Bosnia conflict
The Event Ethnosectarian civil war in Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Date March 1, 1992-December 14, 1995
Place Bosnia and Herzegovina, a province of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until
1992
The conflict marked the first appearance of genocidal ag-
gression in Europe since the days of Nazi Germany (1933-
1945) in which the United States made a decisive response,
albeit after most of the violence had occurred.
At the start of the conflict in Bosnia, the country
was divided among Muslims (43.7 percent), Croats
(17.3 percent), and Serbs (32.4 percent). Born of
Croatian and Slovenian parents, Yugoslavia’s Prime
Minister Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980) had a multieth-
nic vision for his country. After his death, ethnic ri-
valries increased, prompting delegates in the na-
tional parliament from Serbia and allied provinces
in 1989 to weaken the autonomy of the provinces. In
1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared independence
from Yugoslavia, whereupon talk of Bosnia’s seces-
sion increased. Fearing war, in September of 1991
a European Community peace conference asked
Lord Peter Carrington and Portugal’s Ambassador
José Cutileiro to draw up a power-sharing peace
plan, which was ultimately rejected
by the Bosnian state. The U.N. Secu-
rity Council, meanwhile, authorized
an arms embargo of all parties in Yu-
goslavia.
On October 4, 1991, Serb dele-
gates withdrew from the Bosnian
parliament to form a separate legis-
lature on October 24. In Novem-
ber, some Croats declared the exis-
tence of the Croatian Community of
Herzeg-Bosnia (later the Croatian
Republic Herzeg-Bosnia), but Bos-
nian Serbs in a referendum insisted
on remaining within Yugoslavia. On
January 9, 1992, the Serb assembly
proclaimed the independence of
Bosnia, specifying certain areas of
Bosnia to have seceded; the consti-
tution for the new state, the Serb Re-
public of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
was proclaimed on February 28. On
February 29 and March 1, Bosnia’s legislature spon-
sored a referendum on independence from Yugo-
slavia. In part because Serbs boycotted the refer-
endum, 98 percent of the voters approved an
independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
which was declared on March 5.
Meanwhile, Bosnian Serb members of the Yugo-
slav army and paramilitary allies organized an army
with backing from the Serb-dominated Yugoslav gov-
ernment. Croatia also agreed to support the Bos-
nian Croat state. The Bosnian Serb Republic then
proclaimed independence on April 7, shortening
its name to Republika Srpska (or Serb Republic)
on August 12. Only the Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina was accorded international recogni-
tion, however.The Conflict Erupts into War Serbs claim that the
first war victim was a groom in a wedding procession
who was shot on March 1, 1992. Bosniaks claim that
a Serb sniper killed a peace marcher on April 5.
Militarily superior to the other forces, the army of
the Republika Srpska proceeded to remove non-
Serbs from territories that had been declared under
its authority. Similarly, the Croatian republic sought
to Croatize certain areas within Bosnia. The result
was a campaign of "ethnic cleansing," whereby mi-
norities were either rounded up and placed in deten-The Nineties in America Bosnia conflict 113
Refugee women from the Bosnian village of Srnice hold photos of their dead or missing
husbands after the Srebrenica massacre in July, 1995.(Hulton Archive/Getty
Images)