The Bosnian War (1992–1995) involved ferocious killing among a trio of the region’s major ethnic groups: Serbs, Croats, and Muslims. By the war’s end, as many as 26,000 Muslim civilians had been systematically murdered. This insightful resource offers a unique look at those terrifying events, including highlighting three possible perspectives on the war and the confusion these different perspectives can cause, even years later. Readers will also benefit from a review of Bosnia’s history and the events that culminated in this gruesome time.
This book examines the historical, cultural and political dimensions of the crisis in Bosnia and the international efforts to resolve it. It provides a detailed analysis of international proposals to end the fighting, from the Vance-Owen plan to the Dayton Accord, with special attention to the national and international politics that shaped them. It analyzes the motivations and actions of the warring parties, neighbouring states and international actors including the United States, the United Nations, the European powers, and others involved in the war and the diplomacy surrounding it. With guides to sources and documentation, abundant tabular data and over 30 maps, this should be a definitive volume on the most vexing conflict of the post-Soviet period.
Bosnia Remade is an authoritative account of ethnic cleansing and its partial undoing from the onset of the 1990s Bosnian wars up through the present. Gerard Toal and Carl Dahlman combine a bird's-eye view of the entire war from onset to aftermath with a micro-level account of three towns that underwent ethnic cleansing and--later--the return of refugees.There have been two major attempts to remake the ethnic geography of Bosnia since 1991. In the first instance, ascendant ethno-nationalist forces tried to eradicate the mixed ethnic geographies of Bosnia's towns, villages and communities. These forces devastated tens of thousands of homes and lives, but they failed to destroy Bosnia-Herzegovina as a polity. In the second attempt, which followed the war, the international community, in league with Bosnian officials, endeavored to reverse the demographic and other consequences of this ethnic cleansing. While progress has been uneven, this latter effort has transformed the ethnic demography of Bosnia and moved the nation beyond its recent segregationist past.By showing how ethnic cleansing was challenged, Bosnia Remade offers more than just a comprehensive narrative of Europe's worst political crisis of the past two decades. It also offers lessons for addressing an enduring global problem.
The genocide that has been occurring in Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1992 demands national attention. Incidents of these atrocities have involved European, American, and Islamic interests; they have taken place in the heart of Europe which had promised never to tolerate such a bloodbath again; they have paralyzed mechanisms set up to prevent such genocide, from the UN Charter to the NATO mandate; and they have been monitored, observed, and documented in progress.
Through the narratives and testimonies of Bosnian refugees who survived ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina, this title demonstrates how ethnic cleansing has worked its way into people's lives and memories
"In this compelling and thorough study, Norman Cigar sets out to prove that genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina is not simply the unintentional result of civil war or the unfortunate by-product of rabid nationalism. Genocide is, he contends, the planned and direct consequence of conscious policy decisions made by the Serbian establishment in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its policies were carried out in a deliberate and systematic manner as part of a broader strategy intended to achieve a defined political objective - the creation of an expanded, ethnically pure Greater Serbia." "Using testimony from congressional hearings, policy statements, interviews, and reports from the western and local media, the author describes a sinister policy of victimization that escalated from vilification to threats, then expulsion, torture, and killing. Cigar also takes the international community to task for its reluctance to act decisively and effectively." "Genocide in Bosnia provides a detailed account of the historical events, actions, and practices that led to and legitimated genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It focuses attention not only on the horror of "ethnic cleansing" but on the calculated strategy that allowed it to happen. Cigar's book is important reading for anyone interested in the inherent violence of overzealous nationalism - from Rwanda to Afghanistan and anywhere else."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
In July 1995, the Army of the Serbian Republic killed some 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica--the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II. Surviving the Bosnian Genocide is based on the testimonies of 60 female survivors of the massacre who were interviewed by Dutch historian Selma Leydesdorff. The women, many of whom still live in refugee camps, talk about their lives before the Bosnian war, the events of the massacre, and the ways they have tried to cope with their fate. Though fragmented by trauma, the women tell of life and survival under extreme conditions, while recalling a time before the war when Muslims, Croats, and Serbs lived together peaceably. By giving them a voice, this book looks beyond the rapes, murders, and atrocities of that dark time to show the agency of these women during and after the war and their fight to uncover the truth of what happened at Srebrenica and why.
This title in the Genocide in Modern Times series examines the mass killing of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs in the former Yugoslavia, following the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The text clearly lays out the roots of the region's long-simmering ethnic hatred among Croats, Serbs, and Bosnian Muslims, and explains the chain of events that led to the genocide. Also discussed are the complications brought on by the failure of world leaders to step in and demand an end to the killing.
This book offers an unprecedented account of the Serb Democratic Party’s origins and its political machinations that culminated in Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II. Within the first two years of its existence, the nationalist movement led by the infamous genocide convict Radovan Karadzic, radically transformed Bosnian society. It politically homogenized Serbs of Bosnia-Herzegovina, mobilized them for the Bosnian War, and violently carved out a new geopolitical unit, known today as Republika Srpska. Through innovative and in-depth analysis of the Party’s discourse that makes use of the recent literature on affective cognition, the book argues that the movement’s production of existential fears, nationalist pride, and animosities towards non-Serbs were crucial for creating Serbs as a palpable group primed for violence. By exposing this nationalist agency, the book challenges a commonplace image of ethnic conflicts as clashes of long-standing ethnic nations.
Providing an indispensable resource for students and policy makers investigating the Bosnian catastrophes of the 1990s, this book provides a comprehensive survey of the leaders, ideas, movements, and events pertaining to one of the most devastating conflicts of contemporary times. In the three years of the Bosnian War, well over 100,000 people lost their lives, amid intense carnage. This led to unprecedented criminal prosecutions for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity that are still taking place today. Bosnian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide is the first encyclopedic treatment of the Balkan conflicts of the period from 1991 to 1999. It provides broad coverage of the nearly decade-long conflict, but with a major focus on the Bosnian War of 1992–1995. The book examines a variety of perspectives of the conflicts relating to Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo, among other developments that took place during the years spotlighted. The entries consider not only the leaders, ideas, movements, and events relating to the Bosnian War of 1992–1995 but also examine themes from before the war and after it. As such, coverage continues through to the Kosovo Intervention of 1999, arguing that this event, too, was part of the conflict that purportedly ended in 1995. This work will serve university students undertaking the study of genocide in the modern world and readers interested in modern wars, international crisis management, and peacekeeping and peacemaking.
