Religion and The Bosnian Genocide
: Did religion play a significant role in the Bosnia Genocide?

After the First World War country was united with other Slav territories to form Yugoslavia. At the time, the population of Bosnia consisted of over 1,300,000 Serbs which were Orthodox Catholic Christians, million Muslim Bosnians and around 700,000 of Croats. They all were strong attached to this land by the historical and local claims. After the death of Josip Broz Tito, elections in 1990 brought nationalists to power in Slovenia, Macedonia and Croatia, which declared independence in 1991 and were recognised internationally. The Leader of Bosnia’s, Alija Izetbegovic called for independence too, and the country was recognised as independent by the USA and the EU in 1992. However, Bosnia’s Serbs weren’t happy because they wanted to be part of “Greater Serbia”. a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic, a former Communist responded to Bosnian’s declaration of independence by attacking and bombarding the capital city, Sarajevo. Serbs shot down civilians in the streets, including over 3,500 children.

Another similarity between the two genocides was that both were started due to past hatreds between the two conflicting factions. The Rwandan Genocide was ignited due to hatred of Tutsi by the Hutu when the former were still in power. The Bosnian Genocide due to long-lasting hatred between the Serbs and Croats. When Rwanda was first colonized Tutsi were considered to be above the Hutu, but the balance of power was shifted between the two groups when Belgium abandoned the state due to revolution. When the Tutsi were in power, the Hutu were always treated inferior to the Tutsi. The hatred of the Tutsi by the Hutu lasted long enough that the Hutu took revenge on the Tutsi in the form of genocide. In the Bosnian Genocide the animosity and the hatred began even earlier. It began in the Croatian War from 1991 to 1995. Serbian would occupy 30% of Croatian land. However the Croats in the displaced territory were abused by the Serbs, and when Croatia received full independence in 1992, the Croatians took revenge on the Serbs. In the same year, the Bosnian War began between the Serbs and Croats over the newly declared independent Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In an act of revenge for the loss of the Croatian War and the aftermath from it, the Serbs took revenge in the form of

As Bosnia pursued the path of its neighbors: Croatia and Slovenia by declaring independence from the former Yugoslavia, which was becoming very unstable and impoverished, the Serbians were determined to stop them, and they did so by beginning a three-year war that would stain the peaceful hills of Bosnia with blood. Yugoslavia, a communist country, which spanned from Slovenia in the north to Macedonia in the south, had been rapidly declining economically. In 1990, Croatia and Slovenia held successful votes for independence from Yugoslavia, and in December of 1991 they were officially declared separate nations. Bosnia declared itself a separate nation on March 3, 1992 after the results of their referendum for independence. About a month later, on April 7, 1992, the United States and the European

A genocide is a horrible kind of war. It is a mass killing and torturing of innocent people who do not deserve any of it. There are many stages of genocides, which may or may not go in the same order. The Holocaust, being the largest genocide and a horrible point in history, is similar and different to the Bosnian/Croatian genocide. Although many aspects lead up to these genocides and other similar wars, there are possible measures that could have been taken to prevent all of this. No human should have to endure the pain of a genocide, especially as horrible as the Holocaust, or Croatian/Bosnian war. The Holocaust and the Bosnian genocide both consisted of many stages that led to a variety of horrible events, both similar and different, which could have been prevented if certain actions were taken into consideration.

The victims targeted during the Bosnian-Herzegovina genocide were mostly Bosnian Muslims and Croatians. The majority of the people that were being murdered and executed were male (boys and men), while the women were being raped and tortured. The downfall of the Ottoman Empire gave a rise to the thoughts of nationalism which in turn caused the ethno religious (an ethnic group whose members are also unified by a common religious background) in Bosnia to have clashing issues like historical problems between groups and political issues. The three different groups which were living in Bosnia were obviously Bosnians but also Serbians and Croatians.

The phrase became traditional in the follow-up of Serbian assaults on ethnic Bosnians during the Bosnian War. The crusade of the Bosnian War in 1992 lead the bigotry to a global dispute, as the Croats enforced ethnic cleansing protocols against the Muslim Bosnians. A number of genocides in 1994 and 1995 supported the continued entanglement of NATO air strikes in both applying a no fly zone and establishing the Serbian air force. United Nations arbitrators on the ground missed the opportunity to fix up the situation earlier. A heavy occupation force enforcing the end of the conflict brought 60,000 troops to the area. These crisis represents a criterion within the discussion about military force to avert a massive ethnic cleansing.

Genocide is the systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group. In Germany during World War II a man named Hitler tried to eliminate any race except for what he called the "Arian" race. In the process he committed genocide by killing off 6 million Jews and a total of 8 million people in all. Europe was going through some very hard times during the mid 1900's so that no one was able to see a disaster such as the Holocaust coming. Many things led to the weakening of Europe at the time. The Ottoman Empire was breaking up plus they were still trying to get over the devastation of WW I. Bosnia and Herzegovina had been having many problems as well. They were a witness to much change and

On April 6,1992 the Bosnian War began,leading to the breakup of Yugoslavia. Serbian forces invaded Bosnia,throwing many people out of their homes and displacing them throughout the country. The actions of the soldiers traumatized the people of Bosnia in numerous ways, causing peril throughout the country.

