SARAJEVO-1995 Peace Project.

M I N U T E S T O WA R : Once Upon a Time in Sarajevo
Historical Background To The Seige Of Sarajevo 1992-1996
Yugoslavia began to disintegrate following the
collapse of Communist regimes in other parts of
Eastern Europe in 1989. In June 1991, the state of
Slovenia declared its independence, closely followed
by Croatia.
Despite opposition from other member states in
the European Union, Germany recognised Slovenia
and Croatia in December 1991. Other EU countries
followed. This had immense consequences: it left
Yugoslavia as a Serbian-dominated rump state.
This was intolerable for Muslims in Bosnia, who
had lived amicably with Serbs and Croats in Bosnia
for 40 years, and whose ideal was a multinational
Yugoslavia, but who now faced being a vulnerable
minority in a state ruled by Serb nationalists.
A referendum on Bosnian independence was
held in February 1992. The Bosnian Serbs boycotted
it, because they did not want to be separated
from their brethren in Serbia. Since the Muslims
(44%) and Croats (17%) made up a majority of
Bosnia’s population, the referendum produced an
overwhelming vote for independence.
In April 1992, the EU and US recognised the
new state of Bosnia-Herzegovina. War broke out
immediately, but the Serb-controlled army had
confiscated the weapons of its territorial defence
forces. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims were
swept from their homes, especially along the Drina
valley in the east of the country.
During the next four years Bosnia would be torn
by the bloodiest and most ruthless European conflict
since the Second World War. The capital, Sarajevo,
was the focus of an epic siege in which 12,000
people were killed, including 1,600 children.
The siege of Sarajevo began with Serbs raining
shells on the city from hilltop positions.
In August 1992, evidence emerged of Muslims
in northern Bosnia being herded into concentration
camps. These TV images led to the creation of a UN
War Crimes Tribunal, now sitting in The Hague (the
first international war crimes trial since Nuremberg).
At the same time, the largest refugee movement
in Europe since the Second World War began as
Muslims fled to Croatia and other parts of Europe.
‘That summer of 1992, only months after the
Bosnian war erupted, was the darkest period in
Europe since the Holocaust. In an orgy of murder,
rape, detention, and eviction, the Serbs put
hundreds of thousands of dispossessed Muslims to
flight and seized their ancestral lands.’ Ian Traynor,
The Guardian, 22 December 1994.
By 1993 Serbs controlled almost two-thirds of
Bosnia, while Croats had taken over nearly onethird.
Evidence of massive human rights atrocities
were discovered, including the raping of thousands
of Muslim women and ‘ethnic cleansing’ actions by
Serbs, especially in eastern Bosnia. In May 1993, the
United Nations designated six UN-protected ‘safe
areas’ in Bosnia. These were all areas that had been
under siege by the Bosnian Serbs for some time and
where Muslims were under threat: Sarajevo, Tuzla,
Bihac, and three small enclaves in eastern Bosnia
(Srebrenica, Gorazde, Zepa). UNPROFOR (UN
Protection Force) soldiers provided limited military
protection and humanitarian aid.
In July 1995, Serb forces launched attacks on the
UN safe areas in eastern Bosnia, forcing thousands
of Muslims from their homes in Srebrenica and
Zepa, and ‘ethnically cleansing’ areas that had been
Muslim for generations. The men were driven out
of the ‘safe havens’—as the UN forces watched—to
mass execution sites in the countryside around.
In August 1995 shells launched from Serb
positions in the surrounding hills landed in a
marketplace in Sarajevo killing 85 people. NATO
finally launched massive air strikes against Bosnian
Serb positions.