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Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe is often regarded as a relatively unknown territory and country, especially considering its non central role in current global affairs. However Bosnia and Herzegovina has an important and broad history, that includes many bitter moments, like any country, with war. Following WW1, in 1918, Bosnia entered the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and later the Social Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945. It will remain part of it for over 70 years,It wouldn't be until march 1992 that Bosniaks and Muslim Croats vote for independence in a referendum, which is however boycotted by Serbs. Months later, in May, Bosnia became officially recognised as a Federal Republic by the European Union. However in between these times Bosnia faced a hard time in its territory and to its people, known as the Bosnian War. Said conflict lasted from the Spring of 1992 until the end of 1995. The break from Yugoslavia wasn’t an easy one, neither for Bosnia nor for all the other ex member countries. One of the reasons this conflict happened was due to the different and diverse religions and ethnicities within the territory. Indeed Bosnia is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse countries in Europe. When Bosnia attempted and publicly declared their intention of becoming an independent state, Serbia decided to use this as an excuse to “free” all the ethnically Serbian Orthodox christians living in Bosnia, and hence invading. Indeed inside Bosnia, composed of a multiethnic population, there was a difference between the Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), the Serbs (Orthodox Christians) and Croats (Orthodoxs/Muslims). The religious and ethical tensions grew after the fall of the republic and communism, even after these groups had lived together for 40 years under one same government, the one of Yugoslavia. The war therefore continued, started by Serbia. Not only was it decided that the Serbians living in Bosnia would be freed, but that starting from April 1992, Bosnia would be “ethnically cleansed” of all Bosniaks, done in a systematic way. These cleansing became very organized and powerful, and Serbia didn’t act alone, but with the help and support of ethnic Bosnian Serbs and the former Yugoslavian military equipment. These forces and systematic cleansing caused a genocide in Bosnia. Due to the surrounding of Sarajevo (at the time and current capital city) many Bosniaks were taken into concentration camps, where women and girls were systematically gang-raped (as one of the strategies to ethnically cleanse) and other civilians were tortured, starved and murdered. According to “the Holocoaust Memorial Day Trust” It is estimated that between 20-50,000 women were raped during the war. Therefore, the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the consecutive war between 1992 and 1995 had a huge impact on the people of Bosnia, resulting in 100,000 people dead and the displacement of over two million people. For this reason, this is a conflict which should not be forgotten, but remembered together with all those who have lost their lives due to it. Bibliography https://www.britannica.com/event/Bosnian-War https://www.irmct.org/specials/war-bosnia/ https://hmh.org/library/research/genocide-in-bosnia-guide/ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-warcrimes-karadzic-bosnia-idUSL2164446420080721 https://www.hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/bosnia/the-bosnian-war
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