Ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia was a very tragic moment that should have been avoided especially after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated that "ethnic cleansing' was no longer going to happen due to this declaration. Obviously the tragic events of World War 2 and the Holocaust had not as much of an effect on the world and human rights for this to be happening again in the early 1990's. Ethnic cleansing took place in Yugoslavia because there were many different ethnic groups and each group was trying to over power the other. This event is very much like the Holocaust. Hitler wanted a "pure" German society so any other ethnic races should removed, taken out of society. Hitler referred to anyone who was not a "pure" German as a "verman", as in a posion that would destroy society. The Holocaust and ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia both clearly violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was a tragic event in our history.
The ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia with out a doubt denied the point of Human Rights. For example the Croatians group did some pretty drastic things to move out the Serbs. Some of the things they did were seeing them as lower people, removal of their rights, and removing them and giving them unnecessary punishment. Yugoslavia was breaking apart with all this cruelty and discrimination against different ethnicities. The rights of humanism were clearly denied, not only by the example of Croatia that I just gave you but in so many ways through out Yugoslavia.
I feel the government is surely to blame for the ethnic cleansing that happened in former Yugoslavia. Once the Soviet Union broke up, the Siberian government was able to use its plan to rule the whole country of Yugoslavia. This act allowed Serbians to continuously make attacks against the Muslims, Croatians, and Bosnians as they tried to keep their faith to rule the country. I think it is cruel and disgusting that people would try to hurt people of there own kind. I thought that after people learned the devastation Hitler caused this type of event would no happen again but apparently the message wasn’t strong enough. The Serbian government clearly disobeyed the Declaration of Human rights and they were surely wrong.
Ethnic Cleansing in former Yugoslavia has a lot of similarities with the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a very harsh time in Germany. The Holocaust was used to mistreat the Jews, homosexuals and other groups during World War 2. They did cruel and unusual punishment to these groups and killed thousands and thousands of people. Basically the holocaust got rid of any person who was not a "pure" German, kind of like how the Serbians tried to ethnically cleanse former Yugoslavia. The Serbian people had many of the same practices the Germans did to the Jews. One thing both groups did was create concentration camps. The only real diffrence these countries had when it cam to ethnic cleansing was 1 race. In Germany there was one race pretty much and any other race was known as "verman", where as in Yugoslavia there were many diffrent races trying to rule over former Yugoslavia. All in all both countries were wrong for doing what they did.
United Nations was defiantly not helpful in the efforts to end the killings that were taking place in Yugoslavia. The United Nations Protective Force went into Yugoslavia and tried to keep peace but was not allowed to use any violence to do so the violence continued. The only good thing the UN did was the set up of the International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslavia.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Personal Reflection By Sarina Peters
To start off with, I really thought this project was okay, but I really didn’t like our topic which was “Ethnic Cleansing “in the former Yugoslavia.
I think this topic was a little challenging because there wasn’t a lot of research on his topic and we such time. I really didn’t know any other type of websites to look up so I had to stick with one website.
I felt really bad when the Muslims were being tortured by the Serbian Military. These Muslims were considered “sub-human” and were forced out there homes to either work some where in a death camp with their children.
These Muslims got their rights taken away from them and some were even killed for that; even little babies were killed that. I think it’s unfair for them to have to live the way they ended up living because of an immature rule.
I think this topic was a little challenging because there wasn’t a lot of research on his topic and we such time. I really didn’t know any other type of websites to look up so I had to stick with one website.
I felt really bad when the Muslims were being tortured by the Serbian Military. These Muslims were considered “sub-human” and were forced out there homes to either work some where in a death camp with their children.
These Muslims got their rights taken away from them and some were even killed for that; even little babies were killed that. I think it’s unfair for them to have to live the way they ended up living because of an immature rule.
Personal reflection By Bridget Onthank
Bridget Onthank
Period 6
June 12, 2007
While studying this topic I didn’t know how I would relate ethnic cleansing to human rights and their freedom. During this time of ethnic cleansing people were treated unfairly and very cruel. The research I did made me realize how important human rights are, no one deserves to be kicked out of their own country. This event relates to the holocaust very much so. People were killed because they were against what they knew was wrong and they got punished for it, which was how the holocaust was except they didn’t have a choice it they were against something or not. Many people were killed in both of these events because they didn’t have the freedom that people are entitled to have.
Ethnic Cleansing denies humanism. It denies it because there were no human rights at all. It wasn’t fair that you had to be this one ethnicity to stay in the country where they lived all or most of their lives. Evidence shows that the Serbs felt that no individual mattered. It was only them who could rule and have the freedom and rights of Yugoslavia.
This event makes me feel that the leadership wanted nothing to do with anyone else who lived in Yugoslavia. They just wanted the Non Serbs out and that’s it nothing else. I feel really bad for the victims none of them deserved to be treated how they were treated. Some people were killed because they weren’t Serbs, well a lot of people were killed and that is not right to do to the freedom of the people. The actions of this state were not at all justified no one had the freedom or rights they deserved.
Yes, I do feel that the peacekeeping efforts are acceptable. The adaptation of human rights was a big step up from what was going on in Yugoslavia before hand. If the United Nations wanted to step into the United States soventry I think that it would almost make us weaker as a country. I feel this way because we already have a strong human right law and with the help of other groups or people would basically cause hatred and the loss of freedom in the United States.
I feel that I learned a lot while doing and researching this project. I never knew how much of a major problem this was in Yugoslavia in fact I never knew that Ethnic Cleansing was a problem overall. At the beginning of this assignment I wasn’t sure what I was doing or what I was learning about. Until finally some of my group members helped me to understand the key concept of Ethnic Cleansing and why it was so important to adopted the Human rights policy.
Period 6
June 12, 2007
While studying this topic I didn’t know how I would relate ethnic cleansing to human rights and their freedom. During this time of ethnic cleansing people were treated unfairly and very cruel. The research I did made me realize how important human rights are, no one deserves to be kicked out of their own country. This event relates to the holocaust very much so. People were killed because they were against what they knew was wrong and they got punished for it, which was how the holocaust was except they didn’t have a choice it they were against something or not. Many people were killed in both of these events because they didn’t have the freedom that people are entitled to have.
Ethnic Cleansing denies humanism. It denies it because there were no human rights at all. It wasn’t fair that you had to be this one ethnicity to stay in the country where they lived all or most of their lives. Evidence shows that the Serbs felt that no individual mattered. It was only them who could rule and have the freedom and rights of Yugoslavia.
This event makes me feel that the leadership wanted nothing to do with anyone else who lived in Yugoslavia. They just wanted the Non Serbs out and that’s it nothing else. I feel really bad for the victims none of them deserved to be treated how they were treated. Some people were killed because they weren’t Serbs, well a lot of people were killed and that is not right to do to the freedom of the people. The actions of this state were not at all justified no one had the freedom or rights they deserved.
Yes, I do feel that the peacekeeping efforts are acceptable. The adaptation of human rights was a big step up from what was going on in Yugoslavia before hand. If the United Nations wanted to step into the United States soventry I think that it would almost make us weaker as a country. I feel this way because we already have a strong human right law and with the help of other groups or people would basically cause hatred and the loss of freedom in the United States.
