Yugoslav Holocaust
In what can be considered a modern day Holocaust, between 1992 and 1995, an unthinkable atrocity against man reared its ugly head yet again in Europe; only this time the setting was Bosnia. What is clear is that all three nationalities’ behavior (Croats, Bosnian-Serbs and Muslims) undermined any claim to moral superiority. Slovodan Milosevic, president of Yugoslavia, tired to deny any wrongdoing, but after numerous stories of the misconduct began to surface; it was only a matter of time before the international community took notice. The revelation came at a bad time for Milosevic who was trying to ease sanctions against Serbia and end the fighting in Bosnia.
The multi-ethnicity that Bosnia consists of is the aftermath of centuries of wars, invasions, and migrations from different groups. Yugoslavia, which means land of the South Slavs, (Friedman 5) was born in 1929 after World War I. After the death of the leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, in 1980 and later with the fall of the Soviet Union and communism, the country started to split apart little by little. Finally, in 1991 Yugoslavia broke into five republics: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro, which merged to create the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Before the war in Bosnia erupted, survivors recall how under Communist rule the multi-ethnic community was able to coexist peacefully.
Our neighbors – we were like a family. Our flats were like one home. They had two kids. We lived together. We vacationed together. Spent holidays together. Over night, they changed. (Weine 15)
During the early stages of the war in Bosnia, Croats fell victims of ethnic cleansing by both the Serbians and Muslims. In 1993, during the Croat-Muslim war, forty-two Croatian villagers perished in the village of Doljani. Hundreds more were forced out of their homes and fled to cities and towns in central Bosnia. According to Croatian sources, local Serbian forces engaged in ethic cleansing against Croats. In late 1992, Serbs took over Posavina and began to ethnically cleanse Croatian villages.
Deliberate efforts were made to embed fear into the local Serbian community, who initially were not interested in joining the war against Muslims. Serbian leaders would recount a fabricated story of a Serbian farmer’s wife being murdered by Muslims. This ploy was one of the tactics used to recruit local Serbs. At the end of the fighting only several thousand Muslims and Croats remained in territories under Serbian control. Most women and children were not incarcerated, but they were at the mercy of their tormentors. Men and boys were not as fortunate; many were killed upon capture or later during incarceration. It was like World War II, but now instead of Jews, Muslims leaders, teachers, and professionals were weeded out and executed by the Serbian forces.
Ethic cleansing achieved two objectives: it created irreversible facts on the ground, and incorporated the locals in the cover-up of the atrocities. Ethic cleansing, by definition, is killing off an ethnic community or causing it to flee its traditional place of
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