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War In Bosnia

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Parent Issue
Month
December
Year
1992
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
Rights Held By
Agenda Publications
OCR Text

Serbs have captured about 70 percent of Bosnia during an 8-tnonth-old war that has killed more than 1 4,000 people. Croats control most of the remaining territory, and Muslims, who make up about 43 percent of the 4 million people, have almost no land left. - Associated Press, Nov. 19

Prior to this year most Americans knew Bosnia - to the extent they knew it at all - as the place where World War I started. Bosnia has since moved from the history books to the news, as a shaky alliance of Bosnian Muslims and Croats seeks to hold off well-armed Serbian forces in the latest and most savage chapter of the Yugoslavian civil war. Though the flood of TV and press coverage of the Bosnian conflict has exposed the world to new terms like "ethnic cleansing," as well as the seemingly ageless phenomena of religious persecution and mass murder, it has done little to clarify the origins of the war or the passions that fuel it.

To understand the forces set loose by the dissolution of Yugoslavia, It's first necessary to look at the forces that led to lts creation. Most Yugoslavs are descendents of South Slav tribes that migrated to the Balkan region of southeastern Europe In the sixth and seventh centuries. The tribes shared a common culture, worshipped the same Slavic gods, and spoke a common language. Separated by mountainous terrain, their common heritage began to break down. Political, cultural, and linguistic differences grew as various regions developed in relative isolation from one another.

By the tenth century, five major nationalities had emerged from this process of differentiation: Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, and Macedonians. The two largest and most powerful, the Serbs and Croats, were very similar in language and culture but differed in one key respect: religion. The Croats were Catholic, while the Serbs adhered to the Eastern Orthodox church. This was a source of friction between the two groups then, and remains so to this day.

At about this time the state of Bosnia, which was later united with the small neighboring state of Herzegovina, was founded by Serb noblemen. The new state was soon at odds with both Serbia and Croatia, though, because of its leader's adherence to the Bogomils sect. This mystical, ascetic Christian cult was accepted by large numbers of Bosnian nobles and peasants, who were branded as heretics by both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The Catholic church was particularly energetic in its efforts to exterminate the heresy - and the heretics - by fire and sword.

In the 15th century Serbia and Bosnia were conquered by the Muslim Turks. Many Bosnians converted to their conquerers' religion. In return, they were awarded a privileged status, while Bosnian Serbs and Croats who held fast to Christianity were treated as subject peoples.

Under the communist regime established by Marshall Tito in 1946, Yugoslavia became a federation of slx republics: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Macedonia, each of which exercised a measure of local control under the watchful eye of the central government.

Open expressions of rival nationalisms and religious conflicts were suppressed, but the underlying passions never disappeared. In the late 1960s, the high point in Yugoslavia's efforts to become a modern, pan-national state, the communist boss of Serbia's Vojvodina región admitted that the nationalities question was "eternally present." At the end of the 1980s, the Yugoslav communist party's grip on power weakened and old rivalries began to reassert themselves.

In 1991, prompted In part by concern over growing Serb nationalism, Slovenia became the first republic to secede from Yugoslavia. Aided by their rugged Alpine terrain, the Slovenians defeated the Yugoslav army in a short, fierce struggle and secured their independence.

Following Slovenia's secession, Croatia declared its Independence. War followed almost immediately. The struggle there has been longer, less conclusive, and more brutal than the fight in Slovenia, in part because Serbs make up 11 percent of Croatia's population.

As Croatia moved toward independence, the Croatian Serbs, equipped with weapons supplied by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, formed militias and began taking control of the areas where they formed a majority. The Croatian Serbs claimed that these militias were formed for self-defense, and initially there was some justification for that claim.

During World War II the Germans and Italians set up a puppet government In Croatia under a Croatian fascist party known as Ustasi. Along with helping the Nazis hunt down and kill Jews, the Ustasi regime killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs and converted others to Catholicism at gunpoint. For (see WAR IN BOSNIA, page 4) WAR IN BOSNIA (FROM PAGE 1) many Serbs, the rhetoric and symbols employed by president Franjo Tudjman and hls Croatian Democratic Union party are frighteningly similar to those used by the Ustasi regime.

Fighting began in Croatia in June, 1991, and the Yugoslav army and lts militia allles quickly seized a large section of the country. The Serb militias started forcibly evicting Croats from areas where Serbs lived - the beginning of the policy that has come to be known as ethnic cleansing. This horror was compounded by mass executions of prisoners and civilians. Though both sides were implicated, most of these atrocities seem to have been committed by Serbs against Croats.

By early 1992 the Croatian war had worn down to a stalemate, and repeated U.N.-brokered cease-fire agreements finally began to hold. Serb forces held about one-third of Croatia, but the Croatian government survived the onslaught and secured its independence. Though from time to time sporadic fighting still erupts, both Croats and Serbs have turned their attention to the newest front in this multi-sided civil war: Bosnia.

Bosnia-Herzegovina was the only Yugoslav republic where no single ethnic or religious group comprised a majority. lts 1991 census reported a total population of 4,355,000, of whom 1,905,000 were Muslims, 1,364,000 Serbs, and 752,000 Croats. It was also the place where the enforced "brotherhood and unity" of the communist regime had actually won a measure of acceptance in the hearts of the people.

