Source: blansh.wordpress.com
It is with this utterly horrific episode of the Balkan Wars that GIN Revista would like to honour the victims of one of the worst conflicts of the present time. On the 6th of April, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina found itself flooded with small, red chairs and an hour-long silence in remembrance of the start of the conflict. Total amount of casualties in Sarajevo alone: 11,451, each representing the Sarajevans that perished in the two-sided conflict.
20 years ago, Serbian “unifying” troops opened fire on two peaceful women protesters on one of Sarajevo’s main bridges (note: the start of the conflict is still a widely controversial issue and subject to diverse opinion according to diverse ethnic or political groups). The outcome of such event brought the whole region into a new episode in its history, forever to be tarnished with blood, in which Sarajevo suffered one of the longest sieges in present history. Whether it be Serbs, Bosniaks (Bosnian-Muslim) or Croatian victims… The ethnicity of the victims does not matter for, as in all wars, humanity is the toll to pay and a dead body has no longer an ethnic origin, only a culprit for its murder.
In fact, the present atmosphere among the Bosnian nation is still of regret, shame, frustration, but worst of all, the feeling that nothing was accomplished. Even though independence from the crumbling Yugoslavia did take place as with other neighboring nations (such as Croatia and Slovenia), the consequences endured to attain such a feat are simply ghastly. BBC News Analysis goes into minute detail of the Bosnian conflict: 100,000 deaths in total, around 50000 wounded and between half a million and a million forced from their homes, in search of shelter and protection. A lost generation and a new page in human brutality…
For those unaware of the situation, the city of Sarajevo was held under siege for four years (from 1992 to 1996, with the signing of the Dayton Agreement), making it one of the longest in this era. Serb forces surrounded and attacked the city against government troops, while the UN was given the commission of the international airport. Many people escaped the siege but many more were trapped in their own city. Along one of the frontlines lay Pazi Snajper (which in Latinized Serb means Sniper Alley). For many years, anybody crossing it would be shot by Serb Elite Snipers, including women and children.
There is a great deal of lessons to be learnt: the UN managed an important humanitarian contingent in order to take care of the city-dwellers during the blockade that lasted 1427 days. Notwithstanding, their effort and power to stop the violence reassured the international community, once more, of the impotence of such an organization who will, unfortunately, carry its failure and humiliation for many decades to come. Events such as Srbrenica or even Sniper Alley were stoppable. But both the UN and the indifference of the countries inside this body at the time are to blame in the same measure, especially those inside the Security Council. Shame on those countries that acted so idly at the time and that also led to a similar episode in war-stricken Rwanda at around the same time. Present resolutions such as UN Resolution 1973 (in which Bosnia-Herzegovina cast an affirmative vote as temporary member of the Security Council) in favour of intervention to protect innocent civilians are meant to stop similar episodes from happening, though the threat of political, military and non-humanitarian intervention always has been a threat. It is also important to enforce institutions such as the ICC in order to take those who commanded such atrocities to court and cast impunity as a thing of the past.
As the reader may have contemplated, the Bosnian nation has been subject to many of “the worst episodes in current history”. The Economist confirms present difficulties in day to day politics, in every single aspect. An example is the recent controversy over a statement made by the an education minister in the Sarajevo canton from the country’s main multi-ethnic party (SDP) declaring religion was not as important as other subjects. By contrast, the unexpected government coalition formed last December (after 15 months of verbal battling) proved that compromise in a broken nation is difficult but still possible.
With the country’s new EU candidacy prospects, the still divided nation (in political terms, the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina; in ethnic terms, Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks) is heading the right way, towards a new era of reconciliation and prosperity.
Cecilio Oviedo
References:
United Nations Security Council:
Reuters:
The Economist:
- http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/12/new-bosnian-government
- http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/03/20th-anniversary-bosnian-war
BBC News:
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17636640
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17617775 (recommended in-depth analysis of the city’s siege)
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17632399
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso (OBC):
Recommended read:
- Postcards from the Grave by Emir Suljagic
GIN 
I’ve read ICTY testimony and UN officials who were there in Sarajevo during the war have stated that Muslim snipers did use and operate in buildings in Sniper’s Alley. To blame all the sniping on Serbs when the Muslims had a larger infantry there and were seen active and caught sniping by the UN officials only fuels lying propaganda. It was stated by UN officials that Muslims did sniping and shelling for PR purposes and also did some of it to provoke the Serbs into firing back. They were also traced by the French Marines in June 1995 firing from the former parliamentary building. A Ukrainian officer testified about hearing OUTGOING mortars from right next to their compound, which was next to a Muslim army controlled building, and then minutes later the Serb gunners would respond. And he reports he and the other Ukrainian soldiers, were furious – but not at Serbs – they knew the Muslims were purposely baiting the Serbs into firing back at that area and hoping they’d hit the UN and get in more trouble for that.
Sí… el conflicto de los Balcanes, el último gran conflicto europeo y en el que se ve claramente la manipulación de los medios de comunicación y la injerencia de los EE.UU para destruir otro estado nación europeo con tal de conseguir una aliado estratégico, aunque éste sean los narcoterroristas del UCK en Kósovo. Siempre se habla de los desmanes de las tropas Serbias, de los francotiradores de élite serbios, pero nunca de cuáles fueron los hechos previos a la actuación del ejército serbio, del exterminio de población serbia en aquellas repúblicas que habían declarado de manera unilateral(=ilegal) su independencia de Yugoslavia.
La actuación de UN y NATO fue la vergüenza (enviados de UN fotografiándose con terroristas) que deja clara una vez más su deslegitimidad, con su inacción en un primer momento y después con sus «bombardeos humaniatrios» a la población civil Serbia.