I feel that I learned a lot while doing and researching this project. I never knew how much of a major problem this was in Yugoslavia in fact I never knew that Ethnic Cleansing was a problem overall. At the beginning of this assignment I wasn’t sure what I was doing or what I was learning about. Until finally some of my group members helped me to understand the key concept of Ethnic Cleansing and why it was so important to adopted the Human rights policy.
Ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia By: Brittany Lajoie , Bridget Onthank, Sarina Peters, Shannon Mason
Ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia By: Brittany Lajoie , Bridget Onthank, Sarina Peters, Shannon Mason
There were a lot of things that happened in Yugoslavia during the War that comprised human rights. One of them being that more than two hundred thousand civilians were killed in Bosnia and Croatia since the beginning of the war. Tens of thousands of women were raped, some of them more than a hundred times. Their sons and husbands were beaten and tortured in concentration camps like Omarska and Manjaca. Whole families were forced to become refugees or lose their lives. Millions lost their homes due to a process called "ethnic cleansing."
The term of ethnic cleansing was mainly started used by the 6 diverse group of republics in former Yugoslavia. These six groups were the following Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. These six republic groups were formed to bring together all Slovakians. Each group had very diverse ethnicity and all 6 unions wanted theirs to rule. The ethnic cleansing of Yugoslavia was not really like the Nuremburg laws in World War 2 because unlike in the Nuremburg laws the entire country did not make laws to isolate certain ethnicity, each different republican party was trying to eliminate the diverse group of parties. For example the term ethnic cleansing was mainly used to describe when The Serbians tried to remove the Muslims from Bosnia and the Albanians in Kosovo. The Serbians were one of the most dominate groups in taking over the government when it fell apart after the break up of the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)". Each group was responsible for the acts of ethnic cleansing because each group had there own way of removing the ethnicity they didn't want.
Thousands of Muslim people in Yugoslavia were tortured and killed by Ratko Mladic and his Serbian Military. They were tortured because they were considered "sub-human" and not as good. There religion and people were thought by the Serbian Army to be stupid and not needed in the world. They wanted a "pure" Yugoslavia, so they got rid of everyone that stopped that from happening.
This event occurred in the year 1991 in Yugoslavia. People were sure that Yugoslavia would fall apart. Yugoslavia was too small for the nationalism of its different ethnicities. So the Serbs tried to wipe out all the Muslims. The result of this horrifying event was that many people were killed or kicked out of their country Yugoslavia. They then realized that what they were doing wasn’t doing anything good toward their country so they then adopted the Human Rights policy to make their country a better place to have the freedom of the people.
Well first of all, the resolution of this will be that It got a whole lot better as the years past. The people that were part of the government that helped participate In the torturing were penalized for war crimes. Some were put to jail for 25 years to life, or they were hung. After that, people- such as the Muslims got their rights back slowly and a couple years later they were back to their normal lives even though their experiences remain in their memories. Today, these people are now citizens again, and they are no longer considered "sub humans" (of course). BUT just because things were handle/settled very strictly, there still are Muslims living they way they lived when they were controlled.
There were a lot of things that happened in Yugoslavia during the War that comprised human rights. One of them being that more than two hundred thousand civilians were killed in Bosnia and Croatia since the beginning of the war. Tens of thousands of women were raped, some of them more than a hundred times. Their sons and husbands were beaten and tortured in concentration camps like Omarska and Manjaca. Whole families were forced to become refugees or lose their lives. Millions lost their homes due to a process called "ethnic cleansing."
The term of ethnic cleansing was mainly started used by the 6 diverse group of republics in former Yugoslavia. These six groups were the following Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. These six republic groups were formed to bring together all Slovakians. Each group had very diverse ethnicity and all 6 unions wanted theirs to rule. The ethnic cleansing of Yugoslavia was not really like the Nuremburg laws in World War 2 because unlike in the Nuremburg laws the entire country did not make laws to isolate certain ethnicity, each different republican party was trying to eliminate the diverse group of parties. For example the term ethnic cleansing was mainly used to describe when The Serbians tried to remove the Muslims from Bosnia and the Albanians in Kosovo. The Serbians were one of the most dominate groups in taking over the government when it fell apart after the break up of the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)". Each group was responsible for the acts of ethnic cleansing because each group had there own way of removing the ethnicity they didn't want.
Thousands of Muslim people in Yugoslavia were tortured and killed by Ratko Mladic and his Serbian Military. They were tortured because they were considered "sub-human" and not as good. There religion and people were thought by the Serbian Army to be stupid and not needed in the world. They wanted a "pure" Yugoslavia, so they got rid of everyone that stopped that from happening.
This event occurred in the year 1991 in Yugoslavia. People were sure that Yugoslavia would fall apart. Yugoslavia was too small for the nationalism of its different ethnicities. So the Serbs tried to wipe out all the Muslims. The result of this horrifying event was that many people were killed or kicked out of their country Yugoslavia. They then realized that what they were doing wasn’t doing anything good toward their country so they then adopted the Human Rights policy to make their country a better place to have the freedom of the people.
Well first of all, the resolution of this will be that It got a whole lot better as the years past. The people that were part of the government that helped participate In the torturing were penalized for war crimes. Some were put to jail for 25 years to life, or they were hung. After that, people- such as the Muslims got their rights back slowly and a couple years later they were back to their normal lives even though their experiences remain in their memories. Today, these people are now citizens again, and they are no longer considered "sub humans" (of course). BUT just because things were handle/settled very strictly, there still are Muslims living they way they lived when they were controlled.
Personal Reflection By Shannon Mason
Shannon Mason Reflection Period 6 6/12/07
I was in a group with Sarina, Brittany, and Bridget. Our group’s topic was “Ethnic Cleansing” in former Yugoslavia. When I first saw the topic I was shocked to see that these kinds of events are still recently happening, even after the Holocaust and the Nuremburg Trials. As I was looking up I was surprised and sad about what “ethnic cleansing” was.
The people behind it were Serbian Military and Ratko Mladic- The commander of the whole Serbian Army-I thought it was horrible how someone could do this kind of stuff to another person/ group of people. Ratko had his soldiers torture and kill as many Muslims as they could. Then had their homes and businesses looted for valuables. And they didn’t even care. They forced the Muslims out of their homes and towns. It made me want to cry when I was reading about it and looking pictures up of women, men and children dead in the streets.
I think one of the worst things about the “Ethnic cleansing”, besides the torturing, killing and moving out of the Muslims, was the fact that it happened so recently. This was going on from 1991 to 1995. That’s four years of blood shed, and nobody was stopping it. The United States was still powerful then and they didn’t stop it, even though they could’ve. Thousands of people were killed before the end of it.
It made me upset to read about what happened during this “ethnic cleansing” of former Yugoslavia. Women were raped, some more than 100 times. Men were tortured and killed. I saw one picture pictures of a man getting alcohol poured on him, after being thrown out of a window by some Serbian soldiers. Also, whole families were forced to become refugees or die.
I kind of didn’t and kind of did like doing this Blog. I learned about the mistreatment of groups of people by other people, because they were considered not as good or sub-human. A lot of the information I learned about made me want to cry, but I liked learning something new.
I was in a group with Sarina, Brittany, and Bridget. Our group’s topic was “Ethnic Cleansing” in former Yugoslavia. When I first saw the topic I was shocked to see that these kinds of events are still recently happening, even after the Holocaust and the Nuremburg Trials. As I was looking up I was surprised and sad about what “ethnic cleansing” was.
