The Bosnia War

             Remember, remember, the 13^th of October. It was the day Bosnian Serb leader Radovan  Karadžić said, “In just a couple of days, Sarajevo will be gone and there will be five hundred thousand dead, in one month Muslims will be annihilated in Bosnia and Herzegovina”.[1] Drew Renner of the Los Angeles Times describes the Bosnian War not as a civil war, but a “good old fashioned case of territorial expansion”.[2] With roughly 2.2 million displaced and over 100,000 killed, it was the most devastating conflict to hit Europe since World War II.[3] It is also estimated that between 20,000 and 50,000 Bosniak women were raped during the war.[4] Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, a violent campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim and Croat population commenced. The Bosnian War began when Bosnian Serbs and what was left of the Yugoslavian Army began a day/night siege on the city of Sarajevo in April of 1992.[5] This conflict was not just a civil war but a war of aggression. First, I will argue that the splinter of U.S.-Russian relations did not occur in the Ukrainian conflict but that it began when the former U.S.S.R. condemned the NATO led bombing campaign in 1995. Second, that the world must do more to curb inaccurate portrayals of ethnic minorities by helping raise awareness of the Bosnian War.

            Nationalist leader Slobodan Milosevic pushed for what he called a “Greater Serbia” and he put this belief to the test once the ground invasion of Sarajevo took place. For over three years, the citizens of Sarajevo suffered through food shortages and the average weight loss per person was more than 30 pounds.[6] More than 12,000 residents of the city perished during the 43 month siege and entire villages were destroyed.[7] Some never returned back to Bosnia after the fighting ceased. During my research on this war, I found a timeline of the events:  

1992

• Febrary 29^th- Bosnia and Herzegovina declare independence.
• April- Bosnian Serbs begin their siege of Sarajevo.

1993

• January- Bosnian deputy Prime Minister killed by Serbian forces while en route to the airport.
• Bosnian Mulsims and Croats begin fighting over the parts of Bosnia not already taken by Serbs. This amounts to about 30% of the original territory.
• The U.N. declares six safe zones for Muslims: Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihac, Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde.

1994

• February 6^th- A mortar explodes in a crowded market in Sarajevo, 68 people are killed.
• February 28^th- NATO shoots down four Serbian aircraft over Bosnia, intervening for the first time since the war began (in fact, the first use of military power by NATO since its creation in 1949).
• March 18^th- Bosnian Muslims and Croats sign peace accords drawn up by the United States.

1995

• January 1st- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter brokers peace agreement between Bosnian Serbs and Muslims. Truce holds for about four months.
• May 24th- Serb forces refuse to remove heavy weapons from Sarajevo and as a result NATO launches an aircraft attack on Serb ammunition depot. In retaliation, Serbs begin attacking the Muslim safe zones designated by the U.N.
• July 11- Serbs seize Srebrenica, an estimated 8,000 Srebrenican men and boys are killed.
• July- Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic indicted for war crimes.
• July 25^th- Serbs seize Zepa.
• August 30^th- NATO airstrike begins against Serbs in and around Sarajevo.
• November 1- Peace talks begin in Dayton, Ohio.
• November 21- Leaders of Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia agree to a settlement.
• December 3- President Clinton gives the official order to deploy American troops to Bosnia.
• December 14^th- The Dayton Accords are signed by the Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs. 60,000 NATO troops are now allowed into the territories for peacekeeping purposes only.
• December 20^th- NATO takes over peace-keeping duties from U.N.[8]

The Bosnian Genocide in many ways can be compared to the Holocaust. In fact, in the midst World War II, the town of Kulen Vakuf witnessed a massacre of over 1,000 Muslims by Serbs in September of 1941.[9] Muslims, Serbs, and Croats all turned against each other during Hitler’s conquests in Europe and national/ethnic tension boiled over once the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Economic turmoil spread and the nation of Serbia gave in to more radical views in the beginning years of this Post-Cold War era. Carole Rogel, author of The Breakup of Yugoslavia and the War in Bosnia argues in her book that, “The persistence of nationalism is yet another reminder of the many ways that the past becomes prologue”.[10] A new study done by the U.N. also indicates that well over 90% of the war crimes committed in Bosnia were carried out by Serbian military.[11]

