In the late 1980s through the 1990s, the republics of the former Yugoslavia experienced serious ethnic tensions, escalating into all-out war which resulted in some of the worst war crimes committed in Europe since World War II. In 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was formed with the goal of punishing perpetrators who carried out acts of genocide and crimes against humanity in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and to prevent any such atrocities from ever occurring again. One of the most significant and high-profile trials of this tribunal was that of Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of both Serbia and the former Yugoslavia, who was accused of committing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and abuses of power and corruption. Milosevic died in 2006, and his trial was never concluded. Whether or not he would have been convicted of these crimes is a subject of debate.
Although Milosevic was a key figure during this period whose actions undoubtedly influenced the chain of events that unfolded, I believe his power-seeking motives were not unique to him; his actions in the former Yugoslavia could have been committed by a number of others who had the same desire for power driving them. Nevertheless, as he was president of Serbia and essentially commander-in-chief of Serb forces who carried out unconscionable acts of cruelty against Muslims and other non-Serb civilians, particularly in the attempt to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina, he bears responsibility for his actions as an authority figure. Though his main goal seemed to be focused on territorial expansion of the Serbian state, he led military forces to deport and murder non-Serb civilians in massive numbers and therefore was in vi...
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...rime of Genocide." "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Perennial, 2003. 62-63. Print.
Glaurdic, J. "Inside the Serbian War Machine: The Milosevic Telephone Intercepts, 1991-1992."East European Politics & Societies 23.1 (2009): 98. Print.
Glaurdic, J. "Inside the Serbian War Machine: The Milosevic Telephone Intercepts, 1991-1992."East European Politics & Societies 23.1 (2009): 94. Print.
Greenfield, Daniel M. "Crime of Complicity in Genocide: How the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia Got It Wrong, and Why It Matters." The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 98.3 (2008): 921-24. HeinOnline. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.
Hoare, Marko A. "Bosnia-Herzegovina and International Justice: Past Failures and Future Solutions." East European Politics and Societies 24.191 (2010). SAGE Journals Online. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.
A new leader arose by the late 1980s, a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic, a former Communist who had turned to nationalism and religious hatred to gain power. He began by inflaming long-standing tensions between Serbs and Muslims in the independent provence of Kosovo. Orthodox Christian Serbs in Kosovo were in the minority and claimed they were being mistreated by the Albanian Muslim majority. Serbian-backed political unrest in Kosovo eventually led to its loss of independence and domination by Milosevic. In June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia both declared their independence from Yugoslavia soon resulting in civil war. The national army of Yugoslavia, now made up of Serbs controlled by Milosevic, stormed into Slovenia but failed to subdue the separatists there and withdrew after only ten days of fighting. Milosevic quickly lost interest in Slovenia, a country with almost no Serbs. Instead, he turned his attention to Croatia, a Catholic country where Orthodox Serbs made up 12 percent of the population. During World War II, Croatia had been a pro-Nazi state led by Ante Pavelic and his fascist Ustasha Party. Serbs living in Croatia as well as Jews had been the targets of widespread Ustasha massacres.
Slobodan Milosevic and many others who were born in WW2 have had troubled childhoods, Milosevic’s parents committing suicide which would traumatize any adult . He rose through the ranks of Tito’s communist party and survived the late 60’s purges where he became a close ally to the 1980’s party leader Ivan Stambolic. When Slobodan Milosevic was president of Serbia, Time Magazine interviewed him in 1995 just after the Dayton peace accords. His interview focused on four key actions that were affecting former Yugoslavia. Firstly, the atrocities that ethnic Serbs were perpetrating against Bosniak’s. Secondly his national speeches that focused on Serbian nationalism that gained him enough power to force the party leader Ivan Stambolic out of office. Thirdly his alliances with Serb nationalists and paramilitaries in other states such as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia had implicated him in sending military munitions to these nationalists. Fourthly, the Time Magazine interview is important because it show’s Milosevic’s Machiavellian nature as someone who will lie directly to people on atrocities that his government had been supporting to sustain his power.
Sudetic, Chuck. "Chapter 6." In Blood and Vengeance: One Family's Story of the War in Bosnia, 75. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998.
What Happened in Bosnia is quite bad but it is in no comparison with the world domination of Hitler and his army. The main difference between the Bosnia genocide and the Holocaust is that Hitler gained respect and power, whereas the Serbs had the majority of the army and were smarter then the non-Serbs so they were able to take charge. When Hitler first started his campaign people loved him and wanted him in power. It was what he did once he was in power that astonished the nation. However, in Bosnia there were always tensions between the three groups. The Serbs were not let into power; they never had the other group's respect they were just able to establish a strong army and state that was capable of killing. In Yugoslavia there ...
