Civil War in Yugoslavia

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Civil War in Yugoslavia

• Break-up
• Ethnic Cleansing
• Crisis in Kosovo

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Yugoslavia after World War I

• Homeland for Slavs
• It consisted of various republics Serbia,
  Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia
  and Montenegro

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Religious Groups within Yugoslavia

• Orthodox Christians Serbians
• Roman Catholics Croatians
• Muslims Bosnians
• The groups had distinct customs and religions but
  spoke the same language
• SERBS DOMINATED THE STATE

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Yugoslavia post WW II

• Josip Broz Tito (Marshall) ruled Yugoslavia with
  an IRON hand until his death in 1980.
• Post Tito the economy weakens and age old ethnic
  conflicts flare up.
• 1991 Communism collapses in Eastern Europe and
  civil war breaks out between the Croatians,
  Muslims and Serbians
• Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic stirs up ethnic
  unrest in his country leading to

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Bosnian Civil War 1992-1996

• The war erupted between Muslims, Serbians and
  Croatians
• Serbs living in Bosnia received money and arms
  from Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic
• The Muslims, who were the majority did not want
  the country divided into ethnic regions

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Horrors of Genocide
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Genocide

• Slobodan Milosevic led the Serbs and had a huge
  military advantage
• He would order troops to gather up mass Muslims
  and shoot them or force them to flee their
  village.
• In Srebrenica, U.N. peacekeepers stood by
  helplessly as the Serbs under the command of
  General Ratko Mladic systematically selected and
  then slaughtered nearly 8,000 men and boys
  between the ages of twelve and sixty - the worst
  mass murder in Europe since World War II.

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The Genocide

• Police regularly committed human rights abuses in
  the form of torture or physical abuse.
• People young and old were thrown in trucks and
  shipped off to their deaths.
• Escapees were shot or decapitated if caught.

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UN, NATO and RUSSIA work for peace

• 1995 NATO launched air strikes against the
  Bosnian Serb military
• Dayton Accords peace agreements

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After the Genocide

• Up to 200,000 men, and boys over 13 years old,
  were killed.
• Bosnian women and girls were held captive, raped
  and released when they were pregnant with Serbian
  babies
• The slaughtering was carried out by strict
  military orders.
• Thousands of bodies were buried in mass graves.
• There are still 20,000 people listed as missing
  in Bosnia.

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Kosovo Crisis

• Kosovo is a province in Serbia sacred to
  Christian Serbs
• 90 of its inhabitants are ethnic Albanians who
  are Muslim
• Milosevic stripped Kosovo of its autonomy and
  established martial law
• Ethnic cleansing of Albanians began
• NATO held air strikes against Serbs

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International War Crimes Trial for Slobodan
Milosevic

• Tried by the ICJ for crimes against humanity
• Trial lasted 4 years
• Prior to sentencing in March 2006 he died in jail

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The tragedy of Srebrenica will forever haunt the
history of the United Nations. Kofi Annan