Muslim-Croat Alliance and War - Research Paper Example

?Introduction: Bosnia and Herzegovania was one of the most conflict ridden regions in the latter half of the 20th century. The war in Bosnia killed more than a hundred thousand people in the span of just four years between 1992 and 1995. The conflict was a three sided ethnic struggle between Muslims, Croats and Serbs. The breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia gave birth to several states. Bosnia and Herzegovania was one of the independent states formed as a result of the disintegration. Background: Yugoslavia was home to people from several ethnic and religious backgrounds and was one of the more multicultural countries created after World War I by the triumphant Western Allies. The country was home to ethnic and religious groups that had been rivals in history and enemies at times, including Muslims, Croats and Serbs. World War II led to the invasion of Yugoslavia by Nazi Germany and its subsequent disintegration. The division was transient however, because as soon as Germany was defeated Josip Tito reunified Yugoslavia, inspiring the unification of Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and two self governing provinces namely Kosovo and Vojvodina. This new Yugoslavia was inspired by Tito who was a communist leader. He was a shrewd leader who played with both the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war and obtained financial assistance from both sides as a result. This unity, however, could last as long as Josip Tito’s life as Serbia plunged into political and economic chaos after his death. Disintegration of the New Yugoslavia and its fall out:- The death of Tito led to the rise of a new leader Slobodan Milosevic, a former communist. Milosevic believed in the principle of divide and rule to further his goals. He turned to triggering nationalism and religious hatred to gain power. His first plan of action was to set fire to the long-standing tensions between Muslims and Serbs of Kosovo. The minority populace of Serbs (Orthodox Christians) was led to believe that they were being ill-treated by the Muslim majority. The purpose of triggering this conflict was to broaden Milosevic’s power by eventually taking control of the politically broken Kosovo. Kosovo eventually lost its independence and was taken over by Milosevic. His politically twisted motives led to violence and chaos in other parts of Yugoslavia as well. Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991. This was not met well by the leaders and populaces of the mentioned states and led to civil war. Milosevic tried to regain control by sending his Serbian concentrated army to Slovenia however his attempts were fruitless. This failure led to Milosevic’s shift in focus from Slovenia to Croatia. Croatia was a catholic country with people from diverse ethnic groups residing there. It was however a pro-Nazi and anti-Serb state which followed policies of fascism underlined by the Ustasha party. In 1991, the independence of Croatia led to a tilt of the country’s orientations towards doctrines of the Nazi era which involved enactment of discriminatory laws against orthodox Serbs. The Croat state consisted of a minority Serbian population of 12 %. Milosevic, loyal to his people and oblivious to territorial boundaries, was aided by Serbian guerrillas in Croatia in its invasion. The constant bombardment of the city of Vukavor turned it to ruins. The might of Milosevic’s army was too much for the Croats to handle. The arms embargo imposed by the UN on all former Yugoslavian states was of little use due to the military might of Milosevic’s Serbian forces. The fighting led to monumental damage for the weak Croats and the their infrastructure, military might and financial strength was significantly impaired by the time a US Sponsored ceasefire was exercised between the Serbs and Croats. The Muslim-Croat Alliance: Chronology and fall out. Bosnia had been fighting for its independence for a considerable period of time. It was a Muslim majority country. At the time Chairman of the influential Bosnian CDU, Kljuic had good personal and working relationships with the Bosnian president and influential Muslim leaders including Ejub Ganic, Muhammad Filipovic and others. In the Bosnian referendum the Muslims and Croats voted as a block to avoid inclusion in a smaller Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. The United States and the European Union recognized it as an independent state in early 1992. Although it gained independence there was potential for several fresh conflicts springing from this development as Bosnia comprised of 32% Serbs. Given the history of Milosevic and his occupation of Croatia on the premise of the 12%, it was feared that the fallout of the independence of Bosnia would be much worse (Burg and Shoup). It did not take much long for Milosevic to respond to this development as he attacked the capital, Sarajevo as a response to Bosnia’s independence. This event is referred to as the Siege of Sarajevo. Croats and Muslims collaborated to defend the newly formed Bosnia during the Siege of Sarajevo. This alliance was initially supported by the Croatian government which armed both communities and gracefully accepted hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees fleeing the war. It is important to note that this alliance began despite the passivity of the Bosnian government during the war in Croatia, relative to Croatia’s position with respect to the war in Slovenia (Lukic and Lynch). Bosnian territory was used to massacre Croatia by Serb influenced forces and hence Croatia was known to conspire with the Serbs at the expense of Muslims during the Siege of Sarajevo. Although Muslims were massacred during the war, the primary cause of the war was not on the premise of ethnic conflict; rather it was the Serbia’s unwillingness to accept the sovereignty of a breakaway republic. The alliance between the Croats and the Muslims had different value for the two parties. Reports from the CIA and the UN suggested that the systematic actions of the Serbians aimed to destroy and disperse non-Serb population. For the Muslims the alliance was extremely essential as they were helpless and did not have any friends to send them arms in case of a war. For the Croats however, it was a marriage of convenience aimed to help protect against the Serbian incursion and other strategic objectives. The Bosnian Croats had a monopoly over the supply of arms to the country as they were received directly via Croatia. This led to the patronization of the