What role did internal intervention play in the Bosnia –Herzegovina War?
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Seku Conde
Minzu University of China
2007-2008 Academic Year
Abstract: In the 20th century, human being experienced various forms of war which from World War Ⅱ to various wars in local areas. After 1990, great changes have taken place in East European and Russia, the former Yugoslavia also experienced great and the Bosnia-Herzegovina war broke out. The increasing ethnic grievance and religion conflict accounted for the internal source of Bosnia-Herzegovina war. However, the international intervention, especially America, played a determined role in the war .The international intervention aggravated the situation in Bosnia and had serious impact on the war. In this paper, we’ll elaborate the internal and external factors and put more emphasis on the international interference and analysis the role American played in the Bosnia –Herzegovina war.
Key words: Bosnia –Herzegovina War/the ethnic conflict/ the international intervention /America /NATO
Introduction
From 1992 to 1995, Bosnia-Herzegovina war fought more than four years.[1] In this long-lasting ethnic war, more than 20 million people were killed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced and become homeless refugees, the beautiful Sarajevo was totally ruined. The war has caused losses amounting to billions of dollars more. By July 1995, different ethnic groups in Yugoslavia had reached a ceasefire agreement for more than 40 times, the United Nations has also adopted more than 30 cease-fire resolutions and decisions , but the war still continued and the situation in Sarajevo got even severe which beyond our imagination .
To get more understanding of the Bosnia war, I have gathered more detailed information to find the internal and external source of the war, and analyses the dominate role America played in the war. What did international powers do in the war? What did UN do? As a powerful member in NATO, What did America do in the war? What role did they play? Did the intervention have some positive impact or deteriorate the situation in Balkan?
The background of the Bosnia and Herzegovina war
[2]After world war Ⅱ,Tito implemented the autonomous police which different ethnic groups lived together and were treated equally. As for some minority groups, the central government required the developed provinces provided economical assistance to help them. It had been proved that the police had some positive effects and took effects on reducing the ethnic conflicts in a certain degree but it can’t solve the problem fundamentally. After Tito's death in 1980, the nation slid into economic and political decline as a collective leadership began to squabble over power and the allocation of shrinking resources among the republics. With the final collapse of Communism in the 1980s, the restive population began seeking solutions to provide economic and political stability in a post- Cold War world. The conflict of different ethnic groups increase and each seek for its resources and the country formed a situation of separatism.
[3]The break-up of Yugoslavia began in June 1991, with the declaration of independence of Slovenia and Croatia from the Southern Federation and became an independent sovereign state. Fighting broke out immediately between separatist troops belonging to different ethnic group .
June 26, 1991, the South federal government declared a statement that they didn’t recognize the independence of these two states. Then, Slovenia and Croatia army had conflicts with the Southern People's Army, the war gradually burned to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was composed of Serbs, Croats, Muslims and other ethnic groups. As Slovenia and Croatia declared independence, the Serbs, Croats, Muslims Bosnia in Bosnia had a fierce dispute over the future of the Republic. They can’t get consensus with each other.
The fuse of the Bosnia-Herzegovina war
March 1, 1992, a wedding were being held for two Serb youth in an Orthodox church in Sarajevo. Suddenly, a Muslim resident armed with gun shoot at the church and the groom's father was killed. Then, the banner of the Serbs has been burned down. This tragedy outraged the Serbs. Next night, 10 of Serbs set roadblocks which made the city's traffic disrupted. The conflict between the three ethnic groups intensified and accumulated. The Bosnia-Herzegovina war broke out.
Superficially, it appeared to be an accidental event in Sarajevo; however the incident ignited the flames of war. In fact, the outbreak of the Bosnian war was the result of the accumulation and intensifier of the conflicts between the ethnic groups.
