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Disintegration of Yugoslavia
Cause and effect of religious conflict
Religion cause of conflict
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On the Balkan Peninsula, in the early 1990s, war and chaos were raging yet again. However, this war, unlike the two previous Balkan wars that were fought against the occupiers, was a civil one. The member states of once great and glorified Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) turned against each other. In 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence which initiated the Breakup of Yugoslavia (Pavkovic 136). Many causes led to this outcome, some of which were death of Josip Broz Tito, the great Yugoslav leader and the fall of socialism after The Cold War, which both resulted in growing unhappiness of Yugoslav people with their country’s system. Another important factor worth focusing on was religion and its diversity inside the Federation. The three biggest states – Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia and Serbia had their own respective religions – Islam, Catholic Christianity and Orthodox Christianity, which were often merged with their national and cultural identities. These were the three most involved and affected states in the process of the Breakup. The notion that this was not coincidental and that these religious differences were one of the main drivers that led to the initiation of the war between these states and kept it going will be the main focus of this essay. The essay will argue that, even though the war was mainly political in nature, the religious diversity in the Balkans fully merged with nationalism and bigotry to create one of the greatest sources of hatred between the affected nations, and therefore significantly contributed towards the escalation of the conflicts and war in this region in the early 1990s. Furthermore, the essay will make a connection between the media and religion and try to a...
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...n the Balkan Wars: Ten Years after the Breakup of Yugoslavia. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Pavković, Aleksandar. The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia Nationalism and War in the Balkans. New York: St. Martin's, 2000. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Powers, Gerard F. "Religion, Conflict and Prospects for Peace in Bosnia, Croatia and Yugoslavia." Journal of International Affairs 50.1 (1996): 221-252.
Ramet, Sabrina P. Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milošević. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2002. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Vrcan, Srdjan. "The war in former Yugoslavia and religion." Religion, State and Society: The Keston Journal 22.4 (1994): 367-378.
Had this not been the case, the consequences of this war could have been much less horrific and devastating to the civilians of the region.
In fact, sometimes it is actively encouraged as part of preserving the culture and the traditional aspects of the nation in question; for example, routine celebrations of national holiday and the wearing of cultural clothing demonstrate moderate forms of nationalism. However, it is when extreme pride in one’s nation leads to acts that contravene common decency that the forces of nationalism become dangerous. A historical example of such an event was the Bosnian war and the resulting Bosnian genocide that occurred shortly after the partition of Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s. In this event, extreme Serbian nationalism called for the unity of the Serbian peoples in Bosnia-Herzegovina - an event that echoes the words of the source. Serbian leaders and followers believed that their culture and people were superior to that of the neighbouring ethnic groups - the Bosniaks and the Croatians - and thought that they needed to be eliminated because of the potential threat they posed to the establishment of an autonomous Serbian Republic, or “Greater Serbia”. In the course of the war, and the ethnic cleansing that followed, more than 100,000 Bosniaks and Croatians were to be killed in a mass act of genocide. This appalling and gruesome figure shows the extent to which extreme nationalism is unacceptable and how unification of a people by force is both detrimental and wrong on all
The 1990s were a period of extreme ethnic conflict in the former nation of Yugoslavia. In 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina passed a referendum for independence, which was not met with an equal enthusiasm amongst the republic's population. The group most against this independence was the Serbian minority, who were convinced by leaders such as Slobodan Milosovic and psychiatrist Jovan Raskovic in the idea of a "greater Serbia." Serbs were told they needed to dominate the surrounding Croats and Muslims based on their psychological superiority. Serb fighters carried out vicious campaigns of ethnic cleansing, killing over 100,000 people with another 1.5 million being forced from their homes to created predominantly Serbian areas. In 1995 Bosnia Croatia and Serbia signed the Dayton peace accords and focus shifted towards Kosovo, where discord had been emerging between the Albanians and the Serbs.
This was an example of genocide that we can learn from and know what genocide is so we can stop genocide from occurring in the future because we are the next generation of the world..
Culture is made up of three main components: ethics, aesthetics, and religion (Lincoln 52). The lines of culture become skewed as it often blends in with political and religious views. In Western Europe during the time of the Reformation, the Church was the central ruler of the society. This meant that religion was not only a cultural view, but also a political one. As time moved on, the Church became less important, but today’s standards still connect religion to culture. This becomes an issue as individuals who are noticeably outside the culture in forms or religion are often judged and looked down upon (Lincoln 56). Due to this outcast it can cause anger to certain religions and culture which can often lead to these acts of violence. With the hate between cultures, religion becomes the justifiable mean on which violence can occur. Many individuals can state that God wants them to make their own religion superior, and one way they can draw attention to their religion is terrorism and other forms of violence. Due to this connection to culture, religion can not be separated into it’s own personal category, as it is forever affected by the changes and culture of the community (Lincoln 57). As time and culture progress, the religion of the community will either change with it, or fight the changes which will often cause conflict. This can be seen in the results of the practice of Jihad, the Reformation and
The last two decades of the twentieth century gave rise to turbulent times for constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, eventually leading them to split apart. There were a number of damaging aspects of past history and of the political and economic circumstances that contributed to the breakup and eventually caused the situation to snowball into a deadly series of inter-ethnic conflicts. Yugoslavia was reunified at the end of the war when the communist forces of Josip Broz Tito liberated the country. Under Tito, Yugoslavia adopted a relatively liberal form of government in comparison to other East European communist states at the time and experienced a period of relative economic and political stability until Tito’s death in 1980. In addition to internal power struggles following the loss of their longtime leader, Yugoslavia faced an unprecedented economic crisis in the 1980’s. As other communist states began to fall in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, some former Communist leaders abandoned communism and founded or supported ethno-national parties, blaming the economic suffering on the flaws of communism and other ethnic groups. The ethnic violence that followed would not have been possible without the willingness of politicians from every side to promote ethno-nationalist symbols and myths through media blitzes, which were especially effective due to low levels of education in the former Yugoslavia. Shadows of the events of World War II gave these politicians, especially the Serbs, an opportunity to encourage the discussion and exaggeration of past atrocities later in the century. The ethnic violence in the former Yugoslavia can be traced back to a series of linked damaging factors such as the de...