The Bosnian, Srebrenica, and Herzegovina land was involved in an ethical war where ethnic cleansing was seen as a way to solidify the breaks in that region (“Bosnian Genocide”). The trigger of this ethnic war was the break-up of Yugoslavia from one country to three (Bosnia, Srebrenica, and Herzegovina) in 1990 (“Bosnian Genocide”). This rupture of Yugoslavia resulted in the massive dispute between Muslims, Serbs, and Croatians (Bennett). Not long after the war began, the Serbs began executing the Bosnian Muslims through ethnic cleansing, in order to fill the fissure that was created in 1990. The mass execution lasted three years and nine months, and did not end until the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened in 1995 (Bennett); by that time, an unforgettable 70,000 Bosnian citizens were executed by the Serbs (Perl 71). If NATO had intervened sooner, perhaps thousands of lives could have been saved and this haunting genocide may have had less of an impact on the world.

Genocide, the planned murder of an entire nation, race, or ethnic group. From March 1, 1992 to December 14, 1995 that exact thing was happening in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Disagreement between the three main ethic groups (The Serbs, Croats, and the Muslims) proceeded in a genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims in Bosnia. Bosnia is one of several small countries that appeared from the break up of Yugoslavia, a multicultural country created after WW1 by the western allies. In April 1992 the government of the Yugoslavia republic of Bosnia stated its independence from Yugoslavia. Over the next several years, Bosnian Serbs commanded Yugoslavia army and targeted Bosniak (Bosnian Muslims) and Croatian civilians for terrible crimes resulting in the deaths of about 400,000 people. In other words, America should have helped in the Bosnia genocide.

Nobody chose for it to come to this point, yes there could have been better ways to deal with the disagreement or there were ways to end the genocide before the Bosnians had to rise above. It wasn't fair that the Bosnians just wanted power in their country but they could have confronted the subject differently than just trying to overthrow the already set people in charge. Everyone likes power, but when is it enough to where you should give it up or you have gone too far. If you believe that the way to deal with disagreements is to turn to genocide you shouldn't be in charge at that point you’re over using your power for evil things. In my opinion and beliefs I think that the Bosnians could have waited a little bit to demand power because the cold war. The Serbians could have also given up power because the economy wasn't that good for them and they were just in the cold war which made the Bosnians angered because the Serbians got them in the cold war. It doesn't do much justice for the Serbians saying as they got them involved in the cold war, refused to give up after power, and the genocide was began against the Bosnians. Not only were the Bosnians killed but they were beat, killed, raped and humiliated. They didn't always do a “quick death” they wanted the Bosnians suffering to last (Bosnian Genocide). We notice the genocide but we

Bosnia-Herzegovina was made up of three main ethnic groups, Bosniak Muslim, Serb, and Croat (Bosnia-Herzegovina). Before Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia had a history of political, economic, and cultural conflict. Towards the end of World War II, Tito, a communist, ran Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia’s government fell apart and each nation had its own self-rule to be apart of the

The Russian Orthodox Church supported the White Army which in the end was the losing side of the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution. The Soviet government saw the church as a "counter-revolutionary" organization. The Soviet government also believed the church had a great influence on society. Even though the Soviet Union claimed religious tolerance, the government still discouraged organized religion and tried its best to remove religious influence from Soviet society.

ABC-CLIO writes, “Other ethnic groups dreamed of forming their own homelands” (Unraveling the Causes of World War I). The German unification caused Germany became one of the strongest European countries in Europe. German’s were proud of their military power and industrial leadership. Other ethnic groups, like the French, longed to regain its place of Europe’s leading power. The French were bitter of their loss in the Franco-Prussian war and the German occupation of Alsace and Lorraine. They were eager for revenge against Germany and win back their lost provinces. The Slavs were another ethnic group that dreamed of forming their own homelands. The Balkans had a dream of unifying all of the Slavic states. In 1878, Serbia gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. At that time, Serbia decided to claim to several regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina which were inhabited primarily by Serbs. However, the Congress of Berlin granted permission to Austria-Hungary to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the other disputed Serbian areas. In 1908, Austria-Hungary officially annexed all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, adding more fuel to the fires of Serbian nationalism. So when the Archduke was assassinated in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria reacted quickly, as it was seen as the Empire's last chance to proclaim its superiority in the Balkans. Count Leopold von Berchtold, the Austrian foreign minister was determined to make use of the

The Bosnian War was an international arms conflict that involved 2 main sides, the Republika Srpska, and Herzeg-Bosnia. The Republika Srpska would show very little sympathy towards the Non-Serb population of cities they would occupy. 1995 of the Bosnian War reached its most violent climax, Bosnian Serb Forces in occupied Srebrenica began an ethnic cleansing of the Non-Serb population, and massacred more than 8000 people. Many generals and other people of high class within the Republika Srpska were tried for their actions, but none confessed and denied everything, this is what makes the following person so significant. Dragan Obrenovic, who was the only person who admit guilt for the Genocide and it taking place. The accused, Dragan