What was the conflict/war between the Bosnians and Serbians?

Question

I was wondering what the civil war was about between the Serbians and Bosnians in Bosnia (or it might have been Serbia). They made a movie about it (Behind Enemy Lines I think). I just get a little confused on who was in charge and who wasn't. I was wondering if anybody could give me a breif discription of the conflict (war, etc) and the names of the guys who were charged and put in jail for war crimes?

Answer 1

simply, it was a battle of land in Yugoslavia. Slobodan Milosevic (who later was accused with war crimes, but died of a heart attack before the trial) was president of Serbia and he invaded Bosnia and attacked its people. Hence the genocide that happened in '95. Bosniaks were slaughtered, starved, forced in concentration camps. A war broke out between both of these groups. NATO bombed strategic locations to eventually end it. hundreds of thousands of Bosniaks died.

Answer 2

Yugoslavia was a nation that was kind of "thrown together' that encompassed different groups-Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Kosovar Albanians and Slovenes. When Tito was in charge (it was a Communist nation) there was a type of peace. Tito also mixed up ethnicites in different locations to create a sort of "melting pot". When Tito died there really was no clear cut leader of Yugoslavia. The constitution created a type of system where for like a few years the President of Serbia would be in charge and then the President of Bosnia would be in charge etc etc. In the late 80's and early 90's Croatia and Slovenia wanted to secede from Yugoslavia. Slobodan Milosevic was president at this time (from Serbia) and was more interested in retaining power and keeping the nation in tact. He actually let Slovenia go with little intervention. There were some skirmish's in Slovenia but there was a negligiable Serb population there so they announced their independence. However, Croatia had a large Serb minority (the statistic I have is roughly 12%) and leader Franjo Tudjman who himself was power hungry and nationalistic, declared Croatia's independence which was recognized by Germany and later the US (in which I was very opposed to since I knew that it was a tinderbox over there but as usual the powers that be never listen to the people who really know anything) and the war between Croatia and Serbia began. But in the middle of all of this is Bosnia-Herzegovina which has three different groups-Croats, Serbs and Bosnian Muslims. It was the most diverse part of Yugoslavia and Milosevic did not want to let it go. The leader of that country was Alija Izetbegovic. One must remember that Bosnian Muslims are actually Slavs (Croat or Serb) who were converted during Ottoman rule. Anyway, the Croats and Bosnian muslims created a sort of "alliance" (I use the term loosely) and the Serbs were on the other side. There was a lot of fighting, mass murders of innocent civilians, sniper attacks on whole cities (such as Sarajevo the capital) the genocide of places like Bihac and of course the concentration camps. There were many war criminals on all sides but the most came from either the Serb or Croat side. The Serbs had people like Milosevic,Dusan Tadic, Milan Babic,Predag Banovic,Ranko Cesic,Damir Dosan,Drazan Erdemovic (technically a Croat but fought for Serb forces and part of the Srebrenica massacre),Stanislav Galic,Goran Jelisic (personally killed roughly 13 civilians in Brcko),Miodrag Jokic (Seige of Dubrovnik during Croatia's war for independence),Dragan Kolundzija,Milojica Kos (Omarska camp),Radomir Kovac,Momcilo Krajisnik,Milorad Krnojelac,Radislav Krstic,Dragoljub Kunarac,Miroslav Kvocka,Milan Martic (President and defense minister of Croatian Serbs during Croatia's war for independence),Mile Mrksic,Dragan Nikolic,Biljana Plavic (Former President of Republika Srpska)Dragoljub Pricac, Mladko Radic (omarska camp),Dusko Sikirica,Blagoje Simic,Milan Simic,Veselin Sljivancanin (Vukovar),Milomar Stakic (life imprisonment for his role with Prijedor nearby concentration camps),Miroslav Tadic,Stevan Todorovic,Mitar Vasiljevic,Zoran Vukovic,Simo Zaric and Zoran Zigic. Of course there are two big ones that are still being sought Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzjic.

On the Croat side-Zlatko Aleksovski,Tihomir Blaskic, Miroslav Bralo,Mario Cerkez,Stjepan Grandic (Gospic massacre), Drago Josipovic,Dario Kordic,Vinko Martinovic,Zdravo Mucic, Mladen Naletilic,Mirko Norac (Croatian Army General and commander of forces during the Gospic massacre), Tihomir Oreskovic,Ivica Rajic,Vladimir Santic. There are many more criminals wanted on both sides. The list that I have provided is not exhaustive. Sad to say that there are so many more who are still out there. As far as Bosnian Muslims convicted for war crimes there is Hazim Delic (Celebici prison camp), Esad Landzo (Celebici prison camp). It was a horrible war that still scars that area of the world today. Hopefully the war criminals at large will be caught and brought to justice one day. Hope this helped! If you are really interested in this topic I would to and pick up a few books on this subject. There are some good ones out there, such as The War in Yugolsavia by Misha Glenny which is an easy read. Also I would just look through all of the different books on the shelf and see if any more strike your fancy.

Answer 3

Religion as usual.

The Bosnians are Muslim, the Serbs are Orthodox Christians

Answer 4

It was about Religion and Land.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wa...

Answer 5

It was about Muslims wanting thier independent country the way that Croatia got their country. Everyone wanted to cut away from united Yugoslavia where all people Muslims, Serbs, Croats, and many others lived together in harmony, while Tito was the president, Tito encouraged peace and brotherhood. As soon as he died everyone wanted to be independent and so Croatia wanted pure Croats country and it got Independece and Muslims wanted pure Muslim Bosnia and it got Independent where despite what you heard on news or from your government many people died in that conflict not just Muslims but Serbs too. Many Serbs left their homes fighting for survival and became immigrants. Many Muslims too. Thats why there are a lot of immigrants from Bosnia in USA in Canada in Germany in Australia and many other countries.