Throughout the world history, there were many examples of genocides. Most of them took place in the XX century and they were the most violent ever in history. According to the estimates, only during Holocaust (Germany) and Holodomor (USSR) over 10 million people dies due to the unlawful and inhuman actions of the governments. For sure, the reasons for those genocides were different as “the leaders goals vary, depending on the time, place, and circumstances” (PBS). For instance, Adolf Hitler wanted to create a vast political empire, Joseph Stalin wanted to secure himself from any kind of rebellion, Slobodan Milosevic wanted to permanently redraw the political map of the Yugoslavian region.
In the 90s of XX century, a line of several other collapses followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. One of the most notable one happened in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). While the dissolution of the USSR actually turned to flow in a peaceful way, the SFRY collapse escalated into a civil war inside the whole union. Yet, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and then Bosnia declared their independence. Moreover, the European Community (precursor to the European Union) and the United States recognized Bosnia’s independence (History.com). Still, unsatisfied Bosnian Serbs launched the forces in the direction of Sarajevo, Bosnian capital. Such a list of events turned into a full-scale war. Bosnian Serbs led by Radovan Karadzic and under protection of Slobodan Milosevic in 1992 “launched the genocidal and gendercidal "ethnic cleansing" of those parts of Bosnia intended for "Greater Serbia.” (Gendercide.org).
“Genocide is always politics Some people think that exterminating a group will help their goals, so that’s why they do it.” (PBS). The goal of Slobodan Milosevic was to establish the Great Serbia with ethnic harmony as it was long time ago. In such case, Bosnian Muslims were considered as an obstacle before reaching the posted goal. Separatists concentrated their forces on battle-age Muslims. They wanted at first to decrease the number of Bosnian armed forces and actually end up the possibility of procreation within Muslims at all. After all, Bosnian Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic in 1996 described those events as the most violent ever in Balkan history (Gendercide.org).
The war lasted for a few years already when in the summer of 1995 there were only three big cities under control of Bosnian forces: Gorazde, Zepa, and Srebrenica. These were the “safe havens” as the UN declared in 1993 (History.com). International peacekeeping forces provided the major protection for these places. Still, in July 1995 separatist forces advanced into the direction of Srebrenica, overwhelmed Dutch peacekeeper battalion and finally entered the city. They separated the civilians: kept all men in the city while women were put into the buses and sent to the Bosnia-held territory (History.com). Overall, the number of killed men on that day ranges from around 7,000 to more than 8,000. Most of them were Muslims. Serbian forces occupied Zepa during the next few days with quite similar consequences. However, only Serbs exploded a bomb in crowded Sarajevo marker, the international community started to act.
The UN posted ultimatum to Serbian forces and after they refused to follow it, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) entered the war and, with combined Bosnian-Croatian army, they had bombed Serbs position for almost a month (PBS). Only after Bosnian Serbs realized that they started to lose their position Milosevic agreed for negotiation part. Finally, in November 1995, the negotiations “resulted in the creation of a federalized Bosnia divided between a Croat-Bosniak federation and a Serb republic.” (History.com).
All in all, the genocides were always connected with politics and it is a must to remember the lessons from the XX century wars and other horrible events. In such, it will be possible to make Bosnian genocide the last one in European and world history in respect to all those who died due to the specific set of goals one or another political set before. It is all about people’s life, but not about influence, power, and any unlawful and inhuman actions of the governments must be prevented at once.
Works Cited
Gendercide.org,. "Gendercide Watch: Bosnia-Herzegovina". N.p., 2016. Web. 31 May 2016. Accessed at http://www.gendercide.org/case_bosnia.html
HISTORY.com,. "Bosnian Genocide - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.Com". N.p., 2016. Web. 30 May 2016. Accessed at http://www.history.com/topics/bosnian-genocide
PBS,. "Genocide: Worse Than War | Full-Length Documentary | PBS". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 30 May 2016. Accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7cZuhqSzzc
