Ethnic Religion Cleansing/Genocide (Bosnia)

Ethnic Religion Cleansing/Genocide (Bosnia)

In 1991Political upheavals in the Balkans displaced 2.700.000 people by mid-1992 of which over 700.000 of them sought asylum in other European countries.Methods used during the Bosnian ethnic cleansing campaigns were including murder, torture, extra-judicial executions, rape and many other ways sometimes you cant even imagine that something like that can be done to a human being.

Since the war stopped in July 1995 things started to get better. People were finally finding homes and piece and starting to get jobs and many left the country finding residency in European and US countries and still live there. But those who stayed realized that the economical problems are not going away. Workers are
not getting raise, not getting paid on time or at all and currently its creating a lot of problems. Workers are seeking for the protection of their employment rights from their local politicians but instead they get confronted with police brutality.

From the World War II through 1991 it was communism in Bosnia. Manley Three kinds of people lived there ,(SerbOrthodox 32.5 %),(Croatians Catholics 17 %) and ( Bosnians muslims 444%). War in Bosnia was called civil war but it was really religious and all planned out years before it started.It all started as taking over and ruling over muslims but turned into religious ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed to Serbia as part of the newly formed kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes on October 26 1918. The name was changed later to Yugoslavia in 1941,Bosnia and Herzegovina were made part of Nazi controlled Croatia.After the world war II Yugoslavia was set up as a federation of six republics, with borders drawn along ethnic and historical lines: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,Montenegro and Macedonia. Tensions in the Balkans were common,but ones president Josip Broz Tito came to power in 1943, he ruled with an iron fist and was able to keep them in check through a dictatorship.Though he was considered to be a “compassionate dictator” and at times quite ruthless.Tito’s efforts ensured that no ethnic group dominated the country, banning political mobilization and seeking to create a unified Yugoslav identity. However, after his death in 1980, the order he imposed began to unravel. The various ethnic groups and republics inside Yugoslavia sought independence, and as the end of the Cold War neared, the country started going out of control. Serb nationalism was fueled as Slobodan Milosevic rose to power in 1987. Milosevic used nationalist feelings to his advantage, making changes to the constitution favoring Serbs, creating a military that was 90 percent Serbian, and extending his power over the country’s financial, media, and security structures. With the help of Serbian separatists in Bosnia and Croatia, he stoked ethnic tensions by convincing Serbian populations that other ethnic groups posed a threat to their rights. Vukovar city in Croatia was their first target but that ended fast and they moved on to Bosnia. There was massive “ethnic cleansing” of areas, a process in which minority ethnic groups were forced out of those areas. There were very bad things committed by a variety of Soldiers.The conflict became so bad that the international community had to step in to try to prevent further bloodshed.Main focus was to cleanse muslim people because Serb for decayed felt that Bosnia was taken away from them by Turks years ago.The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart, but the unsolved issues caused bitter inter-ethnic Yugoslavian war. The wars manly affected Bosnia and Croatia. War broke out beginning of April 1992 in Bijeljina where they killed between 50-70 civilians by paramilitary groups.Nobody was ready for this because there used to be Yugoslavian army and now Serbs who called them selfs Chetniks took the military over and Bosnian muslims and catholic were empty handed and still in disbelief that there is really war braking out.
And so it began they started killing and executing males and taking them to the front lines to get killed by their own people.The next move they made they removed every Mosque and catholic church that existed in that city.The ethnic cleansing that took place throughout the areas included unlawful confinement like torture,rape,sexual adult,beating,robbery ,and inhumane treatment of civilians; the targeting of political leaders, intellectuals, and professionals; the unlawful deportation and transfer of civilians; the unlawful shelling of civilians; taking properties away; the destruction of homes and businesses.Large number of Bosnian muslims and catholics were forced to flee their homes and were expelled by Serbs.But some Bosnian croats also carried same campaign against Bosnian muslims and Serbs.So this religion cleansing started getting really bad which lead to genocide.In 1992 following their