Bennett, Christopher Michael. "Bosnia and Herzegovina." Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Ed. Dinah L. Shelton. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.World History in Context. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
In 1993 the United Nation declared Srebrenica, a protected area with no military. The Serbian forces did not accept this ‘’protected area’’, so they kept sending in forces to block off resources for the Bosnian muslims.
The Balkan Peninsula has long been known as the “tinderbox of Europe” because it has been an area of conflict and political unrest for centuries. The countries and people that occupy the peninsula are constantly in chaos and at war with each other. This trend continues today with the problems in Bosnia and the recent international crisis in Kosovo. Throughout history, small local incidents in the Balkan Peninsula have escalated into large international crises. World War I is a perfect example of what started as a regional conflict and grew into an all-out European war. A small local European struggle between Austria-Hungary and Serbia over the territory of Bosnia erupted into a full-blown worldwide conflict after the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand.
Bosnia is a country in Europe and its capital is a city called Sarajevo. Bosnia is bordered by Serbia and Croatia. In this genocide, between 1992 and 1995, the Serbians wanted to pursue genocide against the Muslims of Bosnia. After World War 1, a country called Yugoslavia was created in 1918. It was created out of the Austria-Hungary empire that lost the war and lost its land. Serbians, Croatians, Slovenes, and Bosnian Serbians and Muslims lived all in one country. The problem was the people didn't get along and each republic wanted to take control of the country. This went on until after WWII, when the Soviet Union took power and control over the country. Joseph Broz (Tito) was leader of Yugoslavia until the 6 republics separated. Then in 1992, Bosnia declared its independence from Yugoslavia. Soon after, the Bosnian
... that other republics felt to the need to be the same so that they did not become disadvantaged. Exaggeration was an integral part of the huge amounts of propaganda being beamed at the common people, all in an attempt to imbue them with the nationalist ideologies (Rogel 45). The Serb death count at Jasenovac was a wildly varying number, grossly overinflated by the Serbs and downplayed by the Croats. The Serbs even asserted that the Bosnia was just an administrative creation of Tito, designed to thwart the rights of the Serbs (Rogel 43). The Croats countered that the whole Yugoslav system under the communists had been run for the benefit of the Serbs, and Croatia had borne the economic brunt of it. All of this propaganda was disseminated in order to make the common get people feeling anxious enough that they felt it was necessary to take up arms to defend themselves.
The Web. The Web. 25 Nov 2013 Williams, Sarah. The "Genocide: The Cambodian Experience." International Criminal Law Review 5.3 (2005): 447-461.
Human rights have been a longstanding and important issue that the UN has been addressing since its inception. One particular country of unrest is Serbia, where history has led to some unpleasant political situations and, as a result, severe human rights issue have arisen. Serbia – landlocked between Bosnia and Herzegovina on the West and Romania on the East – is a historically complex and very new country. Serbia only became separate from Moldova and Kosovo as recently as 2006 and 2008 respectively. Constant political distress has proven difficult to maintain an appropriate human rights code without high degrees of exploitation, especially during the breakup of Yugoslavia. It is the various human rights issues in Serbia that will be examined in this paper, looking to the UN for support and to head in the right direction.
Scheffer, David J. "Responding To Genocide And Crimes Against Humanity." U.S. Department Of State Dispatch 9.4 (1998): 20. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
Imagine waking up one day to the thundering of blows given at the door telling you to “open up or be shot down.” It is the Serb police, and they are telling you that you and your whole family had to leave your home immediately. This is how it went for many Albanian people during what some Serb extremists called “demographic genocide.” This was the beginning of what many would call the Kosovo War, and it lasted from March to June 1999. After NATO’s intervention in Kosovo, something strange happened. Now the people being victimized were the Serbs and anyone who was “friendly” to them. In this paper, I will speak about what happened before and after the war in Kosovo.
To develop this investigation, I will look at a variety of sources including biographies of Slobodan Milosevic, research books on the conflict in Kosovo, and internet sources on Kosovo nationalism.
Hymowitz, Sarah, and Amelia Parker. "Lessons - The Genocide Teaching Project - Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law." American University Washington College of Law. American UniversityWashington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitaian Law, 2011. Web. 9 Mar. 2011. .