Genocide in Bosnia-Hercegovina: A Very Short History Thomas White | Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies |Keene, New Hampshire|
[email protected] Hikmet Karčić | Institute for Islamic Tradition of Bosniaks | Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina |
[email protected] Overview In 1990, as Yugoslavia collapsed, the first multiparty elections were held. These elections created nationalist parties intent on perpetuating ethno-national identities and causes. By 1992, war was being imposed through Serbian and Croatian nationalists seeking to expanded into “greater” national territory. In the coming years the perpetrators of “ethnic cleansing,” displacement, mass atrocity, and genocide, were rewarded by the international community at the Dayton Accords in 1995. Dayton ended the war, but then imposed an ethno-nationalistic portioned Bosnia. A “tycoon class” of nationalist leaders continues to enrich themselves through corruption supported by poverty, fear, insecurity, and the promotion of divisive ethnic identities. The hate didn’t exist before; it was artificially installed. It was all so unbelievable that at first, it seemed funny…The emphasis on ethnicity and exclusion was so strong that ethnic hatred became normalized…There is also the ideology of religion and nationality…Never has there been more religion and less faith…National and religious identities are openly used as weapons in the political arsenal.” – Vedran Grahovac, Prijedor1 Denial of Bosnian genocide is rooted in Serb and Croat religious nationalism and Islamophobia. Unresolved and manipulated memory continue to haunt the Balkans. It is a fundamental mistake, however, to accept the narrative of “Balkanization” as an intractable “truth” of people living here. Balkanization implies that people are separated by exclusive group identities that make them prone to war and to live in perpetual hostility.