24th January 2021
Sometimes human behaviour is totally incomprehensible. And not in a good way. The depths of our beliefs and the need to define and preserve ourselves reveal in very ugly ways.
I listened to a survivor talk about the Bosnian war. She had been brought up in Bosnia before the war, left during it and had returned to understand what happened. I vaguely remember the war happening when I was younger but through the lens of youth didn’t appreciate how terrifying it must have been for those caught up in it. Aside from the obvious horror of the worst armed conflict Europe had seen since World war II, the other reason I say this is because Bosnia went from a un-troublesome co-existence of religions and ethnicities to hatred and murder of your neighbour. Does that cause you to pause and contemplate?
Bosnia was a state within Yugoslavia which was a communist federation of 6 such states including Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. It was a melting pot of diverse people – Muslim Bosniaks (44% of the population, 1991 census), Catholic Croats (17%) and Orthodox Serbs (31%). Day to day life embraced religious beliefs flanked by modernity.
And so for a while, everyone was Bosnian.
Yugoslavia was governed by President Tito who managed to maintain an uneasy alliance across his people. However, when he died in 1980 a simmering tension based on religion and ethnicity began to build. The Yugoslav army slowly became dominated by Serbs who believed they were endangered; going to be over-run by other ethnicities – particularly by the Muslims of the region. Ultimately the Serbs wanted an ethnically clean state, but a clean state across much of Yugoslavia as possible.
Over time calls for independence by the states grew. Croatia and Slovenia attempted to leave first in 1991 causing conflict and fighting with the Yugoslav army. Thousands died.
Bosnia attempted to leave next after passing a referendum (though it was rejected by the politicians representing Bosnian Serbs). This pitched Bosnian Serbs with Serbs across Yugoslavia against the Muslims and Croats in Bosnia. The Yugoslav army renamed itself the Bosnian Serb army forcing more than 1m Muslims and Croats out of the country. The atrocities that were inflicted included mass murder, torture, rape, rocket, mortar and sniper attacks. This was ethnic cleansing – driving a particular people from an area by whatever forcible means. Astonishingly, initial peace efforts by the UN were ineffective in halting the fighting and the death toll continued to rise. It is thought that 100,000 people died during the war, but some estimates are much higher. By the end of 1993, three quarters of the country was controlled by the Serb army.
With the help of Nato bombing and UN sanctions, the war ended in 1995. The US brokered a peace in Bosnia splitting the country (today known as Bosnia and Herzegovina) into two entities – The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (where the Muslims and Croats mainly reside) and the Serb dominated Republika Srpska. In present day each have their own President, Prime minister and autonomy with a limited central government presiding over them, but, it is not an easy alliance. Reconciliation has been limited and tensions are rising again.
161 people were eventually punished through the UN International criminal tribunal. Of note were the Bosnian Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic, General Ratko Mladic and the leader of the Serbian government Slobodan Milosevic who stoked the ethnic tensions arising in Bosnia. All were indicted for genocide (the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group) and other crimes against humanity. Karadzic and Mladic are still alive today. Milosevic was found dead in his cell in 2006.
Cost centre 3 asked me why racism exists and it broke my heart answering that it seemed to be human nature, which seems to suggest that it is something we will never eradicate. But I deeply hope and believe younger generations like hers don’t see colour or ethnicity as a reason to hate so we have less ‘Bosnias’.
On this website are stories as told by survivors of this war. It’s truly gut wrenching. If you have a few minutes, reading of their experiences will bring this horrific tale to life.
Curiosity and the rascal 
Great summary and a very timely reminder that we all need to acknowledge the smoke signals such as the plight of the Uighurs in China, the Rohingya in Myanmar, the war in Yemen, Chechnya, arguably even the actions of ISIS are a form of ethnic cleansing. And these are just the ones picked up by the media. There’s likely similar under the radar issues going on in other tribal and religiously restrictive regions/countries in the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia. These can easily break out into thousands of deaths like the Bosnian war if left unchecked and our Governments continue turning a blind eye.
Sadly the continued proliferation does seem to be a result of human nature. We need to keep pushing ours and younger generations to try and change that through anti-racism and diversity transmission channels.
LikeLike
I agree. I was wondering whether to write more widely about ‘racism’ elsewhere but it took me enough time to understand what happened in Bosnia! We clearly have made great strides across the world but you are right – plenty still under the radar. It’s easy for me to say my cost centres don’t see racism day to day and as they grow I hope this stays with them and their generation but there again we live in a multicultural welcoming city….
LikeLike
Given more recent events I wonder if the issue is not so much racism but a broader tribalism, and the way populist politicians can create or harness the extremes, the 2-3 % at the opposing edges of a society, even when one may only a reaction or defence to the other, that can require the vast bulk of the population to take a side. Perhaps the main part of the Bosnian population got along with their neighbours and had no concerns about the zealots on the extremes of politics, until one day they were forced to pick a side by the barrel of a gun or the shouts of a baying mob. A person may be logical and intelligent, by people are not. Is this a warning of the current fragility of US democracy and of how an out-and-out populists with little care for anything other than his own power can destroy a society and soak it in bloodshed? If there is any parallel at all, then being in or out of formal political power is of little relevance. Of course that’s an exaggerated thought experiment, but then I suspect your average Bosnian felt very safe in a relatively modern civilised society, until the day came when they didn’t.
LikeLike