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    Cristian Dorian
    When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in 1992, Bosnian Serb forces began attacking Sarajevo and expelling Bosniaks from towns in eastern Bosnia, in what became known as ethnic cleansing. Within six weeks, roughly two-thirds of Bosnian territory came under Serb control. The war resulted in 100,000 deaths and over 2 million people being displaced, as the Bosnian Serbs refused to concede territory and peace proposals failed. NATO air strikes in 1994-1995, combined with Bosniak-Croat offensives, eventually led the Serbs to agree to the Dayton Accords in 1995, dividing Bosnia into a Serb and Croat-Bosniak federation.

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    When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in 1992, Bosnian Serb forces began attacking Sarajevo and expelling Bosniaks from towns in eastern Bosnia, in what became known as ethnic cleansing. Within six weeks, roughly two-thirds of Bosnian territory came under Serb control. The war resulted in 100,000 deaths and over 2 million people being displaced, as the Bosnian Serbs refused to concede territory and peace proposals failed. NATO air strikes in 1994-1995, combined with Bosniak-Croat offensives, eventually led the Serbs to agree to the Dayton Accords in 1995, dividing Bosnia into a Serb and Croat-Bosniak federation.

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    When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in 1992, Bosnian Serb forces began attacking Sarajevo and expelling Bosniaks from towns in eastern Bosnia, in what became known as ethnic cleansing. Within six weeks, roughly two-thirds of Bosnian territory came under Serb control. The war resulted in 100,000 deaths and over 2 million people being displaced, as the Bosnian Serbs refused to concede territory and peace proposals failed. NATO air strikes in 1994-1995, combined with Bosniak-Croat offensives, eventually led the Serbs to agree to the Dayton Accords in 1995, dividing Bosnia into a Serb and Croat-Bosniak federation.

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    35 views1 page

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    Cristian Dorian
    When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in 1992, Bosnian Serb forces began attacking Sarajevo and expelling Bosniaks from towns in eastern Bosnia, in what became known as ethnic cleansing. Within six weeks, roughly two-thirds of Bosnian territory came under Serb control. The war resulted in 100,000 deaths and over 2 million people being displaced, as the Bosnian Serbs refused to concede territory and peace proposals failed. NATO air strikes in 1994-1995, combined with Bosniak-Croat offensives, eventually led the Serbs to agree to the Dayton Accords in 1995, dividing Bosnia into a Serb and Croat-Bosniak federation.

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    Independence and war

    Attempts by EC negotiators to promote a new division of Bosnia and Herzegovina into


    ethnic “cantons” during February and March 1992 failed: different versions of those
    plans were rejected by each of the three main ethnic parties. When Bosnia and
    Herzegovina’s independence was recognized by the United States and the EC on April
    7, Bosnian Serb paramilitary forces immediately began firing on Sarajevo, and the
    artillery bombardment of the city by Bosnian Serb units of the Yugoslav army began
    soon thereafter. During April many of the towns in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina
    with large Bosniak populations, such as Zvornik, Foča, and Višegrad, were attacked
    by a combination of paramilitary forces and Yugoslav army units. Most of the local
    Bosniak population was expelled from these areas, the first victims in the country
    of a process described as ethnic cleansing. Although Bosniaks were the primary
    victims and Serbs the primary perpetrators, Croats were also among the victims and
    perpetrators. Within six weeks a coordinated offensive by the Yugoslav army,
    paramilitary groups, and local Bosnian Serb forces brought roughly two-thirds of
    Bosnian territory under Serb control. In May the army units and equipment in Bosnia
    and Herzegovina were placed under the command of a Bosnian Serb general, Ratko
    Mladić.

    From the summer of 1992, the military situation remained fairly static. A hastily
    assembled Bosnian government army, together with some better-prepared Bosnian Croat
    forces, held the front lines for the rest of that year, though its power was
    gradually eroded in parts of eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian government
    was weakened militarily by an international arms embargo and by a conflict in 1993–
    94 with Croat forces. But later in 1994, Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks agreed to form
    a joint federation. The United Nations (UN) refused to intervene in the Bosnian
    War, but UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) troops did facilitate the delivery of
    humanitarian aid. The organization later extended its role to the protection of a
    number of UN-declared “safe areas.” However, the UN failed to protect the safe area
    of Srebrenica in July 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces perpetrated the massacre of
    more than 7,000 Bosniak men (see Srebrenica massacre).

    Several peace proposals during the war failed, largely because the Bosnian Serbs—
    who controlled about 70 percent of the land by 1994—refused to concede any
    territory. In February 1994, in NATO’s first-ever use of force, its fighters shot
    down four Bosnian Serb aircraft that were violating the UN-imposed no-fly zone over
    the country. Later that year, at the UN’s request, NATO launched isolated and
    ineffective air strikes against Bosnian Serb targets. Following the Srebrenica
    massacre and another Bosnian Serb attack on a Sarajevo marketplace, NATO undertook
    more concentrated air strikes late in 1995. Combined with a large-scale Bosniak-
    Croat land offensive, this action led Bosnian Serb forces to agree to U.S.-
    sponsored peace talks in Dayton in November. Serbian Pres. Slobodan Milošević
    represented the Bosnian Serbs. The resulting Dayton Accords called for a
    federalized Bosnia and Herzegovina in which 51 percent of the land would constitute
    a Croat-Bosniak federation and 49 percent a Serb republic. To enforce the
    agreement, formally signed in December 1995, a 60,000-member international force
    was deployed.

    It was originally estimated that at least 200,000 people were killed and more than
    2,000,000 displaced during the 1992–95 war. Subsequent studies, however, concluded
    that the death toll was actually about 100,000.

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