The people behind it were Serbian Military and Ratko Mladic- The commander of the whole Serbian Army-I thought it was horrible how someone could do this kind of stuff to another person/ group of people. Ratko had his soldiers torture and kill as many Muslims as they could. Then had their homes and businesses looted for valuables. And they didn’t even care. They forced the Muslims out of their homes and towns. It made me want to cry when I was reading about it and looking pictures up of women, men and children dead in the streets.
I think one of the worst things about the “Ethnic cleansing”, besides the torturing, killing and moving out of the Muslims, was the fact that it happened so recently. This was going on from 1991 to 1995. That’s four years of blood shed, and nobody was stopping it. The United States was still powerful then and they didn’t stop it, even though they could’ve. Thousands of people were killed before the end of it.
It made me upset to read about what happened during this “ethnic cleansing” of former Yugoslavia. Women were raped, some more than 100 times. Men were tortured and killed. I saw one picture pictures of a man getting alcohol poured on him, after being thrown out of a window by some Serbian soldiers. Also, whole families were forced to become refugees or die.
I kind of didn’t and kind of did like doing this Blog. I learned about the mistreatment of groups of people by other people, because they were considered not as good or sub-human. A lot of the information I learned about made me want to cry, but I liked learning something new.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Personal Reflection by Susan Orsini
The “ethnic cleansing” in the former Yugoslavia is a key example that proves that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights did the complete and total opposite thing than what it was created for. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created to defend the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law. In addition, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created to prevent another tragedy such as the Holocaust. Unfortunately, in the many years since it was approved, tragedies concerning the human rights of people have occurred all over the world. These very incidents that occurred after the sanction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proves that the United Nations is ineffective when it comes to the prevention and halting of these horrid events. The one example of human rights violations that occurred after the approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the vile actions that happened in former Yugoslavia. In this particular case, the ethnic groups chose violence as an escape from their hatred of the other ethnicities in their country, and for their desire of liberty from the country. Due to the hatred of the many different ethnic groups living in the same country, each ethnic background would kill the others for domination of former Yugoslavia. The Serbs would drive the Bosniaks out of their territories, the Croats would force the Serbs out of the territory they were in, the Serbs would fight the Albanians in many places such as Kosovo, and the Bosniaks would continually kill the Serbs that were found in the area that they occupied. The world basically sat back and watched as the human rights of the thousands of people who were living in former Yugoslavia were being violated. At one point, the UN and NATO stepped in to try and get the different ethnic backgrounds to agree to a peace settlement, but all of their attempts only ended up in more hatred of the other ethnic backgrounds and more bloody fights. There were no safe areas in former Yugoslavia. Thousands of people, including civilians, were forced to leave their homes, if they had not been killed already. There was no mercy, there was no safe hideout. What could be said as the most safe area was the NATO "secured safe areas”, but even those were not completely safe from enemy attack.
This “ethnic cleansing” was similar to Holocaust in many ways, but it was on a much smaller scale. The killings were carried out on purpose, based solely on personal identity. When the Germans were discriminating against people based on their personal identity, to kill them, traits such as Jewish, Homosexual, Gypsies and so on were the targeted points. In the case of former Yugoslavia, it was done for the same reasoning as the Germans eliminated the Jews in the Holocaust—their ethnicity. In former Yugoslavia being a Serb to the Bosnians, Slovenians, Croatians and Albanians, and being Muslim to the Serbs was their form of “ethnic cleansing” like the Jews were to the Germans. Another example was in the case of the Srebrenica Massacre. Muslim males were singled out for the sole reason that they were not of the same religion, and they were murdered by the thousands, unlike the mass murders of the Jews and other minorities by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Yet another example in former Yugoslavia was Srebrenica. It was genocide, due to the fact that the Serbs had methodically planned to eliminate all the Bosniaks in Srebrenica. In other areas, civilians were murdered individually during their daily routines and were singled out to be sniped for no other reason than they were racially different. Many similarities can be found between the Yugoslav conflicts and the Holocaust, except for one main topic. In Yugoslavia both sides were giving and receiving hits, where in the Holocaust, the only side that was taking hits was the Jews, along with the Homosexuals, Gypsies and so on. Nazi Germany had no one that they were targeting, like the Jews, fight back.
In this case involving the republic of former Yugoslavia, humanism was no present or did it seem to matter in this horrifying event. Humanism and the properties that it holds were clearly denied during the Yugoslav wars. This concept of how all individuals matter with their dignity and worth protected, was rarely, if at any time, seen during the Yugoslav wars. For illustration, even though the Croatians and other ethnic backgrounds believed it was in the best interest of their race to exile the Serbs from their state, while they were trying to accomplish that goal, they ignored all the principles of humanism. The people that were living in the former Yugoslavia got so caught up in exiling the other ethnic groups that they forgot the meaning of individuality. Most of the Serbs saw was a Bosniak, not a person with feelings, or a valuable life, just a worthless Bosniak. Generally, in former Yugoslavia, when people were determining who would die and who would live, all they looked at was their ethnic background to decide. All of the individuals rights were lost during this time, so in former Yugoslavia, the idea of humanism was denied.
After researching and becoming very emotional connected to the unfortunate story wit former Yugoslavia, I was filled with many feelings towards the leadership, the perpetrators, and the victims. First off, I think that the leadership may not be the only people to blame. Maybe, like in the case of the Holocaust, these people where taught their whole lives to hate the other ethnic backgrounds, like the Germans were taught to hate the Jewish peoples. These leaders, of all sides of ethnic backgrounds, thought they were doing what was right. It isn’t completely their fault if they honestly and truly believe that what they were doing was justified and right. Secondly, I feel the same way about the perpetrators of the crimes. I mean maybe they were in fact taught to hate the other ethnic groups, but I don’t agree with what they did. Lighting people on fire, raping all women, throwing people out of windows, and so on is not the way to handle your hate for others. Violence is such a horrible thing. How can someone be filled up with so much hate that they do those horrid things to the others? Furthermore, I feel bad for the extreme measures that were taken to “ethnic cleanse” the other ethnicities, but all sides were guilty here. All sides had the blood on their hands. I am not saying that any of them deserved what happened because that is not what I believe at all, but two wrongs don’t make a right. Lastly, these actions taken on by all sides were not justified at all. Violence isn’t the answer to problems, or a way to release hate towards anyone. It is just so sad how people didn’t realize that they even though they all had different religions and so on, that life is deeper than skin or in this case beliefs. They had had blood coursing threw their veins, they all need the same necessities to live and they all come from the one true creator of life, God. If they just realized that there was more in common than not, I believe that that whole crisis could have been avoided. This is just a case of pure ignorance, and ignorance isn’t justified.
