Genocide in the Balkans - Essay Example

The period 1992-1995 marked one of the darkest eras on the Balkans history. This is a period that saw various acts against humanity carried out by neighbors against each other. According to jones: Drakulic' in her novel, about the Balkans. This period was characterized by rampant rape. Drakulic was a Croatian journalist and begins the projects by speaking to women who had suffered in the war. (Askin, 1997) There are various factors that led to this genocide. Key among them was ethnic cleansing and religious differences. In fact there is this argument that the capital city of Bosnia Herzegovina is the most ethnically clean city in Europe. According to Carl K. Slavic, there are other external factors that fuelled the genocide in Bosnia. These are; public relations firms, the US media, &the US state department. Slavic points out that the ethnic, political and religious conflicts in Bosnia were caused by exclusive national and political agendas of different Bosnia factions: Bosnia Serbs, Bosnia Muslim and Bosnia Croats; all speaking the same language but divided by religion, culture and national visions. (Sells, 1996.) The Bosnia Muslims sought to be detached from Yugoslavia but maintain borders and political structures as it existed in the Yugoslavia federation. Bosnia Serbs on the other hand saw the destruction of the Yugoslav federation would necessarily result to destruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The US and Germany advocated for unilateral and unconditional recognition of the internal borders of Yugoslavia. These different views were the major causes of the conflict and crisis. (Propadovic, 2003) Lack of diplomacy and political agreement resulted to," politics by other means" war. The US and Germany did nothing to prevent the war. This led to a very protracted hatred between the Serbs and the Bosnians Muslims. Drakulic in her novel refers to Seida's parents being a Muslim father and Serbian mother. This was as a result of a propaganda that was making rounds, insisting there were no Bosnians only Serbs and people of Islamic faith. (Askin, 1997) Even before the war, Bosnian Muslims had hired prominent American public relations firms as well as members of the congress and senate. So had the Kosovo Albanians and the Croats. An American P.R firm initiated the 'atrocities stories'. This was later to become very common in the war. Propaganda rent the air during the whole conflict. This fueled violence among the warring factions. A US PR firm actually admits having been retained by the Bosnia Muslims, Kosovo Albanians and Croats to wage a public relations war against the Serbs. This was referred to as info war. (Sells, 1996.) In fact it is reported that the three factions paid a total of $320,000 for six months of work, between June and September 1992, Rudder Finn firm organized various activities on behalf of the Bosnian Muslims . For example, 30 press group meetings were organized and 37 last minute faxes sent. It also organized meetings between various high ranking people on the government of the US including the then vice president and Bosnian Muslim representatives. Rudder Finn considered its greatest success in propaganda as having succeeded in moving the American Jewish opinion in favor of the Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Kosovo Albanians. Osama bin laden Mujahideen forces were also involved and were part of a Bosnian army. (Askin, 1997) The US state department, who were the overseers of the fall of the Soviet Union, wanted Yugoslavia to go the same way. The new Balkan states such as Bosnia and Herzegovina were equated with batalic states, though erroneously. By going this divide and rule way, the US would be able to state its command on the political, military and commercial interest in the Balkans. The state department's goal was to create a weak Bosnia Muslim ruled state. A Bosnia dependent on the US for security, development and political viability. A State that would represent America's interests in the region. This was to be achieved by denying Serbia self rule and autonomy. (Sells, 1996.) The media was also a key player in the Bosnian conflict of 1992-1995. The press was completely partisan. The media took a combatant role in the conflict. Civil war thus became a crusade against Serbian orthodox population in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia. In the book Sarajevo blues by an American born teacher and journalist, Mehmedinovic, he talks about the passive response from the west. He even goes ahead to indicate that the foreign journalists would be happier to take a shot of him dying rather than highlight the plight of the suffering people. (Propadovic, 2003) The western media did not only report on the war, it contributed to it by distorting information and manufacturing facts that were out rightly a lie and manipulating information. Propaganda war was organized initially by Germany in 1991 by the editors of a Frankfurt magazine calling the Serbs by names such as 'military Bolsheviks' who had no place in the European community. The US government and propaganda by the media was to categorize Bosnia as a conflict where the Serbs were committing genocide against Bosnia Muslim. (Allen, 1996.) According to Drakulic, it was the Serbian paramilitary instigators who caused chaos in the nation killing over 250,000 Bosnian people and displacing over 2 million. Mehmedinovic also refers to incidents where Serb terrorists expelled mental patients from a suburban asylum and drove them into the city eventually killing the. (Propadovic, 2003) The conflict in the Balkans could have been avoided, if the residents could have adopted the nonviolent movement system such as the one in Kosovo and Yugoslavia. Residents here decided to go slow