            Just one of many examples of war crimes that were perpetrated is the Srebenica Massacre in July of 1995, where 8,000 or more Muslim boys and men are believed to have lost their lives. Court documents reveal that this particular genocide was executed on orders from General Mladić and his paramilitary group known as the Scorpions, along with several hundred Ukrainian and Russian volunteers.[12] Videos like this one, found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri4u_IpCvXE indicate that the victims themselves were shot military style in the head and mass graves were created in an effort to bury the undeniable atrocities of those involved. According to evidence collected by French Policeman Jean-René Ruez, Serbian forces tortured refugees and adults were forced to watch their children being slaughtered.[13] CNN’s Graham Jones also states in his article that, “In the days before the onslaught, 30,000 Muslims fleeing the advancing Serb army were crammed into the town. Within days there was not one Muslim left”.[14] This massacre stands as one of the biggest failures in U.N. peacekeeping history.

            Another war crime that took place almost regularly was the rape of innocent Muslim women. The tale of two women being held hostage by the Serbian army tells of a very frightening situation:

THE WORST moment in Ziba's life occurred when a dozen drunken Serbian militiamen stormed into the school gymnasium in which she and more than 100 other young Muslim women were being held along with their infant children. ‘They came in with guns and grenades and they screamed at us,' Ziba's friend Emira recalls. 'The Chetniks shouted at us: 'Look at how many children you can have. Now you are going to have our children. You are going to have our little Chetniks’.[15]

Events like these occurred almost daily during the war and the only reason we know this is because of the tireless work of Robert Fisk, who went to Mostar himself and gathered details of the systematic sexual assaults on Muslim women. He also later goes on to state that over a 26 day period, all but 10 of the 105 women held prisoner in the gymnasium were gang raped.[16]

            The siege of Sarajevo has become one of the most studied about events in recent times. After the indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, people for the first time saw the sheer brutality of what was transpiring on their television sets. These clips included bodies of the dead being loaded into cars and just utter devastation in the communities themselves. Before the involvement of NATO combat troops, Sarajevo was subject to cruel terror as aid workers and wounded civilians being carried away from the battlefield were shot at by Serbian military.[17] Joscelyn Jurich, a photographer during the war stated, “These are images of distant suffering imprinted on my imagination, and I have seen photographers taking the same photographs, not only in Bosnia but in many places around the world. I can recognize everything. And yet I recognize nothing”.[18] The Bosnian War and the siege of Sarajevo in particular, are put forth as prime examples of the "CNN effect" - the theory that it was the television coverage of the war that ultimately roused public interest in the Bosnian crisis and pressured the U.S. to back NATO airstrikes against Serbia.[19]

            For the first time in NATO’s 45-year history, it conducted airstrikes against Serbian targets outside the besieged town of Gorazde on April 10^th, 1994.[20] Michael R. Gordon of the New York Times goes on to say, “By military standards, the airstrikes carried out today against the Serbs in Bosnia were extremely modest”.[21] Today, NATO finds itself complacent in an ever changing world but on this day it proved with extreme heroism and determination to protect U.N. peacekeepers; along with the 65,000 civilians trapped in Gorazde. Russia can squawk all it wants about how this mission was wrong but at the end of the day, lives were saved. Yes, lives were lost during the war but you cannot help but to think how many more would have perished had it not been for these airstrikes. From 1991 to 1995 the United States had been reluctant to act in Bosnia. But after Srebrenica, President Bill Clinton knew that although the American people would not like it, the United States could no longer avoid involvement.[22] To this day, NATO still maintains a military headquarters in Sarajevo that complements the work of the E.U. mission and assists, in defense reform and counter terrorism methods.^[23] 

            So, does peacekeeping really work? Analysis indicates that if a U.N. mission intervenes in an ongoing conflict, it needs to show superior size and equipment, as well as the willingness to fight, if necessary.[24] Under the aforementioned logic, forces should have been sent to the areas where major clashes were taking place. However, the given mandate of UNPROFOR did not specifically include direct intervention in military battles.[25] The 1994 Rwandan Genocide in Central Africa where approximately 800,000 men, women, and children were murdered by Hutu extremists should have been a wakeup call for the U.N. to step up their peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia.[26] Without sufficient preparedness or the know-how to approach complex political situations, the world will never be free of violence and more conflicts will occur as a result of our inaction. A fine line must be walked, like a circus performer on a tight rope.

