The Bosnian Genocide 200,000 Killed “Ethnic cleansing” and “The failure of the West”

Present Day Bosnia:

Yugoslavia’s new leader By the late 1980s a new leader emerged in Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic, a former communist, rose to power using nationalism and religious hatred to gain power Inflamed tensions between Serbs and Muslims Milosevic, a Serb, wanted to take control of all areas where ethnic Serbs lived Sought to protect interests of Serbs Violence ensued when Croatia and Slovenia declared independence in 1991 Slobodan Milosevic 1941-2006

World response Despite the camps, rapes, and killings the UN and others did little UN imposed economic sanctions and sent troops to distribute food UN troops were prohibited from taking military actions The arms embargo imposed by Western nations only hurt Bosnians because Serbians were already most armed group in the area Throughout 1993 the Serbs, confident that there would be no military intervention from the West, freely committed genocide Bill Clinton campaigned in 1992 to intervene in Bosnia to assist ethnic minorities President Bush held the same view Was not until 1994 that Clinton and NATO demanded Serbs withdraw from Sarajevo following the bombing of a marketplace

Srebrenica so called safe haven Srebrenica was one of the safe havens set up by the UN The French and Dutch governments were responsible for this haven 1995 Serbian troops attack and shell Srebrenica Food and water supplies begin to dwindle The Dutch soldiers guarding the city could do little against Serbians Poorly equipped with little backup All men were transported out of the city and killed Women and children transported then raped and killed after men After the massacre of Srebrenica NATO finally responds and on August 30th 1995 they begin a massive bombing campaign

US and NATO take action The heavy bombing and ground losses force Milosevic to seek peace November 1st 1995 the warring factions travel to Ohio for peace talks After three weeks a peace was reached 60,000 NATO soldiers were deployed to keep the peace Over 200,000 are dead and there are over 2,000,000 refugees from Bosnia November 21, 1995: Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, left, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, center, and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, right, initial the peace agreement after 21 days of talks at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Kosovo Kosovo was an autonomous region located in Serbia before the rise of Slobodan Milosevic When Milosevic took power he began to take away the autonomy of Kosovo This was the beginning of another “ethnic cleansing” campaign Some Kosovar Albanians formed the Kosovo Liberation Army to fight back against the aggression of Milosevic and the Serbian Army

NATO actions NATO is continuing to bomb strategic targets in Serbia through 1999 However, these bombings did not deter Milosevic in Kosovo and the killing and relocation continued NATO refused to send in ground troops which would have easily put a stop to the killings in Kosovo NATO originally had a goal to simply secure Kosovo and have the refugees return This was unacceptable because the refugees would simply return to a land still controlled by Milosevic