after Slobodan Milosevic fired 80% of the Albanians and removed the autonomy of Kosovo. The ethnic Albanians began a lager scale sustained non violent struggle to demand their rights. (Sells, 1996.) some of the actions they took included; Half hour general strikes called by the independent trade unions, people dangling keys at demonstrations as a sign that they wanted to be unlocked from prison. After schools had closed, thousands of students, professors and teachers attempted to peacefully return home but were confronted by police. After 1992 they did not hold any more demonstrations but focused on building parallel institutions. If the countries had opted for the Lisbon agreement of 1992, may be the war would not have been so intense. Thousands of lives were lost, only for the warring factions to get back to agreeing on a proposed settlement which the US had earlier rejected. This means that those that would not have been lost in the first place. (Propadovic, 2003) Women really suffered during the civil war in the Balkans. Drakulic gives a story of a young lady called S. who was a substitute teacher in a Bosnian village but originally from Sarajevo. S just like other girls was taken to the prisons camp where they were used as sex slaves. They were usually taken to 'women's room' by the Serbian soldiers where they were repeatedly raped by the soldiers. Even though this story is fiction, it gives a very clear picture of what really happened during the war. Draculic explains how rape was rampant during the war. She says the soldiers rounded up the occupants of a Muslim village, shot the men and herded the shocked women into buses. (Propadovic, 2003) Dracula gives the story of S who was taken as the captain's weekend companion. After sometime, Camp occupants we told that they would be exchanged. This goes to show how much suffering women endured probably more than anyone else in the conflict. S does not agree to her cousins offer to move to Zagreb. She instead immigrated to Sweden and gave birth to a child who she conceived as a result of the rape by Serbian soldiers. (Allen, 1996.) According to 'former Yugoslavian woman speak,' many women who faced difficulties during the war are reluctant to speak about ordeals. They view the assaults as assaults to their souls rather than assaults to their bodies. (Barbatov, 2001) According to Nikolic Ristanovic, there was insufficient action, he points out that violence against women does not restrict its self to physical crimes against woman especially in the Balkans. For quite a large number of women in the Yugoslavia, loss of homes which is basically the major source of influence in their society was psychologically destructive. When combatants struck, they destroyed more than physical structures when they set fires to the villages. This is the same sense of dis orientation and isolation that accompanied women in the refugee camps. Children also suffered as their mothers during the civil war. (Propadovic, 2003) The Hague tribunal has not succeeded in sending a clear message of condemnation of rape. The tribunal only pursues cases where crime is deemed against humanity, the crime is systematic and widespread. However The Hague later ruled that the incidents of mass rape constituted a crime against humanity. Three Bosnian Serb men were sentenced to periods of imprisonment ranging from twelve (12) to twenty eight (28) years for mass rapes committed during the war in Bosnia. The higher regional court of Dsseldorf in September 1997 convicted Nicola Jorgic a Serb from the Doboy region who led a paramilitary group located in Doboy region. He was sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment for his involvement in genocidal crimes in the region of Bosnia Herzegovina. (Barbatov, 2001) In 2001 an international criminal tribunal judged that the 1995 Srebrenica massacre was actually genocide. In February this year the international court of justice upheld the ruling of the international criminal tribunal. The following individuals were also accused of genocide in the Yugoslavia. They include; Slobodan Milosevic, he was accused of genocide or complicity in genocide within Bosnia and Herzegovina. He died during the trial. Radovan Karadzic accused of genocide in Bosnia and Milosevic, he was accused of genocide or complicity in genocide within Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has never been found. Ratco Mladic accused of genocide in several municipalities in Bosnia. He has never been found. Others include: Biljana plarsic, radislavic plarsic mom talic among others. Other individuals who are currently on trial are Milovan matic and Petro mitivic. Those convicted include radislav krstic and vidoje blagojevic. (Propadovic, 2003) Slobodan Milosevic died on March 2006 months before the international criminal tribunal was to reach a verdict of his trial. The trial had been going on for four years due to delays caused by his "ill health". Many of Milosevic's victims expressed anger that justice had not been served. Critics on the other hand argued that prosecutors had brought too many charges against Milosevic in a bid to create a historical narrative. (Allen, 1996.) Work Cited Allen, Bevery. Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia- Herzegovina And Croatia, University Of Minnesota Press, 1996. Askin, Kelly. War Crimes against Women: Prosecution in International War Crimes Tribunal Martin Nijhoff Publishers, 1997 Barbatov, Omer & Mack, Phyllis. In God's Name: Genocide and Religion In The Twentieth Century, Berghan Books, 2001 Propadovic, Milutin. The Appalling Story of Furo American Meddling In Yugoslavia, American Yugoslav Association Jadran, 2003 Sells, Michael. The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia, University Of California Press, 1996. Read More