Bosnian Genocide Research Paper

The Bosnian Genocide: It was Completely Preventable

Imagine if today there was an attempt by a major military power to violently slaughter and exile the native people of a neighboring country, using the same tactics the Nazis used in the Holocaust. Surely there would be a worldwide uproar, and powerful nations would organize to stop the violent annexation and genocide, right? Unfortunately, such an event has already happened, practically within the last twenty years. Despite the fact that many people hold onto the common idea that western superpowers serve as the defenders of human rights and freedom in the world, this idea was proven to be rather hollow by the events of the Bosnian genocide. There was no uproar; there was no mobilization to

The suppression of ethnic culture and identity also made people want to return to older ways. When Tito died in 1980, a council of ethnic chieftains replaced him. His bans on nationalism and ethnic identity were undone, and while peace did last, Yugoslavia was as divided as it had been before the unification. The enmity between groups was only worsened by the rise of radical politicians like the Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic, who was largely responsible for spurring on the Bosnian genocide. Despite the growing threat in the region, the European Community, precursor to the European Union, supported the independence of Yugoslavian countries. (Doder). With the rifts between peoples growing every day, and the peace growing ever more strained, it was ridiculous that the EC didn’t anticipate violence in Yugoslavia. Yet they enacted no precautionary measures at all, and at the start of the last decade of the 20th century, brutality and insanity was just days

The ultimate Serbian goal was that of bringing all of the Yugoslav Balkans under the banner of a “Greater Serbia”. Beginning in Sarajevo, and in Bosniak towns across eastern Bosnia, such as Prijedor, Zvornik, Foca, and Visegrad, a procedure for ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks was utilized by the Serbs. (“Bosnian Genocide”). This protocol was a textbook example of the systemization of destroying an entire race. Many aspects of the genocide were similar to the well-oiled machine of the Final Solution in Nazi Germany. The system became known as ethnic cleansing- the end goal was ostensibly not the complete extermination of Bosniaks, the Serbs simply wanted them gone with nothing left behind. Of course, they found it “cheaper and more convenient” to kill Bosniaks instead of deporting them. To this end, Serb troops followed a strategy for cleansing towns. First, the city would be surrounded, and while all Serb residents were made to leave, the town was bombarded. Next, all non-Serbian leaders and educated people were executed. The city would be systematically looted and all buildings built with Muslim architecture would be destroyed. (Rosenberg). Next, the Serbs would separate any male who they judged to be capable of fighting from the rest of the Bosniak population. Those who were not