            The involvement of NATO to end the Bosnian War also had a significant impact on U.S. - Russian relations. Gorbachev’s decision to allow elections within a multi-party system and create a presidency for the Soviet Union began a slow process of democratization that eventually destabilized Communist control and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day, 1991.[27] Tensions simmered while families across the world celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ. This relatively small period of peace lasted only until 1992. Growing distrust between the American and Russian sides reached a climax in September of 1995 when NATO again conducted an airstrike without giving Russia prior notification.[28] This move was widely interpreted by Russians that NATO and the United States had completely taken over operations in Bosnia.[29] There was not a strong pro-western or pro-Serb attitude taking place in Russia, but more of a tendency to favor Russia’s choice in determining its role in the conflict.[30]

            Therefore, I will argue that Russian-U.S. diplomatic ties did not become strained during the Ukrainian conflict beginning in early 2014, but that it began in 1992 with the start of the Bosnian War. Facts and evidence will now be submitted for your interpretation. The first piece of hard evidence I have to present is a New York Times article written by Frederick Bonnart in April of 1994, when the war was at its peak:

            

            Necessary discussions had taken place long ago at the United Nations, where Russia, together with the other members of the Security Council, had passed Resolution 836, mandating Secretary-General Butros Butros Ghali to authorize air support for UN forces in Bosnia when required. No NATO nation was consulted before the recent air strike. The Russians are well aware of this. Moscow's move could signal a fundamental change in Russia's relationship with the West. As it becomes increasingly evident that Western assistance will not solve the country's problems, Russian leaders may see in the current situation an opportunity to regain great-power status.[31]

It is almost comedic at how accurate this excerpt is. If you look at what is going on in world headlines today, you will know exactly what I am talking about. Apart from American obstacles with the Russians, whose support for the Serbs is rooted in their shared Orthodox Christian heritage, difficulties persisted on both sides over how best to stop the Bosnian War.[32] Many comparisons can be made between the wars in Bosnia and Ukraine. Moderator of Radio Slobodna Evropa, Omer Karaberg interviewed the former Serbian Ambassador to Ukraine, Dusan Lazic in which he stated:

Karaberg: Do you, Mister Lazic, believe that Putin would be happy if Ukraine was structured as B&H, with eastern Ukraine serving as some sort of the Serb Republic?

Lazic: I do not know Russian ambitions... Ukraine is a country that holds the biggest territory in Europe -- not including Russia -- that is not only European, but a Eurasian country. That must not be overlooked. Also, Ukraine has population of 45 million. Finally, Ukraine was one of the most developed parts of the Soviet Union. Regardless that it is not keeping up with today’s technological advances, it represents a great force. If division of Ukraine was allowed, it would open a number of issues…. That is why I believe it is necessary to do everything to keep Ukraine from splitting as a country.[33]

          
           The only differences between Ukraine and Bosnia are the events of mass genocide, war crimes, and the scales to which each conflict was fought. Bosnian Serbs led the oppositional voice against weapon exports to Ukraine where fighting in the east threatens to dismantle the country.[34] After Bosnian arms producer Unis Group recently won a 5 million euro ($5.66 million) contract to provide Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, Russia called on the Bosnian government to nix the deal.[35] This just goes to show how close the relationship between Russia and Bosnia has grown in recent years.

