Bosnian Essay

The breakup of Yugoslavia had an immense impact on the mass violence’s and genocide instances in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The genocide was one of the twentieth century’s greatest tragedies that left a mark of horror to all Bosniaks (Muslim Bosnians). The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, due to the weakening of the Communist system at the end of the Cold War. Yugoslavia was divided into six federated republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Bosnia and Herzegovina had a population of 3.3 million (Austin, 1995), with a large ethnic diversity which included 38% Muslims, 40% Serbs and 22% Croats (Austin, 1995). The calamity began in 1991 (Magas.B, 2013) when Bosnia passed a referendum for independence that was supported by the country's Muslims and Croats, but rejected by representatives of the Serb population, who established their own republic, Republika Srpska. Following Bosnia's declaration of independence, Bosnian Serb forces (supported by the Serbian government), accompanied by the Yugoslav's People's Army, declared war on Bosnia so they could take the land for themselves (Magas.B, 2013). From 1992-1995 there were up to 100 000 Bosnian’s killed, 20 000 to 50 000 women raped and 2.2 million people displaced (BBC, 2007). The genocide instances The events in Srebrenica in 1995 included the killing of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, as well as the mass expulsion of another 25,000–30,000 Bosnian Muslim civilians, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, committed by units of the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS) under the command of General Ratko Mladić (Judge Meron.T, 2004). In 1995 UNMIBH (United Nations Mission In Bosnia and Herzegovina exercised a wide range of functions related to the law enforcement activities and police reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Mission also coordinated other UN