Bosnian War: causes

The 1990s became another era of bloodshed in the Balkans. On the wreckage of Yugoslavia, several ethnic wars began. One of them unfolded in Bosnia between Bosnians, Serbs and Croats. Confused conflict was resolved only after it was intervened by the international community, primarily the UN and NATO. The armed clash has become notorious for its numerous war crimes.

Prerequisites

In 1992, the Bosnian War began. This happened against the backdrop of the collapse of Yugoslavia and the fall of communism in the Old World. The main opposing sides were Bosnian Muslims (or Bosniaks), Orthodox Serbs and Croats-Catholics. The conflict was multifaceted: political, ethnic and confessional.

It all started with the collapse of Yugoslavia. In this federative socialist state there lived a variety of peoples - Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Macedonians, Slovenes, etc. When the Berlin Wall fell and the communist system lost the Cold War, the national minorities of the SFRY began to demand independence. The parade of sovereignties began by analogy with what was then happening in the Soviet Union.

The first to separate Slovenia and Croatia. In Yugoslavia, apart from them, there was the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was the most ethnically motley region of the once united country. About 45% of Bosnians, 30% of Serbs and 16% of Croats lived in the republic. On February 29, 1992, local authorities (located in the capital Sarajevo) held a referendum on independence. The Bosnian Serbs refused to participate in it. When the independence of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Sarajevo, an escalation of tension began.

The Serbian question

The actual capital of the Bosnian Serbs was Banja Luka. The conflict was aggravated by the fact that both peoples lived side by side for many years, and because of this in some areas there were many ethnically mixed families. In general, the Serbs lived more in the north and east of the country. The Bosnian war for them became a way to unite with compatriots in Yugoslavia. The army of the socialist republic left Bosnia in May 1992. With the disappearance of the third force, which could at least somehow regulate the relationship between the opponents, the last barriers to bloodshed have disappeared.

Yugoslavia (where the predominantly Serbian population lived) from the very beginning supported the Bosnian Serbs who created their own Republika Srpska. Many officers of the former unified army began to transfer to the armed forces of this unrecognized state.

On whose side Russia in the Bosnian war, it became clear immediately after the conflict began. Official authorities of the Russian Federation tried to act as a peacekeeping force. The same was done by the other influential powers of the world community. Politicians sought a compromise, inviting opponents to negotiate in a neutral territory. However, if we talk about the public opinion of Russia in the 1990s, it is safe to say that the sympathies of ordinary people were on the side of the Serbs. This is not surprising, because two people connected and connect the common Slavic culture, Orthodoxy, etc. According to international experts, the Bosnian war became the center of attraction for 4 thousand volunteers from the former USSR who supported the Republika Srpska.

The War Begins

The third party to the conflict, in addition to Serbs and Bosnians, was the Croats. They created the commonwealth of Herceg-Bosna, which throughout the war existed as an unrecognized state. The capital of this republic was the city of Mostar. In Europe, they felt the approach of the war and tried to prevent bloodshed with the help of international instruments. In March 1992, an agreement was signed in Lisbon, according to which the power in the country was to be divided according to ethnicity. In addition, the parties agreed that the federal center will share powers with local municipalities. The document was signed by Bosnian Aliya Izetbegovic, Serb Radovan Karadzic and Croats Mate Boban.

However, the compromise was short-lived. Within a few days Izetbegovic announced that he was withdrawing the agreement. In fact, it gave carte blanche at the beginning of the war. I needed only an excuse. Already after the beginning of the bloodshed, the opponents called different episodes that triggered the first murders. It was a serious ideological moment.

For the Serbs, the point of no return was the shooting of the Serbian wedding in Sarajevo. The assassins were Bosniaks. At the same time, Muslims blamed the Serbs for unleashing war. They claimed that the first to die were the Bosnians who participated in the street demonstration. The bodyguards of Serbian President Radovan Karadzic were suspected of the murder.

Siege of Sarajevo

In May 1992, in the Austrian city of Graz, the President of the Republika Srpska Radovan Karadzic and the President of the Croatian Republic Herceg-Bosna Mate Boban signed a bilateral agreement, which became the most important document of the first stage of the armed conflict. Two Slavic unrecognized states agreed to cease hostilities and rally to establish control over Muslim territories.