independence Serbian forces accompanied by Bosnian serbs using former Yugoslavian military equipment surrounded Sarajevo the capital city of Bosnia.Snipers hid in the hills and shot civilians as they tried to get food or water. They didn't choose who they wanted to shoot. As soon as they would notice movement on the street that civilian would be shot it didn't matter if it was a child a women an elderly.Sarajevo was considered one of the most representative parts of Yugoslavia barkeep with thousands killed over the course of nearly four years.The UN tried to establish six safe areas including Srebrenica and Sarajevo but they were ineffective.The Peacemakers did not have the capability to truly protect the people seeking refuge there and all except Sarajevo eventually fell under Serb control. Burning peoples homes made civilians flee into the woods trying to find shelter. This started leading to hunger and many died from starvation.During the year 1993 in Zepa town and Srebrenica about 60 children and 42 adults died from starvation and cold overnight because this area was blocked by Serbs and isolated for about nine months. From town to town muslims were executed and buried in massive graves to hide the bodies. Thousands were killed and this kept going on until summer in 1995. In July 1995 Serb forces led by General Ratio Mladic descended upon the town of Srebrenica and began to take over. At this time Srebrenica was protected by 450 Dutch peacemakers armed with light fuel and expired ammunition.Their force was very week that Dutch Commander reported that the unit was no longer military operational for about a month.The peace keepers requested support from NATO and were denied.So Srebrenica fell in Serb hands in one day and Genocide happened.Genocide was already happening all those years but they made it silent and invisible until Srebrenica. As soon as they broke into the town man fled into the woods because they knew that if they get to them they will be executed. Mladic expelled about 25,000 women and children from the town while his forces went trying to hunt down the man. Approximately 15,000 males tried to escape to safety but up to 3,000 were killed either by gun shot or decapitation.Many came back and found refuge at the UN base in nearby town called Potocari but they couldn't be protected there for long. Mladic's Chetnik forces caught up with them by the afternoon and next day. Busses arrived into the town to take them away. And again they separated women and children from man.They considered man all boy that were older then twelve years. Serb troops then went to Dutch peacekeepmakers and took their uniforms and helmets so they can go into the woods to trick civilians out of their hiding places making them think they were headed to the safety.This trick worked for many until they realized what was going on.At the end of fourth day of massacre up to 8,000 man and boys were killed and many women and little girls raped and tortured.
Thousands were buried in massive graves some of them even alive.Some time later to hide their crime the forces dug up those graves and move them across a large piece of territory.At the end it was very clear that this attack on Srebrenica was being planned.The international communities didn't make sure to provide the peacekeeping forces with the necessary support needed to protect the civilians.After all this happened individual policymakers at times took strong stand against human rights abuses in Bosnia in general UN,the european union, United States and Russia minimized the aggressive nature of conflict and called it a conflict between equal warring parties.Trying to avoid the moral responsibility many of these countries called it Ethnic cleansing rather than genocide.When the war started in Bosnia The united States president Bush refused to take the lead and send their own troops to Bosnia.During the campaign Bill Clinton criticized bush for the
lack of his action and when Clinton was elected in 1992 his administration followed the same pattern.In 1995 American policy toward Bosnia Changed.Evidence of the crimes and also those in Srebrenica was becoming common knowledge and the United States lack of action become an embarrassment. All the effort trying to keep american troops out of Bosnia they realized that there was no other way to end this war without it. The international community finally responded to the war after Serb forces took the town of Zepa ,in addition to dropping a bomb in Sarajevo market that was crowded with people. Senior representative of United States agreed to deploy NATO forces to City Gorazde and this plan was later extended to include the cities of Bihac, Sarajevo and Tuzla to protect civilians. In August 1995 when Serbs refused to respect the UN ultimatum and NATO forces started working with Bosnian and Croatian forces and began an aerial bombing campaign. Serbian economy being crippled by UN sanctions and its military forces under assault in Bosnia after three years of warfare Slobodan Milosevic agreed to negotiate and that led to ceasefire. By the end of the war about 100,000 people died. In November 1995 Dayton Accords were signed in Dayton Ohio officially ending war in Bosnia.After this refugees were granted the right to return to their homes but only a small number decided to go back to Srebrenica. Villages around towns were completely burned to the ground so people had nowhere to return. Over the years citizens started to come around moving back to their pre-war homes. Everywhere that Serbs took over during the war they made sure to destroy religious objects. There was about 1,444 mosques, 614 were completely destroyed and about little over 300 damaged and about 1,420 other small Muslim religious buildings were destroyed. Some of the leaders that did the crimes in Bosnia were convicted for them and most of them even after over twenty years still never did and several of the already died on natural death. The war stopped end of 1995 and things started to get better. People were finally finding homes and piece and starting to get jobs and many left Bosnia and live in European,US countries and also many other countries and still live there. But those who stayed realized that the economy is not getting ahead. Workers are not getting raise, not getting paid on time or at all and currently its creating a lot of problems. Workers are seeking for the protection of their employment rights from their local politicians but instead they get confronted with police brutality. To this day government never established good life for people or to create more jobs. many are still struggling to survive.