The Bosnian War and the Siege of Sarajevo
The Bosnian War took place in Bosnia Herzegovina in 1992 to 1995, it was an international armed conflict which started from the rejection of the country's independence from Yugoslavia by political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs. The Serbian government of Slobodan Milosevic and the Yugoslav People's Army secured Serb territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the war then spread across the country. The conflict was characterized by "bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing and systematic mass rape" mainly by the Serbs, and less by the Bosnia and Croatia forces. This was the most devastating European conflict since the end of the Second World War.
Facts:
From a Canadian Perspective:
Facts:
- 100,000 people were killed during the war
- more than 2.2 million individuals were displaced
- 12,000-20,000 women were raped
From a Canadian Perspective:
- went in as peacekeepers, but "there was no peace to keep"
- had to break peacekeeping rules and principles due to constant dangerous behaviour
- risky to deal with local militias that were unreasonable and hateful
- helping with the delivery of goods into Sarajevo was considered an impossible task
- locals complained that Canadian Peacekeepers did not take away dead bodies from the streets
- it was impossible to adhere to the usual rules of peacekeeping
The Siege of Sarajevo
UN Intervention:
Resolution:
- longest siege of a capital city in recent history
- Lasted from April 5, 1992 - February 29, 1996
- the city was surrounded by 13,000 Serbian soldiers
- from the outskirts, the city was attacked with artillery. tanks and small weapons
- Bosnian gov't defence forces within Sarajevo had about 70,000 troops, but they were poorly equipped and were unable to break the siege
- 13,952 people were killed during the siege, 5,434 of which were civilians
- estimated that every single building in the city was damaged, and 35,000 were completely destroyed
- of the 65,000-80,000 children in Sarajevo:
- 40% had been shot
- 51% had seen someone killed
- 39% had seen at least one family member killed
- 19% witnessed a massacre
- 48% had their home occupied by someone else
- 73% had their home attacked
- 89% lived in underground shelters
UN Intervention:
- May 30, 1992 the Security Council requested that the Sarajevo Airport be a security zone - opened to the UN in late June
- Sarajevo's survival was mainly reliant on this
- In 1994, UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali formally requested NATO to confirm that airstrikes would occur immediately
- the Council issued an ultimatum to the Bosnian Serbs, forcing them to remove their heavy weapons around the city by February 21 or they would face severe airstrikes
- Bosnian Serbs took heavy weapons from UN posts and began shelling targets
- in response, the UN commander at the time requested NATO airstrikes
- these strikes occurred on May 25th and 26th of 1995
- May 27, 1995, Serb soldiers disguised as French troops captured two UN observation posts
- 12 peacekeepers were disarmed and held at gunpoint
- 10 were taken hostage
- 2 remained as human shields
- September 1st - NATO and the UN demanded the lifting of the siege, removal of weapons and complete security of UN areas, all complete by September 4th. The request was not fulfilled, resulting in airstrikes the next day
Resolution:
- a ceasefire was reached in October of 1995, and on December 14th the Dayton Agreement brought peace to the country
- after the war, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted two Serb officials for crimes against humanity - one was sentenced to life imprisonment and the other got 29 years of imprisonment
- 2008 - 45 Serbs, 12 Croats, and 4 Bosniaks convicted for war crimes