"Bosnia was the kernel of the very idea of Yugoslavia," wrote journalist Ines Sabalic in 1991. "When you came for a visit, your host would take you for a walk in the streets of Sarajevo and say: 'See how many nations there are living side by side? Muslims, Serbs, Croats, Jews - we all live together, in brotherhood and unity. We are a small Yugoslavia here.'"

In November of 1990, to preserve that "small Yugoslavia" as the larger nation was beginning to break up, Bosnia established a seven-member collective presidency. "In the presidency," explained Mohamed Sacirbej , Bosnia-Herzegovina's ambassador to the United Nations, "we have two Muslims, two Croats, two Serbs, and one Yugoslav' because we want to recognize that in our republic, besides Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, we do have others too, and we give them representation in our presidency."

Because Muslims constitute the largest group in the republic, a Muslim, Alija Izetbegovic, was chosen to lead the collective presidency. Jure Relivan, a Croat, was picked as prime minister, and the post of leader of parliament was given to a Serb.

In late February of this year, that carefully crafted arrangement began to fall apart. Bosnians went to the polls to vote on independence. The Muslim and Croat communities supported independence, while Serbs opposed it and boycotted the voting. Serbs began fighting soon after the referendum was approved.

The fight has been spearheaded by the Yugoslav army, aided by Bosnian Serb militias armed and equipped by the Yugoslav army and the Serbian government. "The Serbian [militia] units in Bosnia would be unable to function without money, ammunition, spare parts, and oil they receive from Serbia," said Sacirbej.

Except in the immediate vicinity of the capital, Sarajevo, the lightly armed Muslims have been unable to stand against the Serbian tanks and heavy artillery. Bosnian Croat forces, aided by the Croatian government, fared slightly better. By late October, however, the Serbian and Croatian governments reportedly agreed to carve up Bosnia, and the Bosnian Croat militias stopped cooperating with the government in Sarajevo.

By early November the Bosnian government controlled the capital of Sarajevo, but little else. Ethnic cleansing continued as Serb fighters drove Muslims from their homes, either into exile or concentration camps. Evidence of the wholesale execution of Bosnian Muslims by Serb gunmen continued to surface. Despite repeated cease-fires arranged by the U.N., Sarajevo was subjected to almost daily shelling by Yugoslav and Serb artillery.

The U.N. brokered cease-fires, arranged food and medicine deliveries to Sarajevo, organized peace conferences, decreed U.N. control over Serb artillery and ordered Yugoslav planes out of Bosnian airspace, all with little effect. "We have at the present time a situation similar to what we had in the mid-thirties when we had the League of Nations," said Sacirbej. "They had debates and resolutions, but the Germans and Italians didn't pay attention. Definitely Serbia is not the size of Germany and Italy but it is a similar situation because we have resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, the Serbs formally agree, but they never carry them out, they are never implemented." He added that "there is no one with willpower who will hold them accountable if they do not implement what they agree to."

Other than statements about human rights abuses, the U.S. government has taken a hands off approach. The Bush administration was unwilling to involve itself in a problem resistant to quick and dramatic Gulf War-type solutions. Talk of "no more Vietnams" and not getting involved in a "quagmire" was heard from administration types. The Bosnian problem was reduced to a question of whether or not to send in the Marines.

Though some Western voices call for military intervention, the Bosnian government has not asked for it. Instead, they ask for a repeal of the U.N. arms embargo to the región. The Serb forces have the Yugoslav army's ampie stock of weaponry at their disposal, while the Bosnians are unable to procure any arms except those purchased on the black market or smuggled in from sympathetic Muslim nations.

"At the present time it is cheap to kill Bosnian government supporters," said Sacirbej. "If we have enough arms we can defend ourselves, then killing us will be expensive, and it will lead to peace."

Economic sanctions against Serbia are another approach to ending the fighting. The U.N. has already decreed such sanctions, but they are not enforced. Goods flow freely to Serbia through cash - hungry Romania and impoverished Macedonia. Making sanctions work would mean compensating these fragile economies for the losses they would incur from sealing off their borders with Serbia. It would cost the West money, but not lives. Of course, innocent Serbians would suffer if their economy collapsed. Humanitarian shipments of food and medicine could ease their burden as Serbian factories, trucks, and tanks ground to a halt. It's not a perfect solution, but it is one that could work if the U.S. and other western governments energetically supported it.

Though the immediate goal is to stop the fighting before Bosnia's suffering reaches World War II proportions, a simple cessation of hostilities will not put things right. After the shooting, "brotherhood and unity" may seem like a simple-minded slogan to survivors who experienced combat, concentration camps and murder.

After the war, said Bosnian Liberal Party leader Rasim Kadic in an interview with the Eastern European Reporter, "Those who survive will be left in a miserable country scarred by poverty. From the political point of view, a combination of the national emotions provoked by the current situation and the enormous quantity of weapons in this area will breed violence long into the future: terrorism, guerilla fighting, murder... . It's sad because Bosnia-Herzegovina once had a future. But now that has been destroyed. After the war there will be very little democracy in this country, and that's what I fear most."

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