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Marie-Janine Calic, Team Leader Momčilo Mitrović, Team Leader 4 Marie-Janine Calic, team leader Momčilo Mitrović, team leader Milan Andrejevich Elissa Helms Norman Naimark Elazar Barkan Dušan Janjić Lana Obradović Alfred Bing Ozren Jungić Tatjana Perić Cathie Carmichael Georg Kastner Ernest Plivac Judit Deli Paul Leifer Šerbo Rastoder Marta Fazekas James Lyon Jacques Semelin Horst Haselsteiner David MacDonald Branislava Stankov† Josef Marko Mirsad Tokača Principal author Marie-Janine Calic’s text integrates significant data com- piled by the late Branislava Stankov, Mirsad Tokača’s Research & Docu- mentation Center, Marko Attila Hoare and Ozren Jungić, whose research on the Serbian Defense Council appears for the first time in this edition. The chapter also incorporates material from a series of publications provided by Smail Čekić, director of the Institute for the Research of Crimes against Humanity & International Law. It reflects extensive input collected from several project-wide reviews. Research stipends from the National Endowment for Democracy as- sisted the staff of team member Mirsad Tokača’s Research & Documenta- tion Center, and Branislava Stankov’s investigation of sexual crimes against women conducted at Medica Zenica and the BiH Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees. As team leader, Marie-Janine Calic succeeeded Horst Ha- selsteiner (2001-2003) and Georg Kastner (2003-2005), each of whom authored drafts submitted for project-wide review in October 2003 and Jan- uary 2004, respectively. A satellite meeting hosted by Andrássy University, Budapest, took place in December 2004. The final draft underwent exten- sive project-wide review in January-February 2006 and was subsequently adopted following the completion of additional revisions. Team members reviewed the latest draft in December 2011. ETHNIC CLEANSING AND WAR CRIMES, 1991-1995 u Marie-Janine Calic u Public perception has associated the Yugoslav wars of succession with all forms of ethnically inspired violence, from murder, rape, and torture to mass expulsion. Many of these systematic violations of international humanitarian law occurred in the context of ethnic cleansing—a purposeful policy that “means rendering an area ethnically homogenous by using force or intimidation to remove from a given area persons from another ethnic or religious group.”1 The violent breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia resulted in the largest refugee cri- sis in Europe since World War II. In 1991, half a million people were displaced in Croatia. Between 1992 and 1995, over half of Bosnia-Hercegovina’s 4.4 million people were uprooted, including an estimated 1.3 million who were internally displaced, 500,000 who were refugees in neighboring countries, and 700,000 who had fled to Western European countries.2 As a result, many municipalities in that country have changed their ethnic structure substantially and, perhaps, permanently. This chapter aims at describing causes, features, and consequences of ethnic cleansing as a policy in Bosnia-Hercegovina during the war, which has posed substantial challenges to our research team. No other subject is so heavily charged with emotion, selective perception, and partiality as mass crimes and the phenomenon of ethnic cleansing. Conflicting perspectives and controversies con- cern both the quality and quantity of violence, and there is an obvious tendency of politicization. For instance, the number of victims on either side continues to be a controversial subject; figures presented often appear inflated. Interpretations constantly evolve in light of the quickly expanding body of primary evidence and secondary literature about the Yugoslav wars of succession. It is therefore impor- tant to keep some key concerns in mind. First, the attempt to conceptualize ethnic cleansing as a policy involves nearly all of the crucial, controversial issues that have been debated since the 115 u 116 MARIE-JANINE CALIC breakup of Yugoslavia, such as the causes of the war and the roles and intentions of political leaders. These issues have been dealt with in depth by other teams’ chapters in this project, and it appeared neither justified nor feasible to include differing accounts and competing interpretations of all these important aspects of the subject. Second, systematic analysis of ethnic cleansing requires a certain selectivity of facts because the chapter aims at recounting main developments in an exem- plary and systematic way. Space limitations simply do not permit a comprehen- sive narrative either of events or of all the atrocities committed during the war. Third, the reliability of sources has been crucial. Given the limited resources at our disposal, it has been impossible to conduct primary research into mass crimes. We have, therefore, relied