during the war failed, largely because the Bosnian Serbs - who controlled about 70 percent of the land by 1994 - refused to concede any territory. In 1994, at the UN’s request, NATO launched isolated and ineffective air strikes against Bosnian Serb targets. Following the Srebrenica massacre and another Bosnian Serb attack on a Sarajevo marketplace, NATO undertook more concentrated air strikes late in 1995.

Genocide at Srebrenica

Introduction

The height of the killing took place in July 1995 when 8, 000 Bosniaks were killed in what became known as the Srebrenica genocide, the largest massacre in Europe after the Holocaust.

The fall of the town Srebrenica and its environs to Bosnian Serb forces in early July 1995 made a mockery of the international community+s professed commitment to safeguard regions it declared to be "safe areas" and placed under United Nations protection in 1993. United Nations peacekeeping officials were unwilling to head requests for support from their own forces stationed within the enclave, thus allowing Bosnian Serb forces to easily overrun it and - without interference from U.N. soldiers - to carry out systematic, mass executions of hundreds,possibly thousand, of civilian man and boys and to terrorize, rape, beat, execute, rob and otherwise abuse civilians deported from the area.

The Fall of Srebrenica

In July 1995, Serb forces, led by General Ratko Mladic, descended upon the town of Srebrenica and began shelling it. At this point, the encalve was protected by only 450 Dutch peacekeepers armed with light fuel and expired ammunition - their force was so weak that a Dutch commander had reported that the unit was no longer militarily operational a month prior. Srebrenica fell to Serbs in one day.

Serbs expelled 25,00 women and children from the twon, while rheir forces tried to hunt down approximately 15,00 Bosniak men who had tried to escape to safety in central Bosnia. Up to 3,000 were killed, either by gunshot or by decapitation, while trying to escape. Many Bosniaks sought refuge at a UN base in nearby Potocar, but were not safe for long.

Serb forces caught up with them by the afternoon and the next day, buses arrived at Srebrenica to take them away, again separating the children and women from the men.

Genocide at Srebrenica

At the end of the four day masacre, up to 8,000 men and boys had been killed, and many women were subject to torture, rape, and other forms of violence. Thousands were buried in mass graves. Serb forces subsequently dug up the bodies and scattered them in a systematic effort to conceal the crime.

There were clear indications that an attack at Srebrenica was being planned, yet the international community did not equip the peacekeeping forces there with the support necessary to protect the thousands who either lost their lives or were terrorized. The atrocities committed at Srebrenica are considered to be the worst on European soil after the Holocaust. 

Excavations and Commemoration

UN war crimes investigators later excavated the mass graves, but over 1,000 bodies are still missing. Identification of the bodies is difficult: bodies were broken up by excavators that bulldozed them into mass graves. Bodies were also moved from the original graves to secondary locations to conceal the crime. Forensic experts painstakingly work through what is left of the bodies found in the hundreds of mass graves that have been discovered in the area.

Every year on 11 July, the remains of those who have been identified over the past year are buried at the Memorial Centre in Srebrenica.

Most Serbs, both in Bosnia and Serbia whose 1990s leadership armed and funded Bosnian Serb forces, strongly deny that the massacre was genocide as judged by the UN war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia.

Karadzic was indicted along with military chief General Ratko Mladic in 1995 but evaded arrest until he was captured in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2008.

Dayton Peace Agreement

In November 1995, the United States sponsored peace talks between the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.

Combined with a large-scale Bosniak-Croat land offensive, this action led Bosnian Serb forces to agree to U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Dayton, Ohio in November. Serbian Pres. Slobodan Milosevic represented the Bosnian Serbs. The resulting Dayton Accords called for a federalized Bosnia and Herzegovina in which 51 percent of the land would constitute a Croat-Bosniak federation and 49 percent a Serb republic.

This peace agreement established two semi-autonomous entities within Bosnia-Herzegovina: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, inhabited primarily by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, and the Republika Srpska, dominated by Serbs, both with their own political structures, economies, and educational systems, though connected through a central government.

Almost sixty thousand NATO troops soon headed to Bosnia to keep a then-fragile peace.

Effects of War

By the end of the war  roughly 100,000 people had died.

30,000 people listed as missing throughout Bosnia. In the decades following the conflict, more than half the bodies have been identified, including several thousand from Srebrenica. The fate of 8,500 people from Bosnia was still unknown. 

Thousands of former soldiers and civilians now suffer from PTSD.

Country is ethnically divided.

Economy is ruined - employment rate is still very low.

Many perpetrators of the atrocities have not been prosecuted yet.