4BosniaWhy

Why did the Genocide Happen?

The Bosnian Genocide refers to the ethnic cleansing during the Bosnia War, and the Srebrenica massacre.

After World War II, a communist Josip Tito merged together Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and Vojvodina to form the new Yugoslavia. After Tito died in 1980, Yugoslavia plunged into chaos. By the late 1980's, a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic rose to power using nationalism and religious hatred. Soon, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from YUugoslavia, causing a civil War, though Milosevic withdrew from Slovenia. Milosevic soon invaded Croatia with the help of Serbian guerrillas in country. Their goal was to protect the Serbian Minority ( Orthodox Christian Serbians who were being discriminated against). After taking to city of Vukovar, Milosevic's forces slaughtered hundreds of Croatian men and buried them in mass graves. This was the first mass execution. this photo is of a Serbian soldier standing in front of two Bosnians. In 1992, the United States and European Community recognized the independence of Bosnia, where the Serbian minority was 32 percent of the population. In response, Milosevic responded by attacking Sarajevo, the capital city. Serbian Snipers eventually shot down 3500 civilians, including children in this city alone. Milosevic's forces gained grounded over the outgunned Bosnian Muslims. As Milosevic's forces passed through the country, they rounded up local Muslims. The actions of Milosevic's forces were similar to that of the Nazi's during World War II, including mass shootings, creating concentration camps for boys and men, and forced repopulation of towns. The bodies of the dead were buried in mass graves, and Muslim temples were burned to the ground. These actions were described as "ethic cleansing". These actions continued until peace talks in 1995.

In a nutshell, the Bosnian Genocide was a result of the recognition of Bosnia.



This is a photo of a mass grave that was discovered long after the Bosnian Genocide. Notice how many bodies lay there.

AK

Sources: http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Genocide/bosnia_genocide.htm

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