After this episode, the Bosnian war moved to Sarajevo. The capital of the state, torn apart by internal strife, was inhabited mainly by Muslims. However, the Serbian majority resided in the suburbs and surrounding villages. This ratio determined the course of the fighting. April 6, 1992 began the siege of Sarajevo. The Serbian army surrounded the city. The siege continued throughout the war (more than three years) and was lifted only after the signing of the final Dayton agreements.

During the siege of Sarajevo, the city was subjected to intense artillery shelling. The funnels, which remained from those shells, were already poured in peacetime with a special mixture of resin, plastic and red paint. These "marks" in the press were called "Sarayev's roses". Today they are one of the most famous monuments of that terrible war.

Total war

It should be noted that the Serb-Bosnian war was in parallel with the war in Croatia, where a conflict broke out between local Croats and Serbs. This confused and complicated the situation. In Bosnia, a total war has unfolded, that is, a war of all against all. Particularly ambiguous was the situation of local Croats. Some of them supported the Bosnians, the other part - the Serbs.

In June 1992, the UN peacekeeping contingent appeared in the country. Originally it was created for the Croatian war, but soon his powers were extended to Bosnia. These armed forces took control of Sarajevo airport (before it was occupied by Serbs, they had to leave this important transport hub). The UN peacekeepers delivered humanitarian aid, which was spreading across the country, as there was not a single region left untouched by the bloodshed in Bosnia. The mission of the Red Cross defended civil refugees, although the efforts of the contingent of this organization were clearly insufficient.

War crimes

The cruelty and senselessness of the war became known to the whole world. This was facilitated by the development of the media, television and other means of disseminating information. The incident that took place in May 1992 was widely lit. In Tuzla, the united Bosnian-Croat forces attacked a brigade of the Yugoslav People's Army, returning to their homeland because of the collapse of the country. The attack was attended by snipers who shot cars and thus blocked the road. The assailants cold-bloodedly finished the wounded. More than 200 servicemen of the Yugoslav army were killed. This episode, among many others, clearly demonstrated violence during the Bosnian war.

By the summer of 1992 the army of the Republika Srpska managed to establish control over the eastern regions of the country. Local Muslim civilians were repressed. Concentration camps were created for the Bosnians. Ordinary was the cruel treatment of women. Merciless violence during the Bosnian war did not come about by chance. The Balkans have always been considered an explosive barrel of Europe. The national states were short-lived. The multinational population tried to live within the empires, but this version of the "good neighborhood" was eventually discarded after the fall of communism. Mutual grievances and claims have been accumulating for hundreds of years.

Unclear prospects

The complete blockade of Sarajevo began in the summer of 1993, when the Serbian army managed to complete Operation Lugavac 93. This was a planned offensive, organized by Ratko Mladic (today he is judged by an international tribunal). During the operation, the Serbs occupied strategically important passes leading to Sarajevo. The vicinities of the capital and most of the country are mountainous terrain with rugged terrain. In such natural conditions, passes and gorges become places of decisive battles.

Having seized the Trnovs, the Serbs were able to unite their possessions in two regions - Herzegovina and Podrinje. Then the army turned to the west. The Bosnian war, in short, consisted of numerous small maneuvers of warring armed groups. In July 1993, the Serbs managed to establish control over the passes near Mount Igman. This news alarmed the world community. Western diplomats began to pressure the leadership of the Republic and personally Radovan Karadzic. At the talks in Geneva, the Serbs were made clear that in the event of refusal to retreat, they would be awaited by NATO air strikes. Karadzic surrendered under such pressure. On August 5, 1993, the Serbs left Igman, although the remaining acquisitions in Bosnia remained behind them. On a strategically important mountain, peacekeepers from France took their place.

The split of the Bosnians

Meanwhile, in the camp of the Bosnians there was an internal split. Some Muslims advocated the preservation of a unitary state. Politician Firet Abdich and his supporters followed the reverse point of view. They wanted to make the state federal, and believed that only through such a compromise will the Bosnian war end (1992-1995). In short, this led to the emergence of two irreconcilable camps. Finally, in September 1993, Abdic in the city of Velika Kladusa announced the creation of Western Bosnia. It was another unrecognized republic that opposed the government of Izetbegovic in Sarajevo. Abdic became an ally of the Republika Srpska.

Western Bosnia is a vivid example of how all the new short-term political entities that originated the Bosnian war (1992-1995) appeared. The reasons for this variegation were a huge number of conflicting interests. Western Bosnia lasted two years. Its territory was occupied during the operations of "Tiger 94" and "Storm". In the first case, the Bosniaks themselves spoke out against Abdic.

