BOSNIA
The War in Bosnia
The war in Bosnia, Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, led to some 200,000 civilians killed and the displacement of two million Muslims, Croats and Serbs from their homes. In March of 1992, Bosnia’s Muslims and Croats, fearing the drive for a Greater Serbia, called for a referendum for Bosnian independence. Fierce propaganda from Serbia, depicting Muslims as extremist fundamentalists, caused many Bosnian Serbs to support Milosevic's plan for ethnic cleansing as a means of creating Greater Serbia.
On April 6, 1992, the Bosnian Serbs began their siege of Sarajevo. Residents were cut off from food, utilities, and communication. Sarajevans dodged sniper fire as they collected firewood and water. Throughout Bosnia, Bosnian Serb nationalists and the JNA began a systematic policy of "ethnic cleansing" to establish a "pure" Serb republic by terrorizing and forcibly displacing non-Serbs through direct shelling and sniper attacks. Entire villages were destroyed.
Thousands were expelled from their homes, held in detention camps, raped, tortured, deported, or summarily executed.