Background History

      The Issue With Ethnicity

At the time, Bosnia-Herzegovina consisted of many diverse ethnicities spread out in patches of territory across the region. The policy of ethnic cleansing by the Serbians included muslims being imprisoned, deported, and executed so that only the Serbs being a homologous ethnic group, would control Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

                The Bosnian Genocide is considered by many to be worst mass killing of one people since the Holocaust of World War II. As many do not know, the two main sides were Yugoslavian Serb Forces and Bosnian Muslims. The hate between these two sides date back a long time, but the main spark to this conflict started way back during World War I. Shortly after the Allies defeated the Axis Powers in World War I, it was agreed by global leaders that the country of Yugoslavia was to be created. This newly found country was heavily multinational and consisted of a vast variety of different ethnic groups.

                During World War II, not too long after its creation, Germany attacked Yugoslavia in their effort to expand their influence on a global scale. Eventually, citizens of Yugoslavia took to the idea that a revolt or some sort of rebellion needed to occur, so under the leadership of a man named Josip Tito, Yugoslavia was able to withstand German forces until Allied troops came in. Following the defeat of the Nazis, Yugoslavia was re-united by Tito. The countries that were unified included Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, and even Montenegro.

  Slobodan Milosevic

            Under Tito, the country of Yugoslavia did fairly well. However, this joy did not last long, as Tito died in 1980. Shortly after, a new leader, Slobodan Milosevic came to power. Milosevic was a Serb and was an extreme nationalist, so he did everything he could possibly do to spark tension between an already hostile situation among Serbs and Muslims. In 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from Yugoslavia, which lead to the start of a civil war. Milosevic attempted to invade Slovenia and quickly lost interest and looked foward to taking over other lands. Soon enough, he attempted to gain Croatia, where 12% of the population were Serbs. Milosevic looked to invade Croatia so that he could protect Serbs, whom he felt were being treated unfairly. In 1992, Bosnia, a country with a heavy percentage of Muslims, declared independece from Yugoslavia. In response, Milosevic lead military forces into Bosnia. It was around this time, when the Bosnian Genocide officially began.

(Next Page: Dynamics of the Bosnian Genocide)