heavily on investigations of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), international institutions, and the rather finite research conducted by individual scholars, most of whom are closely associated with a particular viewpoint. Although partisans of one side or another have questioned the impartiality of the ICTY, its investigative teams have conducted an enormous amount of research that meets high scholarly standards. Unfortunately, much of its work has not yet been made available to the commu- nity of scholars. We stress, therefore, that this chapter is part of a much longer process that cannot be deemed “final” in the absence of conclusive evidence. Fourth, comparability and interpretation of events have given rise to dramat- ically different interpretations. There is still no consensus with regard to terminol- ogy, categorization, and interpretation of the phenomenon of ethnic cleansing.3 For instance, the question of whether ethnic cleansing should per se be equated with genocide is highly controversial. There is little understanding that, although diverse acts of violence may share the same features, such as mass expulsion and large-scale atrocities, the underlying motivation and intention of major actors may be totally diverse in each single case. This chapter aims at providing care- ful analytical distinction, assuming that each set of events in which mass crimes occurred needs to be analyzed separately but without precluding any possible interpretation from the outset. Fifth, there has been an inherent, although often unintended, tendency to “measure” guilt and attribute it collectively to the parties involved. At the same time, all parties to the conflict perceive themselves as the real victims of the war and believe that injustices continue to go unaddressed. Ethnic cleansing and other crimes were evidently perpetrated by all parties in the conflict, and there were victims on all sides, although the gravity and dimension differed markedly, as the UN Commission of Experts has clearly stated. At the beginning of the war, most of the violations were committed by Serb forces against Bosniaks and, to a lesser extent, Croats, as the result of a highly developed policy of ethnic cleansing. Also, Croat forces conducted ethnic cleans- u Ethnic Cleansing and War Crimes, 1991-1995 117 ing campaigns against Serbs in eastern and western Slavonia and in the Krajina region of Croatia, as well as against Bosniaks in Mostar and central Bosnia. Bos- niak forces have victimized Serbs in Bosnia-Hercegovina, but in lesser numbers, with forceful population removal occurring only in limited areas.4 Later, there were more massive campaigns against Serbs as well, especially in 1995, when a large number of the Croatian Serbs fled their home territory. During 1992–1995, Roma were also subjected to ethnic cleansing by Serb, Croat, and Bosnian Mus- lim forces. Against this background, there are also conflicting positions concerning “moral equivalence”: do all parties to the conflict really bear equal responsibility? Did all sides suffer equally in the war, and is there a (perceived) hierarchy among the victims? The community of analysts is divided among those who take an explicit moralist attitude and those who do not. This has resulted in unscholarly polemics against alternative approaches.5 Hopefully, the ICTY’s work of creating an objective record of events and establishing individual blame instead of collec- tive guilt will effect a consensus in the interpretation of events in the future. Until then, this chapter will avoid making summary judgments about individual perpe- trators or the belligerents themselves in the absence of conclusive evidence. In- stead, it will try to conceptualize the phenomenon of ethnic cleansing as a policy by analyzing its aims, mechanisms, and consequences, while recapitulating the main controversies surrounding it. In light of the aforementioned challenges, this chapter undertakes the fol- lowing. First, it discusses meaning and content of the term ethnic cleansing. Second, it gives a narrative of key events and analyzes main features of ethnic cleansing as a policy. Third, it presents two of the most contentious issues: the number of victims and possible distinctions between the terms ethnic cleansing and genocide. The analysis is based on various sources: (a) a review of the literature and recent studies on the phenomenon of ethnic cleansing; (b) analysis of case mate- rial produced by the ICTY and other international institutions; (c) specific re- search by team members, in particular the Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo6 and witness statements collected by the Institute for Recent History of Serbia in Belgrade. I. The Term Ethnic Cleansing The term ethnic cleansing entered the vocabulary
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