Genocide in the Former Yugoslavia, April 1992-December 1995

1. Bosnia-Herzegovina:
Genocide in the Former Yugoslavia
April 1992-December 1995
200,000 killed
50,000 women raped
2.2 million refugees

3. ~37% size
of NC
in Balkan
Peninsula

8. To 1878: province of Ottoman Empire

9. ~42% NC pop.
1990 pop. = 4 m.
• 44% Bosniak
(Muslim)
• 31% Serb
(Eastern
Orthodox
Christians)
• 17% Croatian
(Roman
Catholic
Christians)

10. 1878-1918: part of Austro-Hungarian Empire

11. 1919:
1 of 6 Republics
of Yugoslavia

12. 1919-1992:
Serbia
+ Croatia
+ Bosnia
+ Slovenia
+ Montenegro
+ Macedonia
________________________________________
Yugoslavia

13. 1941: Axis invasion

14. Croatian Ustaše Party allied
with Germany; Serbs, Jews,
Muslims, and Roma
became Holocaust victims

15. 1941-1945: Josip Broz Tito led Partisan resistance;
overpowered Germans with Allied help

16. 1945-1980:
• Tito led liberal socialist
state
• emphasized Yugoslavian
"brotherhood and unity”
• neutral in the Cold War
• highest standard of living
in E. Europe
• 1980 death followed by
economic crisis and rebirth
of nationalism

17. By 1987: Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic
encouraged Serb nationalism throughout Yugoslavia;
Croats and Bosniaks sought independence.
“Nobody should beat you!”

19. In Bosnia, Serbs destroyed Muslim mosques and imprisoned
14,000 Bosniaks and Croats in concentration camps; 10,000 died.

21. Franjo Tudjman won Croatia’s presidential elections
using Ustaše rhetoric and imagery.

22. "Serbs lie, they are that kind of a people. They can't love us,
nor is that natural. They are our eternal sworn enemies."

23. 1991: Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia declared independence.
Alija Izetbegovic, a Bosniak and leader of Bosnia's multi-ethnic
government, called for Bosnia’s independence too.

24. However, Bosnian Serbs did not want independence but wanted to
be part of Milosevic's "Greater Serbia."
Reality Milosevic’s Dream of a “Greater Serbia”

25. 1991: Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic’s
Serbian Democratic Party withdrew from the government
and set up a "Serbian National Assembly."

26. March 3, 1992: Izetbegovic
declared Bosnia's independence
which was recognized by the US
and EU.
May 1992: Bosnian Serb forces
under Ratko Mladic and
supported by Milosevic and the
Serb-dominated Yugoslav army
attacked Bosnia's capital,
Sarajevo.

27. The UN refused to intervene but did send humanitarian aid.

28. Most Bosnian Croats fled the country. Bosniaks were forcibly
expelled from eastern Bosnia through "ethnic cleansing.”
Destroyed Croat house with Serb nationalist symbols and messages including
Serbian Crosses, "Usraše se Ustaše” (referring to fled occupants), " Red Star
(a Serbian soccer team) champion", and "God protects Serbs”.

29. By 1995, 200,000 had died including 80% of Bosniaks.

30. By 1995, 200,000 had died including 80% of Bosniaks.

31. Late 1993: Serb forces controlled 3/4 of Bosnia and created a new
state, Republika Srpska (Serb Republic). Only three towns in
eastern Bosnia remained under Bosnian government control. The
UN declared these "safe havens" to be protected by international
peacekeeping forces.

32. July 11, 1995: Serb forces overwhelmed Dutch peacekeepers at the
"safe haven” of Srebrenica.
Srebrenica falls to Bosnian Serbs

33. Bosniak men and boys were driven or marched to fields and shot
or decapitated. 1,500 were locked in a warehouse and murdered
with machine gun fire and grenades.

34. Mass graves covered by earth-moving equipment.

36. Bosniak women and young girls were raped in front of their
families; gang rape was common. Some women were held captive
afterward as sex slaves but most, around 20,000, were
transported to Bosnian-held territory.

37. A post-war medical study of 68 Croatian and Bosniak
rape victims found that many suffered psychological
problems as a result. None had any psychiatric history
prior to the rapes.
44 raped more than once
21 raped every day during captivity
18 forced to witness rapes
65 rapes accompanied by physical torture

38. Afterward
58 suffered depression
51 from social phobia
25 from suicidal thoughts
21 from PTSD
17 from sexual dysfunctions
29 became pregnant by rape
17 had abortions
"Psychological Consequences of Rape
on Women in 1991-1995 War in Croatia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina." Croatian
Medical Journal 47.1 (2006): 67-75.

39. The deportation of Srebrenica's population took four days. Serbs
wearing blue peacekeeping helmets taken from the Dutch
soldiers tricked Bosniak escapees into handing themselves over.
Film reveals scale of Srebrenica atrocity

40. In Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital, a radio message from an amateur
operator in Srebrenica was heard: 'Please do something.
Whatever you can. In the name of God, do something.'

41. Later that month, after Serb forces captured Zepa and bombed a
crowded Sarajevo market, the international community started
to respond more forcefully.

42. August 1995: after the Serbs refused to comply with a UN
ultimatum, NATO conducted a bombing campaign against
Bosnian Serb forces.
October 1995: With Serbia's economy crippled by UN trade
sanctions and three years of war, Milosevic agreed to peace
negotiations.

43. November 1995: the Dayton Accords
signed in Ohio between Milosevic,
Tudjman, and Izetbegovic divided
Bosnia.
• 51% Croat-Bosniak Federation
• 49% to Republika Srpska
Other signers included:
• U.S. President Bill Clinton
• French President Jacques Chirac
• UK PM John Major
• German Chancellor Helmut Kohl
• Russian PM Vikto Chernonmyrdin

44. A 60,000 NATO peace-keeping force, including 20,000 Americans,
was deployed until 2004. Today, a 2500 member EU force remains.

45. May 1993: UN Security Council created the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague,
Netherlands
• Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian President – driven from power in
2000 and arrested, died on trial in 2006

46. May 1993: UN Security Council created the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague,
Netherlands
• Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb leader – captured in 2008,
currently ICTY custody

47. May 1993: UN Security Council created the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague,
Netherlands
• Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb military commander – captured
May 2011
• 156 others indicted

48. On July 11, 2000, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said:
'The tragedy of Srebrenica will forever haunt the history of the
United Nations. This day commemorates a massacre on a scale
unprecedented in Europe since the Second World War - a
massacre of people who had been led to believe that the UN
would ensure their safety. We cannot undo this tragedy, but it is
vitally important that the right lessons be learned and applied in
the future ... [W]e must recognize evil for what it is and confront
it not with expediency and compromise but with implacable
resistance ...'