I strongly believe that peacekeeping efforts by the United Nations in sovereign countries are not acceptable. One example is the one that I have been mentioning this whole time, the former Yugoslavia crisis. The involvement of the United Nations was not even close to being successful or productive when it came to the ending of the killings in Yugoslavia. The UN proved futile in enforcing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in former Yugoslavia. The protection of human rights is way more important than a country’s sovereignty. These horrible crimes against others rights is not only unfair and cruel, but it has no justice. Every country has the right to enforce and create their own laws, but there is no justification for violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights If the UN had stepped into the crisis in former Yugoslavia sooner, many lives could have been saved. By the time it was too late, the UN decided to step in, and when they did there was no response. The only reason why they were there was to be like a peacekeeper, which forced them not to use violence on either side. They might have just as well sat home and watched it all go down on TV. As a result, the different types of ethnicities just ignored the UN and continued its violence, with no care of the newest spectators. They would sit back and watch as Serbs rounded up hundreds of Muslims and massacred them in places like Srebrenica. If the United States was violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights I would hope that the UN would step in and stop it. There should be no toleration for any discrimination based on race, sex, orientation, religion, etc. Yes, national sovereignty is an important thing, but only to the extent of everyone’s rights being protected and honored. Sovereignty is something that can be held until a further time, unlike human rights. If human rights are not protected then turmoil starts to brake loose. I truly believe the sovereignty of nations should always be respected, but that there can be exceptions when human rights are being violated.
This “ethnic cleansing” was similar to Holocaust in many ways, but it was on a much smaller scale. The killings were carried out on purpose, based solely on personal identity. When the Germans were discriminating against people based on their personal identity, to kill them, traits such as Jewish, Homosexual, Gypsies and so on were the targeted points. In the case of former Yugoslavia, it was done for the same reasoning as the Germans eliminated the Jews in the Holocaust—their ethnicity. In former Yugoslavia being a Serb to the Bosnians, Slovenians, Croatians and Albanians, and being Muslim to the Serbs was their form of “ethnic cleansing” like the Jews were to the Germans. Another example was in the case of the Srebrenica Massacre. Muslim males were singled out for the sole reason that they were not of the same religion, and they were murdered by the thousands, unlike the mass murders of the Jews and other minorities by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Yet another example in former Yugoslavia was Srebrenica. It was genocide, due to the fact that the Serbs had methodically planned to eliminate all the Bosniaks in Srebrenica. In other areas, civilians were murdered individually during their daily routines and were singled out to be sniped for no other reason than they were racially different. Many similarities can be found between the Yugoslav conflicts and the Holocaust, except for one main topic. In Yugoslavia both sides were giving and receiving hits, where in the Holocaust, the only side that was taking hits was the Jews, along with the Homosexuals, Gypsies and so on. Nazi Germany had no one that they were targeting, like the Jews, fight back.
In this case involving the republic of former Yugoslavia, humanism was no present or did it seem to matter in this horrifying event. Humanism and the properties that it holds were clearly denied during the Yugoslav wars. This concept of how all individuals matter with their dignity and worth protected, was rarely, if at any time, seen during the Yugoslav wars. For illustration, even though the Croatians and other ethnic backgrounds believed it was in the best interest of their race to exile the Serbs from their state, while they were trying to accomplish that goal, they ignored all the principles of humanism. The people that were living in the former Yugoslavia got so caught up in exiling the other ethnic groups that they forgot the meaning of individuality. Most of the Serbs saw was a Bosniak, not a person with feelings, or a valuable life, just a worthless Bosniak. Generally, in former Yugoslavia, when people were determining who would die and who would live, all they looked at was their ethnic background to decide. All of the individuals rights were lost during this time, so in former Yugoslavia, the idea of humanism was denied.
After researching and becoming very emotional connected to the unfortunate story wit former Yugoslavia, I was filled with many feelings towards the leadership, the perpetrators, and the victims. First off, I think that the leadership may not be the only people to blame. Maybe, like in the case of the Holocaust, these people where taught their whole lives to hate the other ethnic backgrounds, like the Germans were taught to hate the Jewish peoples. These leaders, of all sides of ethnic backgrounds, thought they were doing what was right. It isn’t completely their fault if they honestly and truly believe that what they were doing was justified and right. Secondly, I feel the same way about the perpetrators of the crimes. I mean maybe they were in fact taught to hate the other ethnic groups, but I don’t agree with what they did. Lighting people on fire, raping all women, throwing people out of windows, and so on is not the way to handle your hate for others. Violence is such a horrible thing. How can someone be filled up with so much hate that they do those horrid things to the others? Furthermore, I feel bad for the extreme measures that were taken to “ethnic cleanse” the other ethnicities, but all sides were guilty here. All sides had the blood on their hands. I am not saying that any of them deserved what happened because that is not what I believe at all, but two wrongs don’t make a right. Lastly, these actions taken on by all sides were not justified at all. Violence isn’t the answer to problems, or a way to release hate towards anyone. It is just so sad how people didn’t realize that they even though they all had different religions and so on, that life is deeper than skin or in this case beliefs. They had had blood coursing threw their veins, they all need the same necessities to live and they all come from the one true creator of life, God. If they just realized that there was more in common than not, I believe that that whole crisis could have been avoided. This is just a case of pure ignorance, and ignorance isn’t justified.
I strongly believe that peacekeeping efforts by the United Nations in sovereign countries are not acceptable. One example is the one that I have been mentioning this whole time, the former Yugoslavia crisis. The involvement of the United Nations was not even close to being successful or productive when it came to the ending of the killings in Yugoslavia. The UN proved futile in enforcing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in former Yugoslavia. The protection of human rights is way more important than a country’s sovereignty. These horrible crimes against others rights is not only unfair and cruel, but it has no justice. Every country has the right to enforce and create their own laws, but there is no justification for violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights If the UN had stepped into the crisis in former Yugoslavia sooner, many lives could have been saved. By the time it was too late, the UN decided to step in, and when they did there was no response. The only reason why they were there was to be like a peacekeeper, which forced them not to use violence on either side. They might have just as well sat home and watched it all go down on TV. As a result, the different types of ethnicities just ignored the UN and continued its violence, with no care of the newest spectators. They would sit back and watch as Serbs rounded up hundreds of Muslims and massacred them in places like Srebrenica. If the United States was violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights I would hope that the UN would step in and stop it. There should be no toleration for any discrimination based on race, sex, orientation, religion, etc. Yes, national sovereignty is an important thing, but only to the extent of everyone’s rights being protected and honored. Sovereignty is something that can be held until a further time, unlike human rights. If human rights are not protected then turmoil starts to brake loose. I truly believe the sovereignty of nations should always be respected, but that there can be exceptions when human rights are being violated.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Reflection - Steve Loukellis
The events that occurred in former Yugoslavia prove the United Nation’s incapability to intervene when human rights are being violated. The definition of human rights is “The basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was made to preserve these rights and ensure the freedoms of the people. The horrific displays of hatred that took place in former Yugoslavia clearly violated the Declaration and stripped the people of their given rights.
The war that took place in Yugoslavia undoubtedly denied the principle of Human Rights in many ways. In Croatia, the Croats took extreme measures to drive out the Serbs including stripping them of their rights, seeing them as unequal persons, banishing them and giving them unjustified punishment. Throughout the constant battles for independence people were forced out of their homes, killed, raped, massacred, and looted. Yugoslavia fell apart with the loathing of different ethnicities and the discrimination and hatred led to killing. This is only a mere example of the cruelty that took place that violated the Declaration in numerous ways.
Researching about this event filled me with many emotions. In this situation everyone is a victim. All of the different ethnicities in former Yugoslavia fought each other and gave their lives for their independence and freedom. It made me sad that this conflict couldn’t have been solved peacefully and that there are still many refugees from the war today. The hatred and crimes against humanity reminds me of how cruel and unjust the world can be. If I didn’t know any better I would assume that an event like this happened fifty to a hundred years ago. It’s pathetic and disgusting how the world can’t handle problems without the shedding of blood.
