Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Causes and consequences
Josip Broz Tito, a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, He was the chief architect and later the president of the communist party of Yugoslavia. After his death on May 5th 1980, the country of Bosnia was stricken with a strong nationalist sense of pride. The Bosnia people stated to push for their independence from The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On April 5, 1992, the government of Bosnia declared its independence from Yugoslavia.
The Bosnian government declaring their independence started a civil war that very quickly got out of hand and the genocide of Bosnia and Herzegovina began. The majority of Bosnia was opposed to the 31% of the population, the Serb’s. The Serb’s launched a force to capture territory and to “cleanse”, hence starting the ethnic cleansing of the Bosnia Muslims.
The Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the biggest esthetic cleansing to happen sense the holocaust. There were over 100,000 people killed and nearly 80% of them were of the Bosniak heritage.
Eyewitness testimony
While Bosnia was being destroyed from the inside out, the people that lived there suffered the most. Beside the obvious people getting murdered and being take away from their families, to only get thrown into consternation camps. The people that were placed into went through horrible treatment; similar to what happened decades earlier. The treatment consisted of slavery work and constant starving.
Even with the deliberate murder of innocent people in these camps and just outright in their homes, others that were fortunate enough to remain in their houses sometimes sill had it rough. A young woman tells her story. She was sitting around with a few friends, when a very unfortunate thing happened. The place where she was at was attacked. The woman, only a young girl at the time sub stained injuries to her leg.
People living in places like this, often had a make shit hospital set up. In the case of this girl, the one she was brought to was in the basement. These places were filled with people suffering and dying. The treatment was very inconsistent and was often at times crude. Granted this treatment was the best that these people could get at the time, often times they were moved out to a hospital that access became available.
America’s involvement
Nonrecurring genocide
Firstly, I personally think that if the countries had more international ties with other countries would help stop this. The bigger countries that have the power and resources to stop this from happening. Next I believe that fighting the communist like powers and stopping them from spreading would also help this. Often times when a mass killing of a race happens, it often happens under a communist like government. And lastly I think that if these country’s that knew about these starting to unfold and can see this happening, and had the courage to step in and fight these forces; that half of these genocides never would have happened.