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  • Essay / Causes and Effects of the Bosnian Genocide

    In the aftermath of World War II and the Cold War, the world was in ruins due to the massive destruction wrought there. It was recorded that in the 1990s, one of the deadliest cases of genocide since World War II occurred in Bosnia, with a death toll of around two hundred thousand people. Through all the research collected, the situation that occurred between the former Yugoslavia appears to be similar to what happened in Germany with Hitler and the Nazi Party. Many towns in Bosnia were targeted and attacked in an attempt to carry out "ethnic cleansing", because after the dissolution of Yugoslavia into six countries that we know today as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia, conflicts broke out for independence. and separation of control from each. The declaration of independence of all countries except Serbia aroused the anger of Serbia itself, because Serbia wanted the countries to fall into Serbian nationalism. The research used for this lesson aimed to demonstrate the horrible disorder that is genocide and how a major cause that could lead to genocide could be ethnic tensions between countries. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay First and foremost, it is important to know exactly what happened in the case of the Bosnian genocide, because the information is vast and yet many people have limited knowledge. knowledge of it. Bosnia and Herzegovina is located in southeastern Europe and is one of the nations that once constituted the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. When Yugoslavia dissolved, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence, leading Serbia to declare war on them for the sole purpose of action. on ethnic tensions which were already increasing. Specifically, the republic contained different ethnicities like Orthodox Christian Serbs, Muslim Bosnians, and Catholic Croats. It is clear that Serbia wanted to take control of the other nations that made up Yugoslavia and when they began to break up it led to many wars. Additionally, when Bosnia was influenced by the idea of ​​independence, the country also decided to act on the idea of ​​secession, but Serbia had already set out to "ethnically cleanse" Bosnia and claimed to have done so. with the intention of liberating the Serbs who resided in Bosnia. All this was driven by the loss of President Josip Broz Tito, the painful economic crisis the six countries were facing, and the rise of Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman. Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman led a campaign fueled by nationalist views and propaganda that further fueled the fire between Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia, which spread to all their countries and gained the support of their resident civilians. He had initiated the invasion of Bosnia by the Serbian army and the attack on many Bosnian towns. Additionally, the Serbian military focused most of its attention on Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, and gave birth to a horrific event central to the case of the Bosnian genocide. The “Siege of Sarajevo” was the most horrific case recorded in the Bosnian genocide because the troops had constantly attacked Sarajevo to such an extent that civilians were afraid to even take a step, otherwise they would be shot instantly (Dzihic, “Srebrenica Gernika Bosne”). The number of recorded deaths rose into the thousands over a period of almost four years. Furthermore, thisIt was not until 1995 that the case of genocide worsened, as that was when Serbian forces diversified into different cities across the country. Bosnia and continued to “ethnically cleanse” the country. Most of the population was hit hard by this siege because, just like the Nazis, there were concentration camps, including rape camps. Food was scarce due to the blockade by Serbian forces surrounding the towns, which cut off their supplies, transport and communications and caused health problems. Additionally, houses were destroyed because Serbian forces used grenades, mortars and bombs to bomb towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were many fatal injuries due to the proximity of the victims to the target areas of the explosions. Furthermore, the only way to escape the massacres was to be killed or to emigrate to neighboring countries. For example, countries like Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Turkey and many more, as there were documents that recognized the establishment of refugee camps in these countries for the vast majority of civilians resulting from the genocide. Therefore, American foreign policy towards Bosnia changed because it knew that the chaos that had occurred in Bosnia had spread everywhere, which led to the humiliation that America was experiencing because the administration was unwilling to send support to Bosnia. However, it was good to see that the United Nations, the United Nations and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, had provided as much support and aid as they could to the civilians of Bosnia. According to the Houston Holocaust Museum, the UN had declared certain Bosnian towns such as Srebrenica and Gorazde to be safe areas to house victims, but that did not prevent the massacre of 8,000 men, from young people to elderly people in these cities. cities. Another devastating attack was the “Lasva Valley Affair”. It was there that the Croats, pushed by Franjo Tudjman, also committed inhumane acts against Bosnia. The Croats had burned mosques, used Bosniaks as shields in battles against the Serbs, and destroyed historical sites as well as public sites due to the furious hatred they harbored toward Bosnia and Serbia. Additionally, NATO launched airstrikes as a counterattack against Serbian forces. Ultimately, it was not until the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995 that the war, or more precisely the genocide, completely ended. This is because the United States decided to intervene before the situation got worse. Additionally, many people have been indicted for crimes against humanity and genocide, such as Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, by the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia. Radovan Karadzic was the Serbian head of the army while Ratko Mladic was the army commander. They were specifically accused of extermination, murder and participation in the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo. Another person who was going to be tried was Slobodan Milosevic, but before they could do so, he was found dead in his cell. After everything that happened, the political governments of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia found themselves in very unstable conditions, because even though the nations have overcome the atrocities committed, their relations are still full of tensions, but they value privacy and cooperate. with each other when needed. Overall, after seeing all this information, the question now arises as to why it is important to know all this and what can one possibly learn.