The war in former Yugoslavia is similar to the Holocaust in a very minor form. During the Holocaust Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other “enemies of the state” were treated as sub-humans and were “ethnically cleansed”. The Holocaust took ethnic cleansing to a whole new level and wiped out millions in concentration and extermination camps. In a way the Serbs were similar to the Germans and wanted to ethnically cleanse the other ethnicities for a better Serbia. The main difference between the holocaust and the ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia was that there wasn’t one dominant race in Yugoslavia. In the Holocaust the Germans were performing the ethnic cleansing on the “sub-humans” but in Yugoslavia it was all of the ethnicities that were killing.
I believe that the peacekeeping efforts by the United Nations in sovereign countries are not acceptable. The UN has failed in enforcing the Declaration of Human Rights and the events that took place in former Yugoslavia prove it. Protecting human rights outweighs the country’s sovereignty. No one has the justification to kill people because of their ethnic background. The UN should have stepped in and stopped the crimes that occurred in former Yugoslavia. Every country has the right to obtain their own laws but there is no excuse for violated the Declaration of Human Rights. If the United States was violating the Declaration I would hope that the UN would step in and stop it. There should be no toleration for any discrimination or hatred based on race, sex, orientation, occupation, education, or religion.
The war that took place in Yugoslavia undoubtedly denied the principle of Human Rights in many ways. In Croatia, the Croats took extreme measures to drive out the Serbs including stripping them of their rights, seeing them as unequal persons, banishing them and giving them unjustified punishment. Throughout the constant battles for independence people were forced out of their homes, killed, raped, massacred, and looted. Yugoslavia fell apart with the loathing of different ethnicities and the discrimination and hatred led to killing. This is only a mere example of the cruelty that took place that violated the Declaration in numerous ways.
Researching about this event filled me with many emotions. In this situation everyone is a victim. All of the different ethnicities in former Yugoslavia fought each other and gave their lives for their independence and freedom. It made me sad that this conflict couldn’t have been solved peacefully and that there are still many refugees from the war today. The hatred and crimes against humanity reminds me of how cruel and unjust the world can be. If I didn’t know any better I would assume that an event like this happened fifty to a hundred years ago. It’s pathetic and disgusting how the world can’t handle problems without the shedding of blood.
The war in former Yugoslavia is similar to the Holocaust in a very minor form. During the Holocaust Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other “enemies of the state” were treated as sub-humans and were “ethnically cleansed”. The Holocaust took ethnic cleansing to a whole new level and wiped out millions in concentration and extermination camps. In a way the Serbs were similar to the Germans and wanted to ethnically cleanse the other ethnicities for a better Serbia. The main difference between the holocaust and the ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia was that there wasn’t one dominant race in Yugoslavia. In the Holocaust the Germans were performing the ethnic cleansing on the “sub-humans” but in Yugoslavia it was all of the ethnicities that were killing.
I believe that the peacekeeping efforts by the United Nations in sovereign countries are not acceptable. The UN has failed in enforcing the Declaration of Human Rights and the events that took place in former Yugoslavia prove it. Protecting human rights outweighs the country’s sovereignty. No one has the justification to kill people because of their ethnic background. The UN should have stepped in and stopped the crimes that occurred in former Yugoslavia. Every country has the right to obtain their own laws but there is no excuse for violated the Declaration of Human Rights. If the United States was violating the Declaration I would hope that the UN would step in and stop it. There should be no toleration for any discrimination or hatred based on race, sex, orientation, occupation, education, or religion.
Personal Reflection by Theo Koboski
The devastating event of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia showed that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights no longer has much effect over the world and human rights. The declaration was created to ensure the safe-keeping of human rights in the different counties of the UN. It is used for peace and safety, and is, unfortunately, dangerously violated. The war in Yugoslavia is a prime example. First of all, the rights of the citizens of former Yugoslavia were heavily violated by Serbia. When Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence and succeeded from Yugoslavia, the Serbs violated the right to make own decisions by sending the Yugoslav People's Army into Croatia and refusing to allow the break off. This act severely crushed the rights of the citizens living in Croatia. By denying them the right to form their own self-governing nation, the Serbs began their rein as dictators of Yugoslavia, keeping the other ethnic minorities hostage from their own freedom. This is very well related to the Holocaust. By denying the Muslims and Bosnians of their right to life, just as Hitler did with the Jews, Milosevic unjustly oppressed the Muslim population and murdered them by the thousands, as Hitler did with the Jews.
The idea of humanism was completely disregarded in the killings in Yugoslavia. Humanism is the belief that every human being matters and is important to society. The ethnic cleaning in Yugoslavia renounces such a belief. By massacring thousands of Muslim boys and men, Milosevic and his followers were operating on the belief that all Muslims and people against Serbian domination were not worth taking up space in the Serbian domain and should not deserve to live. These people were enemies to the state and were to be destroyed, as to not bring down their current nation, at the time being Yugoslavia. These people did not need to be killed, but by believe that they were not worth their own lives, the Serb government carried out many attacks on the Muslim population, completely failing to follow the concept of humanism.
The government of Serbia is completely to blame or what happened to the former Yugoslavia. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the government of Serbia was free to carry out its plan to rule Yugoslavia. However, after the succession of Slovenia and Croatia, its plans were changed. Serbia carried out attacks against Muslims, Croats, and later Bosnians as they tried to hang on to what they believed was their country to rule. I am absolutely disgusted that civilized people can decide that they want to eliminate another group of people from their land for basically no reason. I was amazed when Hitler did it and I’m still amazed now. The government had no right to do what they did, especially after a nation declares their independence. They are then breaking the laws of national sovereignty AND human rights. The Serb government is denying their fellow Yugoslavians the right to live as they wish as well as the right to live at all.
My heart goes out to all of the ethnic minorities living in Yugoslavia at the time of the ethnic cleansing. They faced the worst hardships imaginable. Just the feeling of knowing that someone stronger than you wants you exterminated is enough to drive me insane. The people who were affected by the Serbian terror are truly some of the strongest alive today. To live life each day not knowing your fate had to be torture. The boys and men would worry if they were to be tortured and murdered and the women and girls had to worry how many times they would be raped the next day. The ethnic minorities of Yugoslavia defiantly did not deserve any of the torture and suffering they acquired during the wars in the Yugoslavia and should have every right to develop a self-governing nation that fits their needs, and not the needs of their stronger and more powerful neighbors. The whole formation of Yugoslavia was a mistake and has cost many people their lives for nothing.
The involvement of the United Nations was not very helpful or successful in the efforts to end the killings in Yugoslavia. The United Nations Protective Force was sent in to maintain peace between ethnic groups, but was not allowed to fire at other groups using violence. In result, Serbia and its enemies just brushed off the UN and continued its violence as strong as ever. The only somewhat useful UN involvement was the setting up of the International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslavia in the Netherlands. This system is currently in the process of trying criminals against humanity and is expected to finish its persecutions by 2010.