            Nearly 15 years have passed since the Dayton Peace Accords ended the war in Bosnia. Afterwards, the international community embarked on one of the most ambitious and expensive state building projects in history.[36] It committed thousands of troops and spent more than $15 billion to stabilize, reconstruct, and develop the country’s economic infrastructure.[37] According to The Associated Press, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro said that they had raised about $395 million at an international donors conference in Sarajevo to help house 74,000 people who have been living as refugees for more than two decades after fleeing their homes during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.[38] The E.U. donated around $303 million, while the United States and others committed roughly $92 million.[39]

            Refugee needs also had to be accommodated right here in the United States. One such example of this is the University of Sarajevo, which opened up a campus in Chicago. Six years after the outbreak of the Bosnian war--during which half the faculty were killed, wounded or forced to flee--the university reached out to students whose studies were interrupted.[40] Roughly 10,000 Bosnian refugees have settled in the Chicago area, making it the largest Bosnian community in America.[41] Some Bosnian families experienced ‘culture shock’, coined by Kalervo Oberg in 1960; it refers to the potentially confusing and disorienting experience when one enters a new culture.[42] Other countries have not been so welcoming to Bosnian and Muslim refugees however. Germany for instance, has put increasing pressure on some 320,000 predominantly Muslim Bosnian war refugees to return home by cutting social security payments.[43] In the eyes of many Berliners, their nation in contrast to the United States is not a land strengthened by large waves of immigration.[44]

Still, there is a lot more we could be doing to help displaced refugees leftover from the Bosnian War and others like it. To accomplish this task we must look to our history and resources to help guide us into making the right decision, and not what is a “cost benefit” strategy but ultimately what is fair. After examining many aspects of this conflict, it is safe to conclude that the Bosnian War was not a civil war, but a brutal and violent campaign intended to wipe out the Muslim-Croat population. My very intention was not just to prove this, but to raise awareness of the growing epidemic of war. My second, and perhaps most important intention was to show that the United States and Russian disagreements over how best to solve a conflict did not originate in Ukraine, but in Bosnia itself. While politicians on both sides of the aisle bickered over what to do; 8,000 Muslims were being shipped off by buses to be murdered in Srebrenica alone. We cannot prevent wars if we are part of the problem, thus it is unsolvable.

Bibliography

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[1] Florence Hartmann. "A statement at the seventh biennial meeting of the International Association of Genocide Scholars". Helsinki Charter No. 109-110. Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. Sarajevo, July, 2007.

[2] Drew Renner. “Bosnian War.” The Los Angeles Times, October 05, 1993. < http://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-05/local/me-42280_1_serb-slovenia-bosnian-war>

[3] “Bosnia war dead figure announced.” BBC News, June 21, 2007. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6228152.stm>

[4] Alexandra Stiglmayer. Mass Rape: the War against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), p. 85.

[5] Jon W. Western. “U.S. Policy and Human Rights in Bosnia: The Transformation of Strategic Interests.” Mount Holyoke College. <http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~jwestern/ps62/bosnia.htm> Western argues that American policy towards Bosnia did not shift until three and a half years into the conflict; Bosnia was not a vital interest.

[6] “Bosnian War (1992-1995): Major Causes of the War.” Mt. Holyoke College. <https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~bonne20s/causes.html>

[7] Ibid

[8] “Bosnian War (1992-1995): Chronology and Major Events.” Mt. Holyoke College. <https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~bonne20s/majorbattlesmaps.html>

[9] Steven L. Burg and Paul Shoup. The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina : Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention (Armonk: Routledge, 1999), p. 38.

[10] Carole Rogel. The Breakup of Yugoslavia and the War in Bosnia (Westport: Greenwoord, 2004), p. ix. Mentioned in the preface of this novel are Randall M. Miller’s Series Foreword and how the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe helped spur on the Bosnian War.

[11] James E. Waller. Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 276-277.

[12] Norman M. Naimark. Memories of Mass Repression: Narrating Life Stories in the Aftermath of Atrocity (Piscataway: Transaction Publishers, 2011), p. 3.