In August 1995, at the final stage of the war, when the last separatist formations were liquidated, Croats and a limited contingent of NATO joined Izetbegovic government forces. The main battles took place in the Krajina region. The indirect result of Operation Storm was the flight from the border Croat-Bosnian settlements of about 250,000 Serbs. These people were born and grew up in Krajina. Although there was nothing unusual in this emigrant stream. Many people have removed the Bosnian war from their homes. A simple explanation for this population turnover is that the conflict could not end without defining clear ethnic and confessional borders, therefore, all small diasporas and enclaves during the war were systematically destroyed. The division of the territory affected both Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats.

The Genocide and the Tribunal

War crimes were committed by both Bosnians and Serbs with Croats. Both of them explained their atrocities as revenge for their compatriots. The Bosnians created detachments of "bag-makers" to terrorize the Serbian civilian population. They conducted raids on peaceful Slavic villages.

The most terrible Serbian crime was massacre in Srebrenica. By decision of the United Nations, in 1993 this city and the surrounding areas were declared a security zone. Muslim refugees from all regions of Bosnia reached there. In July 1995, Serbs captured Srebrenica. They committed a massacre in the city, killing, according to various estimates, about 8,000 peaceful Muslim residents - children, women and the elderly. Today, throughout the world, the Bosnian war of 92-95 gg. Most of all is known for this inhuman episode.

The massacre in Srebrenica is still under investigation in the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. On March 24, 2016, former Republic of Srpska President Radovan Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He initiated many of the crimes that the Bosnian war is known for. Photo condemned again flew all the world press, as in the previous 90's. Karadzic is also responsible for what happened in Srebrenica. Special services caught him after a decade of life under a secret name in Belgrade.

Military intervention of the international community

Every year the Bosnian Serb-Bosnian war became increasingly chaotic and confusing. It became clear that neither side of the conflict would achieve its goals through bloodshed. In the current situation, US authorities began to take an active part in the negotiation process. The first step towards settling the conflict was a treaty that put an end to the war of the Croats and Bosnians. The relevant papers were signed in March 1994 in Vienna and Washington. Bosnian Serbs were also invited to the negotiating table, but they did not send their diplomats.

The Bosnian war, whose photos from the fields regularly got into the foreign press, shocked the West, but in the Balkans it was perceived as commonplace. Under these conditions, the NATO bloc took the initiative in its own hands . The Americans and their allies, with the support of the United Nations, began to prepare a plan for bombing the Serbian positions. The military operation "Deliberate Force" began on August 30. Bombing helped Bosnians and Croats push the Serbs in strategically important regions on the Ozren Plateau and in Western Bosnia. The main result of NATO intervention was the lifting of the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted several years. After that the Serbian-Bosnian war approached its conclusion. All parties to the conflict were exsanguinated. The territory of the state did not have a whole residential, military and industrial infrastructure.

Dayton Agreements

Final negotiations between the opponents began in a neutral territory. The future ceasefire agreement was agreed upon at the US military base in Dayton. The formal signing of the papers occurred at the Elysée Palace in Paris on December 14, 1995. The main actors of the ceremony were the President of Bosnia, Aliya Izetbegovic, the President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic and the President of Croatia Franjo Tudjman. Preliminary talks were held under the patronage of observer countries - Britain, Germany, Russia, the United States and France.

According to the signed agreement, a new state was created - the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the Republika Srpska. Internal borders were drawn in such a way that each entity received an equal part of the country's territory. In addition, a NATO peacekeeping contingent was deployed to Bosnia. These armed forces have become the guarantor of peace in especially tense regions.

Violence during the Bosnian War was hotly debated. Documentary evidence of war crimes was transferred to the international tribunal, which still works today. It judges both ordinary performers and immediate initiators of atrocities "at the top". Politicians and military, who organized the genocide of civilians, were removed from power.

According to the official version, the reasons for the Bosnian war were the ethnic conflict in the disintegrated Yugoslavia. Dayton agreements served as a formula for compromise for a split society. Although the Balkans remain a source of tension for the whole of Europe, open violence on the scale of war there has finally ceased. It was the success of international diplomacy (albeit belated). The Bosnian war and the violence it caused left a huge imprint on the fate of the local population. Today, there is not a single Bosniac or Serb, whose family would not have been affected by a terrible conflict of two decades ago.