The idea of humanism was completely disregarded in the killings in Yugoslavia. Humanism is the belief that every human being matters and is important to society. The ethnic cleaning in Yugoslavia renounces such a belief. By massacring thousands of Muslim boys and men, Milosevic and his followers were operating on the belief that all Muslims and people against Serbian domination were not worth taking up space in the Serbian domain and should not deserve to live. These people were enemies to the state and were to be destroyed, as to not bring down their current nation, at the time being Yugoslavia. These people did not need to be killed, but by believe that they were not worth their own lives, the Serb government carried out many attacks on the Muslim population, completely failing to follow the concept of humanism.
The government of Serbia is completely to blame or what happened to the former Yugoslavia. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the government of Serbia was free to carry out its plan to rule Yugoslavia. However, after the succession of Slovenia and Croatia, its plans were changed. Serbia carried out attacks against Muslims, Croats, and later Bosnians as they tried to hang on to what they believed was their country to rule. I am absolutely disgusted that civilized people can decide that they want to eliminate another group of people from their land for basically no reason. I was amazed when Hitler did it and I’m still amazed now. The government had no right to do what they did, especially after a nation declares their independence. They are then breaking the laws of national sovereignty AND human rights. The Serb government is denying their fellow Yugoslavians the right to live as they wish as well as the right to live at all.
My heart goes out to all of the ethnic minorities living in Yugoslavia at the time of the ethnic cleansing. They faced the worst hardships imaginable. Just the feeling of knowing that someone stronger than you wants you exterminated is enough to drive me insane. The people who were affected by the Serbian terror are truly some of the strongest alive today. To live life each day not knowing your fate had to be torture. The boys and men would worry if they were to be tortured and murdered and the women and girls had to worry how many times they would be raped the next day. The ethnic minorities of Yugoslavia defiantly did not deserve any of the torture and suffering they acquired during the wars in the Yugoslavia and should have every right to develop a self-governing nation that fits their needs, and not the needs of their stronger and more powerful neighbors. The whole formation of Yugoslavia was a mistake and has cost many people their lives for nothing.
The involvement of the United Nations was not very helpful or successful in the efforts to end the killings in Yugoslavia. The United Nations Protective Force was sent in to maintain peace between ethnic groups, but was not allowed to fire at other groups using violence. In result, Serbia and its enemies just brushed off the UN and continued its violence as strong as ever. The only somewhat useful UN involvement was the setting up of the International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslavia in the Netherlands. This system is currently in the process of trying criminals against humanity and is expected to finish its persecutions by 2010.
Ethnic Cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia
Background
Yugoslavia had essentially been a federation of six republics, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia; formed after World War I in an effort to unify all the Slavs. The borders dividing the republics had been drawn by the great European powers in old treaties, giving way to later disputes. Bosnia and Herzegovina was created as an ethnically mixed state, with no clear majority between Muslims and Serbs, and Croats within its borders. All the ethnic groups followed different religions and cultures, and tension and hatred brewed among the federation for decades, but had been suppressed under the rule of dictator Josip Broz Tito and his communist regime. After the dissolution of the USSR, Yugoslavia was left with an unstable government to hold them together, as individual groups came to power. The republics wanted their independence from the federation, but the most dominant group, the Serbians, wanted to keep the republic together and control the government and gain power. The subject of Bosnia-Herzegovina was especially questionable, as the population of Muslims and Serbs gean to pull apart and opposing leaders ruptured the borders. The Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) wanted desperately to seize this opportunity for independence, the Serbians chose violence in an attempt to discourage them from seceding from the federation.
Declaring Independence
With the different ethnicities declaring their independence Yugoslavia was bound to fall apart. Tension developed between neighboring territories as they fought for their sovereignty. Chaos emerged from the different groups and the fighting began. The different ethnicities couldn’t be satisfied living as one country mainly because of conflicting and competing nationalisms. This can be blamed on the structure of the unified state.
On June 25, 1991 Slovenia was the first to break free from Yugoslavia by declaring its independence and taking over border posts. Unlike the other ethnicities Slovenia left without much trouble. It became a successful republic and was recognized as an independent state by the United Nations and European Community in 1992.
The situation was unfortunately very different for Croatia. In 1990, Croatia elected nationalist Franjo Tudjman as its leader in a non-communist government. They declared their independence the same day as Slovenia and fighting broke out immediately between the JNA, Serbs, and Croat forces. The Serb forces used their military superiority to claim large chunks of Croatia including Krajina, Western Slavonia, Zadar, and Knin. The most damage occurred in Knin; a major transport hub. The European Community had made an attempt to negotiate peace, but due to its failure The United Nations had to issue a truce between the two sides. This truce was a failure and left many Croatians as refugees. There were also reports of homes being burned, looted, and many other horrible crimes against civilians. Another Croatian effort was made for their freedom in 1995 when Croatian forces launched a massive offensive attack against the Krajina Serbs. This led to 14,000 Serb Civilians being killed and about 30,000 Serb refugees. This attack focused on killing civilians, burning Serb homes, looting Serb property, and killing the elderly.
The wars that occurred in Bosnia-Hercegovina are most famous and recognizable for brutality and horrific campaigns. Bosnia was full of many different ethnicities including Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims. All of these ethnicities held and equal amount of Bosnia which led to many problems when Slobodan Milosevic came to power. Milosevic talked of a “Greater Serbia” which included much of Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Milosevic’s famous line was, "Where ever there is a Serb, there is Serbia." The main problem in Bosnia was that there was no clear division between ethnicities. No single group held absolute majority over the country. In order to define different communities, some regions would have to be ethnically cleansed.
In March 1992 Bosnia declared its Independence from Yugoslavia. This immediately sparked the Bosnian Serbs to create the Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) with the idea of creating an ethnically pure Serbian enclave in northern and eastern Bosnia. The Croats followed their footsteps with the founding of the Croatian Community. Fighting grew between Muslim forces and Bosnian Croat forces until 1994 when they agreed to a cease-fire and founded the joint Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. These two groups teamed up to fight against the Serb forces.
The heaviest fighting in the entire war was between the Serbs and Bosnian Muslims. The Serbs wanted an ethnically pure Republika Srpska but large Muslim minorities made it difficult. To solve this problem, the leader of the Republika Srpska, General Ratko Mladic, began a policy of ethnic cleansing against Muslims in “Serb lands”. They sent Muslims to concentration camps where massive counts of rape and sexual assault against Muslim women and girls and massive executions of Muslim men and boys occurred. In July of 1995 more than 7000 Muslims were killed by Serb forces under the command of Mladic in Srebrenica where looting, torture, and relocation occurred. The brutality was shocking to the West.
What Went Wrong?
As Yugoslavia began to crumble apart, lines were drawn and standards were set by ultra-nationalist leaders for the new republics. The conflicts were embodied by the fact that although the ethnic groups wanted independence, they were so interspersed all throughout the federation that it was impossible to draw new lines and create independent republics without running into opposing groups. In Croatia in 1990, the anti-communist Franjo Tudjman, who had fought with the partisans against the Nazis during World War II, came to power and created the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, taking Croatian nationalism to the extremeties. In turn, in Serbia came under the rule of Slobodan Milošević, who favored Yugoslav unity. In general, Slovenia and Croatia elected leaders oriented towards independence, and Serbia and Montenegro elected leaders oriented towards keeping Yugoslavia unified.
