Conflict between the three main ethnic groups – Serbs, Croats and Muslims (Bosniacs) in the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims between 1992 and 1995. Under the leadership of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, over 200,000 Muslim civilians were systematically murdered with a further 20,000 ‘missing’ and over 2,000,000 refugees. With policies reminiscent of the Jewish Holocaust, the world once again witnessed mass shootings, forced repopulation of entire towns, confinement in make-shift concentration camps, the terrorising of Muslim families, rape as a weapon of war against women and girls, the destruction of Muslim mosques and historic architecture throughout Bosnia.
Some effects of the genocide:
- Serbia today remains weak and devastated with strong ethnic hostilities still a reality
- The genocide is seen by many as evidence of the weakness of the UN and, in particular its ‘peacekeepers’ as the Un effectively failed to do much to stop the killings
- The massacre in Srebrenica in 1995 is generally regarded as the worst single atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II
- The return of refugees to their homes remains an unfulfilled dream for many.