Bosnian Genocide - Failure of the West?

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The Bosnian genocide in 1992-95 is a prime example of the apathy that man can show toward the suffering of his fellow man. Even though it was widely considered to be “the worst act of genocide since the Nazi regime’s destruction of some 6 million European Jews during World War II,” (History.com) the world offered little help. While the U.N. sent peacekeepers to offer humanitarian aid and create “safe zones”, this did little to stem the tide of atrocities inflicted by the serbs upon Muslims in Bosnia. Although NATO forces finally joined the fight and the U.S. sponsored the Dayton Peace Pact in 1995, which finally ended hostilities, the failure to intervene soon enough to stop the mass killing of over 100,000 innocent civilians has been called, “the greatest failure of the West since the 1930s." (thehistoryplace.com).
After World war I, the western allies created Yugoslavia out of historic enemies including Croatia, Serbia, and Albania. Later, during World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany. During this occupation, Josip Broz Tito united conflicted Yugoslavia, thus combining Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and the independent provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Tito was a communist, and a strong leader who, “maintained ties with the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War, playing one superpower against the other while obtaining financial assistance and other aid from both,” (thehistoryplace.com). When Josip Tito died in 1980, Nationalism grew and spread through the Yugoslavian republics, and without Tito’s strong leadership, Yugoslavia quickly fell into political and economic turmoil.
The Bosnian Genocide had it’s beginnings in the late 1980’s when Slobodan Milosevic, “a...

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...bffd7bb4a35e4038a943301d3e0d6&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=vale41196&tabID=T004&docId=A226920417&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0

Coleman, Andrew. "International Court of Justice." Governments of the World: A Global Guide to Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities. Ed. C. Tate. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. 261-266. Global Issues In Context. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Document URL http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=c78bffd7bb4a35e4038a943301d3e0d6&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=vale41196&tabID=T001&docId=CX3447400164&type=retrieve&contentSet=EBKS&version=1.0 "The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992-95." The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992-95. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.
"Bosnian Genocide." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 08 May 2014.

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