[13] Graham Jones. “Srebenica: A triumph of evil.” CNN, April 10, 2007. <http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/22/warcrimes.srebrenica/>

[14] Ibid

[15] Robert Fisk. “Bosnia War Crimes…” The Independent, February 08, 1993. <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/bosnia-war-crimes-the-rapes-went-on-day-and-night-robert-fisk-in-mostar-gathers-detailed-evidence-of-the-systematic-sexual-assaults-on-muslim-women-by-serbian-white-eagle-gunmen-1471656.html>

[16] Ibid

[17] 2013. Sarajevo. Part 1: Ground Zero. New York, N.Y.: Films Media Group.

[18] Joscelyn Jurich. REMEMBERING TO REMEMBER: Three Photojournalism Icons of the Bosnian War (Rochester: Visual Studies Workshop, 2011), pp. 35-42.

[19] Ibid

[20] Michael R. Gordon. “CONFLICT IN THE BALKANS: NATO; Modest Air Operation in Bosnia Crosses a Major Political Frontier.” New York Times, April 11, 1994. <http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/11/world/conflict-balkans-nato-modest-air-operation-bosnia-crosses-major-political.html>

[21] Ibid

[22] Richard Holbrooke. “Was Bosnia Worth It?” The Washington Post, July 19, 2005. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/18/AR2005071801329.html>

[23] North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “Peace support operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” <http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_52122.htm>

[24] Stefano Costalli. “Does Peacekeeping Work? A Disintegrated Analysis of Deployment and Violence Reduction in the Bosnian War.” British Journal of Political Science 44.2, Cambridge University Press, April, 2014: 357-380.

[25] Ibid

[26] United Human Rights Council, “Genocide in Rwanda” <http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm>

[27] U.S. Department of State. “The Collapse of the Soviet Union.” October 31, 2013. <https://history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/collapse-soviet-union>

[28] Richard Sobel and Eric Shiraev. Russian Decision-making Regarding Bosnia: Indifferent Public and Feuding Elites (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2003), p. 5. Sobel and Shiraev go into great detail about how the Russian people perceive the West as trying to weaken their economy, de-industrialize their nation, and once and for all bring it to its knees.

[29] Ibid

[30] Ibid, p. 9.

[31] Frederick Bonnart. “Bosnia: An Emerging Russian View Might Want War to Go On.” New York Times, April 20, 1994. <http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/20/opinion/20iht-edfred.html>

[32] Roger Cohen. “U.S. Clashes With Russia Over Bosnia.” New York Times, May 18, 1994. <http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/18/world/us-clashes-with-russia-over-bosnia.html>

[33] “Ukraine Conflict and Bosnian War: Similarities.” Narrated by Omer Karaberg. Radio Slobodna Evropa, March 06, 2015. <http://www.slobodnaevropa.org/content/ukraine-conflict-and-bih-similarities/26886015.html>

[34] Danilo Krstanovic. “Bosnia says ‘nyet’ to weapons deal with Ukraine.” Reuters, February 12, 2015. <http://rt.com/news/231595-bosnia-ukraine-weapons-deal/>

[35] Ibid

[36] Jon Western and Patrice McMahon. “Opinion: Bosnia’s tough choices.” Global Post, May 30, 2010. <http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100416/sarajevo-bosnia-national-elections>

[37] Ibid

[38] The Associated Press. “Balkan States Raise Money for Refugees.” New York Times, April 25, 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/world/europe/balkan-states-raise-money-for-refugees.html?ref=topics&_r=0>

[39] Ibid

[40] Jeffrey Bils. “Bosnian College Gets City Branch.” The Chicago Tribune, November 18, 1998. <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-11-18/news/9811180088_1_bosnian-refugees-bosnian-war-loyola-officials>

[41] Ibid

[42] Reed Coughlan and Judith Owens-Manley. Bosnian Refugees in America: New Communities, New Cultures (New York City: Springer, 2006), p. 99. Coughlan and Owens discuss the effects of migration to America from the war ravaged nation of Bosnia. Some families were quick to adjust and others were not, due to the small numbers of Bosnians living in the United States.

[43] “Germany Expels First Of What May Be Many Bosnian Refugees.” The Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1997. <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-03-14/news/9703140153_1_bosnian-refugees-war-refugees-germany>

[44] Ibid