HOW the genocide happened
The Serbian paramilitary groups used force, intimidation, and provocation while attempting to separate Bosnia and scatter non-Serbs, even though Serbs were the minority. The soldiers murdered unarmed civilians and forced others to abandon their buildings, which were then scoured and destroyed. The Serbs aimed for intellectuals, professionals, and political leaders, and destroyed Muslim mosques and historic architecture in an attempt to eradicate the Bosnian culture. Despite the media's reports of it, the world remained mostly indifferent.
The most devastating massacre of the Bosnian genocide and of Europe since World War II was the Srebrenica massacre in July of 1995. Originally, the UN called the area a "safe zone", promising security from Serbs. However, residents lacked supplies because Serb authorities denied the UN permission to give the residents of Srenbrenika supplies. Bussed out and into Muslim territory, over 20,000 Bosnian women, children, and elderly were separated from the men and boys on July 12, 1995. The boys and men were taken to execution sites; 8,000 were killed by automatic weapons and machine guns; and then hauled to mass graves.
Women and young girls, on the other hand, were raped in their own homes and in front of their own families by the paramilitary units that invaded their towns. Gang rape occurred frequently, and in some camps, women were used as sex slaves. These rapes were gynocidal; "a deliberate attack on women as childbearers." In one town a rape center was created; Muslim girls and women went there and underwent continual rape and other physical violence. These rapes were deliberate in that in the Mediterranean societies, women who've been raped cannot find a husband. They were organized to destroy the potential of these women as mothers.
In Northern Bosnia, concentration camps were employed. People were stuffed into barracks like sardines in a can and deprived of food and water. Most sought to sate their thirst by drinking their own urine. Because of the poor living conditions, 10,000 of the 14,000 men put in the camps died, though not all were marked for death as in the Holocaust.
The siege of Sarajevo took place on April 6, 1992, when the Bosnians were rallying for independence. Serb soldiers opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, killing 5 and wounding 30. Serb leader Milosevic blocked all roads leading to Sarajevo and shut down airports, effectively trapping Sarajevans within the city. The bare necessities, like food, water and medicine, were unavailable, and the average Sarajevan lost 30 lbs. during the siege. There were a number of terrible incidents in the siege. At a soccer game, for instance, 15 people were killed and 80 wounded by a mortar attack. Many were killed in water lines. Red Cross trucks were looted and destroyed, and maternity wards were broken into, killing both mothers and their newborns ruthlessly. By the end of the siege, the city's population decreased by over 430,000. This was due to both killings and refugees escaping.
Other attacks/massacres included the Lasva Valley, the Ahatovici massacre of 1992, and Mount Vlasic.
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Primary Sources/Personal Stories
The most devastating massacre of the Bosnian genocide and of Europe since World War II was the Srebrenica massacre in July of 1995. Originally, the UN called the area a "safe zone", promising security from Serbs. However, residents lacked supplies because Serb authorities denied the UN permission to give the residents of Srenbrenika supplies. Bussed out and into Muslim territory, over 20,000 Bosnian women, children, and elderly were separated from the men and boys on July 12, 1995. The boys and men were taken to execution sites; 8,000 were killed by automatic weapons and machine guns; and then hauled to mass graves.
Women and young girls, on the other hand, were raped in their own homes and in front of their own families by the paramilitary units that invaded their towns. Gang rape occurred frequently, and in some camps, women were used as sex slaves. These rapes were gynocidal; "a deliberate attack on women as childbearers." In one town a rape center was created; Muslim girls and women went there and underwent continual rape and other physical violence. These rapes were deliberate in that in the Mediterranean societies, women who've been raped cannot find a husband. They were organized to destroy the potential of these women as mothers.
In Northern Bosnia, concentration camps were employed. People were stuffed into barracks like sardines in a can and deprived of food and water. Most sought to sate their thirst by drinking their own urine. Because of the poor living conditions, 10,000 of the 14,000 men put in the camps died, though not all were marked for death as in the Holocaust.
The siege of Sarajevo took place on April 6, 1992, when the Bosnians were rallying for independence. Serb soldiers opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, killing 5 and wounding 30. Serb leader Milosevic blocked all roads leading to Sarajevo and shut down airports, effectively trapping Sarajevans within the city. The bare necessities, like food, water and medicine, were unavailable, and the average Sarajevan lost 30 lbs. during the siege. There were a number of terrible incidents in the siege. At a soccer game, for instance, 15 people were killed and 80 wounded by a mortar attack. Many were killed in water lines. Red Cross trucks were looted and destroyed, and maternity wards were broken into, killing both mothers and their newborns ruthlessly. By the end of the siege, the city's population decreased by over 430,000. This was due to both killings and refugees escaping.
Other attacks/massacres included the Lasva Valley, the Ahatovici massacre of 1992, and Mount Vlasic.
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Primary Sources/Personal Stories
- A survivor of the Susica camp in eastern Bosnia: "They started selecting young women. The first was only 14, the second could have been 16 or 17...I knew them all, they were from Vlasenica...Then they started yelling: 'We want the Muslims to see what our seed is.' The women were never seen again...We know that Dragan Nikolic knows about it very well. That's what he did...He told us himself: 'I'm the commander of the camp. I'm your God and you have no other God but me.' "
- Story about a Srenbrenica survivor- http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43272062/ns/world_news-europe/t/survivor-recounts-horror-bosnias-killing-fields/
- Elmina Kulasic- survivor of Trnopolje camp describes her emotions upon return to her country- “My sense of home in Bosnia was destroyed during the war. Since 1992, it has been my dream to return without feeling discriminated or ethnically cleansed. The situation in Bosnia is not welcoming. But I returned home because I want to be able to choose where I can live, and not be dictated by someone else’s choice.”
- Sixty-four-year old Fatima Alijic lived with her husband and family in Srebrenica until the attack in May 1995. - “I lost my husband and my children and never saw them again. Well, I say I never saw them… But I did see them when I was in the truck… going to Kravica. They were all lined up, like they sometimes show on television, holding their hands behind their necks. I saw my youngest son lying near the ditch as if facing the ditch, but he was headless… I started vomiting… I didn’t know that human hearts and souls could be so evil.”
- Hasan Nuhanovic- "The massacre committed in Srebrenica against my people was done by the Bosnian-Serb army and police. But the role of the international community -- the U.N. peacekeepers, the United Nations in New York, the European Union and NATO -- were very, very shameful because many things could have been done to prevent the massacre." (from PBS)