Bosnian Genocide Essay

One of the numerous results of the fall of communism in Europe, the Bosnian Genocide is considered to be the largest massacre in European history since WWII. Lasting for an estimated time of 3 years, the Bosnian Genocide wiped out millions of citizens; specifically Muslim Bosnians (known as Bosniaks). The country, Bosnia and Herzegovina, went through cultural desegregation as well as religious tensions that rose as time progressed. Bosnia and Herzegovina, located just west of Serbia, is a European country with a current population of approximately 3,834,000 people. In 1992, the population estimate was 4,113,000, but by the end of the genocide in 1995, it dropped to 3,521,000 citizens. The main languages are Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian.

Srebrenica was considered to be highly diverse ethnically, and those in favor of creating the new Republika Srprska despised this notion. Therefore, they felt it was required to annihilate most of the Bosnian Muslim population in the city to “ethnically cleanse” the country. Residing in Srebrenica was someone who refused to allow the Serbian’s to take over the country by the name of Naser Oric. Oric and his men attempted to fight off the Serbian forces, but that only lasted until Mladić withdrew this small rebellion in April of 1993. On July 12 of 1995, approximately 23,000 women and children in Srebrenica were deported, while any male over the age of 12 and below the age of 60 or so were captured and later murdered.8 This massacre alone was considered to be the largest in European History since WWII. Approximately 8,000 men were murdered, while another 15,000 escaped. However, of those 15,000, only around 4,000 survived and reached Tuzla, the nearest

Karadžić felt that Sarajevo, being the largest city and capital of Bosnia, was the “neck of a snake,” with the head of the snake being the country itself.9 Karadžić believed this meant that, in order to get the head of a snake or the country as a whole, one must grab it by the neck, its strongest part, to gain as much control of the snake(country) as possible. This was also key for the planned ethnic cleansing due to how ethnically diverse the Sarajevo was, similar to the city of Srebrenica. The city of Sarajevo was blockaded, leaving an estimated 400,000 with a scarce supply of food and water, and no source of electricity for a span of about 3 months. Guerrilla warfare came into play, as well, which included the bombings of Red Cross trucks and maternity wards, taking the lives of many mothers, and new borns10. On May 25, 1995, however, NATO jets destroyed the depots that contained the weapons and military equipment helping supply the Serbs. The siege was not officially ceased until February 29, 1996, though the last cease-fire occurred in October