struggle, however, fought under the guise of ethnic hatred. Bibliography Glenny M, "The Balkans, 1804-1999", 2000. Lampe JR, Yugoslavia as History. Twice There was a Country, 1996. Kegley and Wittkopf, "World Politics", 2001.
A new leader arose by the late 1980s, a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic, a former Communist who had turned to nationalism and religious hatred to gain power. He began by inflaming long-standing tensions between Serbs and Muslims in the independent provence of Kosovo. Orthodox Christian Serbs in Kosovo were in the minority and claimed they were being mistreated by the Albanian Muslim majority. Serbian-backed political unrest in Kosovo eventually led to its loss of independence and domination by Milosevic. In June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia both declared their independence from Yugoslavia soon resulting in civil war. The national army of Yugoslavia, now made up of Serbs controlled by Milosevic, stormed into Slovenia but failed to subdue the separatists there and withdrew after only ten days of fighting. Milosevic quickly lost interest in Slovenia, a country with almost no Serbs. Instead, he turned his attention to Croatia, a Catholic country where Orthodox Serbs made up 12 percent of the population. During World War II, Croatia had been a pro-Nazi state led by Ante Pavelic and his fascist Ustasha Party. Serbs living in Croatia as well as Jews had been the targets of widespread Ustasha massacres.
Although Milosevic was a key figure during this period whose actions undoubtedly influenced the chain of events that unfolded, I believe his power-seeking motives were not unique to him; his actions in the former Yugoslavia could have been committed by a number of others who had the same desire for power driving them. Nevertheless, as he was president of Serbia and essentially commander-in-chief of Serb forces who carried out unconscionable acts of cruelty against Muslims and other non-Serb civilians, particularly in the attempt to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina, he bears responsibility for his actions as an authority figure. Though his main goal seemed to be focused on territorial expansion of the Serbian state, he led military forces to deport and murder non-Serb civilians in massive numbers and therefore was in vi...
Smart, Ninian. "Blackboard, Religion 100." 6 March 2014. Seven Dimensions of Religion. Electronic Document. 6 March 2014.
Yugoslavia came to be because of a group of people wanted their own nation, and worked out as the Allies of Britain wondered what could come of dominating the Austro-Hungarians. The beginning of Yugoslavia is well known, but why did the country fall apart completely? As stated in the thesis, there was always a sense of nationality and diversity between the republics of the nation. The six never came together as one nation, and if there would have, many of Yugoslavia 's conflicts would have ceased to happen.
"Center Update: Case Studies on Religion and Conflict." The Berkley Center. Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
These tensions, only highlighted by the war, are an unfortunate but large part of Bosnian culture as a whole. The three main ethnic groups of Bosnia are Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats, with 48.4%, 32.7%, and 14.6% populations respectively (CIA World Factbook). Their intense nationalistic attitudes and vastly different religious heritages cause animosities between the groups that go back beyond the times of nations. Bosniaks are generally Muslim while Croats are Roman Catholic and Serbs are Christian
Hosmer, Stephen T., The Conflict Over Kosovo: Why Milosevic Decided to Settle When He Did. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2001
The conflict between the Albanians and Serbs has been a continual issue since the fourteenth century. Ethnic conflicts rose again after the death of Tito who was the leader of Yugoslavia. Tito set up a national Yugoslav government and let the five Slavic nationalities (Serb, Croat, Slovene, Montenegrin, and Macedonian) govern their own part of Yugoslavia which suppressed any ethnic fighting (Andryszewski 14). After the death of Tito in 1980, ethnic conflicts began to come to surface again. Slobodan Milosevic gave a speech to the Serbs in Kosovo saying that “No one will dare to beat you again” (Andryszweski 18). In 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia which led to the outbreak of war since the Serb-dominated central government wanted to preserve the state. In 1995, the Dayton Peace Settlement was signed to end the war and Yugoslavia broke apart ove...
Ed. John Merriman and Jay Winter. "Slovakia." Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Vol. 4. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 2358-2359. World History in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.