A pretty good historical summary from MSNBC:
The roots of ethnic hatred
Ancient Greeks, Celts, Macedonians, Romans, Barbarians, Avars and Slavs, Catholic and
Orthodox Christians and Muslims have controlled parts of the Balkans at various times. From
395-1453, the Christian Orthodox Byzantine Empire held sway. By 1453, however, the Ottoman
Empire had swept north taken control of most of the region.
During the long Ottoman period, many of Bosnia's people converted to Islam. Slovenia and
Croatia remained Roman Catholic.
The roots of ethnic hatred, part 2
The Serbs seethed, however, as Turk invaders slaughtered their nobles and handed their land to
Muslim immigrants and converts. Thus began a long period of Muslim oppression of the
Christian Slavs.
By the early 1800s, the Ottoman Empire was in retreat. A Russian victory against the Ottomans
in 1829 gained Serbia partial independence. Russia prevailed again in the Crimean War of 1854
and went on to liberate Bulgaria in 1878. This finally led the Ottoman Empire to retreat almost
entirely from Europe.
The roots of ethnic hatred, part 3
(Istanbul, modern Turkey's great metropolis, is located in the tiny European remnant of this
defunct empire). The Treaty of San Stefano that led to the Ottoman retreat was contested by
other regional powers. In 1878, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck proposed and won
acceptance for a revision -- Treaty of Berlin, in 1878. Serbia won full independence but the
republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with Croatia and Slovenia, were placed under
Austria-Hungary's rule.
The Balkan powder keg erupts
A new political era began as the Ottomans retreated from the Balkans. In the north, Germany
supported Austria-Hungary's hold over Slovenia and Croatia, while in the south a newly
invigorated and independent Serbia aspired to be the regional powerhouse.
Serb ambition clearly threatened Austria-Hungary. After numerous attempts to quell the Serbs.
When a Serb nationalist in Bosnia assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June
28, 1914, Austria and Serbia declared war.
The Balkan powder keg erupts, part 2
Their gigantic allies - France, Britain and Russia for the Serbs, Germany and the Ottoman
Empire with the Austro-Hungarians - all plunged into conflict. World War I was on.
After initial setbacks, the Serbs and their allies defeated the German and Austro-Hungarian
enemies. At the Treaty of Versailles, they were rewarded after the war with the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, with Peter I, a Serb, as the new leader.
A troubled Yugoslavia is born
Peter I died in 1921 and handed over control of the greater Slav kingdom to his son Alexander.
Alexander's rule is perhaps the closest Serbs have ever come to the ideal of a greater Serbia
covering all of the Balkan states. Alexander installed Serbs in key positions throughout the
region, promoted Eastern Orthodox as the official religion, imposed one official language -
Serbo-Croat - and brutally suppressed Croatian nationalists.
In 1929 he renamed the entire region "Yugoslavia" and declared himself the supreme leader.
A troubled Yugoslavia, part 2
In reaction to Alexander's policies, extremist Croats formed the Ustache, a nationalist terrorist
organization, which assassinated Alexander in 1934. Peter II was heir to the throne, but he was
only 11 at the time and his cousin, Prince Paul took power, continuing Alexander's policies.
At the advent of World War II, Paul favored the Nazis in spite of protests by a maturing Peter II.
Peter II asserted his lineage and wrested control from Paul, but the plan backfired as the Nazis
rolled into Yugoslavia in 1941 and Peter II was forced to flee.
A troubled Yugoslavia is born, 3
The Nazis handed Croatia over to the Ustache, led by Ante Pavelic, who proceeded to ethnically
cleanse the region. Hundreds of thousands of Serbs were killed, and rebellions ensued, one led
by Peter II himself and another, pro-communist movement was led by Josip Broz Tito, a Croat.
Tito won control of Yugoslavia over Peter II and the Ustache, and in 1945 established the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of six republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia.
A troubled Yugoslavia is born, 4
Tito suppressed ethnic hatred, and steered a independent Cold War course for Yugoslavia
between competing interests of the U.S. and U.S.S.R.. In a move to curb Serbian influence in
1974 Tito created two autonomous provinces - Vojvodina and Kosovo, made up largely of ethnic
Hungarians and Albanians, respectively.
Disintegration and war
Following Tito's death in 1980, the various Yugoslav nationalities held together by his communist
state began to fracture. Leading the charge was a Serb, Slobodan Milosevic, who rode to that
republic's presidency by fueling Serb resentments over the fact that ethnic Albanians had
become the overwhelming majority in Serbia's "holy-land" - Kosovo.
Serbia's neighbors saw both a threat and an opportunity in this.
Disintegration and war, part 2
The fighting destabilized another republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina and by October 1991, that
republic's Croat, Serb and Muslim residents were engaged in civil war. Bosnia declared itself a
sovereign. Bosnia's Serbs, who found themselves controlling a region bordering Milosevic's
Serbia, sought to join into a "Greater Serbia."
Bosnia-Herzegovina was thrown into a maelstrom of ethnic warfare and atrocities were
committed on all sides. But Serbia's support for the Bosnian Serbs gave them a military
advantage that they put to brutal use.
