Overview Of War In Bosnia and Herzegovina

[Barry S. Marjanovich]

Overview
********
BOSNIA
When it declared independence in 1992, hostilities
erupted almost immediately, lasting 3 1/2years.
Bosnia is the only former Yugoslav republic with a Muslim
majority, about 44 percent; 31 percent of Bosnians
or Eastern Orthodox Serbs and 17 percent are Roman
Catholic Croats.

BOSNIAN SERBS
When Bosnia declared independence, the Serb minority
rebelled, refusing to live in a state dominated by Muslims.
They declared their own Bosnian Serb Republic with
headquarters in Pale. The ensuing communal war
included:

A three-year siege and shelling of the Bosnian
capital, Sarajevo, during which 10,000 people were
killed.

"Ethnic cleansing" - driving members of different
ethnic communities out of villages. Serb militias and
Bosnia based units of the Yugoslav army and
paramilitaries from Serbia drove out hundreds of
thousands of Muslims and Croats.They also herded
Muslim men into camps, where many were tortured
and died.

By the summer of 1992, the Serbs had wrested
control of 70 percent of Bosnia from Muslims,
with Bosnian Croats holding most of the remainder.

BOSNIAN MUSLIMS
The war caught the Muslim majority unprepared for
the onslaught of Serb militias supported by Serbia.
Thousands of Muslims were driven out of
their villages and fled to the capital, Sarajevo,
and nearby areas, which later were declared "safe areas"
by the United Nations. U.N. troops, however, failed in
their objective as Serbs attacked the areas and
kidnapped and killed many Muslims.

Muslims also engaged in "ethnic
cleansing" of villages, but to a far
lesser degree than the Serbs.

In the summer of 1995, Muslim
fighters joined Croatian militias and
soldiers from Croatia to retake much
of the area Serbs had captured. When
fighting ended in the fall, the
Muslim-Croat Federation held about
half of Bosnia, and the Serbs the other
half.

BOSNIAN CROATS
The Croats are concentrated in western and central
Bosnia, mostly along the border with Croatia.

Early in 1993, Croats and Muslims battled over
control of central Bosnia.

U.S. diplomats stopped the war and engineered a
coalition between Muslims and Croats in 1994 with hopes of
pressuring outnumbered Serbs into a settlement.

The coalition, called the Muslim-Croat Federation,
remains tenuous. The most explosive situation exists in
Mostar, which is separated into Muslim and Croat sections;
the two sides regularly exchange gunfire. It was the
Croats - essentially the army of neighboring Croatia -
that prompted a reversal of Muslim-Croat fortunes in the
summer of 1995 and forced the Serbs into a settlement.

© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company

------------------------------------------------------------------------------