Muslims by the Croats, and they were treated as junior partners. Many Croats were also resentful towards the Muslims due to their indifference during the war in Croatia. Many Croats felt vindicated after the actions of the Serbs. It was becoming apparent that the Croats were pursuing a double strategy in Bosnia (Sells). The alliance with the Muslims did not prevent them from construing a separate deal with Serbia at the expense of Bosnia. Milosevic and President Tudjman of Croatia met on several occasions to discuss the possible disintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovania. In an attempt to avoid war with Serbia, the Croatian president thought he could convince Milosevic by showing support for his Bosnian mission at the expense of Muslims (Gibbs). The leader of the CDU was a staunch critic of the Croat president’s tactics and was subsequently replaced by Mate Boban who was much less sensitive to dealings at the expense of Muslim allies. The Croatian leaders had not learned their lessons from dealing with Milosevic despite the war on Croatia. They colluded with Milosevic to materialize the disintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovania. There were several attempts to divide Bosnia and Herzegovania and when the second attempt to divide the states failed, the Croatian government concluded its alliance with Bosnian Muslims. The final blow to the Croat-Muslim relations came when the Graz agreement was approved despite the reluctance of the largest ‘nation’ group of Muslims to agree with the terms. This accord was a representative of the immense quality of Serbian negotiators and the immense stupidity of their Croatian counterparts and cleared way for further Serbian domination (Lukic and Lynch). By 1992 the Serbs and Croats followed congruent strategies in Bosnia and Herzegovania. By October 1992, the Croat-Muslim military alliance collapsed, although it did continue to function in Sarajevo. That month Croat forces abandoned their men from the town of Bosanski, leaving their Muslim ‘allies’ at the mercy of Serb forces. Soon after, open conflicts broke out between Croat and Muslim forces in several cities including Prozor, Vitez, Varez and Gornji Vakuf (Lukic and Lynch). All of this led to a completely disintegrated Muslim Croat alliance and gave the Serbian forces power to attack and destroy a nation struck by civil war and lack of unity. The subsequent massacres was unprecedented. Bosnia was at the mercy of Milosevic’s forces, which were cruel and uncompromising. Armed men ruthlessly shot out men, women and children and the death toll kept on rising day by day. The uncompromising military might of Milosevic’s men was too much for the Bosnian forces to counter. The Muslim population was helpless in its efforts to fight back and Milosevic’s men continued to gain ground very fast. Some of the events of the time were reminiscent of the massacres conducted by Nazi Germany during World War II. Modes of violence included mass shootings, confinement in concentration camps and rape against women and young girls. The surprising part was the indifference shown by the international community despite incessant reports of mass killings, destruction of mosques and architecture by the media. The U.N peacekeeping mission was aimed to protect the distribution of food and medicines to affected Muslims (Malcolm). The UN also imposed economic sanctions on Serbia, however it did little to prevent the massacre militarily. The indifference of the world community gave further reason to the Serbs to continue the massacres in 1993, as they fathomed that the US and the European community, along with other influential states did not care about the issue at all. The World woke up and finally took notice of the massacres after the death of dozens of civilians in a mortar bomb attack on February 5 in Sarajevo. The United Nations and Russia were the decisive actors who led to the end of the siege of Sarajevo (Keesing). The reaction was also triggered by the fact that the massacre was widely broadcasted and the atrocities and brutal images were shown by the media. The US president Bill Clinton acted on the news and issued a final warning through the NATO to the Serbs and demanded their withdrawal from Sarajevo. A NATO imposed ceasefire was in place soon after. The U.S launched diplomatic efforts to trigger an alliance between the Croats and Muslims, however this alliance could not prevent the massacres Serbs carried out at safe havens home to several Muslims. Bosnian Serbs not took out everything that came their way including UN peacekeepers. During this period some of the most hideous genocidal crimes of the conflict occurred. In one safe haven, UN peacekeepers watched helplessly as Serbian forces carefully selected and slaughtered around 8000 civilians who were men and boys aged 12 to 60. Effective military intervention finally arrived as a US led NATO attack in response to the killing at the safe haven took place. The bombing attack was well coordinated and targeted Serbian artillery positions throughout Serbia. Muslims started receiving arms and support from the Muslim world and the Serbian forces started to lose ground to Bosnian Muslims as well. Eventually, more than half of Bosnia was taken over by Croat-Muslim troops. Milosevic realized that his dominance had decreased and thought it was a good time to talk peace with the victims. Three weeks of negotiations led to a peace accord. Terms of the agreement called for the partitioning of Bosnia into a Bosnian-Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation. The agreement also called for establishment of democratic principles and called for the handing over of war criminals for prosecution (Cohen). Works Cited Burg, Steven L and Paul S Shoup. The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina: ethnic conflict and international intervention. M.E Sharpe, 2000. Cohen, Roger. Terms of Muslim-Croat Alliance Are Set at Dayton Talks. 11 1995. 12 2011 . Gibbs, David N. First do no harm: humanitarian intervention and the destruction of Yugoslavia . Vanderbilt University Press, 2009. Keesing. Feb 1994 - Action by external powers to relieve Sarajevo after massacre. 2 1994. 12 2011 . Lukic, Reneo and Allen Lynch. Europe from the Balkans to the Urals: the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Oxford University Press, 1996. Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia: A short History. Pan Books, 2002. Sells, Micheal Antony. The Bridge Betrayed: Genocide and Religion in Bosnia. University of California Press, 1998. Read More