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Balkan War Research Paper

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Bosnian war
By 1971, Muslims dominated the population in Bosnia, however by 1991 more Serbians and Croatians emigrated. A census revealed that out of Bosnia’s population of over 4 million there was 44% Bosniak, 31% Serbian, and 17% Croatian civilians. These three ethnicities combined after the emergence of a coalition government split between parties during elections in 1990 led by Bosniak Alija Izetbegovic. Because of the suffocating tensions between parties and ethnicities, Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, withdrew his Serbian Democratic Party from government and formed the “Serbian National Assembly.” he United Nations began condemning the acts of violence and murder within Bosnia and Herzegovina in late 1991 and knew it was becoming …show more content…

In early May 1992, two days after the United Nations and the European Community recognized Bosnia’s newfound independence, Bosnian Serb forces launched their offensive by bombing Sarajevo, Bosnia’s new capital. Milosevic and the Yugoslav army backed the attack in order to push towards creating an envisioned “Greater Serbia.” Bosnia Serbs wanted to join forces with the dominant Serbian state supported by Serbian separatists and disapproved of independence. In addition, they forcibly caused Bosniak civilians to flee the regions of eastern Bosnia to carry out “ethnic cleansing,” causing a large number of displaced persons and refugees. Acts of ethnic cleansing have ranged from curfews and forced relocations to castration, imprisonment in concentration camps, rape, and death. Bosnian government forces attempt to regain control of these conflict areas with the assistance of the Croatian army, however Bosnian Serb forces are in control of almost three fourths of the country. Karadzic’s party has established “Republika Srpska” in the

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