The internal cause of the Bosnia-Herzegovina war
To begin with, not only the ethnic composition of the former Yugoslavia was very complicated, but the religion belief was different. The main group’s composition of Bosnia was Serbs, Croats and Muslims and they treat other different ethnic groups. Among them, Serbian accounted for 43.7 percent of the population, Croats 31.4 percent, Muslims 17.3 percent. In this way, there were three major religion beliefs: Serbian believes in the Orthodox, Croats believe in Catholic and Muslims believe in Muslim.
Then, the ethnic grievances existed for centuries due to the historical causes. The Yugoslavia failed to establish a unified country for a long period , the Yugoslavia was inevitably dominated and oppressed by other western powers for centuries and lack of cohesion between different ethnic groups. The deep ethnic hatred still existed even after a reunification country established.
[4]Next, during the late 1980s, Yugoslavia's economic situation deteriorated sharply, the economic development tends to stagnate, and it hadn’t been improved for a long time, so that various contradictions became more serious. In 1989, with the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, the Southern Union of Yugoslavia also announced to give up one-party system, and carried out a multi-party system. In January 1990, the Southern Union disintegrated. Another important force that maintained the unity of Yugoslavia no longer existed. The nationalism sentiment expanded rapidly and the long-existed national deep-rooted hatred for ethnic groups burst out again which was out of control.
Finally, the struggle of living space and territory .The focus of three ethnic conflicts in Bosnia War mainly concentrated on the living space. The size and the quality of living space is the basic guarantee of national survival and development. The strategic importance of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina made it a military battlefield. What’ more , Bosnia and Herzegovina were rich in the abundant resources, such as iron, timber .For this reason , the Serb and the Croat all strived to win more land and expanded their territory in the Bosnia war. Under the mediation of international powers, three ethnic group reached ceasefire agreements and territorial divisions for many times, but the file was immediately broken by the gun and fire concerning the land pursuit.
The external sources of the Bosnia and Herzegovina war
From the beginning to end of the Bosnian war, the international mediation and military intervention from western powers always existed, especially the United States, under the names of NATO, conducted the military interference which aggravated the situation in Bosnia war.
Since the outbreak of Bosnia war, Serbs had obvious advantage over others. At the beginning, the army of Serbs was the strongest with a total of 70,000 soldiers from the former Yugoslav People's Army. They were well-trained, well-equipped and had excellent combating skills; Croat army had only a total of more than 50,000 people and some equipment. They controlled Croatia and had adequate logistical support, with another 50,000 to 60,000 troops from Croatia who directly participated in the Bosnia-Herzegovina war; Muslim had a total of 20,000 people, but their fighting capacity was weak, lagging far behind in terms of heavy weapons. [5]
Finally, under the joint attack of Muslim and Croat and NATO, Serbs lost their military priority and initiative in the war. Then under the pressure of the international community, the Serbs admitted the compromise of national territorial division.
The role of the international intervention
(1) The initial consideration of western powers
Three ethnic groups in Bosnia were not isolated from the outside world. In the former Yugoslavia, to make "all Serbs live in a country", the Republic of Serbia spared no effort to support the Serb army in Bosnia, which had been around 80,000 people in the former Yugoslav People's Army joined into the Serb army . In order to establish the Republic of Croatia, Croatia also provided soldiers, material and financial support for the Croat army in Bosnian and dispatched more than 50,000 people to take part in the war.
In terms of the international societies, those countries such as Austria, Turkey, Germany, Italy and other countries which had once occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina all regarded Yugoslavia as a large-share. On the one hand, they enforced the economy Sanctions on Serbs and carried out the army embargo; on the other hand, they provided assistance to the Muslim and Croat army. In addition, the two superpowers of the United States and Russia got involved in the Bosnian war which made Bosnia-Herzegovina war more complicated and confusing.
The initial response of the European powers was attempted to prevent the conflict through the declaration. Its aim was to suspend the separation while gained greater autonomy by negotiating. Then by the extensive lobbing of Germany, European changed its police and started to [...]
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