In Croatia, there was growing advocacy for "Croatian state and historical rights," leading to the stripping of national and constitutional rights of the Serbs in Croatia and demoting them to a national minority. In response, the Serbs created autonomous areas in Croatia like Krajina. As conflicts escalated, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), dominated by the Serbs, declared a state of a emergency that would allow the army to take control of the country, but naturally, there was opposition in the voting, and the anti-Serbs refused to comply. Croatia began smuggling in arms (due to the arms embargo placed on Yugoslavia) , mainly from Hungary, and plotting against the JNA, who had announced their seccession from Croatia. The Croatian Serb rebels had the upper hand, as they had the support of the JNA.
Massacres broke out between the ethnic Croatians and the ethnic Serbs in 1991, and reached Bosnia in 1992, when the siege of Sarajevo broke out. In Sarajevo, there was bitter fighting between the Bosnian government who strived for independence, and the JNA and Bosnian Serbs. The Bosnian government demanded the JNA leave their territory, but the Serbs surrounded the Bosnians and began a siege. The Serbs were better armed, but the Bosnians within the city outnumbered the Serbs. The warring went literally neighborhood-by-neighborhood, with Serb snipers taking out the Bosnians rapid-fire, and destroyed hundreds of buildings with tanks and heavy arms. Bosnians were massacred by mortar shells, the vast majority of them civilians, while Serbs were shot and killed by the Bosnians, and talks of genocidal actions against the Serbs in Sarajevo have been disputed.
In addition, the Srebrenica Massacre of approximately 8,000 Bosniak males took place in July 1995, by the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska (VRS); the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II. In a confirmed act of genocide, the VRS targeted to eliminate the 40,000 Bosniaks living in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, and subsequently stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, regardless of age or civilian status; of their worldly rights, belongings, and even identificiation, and murdered them simply on the basis of their religion.
Quite obviously, the whole of Yugoslavia had serious issues in regards to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Though not nearly taken to the catastophic extent of the Holocaust, serious measures were taken against civilians of all ethnicities, but mainly the Serbs and the JNA versus Slonevia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Croatia, in efforts to drive out the Serbs, they stripped them of their rights, clearly not seeing them as equal persons and subjecting them to exile and unjustified punishment. Throughout the federation, there were no fair trials or questions asked, people were just forced out of their homes or killed either by the enemy, or their own people, should they not comply to their people's demands against the enemy. The clashing of nationalisms among nations led to no agreement towards freedom of nationality, religion, or conscience; if you were a Serb, you were an enemy of everyone else, if you were a Bosniak, you were ardently prejudiced against the Serbs with deep, prominent hatred. There was undoubtedly large amounts of discrimination occurring, which easily led to killings, and no protection for civilians. Though no formal laws were issued against the opposing ethnic groups like in the Nuremberg Laws, the leaders of the republics commanded their people against the opposing peoples, and nationalists executed the non-believers in the name of their leaders, anyways.
The Height and End of Ethnic Cleansing in Yugoslavia
The end of the ethnic cleansing of Yugoslavia was signaled by the United Nations. The UN Protective Force (UNPROFOR) had entered the conflict as a supervisor to maintain the cease-fire between the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians. However, the UNPROFOR was forbidden to contribute to the violence, meaning they were forbidden to fire a shot. They were forced to stand by as thousands of Muslim civilians were slaughtered by the Serbs. Therefore, the UN tried to place an arms embargo on those involved with the conflict, meaning the Serbs and Muslims mostly. However, this allowed the well-armed Serbs to fight even better against the poor-armed Muslims. This led to Serbia taking two-thirds of the Bosnian territory. Fortunatly, major events led to the decline of Serbian power. In 1994, Croatia and the Muslims of Yugoslavia allied themselves against Serbia. This tipped the scale against the Serbs. To aid his troops that were desperatly needed in Serbia, the Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic cut aid to his forces in Bosnia, leading to the weakening Serbian hold on Bosnia. As the Serbs continued to lose power and territory, there were many peace attempts. Serbia and Croatia ended up coming to the agreement that Bosnia was to be divided up between the two nations of Serbia and Croatia. This was formally settled when the Dayton Peace Accords were written in 1995. This document gave Croatia 51% of the Bosnian land and Serbia 49%. the Croatian half became a Muslim-Croatian federation, while the Serbian side became the Serbian Republika Srpska. However, each new state gave no true independence to Bosnians. Serbia and Croatia forced the inhabitants of their states to act and live as if they were Serbians or Croatians. While the killing and fighting was stopped in the former Yugoslavia, there has been no true peace between the ethnic groups living there. As for the leaders of the ethnic groups, none were persecuted for their actions in the war. While there is an ongoing Criminal Tribune taking place, no judgements have been made. In fact, Milosevic was never justified for his crimes against the Muslim population and died in March, 2006 without punishment in his cell in the Netherlands. All indictments were finished in 2004, and all trials are said to be completed by 2009 or 2010. The maximum sentence is going to be life imprisonment for those found guilty of the crimes against them.
by Theo Koboski, Steve Loukellis, Tori Safner, Susan Orsini
Period 5
Yugoslavia had essentially been a federation of six republics, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia; formed after World War I in an effort to unify all the Slavs. The borders dividing the republics had been drawn by the great European powers in old treaties, giving way to later disputes. Bosnia and Herzegovina was created as an ethnically mixed state, with no clear majority between Muslims and Serbs, and Croats within its borders. All the ethnic groups followed different religions and cultures, and tension and hatred brewed among the federation for decades, but had been suppressed under the rule of dictator Josip Broz Tito and his communist regime. After the dissolution of the USSR, Yugoslavia was left with an unstable government to hold them together, as individual groups came to power. The republics wanted their independence from the federation, but the most dominant group, the Serbians, wanted to keep the republic together and control the government and gain power. The subject of Bosnia-Herzegovina was especially questionable, as the population of Muslims and Serbs gean to pull apart and opposing leaders ruptured the borders. The Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) wanted desperately to seize this opportunity for independence, the Serbians chose violence in an attempt to discourage them from seceding from the federation.
Declaring Independence
With the different ethnicities declaring their independence Yugoslavia was bound to fall apart. Tension developed between neighboring territories as they fought for their sovereignty. Chaos emerged from the different groups and the fighting began. The different ethnicities couldn’t be satisfied living as one country mainly because of conflicting and competing nationalisms. This can be blamed on the structure of the unified state.
On June 25, 1991 Slovenia was the first to break free from Yugoslavia by declaring its independence and taking over border posts. Unlike the other ethnicities Slovenia left without much trouble. It became a successful republic and was recognized as an independent state by the United Nations and European Community in 1992.
The situation was unfortunately very different for Croatia. In 1990, Croatia elected nationalist Franjo Tudjman as its leader in a non-communist government. They declared their independence the same day as Slovenia and fighting broke out immediately between the JNA, Serbs, and Croat forces. The Serb forces used their military superiority to claim large chunks of Croatia including Krajina, Western Slavonia, Zadar, and Knin. The most damage occurred in Knin; a major transport hub. The European Community had made an attempt to negotiate peace, but due to its failure The United Nations had to issue a truce between the two sides. This truce was a failure and left many Croatians as refugees. There were also reports of homes being burned, looted, and many other horrible crimes against civilians. Another Croatian effort was made for their freedom in 1995 when Croatian forces launched a massive offensive attack against the Krajina Serbs. This led to 14,000 Serb Civilians being killed and about 30,000 Serb refugees. This attack focused on killing civilians, burning Serb homes, looting Serb property, and killing the elderly.