Disintegration and war, part 3
Bearing historic grudges against both the Muslims and Croats, Bosnian Serbs committed
wholesale murders to "ethnically cleanse" Muslims and Croats from Bosnia.
World leaders reacted with an arms embargo on the republics, and countless futile attempts at
mediation and cease-fires. In March 1992, the European-led United Nations Protection Force for
Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR) dispatched its first troops to Bosnia, charged delivering humanitarian
aid to besieged cities.
Disintegration and war, part 4
The Bush administration, however, refused to intervene and new President Bill Clinton continued
the policy in the first years of his administration. UNPROFOR continued, often under widespread
criticism for its inability to intervene forcefully, until the implementation of the Dayton Peace
Accord in December 1995.
An early hope for peace
The European-led UNPROFOR mission included a diplomatic effort led by the newly ambitious
European Union and in early 1993 through a plan brokered by Lord Owen of Britain and Cryus
Vance from the United States nearly settled the conflict. The Vance-Owen plan anticipated the
Dayton Accord that ultimately ended the conflict in that it included a central government based in
Sarajevo with representatives of the three ethnic groups rotating in the top spot.
An early hope for peace, part 2
The proposal was refined in early 1993 to include 10 administrative provinces that would have a
large degree of autonomy, based on ethnic divisions. Despite initial optimism following the
introduction of the plan, and support from Milosevic and Bosnia Serb political leader Radovan
Karadzic, the plan was rejected in May 1993 by the Bosnian Serb Parliament. At this point the
Bosnian Serb military controlled 70 percent of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Only battlefield losses later
in the war would convince the Bosnian Serbs to sue for peace, and even then reluctantly.
Bosnia's conflict peaks
On the same day in May 1993 that the Bosnian Serb parliament rejected the Vance-Owen Peace
Plan, it also voted to create an independent Serb state within Bosnia. The five-member Western
contact group on Yugoslavia - the United States, France, Britain, Russia, and Italy - reacted to
the rejection of the Vance-Owen plan and the declaration of independence with a "joint action
plan."
Bosnia's conflict peaks, part 2
The plan established six U.N. "protection zones" sprinkled throughout Bosnia (Bihac, Gorazde,
Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Tuzla and Zepa) in order to protect the civilian population. The plan failed
miserably when Srebrenica fell to the Serbs in July 1995 and up to 20,000 Muslim men were
murdered. However, the "joint action plan" did provide the legal basis for the eventual
intervention by NATO.
Reversals and Dayton
A Muslim-Croat federation was established in March 1994 ending hostilities between those two
parties. It was to prove a pivotal event. In the summer of 1995, the tides of war turned as the
Muslim-Croat federation, supported now by the Croatian national army, made dramatic territorial
gains in the northwest. Again, attrocities ensued, this time by Croats against Bosnian Serbs. Not
to be outdone, Bosnian Serb units massacred of Muslim men captured in the "U.N. protection
zone" of Srebrenica.
Reversals and Dayton, part 2
NATO responded with airstrikes, damaging the Bosnian Serb war-making ability. By November,
the Serbs controlled just 50 percent of Bosnian territory, down from the 70 percent. With the
West involved and territory at near parity, diplomacy gained some traction. U.S. envoy Richard
Holbrooke convened the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia at Wright-Patterson AFB in
Dayton, Ohio. By this time Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic had been indicted by the Hague War
Crimes Tribunal and so his patron, Slobodan Milosevic, carried the Karadzic proxy.
Reversals and Dayton, part 3
On Nov. 21, the Dayton Peace Accord was signed. The accord created a single Bosnian state
with the Croat-Muslim Federation controlling 51 percent of the territory and the Bosnian Serbs,
49 percent. 60,000 European and U.S. peacekeepers entered the country and as of March 1999,
20,000 still remained. Elections for a Bosnian government were held nine months after the
accord. Despite problems, violence has remained minimal. However, some believe only the
peacekeepers prevent a return to violence.
Kosovo's turn
As the world focused on the break-up of Yugoslavia, tensions mounted inside the country's
dominant republic, Serbia. For 600 years, since losing a battle to the Ottoman Turks in 1389, the
province of Kosovo had been regarded as the cradle of Serbian civilization. But by the 1950s,
the majority of the population was ethnic Albanian and by 1974 the province won almost absolute
autonomy.
Kosovo's turn, part 2
That was cause for great resentment in Serbia and a great opportunity for politicians suddenly
freed of communism's prohibition on nationalist rhetoric.
In 1989, then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic abolished Kosovo's autonomy and
introduced virtual martial law. Ethnic Albanians protested and in 1997 elected a self-styled
government. Milosevic ordered a crackdown in 1998 that led to the emergence of a separatist
movement spearheaded by the Kosovo Liberation Army. Since then, open warfare has ensued.
Kosovo's turn, part 3
NATO, fearing the spread of the fighting outside Serbia's borders, brokered a truce in Oct. 1998
that was soon violated. In Feb. 1999, NATO threatened to bomb Yugoslav military targets if
Belgrade didn't agree to a peace deal and peacekeeping forces. Milosevic refused and in March,
bombing began. |
