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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (9690)	5/24/1999 5:22:00 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 17770

Douglas, I will respond about Krajina when I have had a chance to gather some sources....

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (9690)	5/24/1999 7:30:00 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

This is the time line according to ABC News: A Bosnian majority, with a significant Serb majority dissenting, votes for independence in a plebescite. As soon as the votes are counted, Serbs set up roadblocks around major cities, cutting them off from the mostly Serbian countryside. Serbs begin to leave the cities, and a Bosnian Serb parliament is set up. Throughout the 44-month civil war, the Serbian government and Slobodan Milosevic back Bosnian Serbs, but they do not control them- ‘92 Bosnian Serb forces begin to seize as much territory as they can, most of it in eastern Bosnia, with an eye to a future union with Serbia. Serbian paramilitary "Chetnik" units attack Bosnian Muslim villagers, driving them out of the area. Many become refugees in the cities of Zepa, Srebrenica, Tuzla and Sarajevo. Around this time, the siege of Sarajevo begins, with Serbs shelling the city and using snipers to pick off the residents and defenders.---'92 Fighting continues as peace talks begin in Geneva. The negotiations are based on the U.S. Vance-Owen plan to separate the warring ethnic groups by partitioning Bosnia. But the plan is unpopular with the United States and the Bosnian Muslims, since it requires no Serb withdrawals. At this point, Serbs control about 70 percent of the country.---'93 Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic proposes several partition deals that would leave Serbs between 50 and 52 percent of Bosnia; the Bosnian government rejects them. Instead, the Muslims hold out in UN-declared "safe" cities (Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihac, Zepa, Srebrenica and Gorazde) and arm their troops with smuggled weapons. The Western press almost unanimously criticizes Serbs for aggression and war crimes. A stalemate develops---'93 A mortar round kills 68 people in a Sarajevo marketplace. The incident draws international outrage. The U.S., the European Union and NATO all demand that the Serbs stop shelling Sarajevo. The Serbs comply, but their artillery attacks on other safe cities draw no official criticism. ---'94 The stalemate starts to erode. Croatian and Muslim Bosnians agree on a framework for a federated Bosnia. With that detail settled, the two parties turn to the Serbs in both Krajina and Bosnia. Later, allied Bosnian Croats and Muslims start small operations against Serb-held Bosnia. ----'94 Serb forces, dismissing UN conditions, overrun two of the safe cities, Srebrenica and Zepa, and are accused of committing some of the worst "ethnic cleansing" of the war. Later, they increase attacks on Bihac. Serb General Ratko Mladic reportedly oversees the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. Later on, he and Radovan Karadzic are indicted by the UN War Crimes Tribunal. Britain, France and the United States plan for military retaliation should Serbs attack safe havens again. ---'95 Joint Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat forces, with Croatian help, counterattack in force at Bihac. Their offensive routs Serb forces, throwing them out of Krajina and Western Bosnia. In his book on the Balkans, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke recounts how he took the Croatian Defense Minister aside and said, "We can't say so publicly, but please take Sanski Most, Prijedor and Bosanski Novi. And do it quickly, before the Serbs regroup." About 130,000 Serb refugees are forced to flee the lands they had called their own for hundreds of years, opening the Muslims and Croats up to Serb allegations of "ethnic cleansing."----'95 Different times, different contexts. We were busy trying to foil the Serbs in Bosnia, and winked at the refugee crisis created by the attack on Krajina in order to get the Serbs to agree to some kind of cessation of hostilities. We cannot compare it to the current situation...