Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Even as the Serbs and Croats fought brutally in the streets, their leaders—Slobodan
Miloševi ć and Franjo Tu đ man, respectively—were secretly meeting to carve up Bosnia
into Serb and Croat sectors, at the Bosniaks' expense (the so-called Kara đ or đ evo Agree-
ment). Bosniak President Alija Izetbegovi ć was completely left out of the conversation. For
his part, Izetbegovi ć desperately pleaded with the international community to support the
peaceful secession of a free Bosnian state. Motivated more by fear than by nationalism, Iz-
etbegovi ć insistedthatthecreationofanindependentBosnia-Herzegovinawastheonlyway
to protect the lives of the Bosniak people. He said, “I would sacrifice peace for a sovereign
Bosnia-Herzegovina, but for that peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina I would not sacrifice sover-
eignty.”
At first, the Bosniaks and Croats teamed up to fend off the Serbs. But even before the
first wave of fighting had subsided, Croats and Bosniaks turned their guns on each other.
TheCroatssplitofftheirownmini-state,theCroatianRepublicofHerzeg-Bosnia.Abloody
war raged for years among the three groups: the Serbs (with support from Serbia proper),
the Croats (with support from Croatia proper), and—squeezed between them—the interna-
tionally recognized Bosniak government, with little support from anybody.
The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR)—dubbed “Smurfs” both for their
light-blue helmets and for their ineffectiveness—exercised their very limited authority to
provide humanitarian aid. Their charge allowed them only to feed civilians caught in the
crossfire—an absurd notion in places like Sarajevo, where civilians were forced to live like
soldiers. (A political cartoon from the time shows a Bosnian Serb preparing to murder a
Bosniak with a knife. A UN solider appears and says, “Not so fast!” He proceeds to feed
the Bosniak...then walks away, mission accomplished, while the Serb murders his victim.)
Later,theUNtriedtodesignate“safeareas”wherecivilians wereprotected,butbecausethe
UNPROFOR troops were not allowed to use force, even in self-defense, they became help-
lesswitnessestoatrocities.Thisuglysituationwasbrilliantlyparodiedinthefilm No Man's
Land (which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2002), a very dark comedy about the
absurdity of the Bosnian war.
Forthreeandahalfyears,thecapitalofSarajevo—stillinhabitedbyaunitedcommunity
of Sarajevans (who largely eschewed their individual ethnicities as Bosniaks, Croats, and
Serbs)—was surrounded by Karadži ć 's Bosnian Serb army (for more on the Siege of Sa-
rajevo, see here ) . Other Bosniak cities were also besieged, most notoriously Srebrenica in
July of 1995. While a Dutch unit of UNPROFOR troops sat impotently by, General Ratko
Mladi ć invaded Srebrenica and oversaw the murder of at least 8,000 of its residents, mostly
men. Additionally, 35,000 to 40,000 Bosniak women and children were forcibly removed
from the city; many of them (including babies) died en route. For more on this particularly
dark chapter, see the “Srebrenica” sidebar on here .
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