The wars that occurred in Bosnia-Hercegovina are most famous and recognizable for brutality and horrific campaigns. Bosnia was full of many different ethnicities including Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims. All of these ethnicities held and equal amount of Bosnia which led to many problems when Slobodan Milosevic came to power. Milosevic talked of a “Greater Serbia” which included much of Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Milosevic’s famous line was, "Where ever there is a Serb, there is Serbia." The main problem in Bosnia was that there was no clear division between ethnicities. No single group held absolute majority over the country. In order to define different communities, some regions would have to be ethnically cleansed.
In March 1992 Bosnia declared its Independence from Yugoslavia. This immediately sparked the Bosnian Serbs to create the Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) with the idea of creating an ethnically pure Serbian enclave in northern and eastern Bosnia. The Croats followed their footsteps with the founding of the Croatian Community. Fighting grew between Muslim forces and Bosnian Croat forces until 1994 when they agreed to a cease-fire and founded the joint Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. These two groups teamed up to fight against the Serb forces.
The heaviest fighting in the entire war was between the Serbs and Bosnian Muslims. The Serbs wanted an ethnically pure Republika Srpska but large Muslim minorities made it difficult. To solve this problem, the leader of the Republika Srpska, General Ratko Mladic, began a policy of ethnic cleansing against Muslims in “Serb lands”. They sent Muslims to concentration camps where massive counts of rape and sexual assault against Muslim women and girls and massive executions of Muslim men and boys occurred. In July of 1995 more than 7000 Muslims were killed by Serb forces under the command of Mladic in Srebrenica where looting, torture, and relocation occurred. The brutality was shocking to the West.
What Went Wrong?
As Yugoslavia began to crumble apart, lines were drawn and standards were set by ultra-nationalist leaders for the new republics. The conflicts were embodied by the fact that although the ethnic groups wanted independence, they were so interspersed all throughout the federation that it was impossible to draw new lines and create independent republics without running into opposing groups. In Croatia in 1990, the anti-communist Franjo Tudjman, who had fought with the partisans against the Nazis during World War II, came to power and created the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, taking Croatian nationalism to the extremeties. In turn, in Serbia came under the rule of Slobodan Milošević, who favored Yugoslav unity. In general, Slovenia and Croatia elected leaders oriented towards independence, and Serbia and Montenegro elected leaders oriented towards keeping Yugoslavia unified.
In Croatia, there was growing advocacy for "Croatian state and historical rights," leading to the stripping of national and constitutional rights of the Serbs in Croatia and demoting them to a national minority. In response, the Serbs created autonomous areas in Croatia like Krajina. As conflicts escalated, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), dominated by the Serbs, declared a state of a emergency that would allow the army to take control of the country, but naturally, there was opposition in the voting, and the anti-Serbs refused to comply. Croatia began smuggling in arms (due to the arms embargo placed on Yugoslavia) , mainly from Hungary, and plotting against the JNA, who had announced their seccession from Croatia. The Croatian Serb rebels had the upper hand, as they had the support of the JNA.
Massacres broke out between the ethnic Croatians and the ethnic Serbs in 1991, and reached Bosnia in 1992, when the siege of Sarajevo broke out. In Sarajevo, there was bitter fighting between the Bosnian government who strived for independence, and the JNA and Bosnian Serbs. The Bosnian government demanded the JNA leave their territory, but the Serbs surrounded the Bosnians and began a siege. The Serbs were better armed, but the Bosnians within the city outnumbered the Serbs. The warring went literally neighborhood-by-neighborhood, with Serb snipers taking out the Bosnians rapid-fire, and destroyed hundreds of buildings with tanks and heavy arms. Bosnians were massacred by mortar shells, the vast majority of them civilians, while Serbs were shot and killed by the Bosnians, and talks of genocidal actions against the Serbs in Sarajevo have been disputed.
In addition, the Srebrenica Massacre of approximately 8,000 Bosniak males took place in July 1995, by the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska (VRS); the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II. In a confirmed act of genocide, the VRS targeted to eliminate the 40,000 Bosniaks living in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, and subsequently stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, regardless of age or civilian status; of their worldly rights, belongings, and even identificiation, and murdered them simply on the basis of their religion.
Quite obviously, the whole of Yugoslavia had serious issues in regards to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Though not nearly taken to the catastophic extent of the Holocaust, serious measures were taken against civilians of all ethnicities, but mainly the Serbs and the JNA versus Slonevia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Croatia, in efforts to drive out the Serbs, they stripped them of their rights, clearly not seeing them as equal persons and subjecting them to exile and unjustified punishment. Throughout the federation, there were no fair trials or questions asked, people were just forced out of their homes or killed either by the enemy, or their own people, should they not comply to their people's demands against the enemy. The clashing of nationalisms among nations led to no agreement towards freedom of nationality, religion, or conscience; if you were a Serb, you were an enemy of everyone else, if you were a Bosniak, you were ardently prejudiced against the Serbs with deep, prominent hatred. There was undoubtedly large amounts of discrimination occurring, which easily led to killings, and no protection for civilians. Though no formal laws were issued against the opposing ethnic groups like in the Nuremberg Laws, the leaders of the republics commanded their people against the opposing peoples, and nationalists executed the non-believers in the name of their leaders, anyways.
The Height and End of Ethnic Cleansing in Yugoslavia
The end of the ethnic cleansing of Yugoslavia was signaled by the United Nations. The UN Protective Force (UNPROFOR) had entered the conflict as a supervisor to maintain the cease-fire between the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians. However, the UNPROFOR was forbidden to contribute to the violence, meaning they were forbidden to fire a shot. They were forced to stand by as thousands of Muslim civilians were slaughtered by the Serbs. Therefore, the UN tried to place an arms embargo on those involved with the conflict, meaning the Serbs and Muslims mostly. However, this allowed the well-armed Serbs to fight even better against the poor-armed Muslims. This led to Serbia taking two-thirds of the Bosnian territory. Fortunatly, major events led to the decline of Serbian power. In 1994, Croatia and the Muslims of Yugoslavia allied themselves against Serbia. This tipped the scale against the Serbs. To aid his troops that were desperatly needed in Serbia, the Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic cut aid to his forces in Bosnia, leading to the weakening Serbian hold on Bosnia. As the Serbs continued to lose power and territory, there were many peace attempts. Serbia and Croatia ended up coming to the agreement that Bosnia was to be divided up between the two nations of Serbia and Croatia. This was formally settled when the Dayton Peace Accords were written in 1995. This document gave Croatia 51% of the Bosnian land and Serbia 49%. the Croatian half became a Muslim-Croatian federation, while the Serbian side became the Serbian Republika Srpska. However, each new state gave no true independence to Bosnians. Serbia and Croatia forced the inhabitants of their states to act and live as if they were Serbians or Croatians. While the killing and fighting was stopped in the former Yugoslavia, there has been no true peace between the ethnic groups living there. As for the leaders of the ethnic groups, none were persecuted for their actions in the war. While there is an ongoing Criminal Tribune taking place, no judgements have been made. In fact, Milosevic was never justified for his crimes against the Muslim population and died in March, 2006 without punishment in his cell in the Netherlands. All indictments were finished in 2004, and all trials are said to be completed by 2009 or 2010. The maximum sentence is going to be life imprisonment for those found guilty of the crimes against them.
by Theo Koboski, Steve Loukellis, Tori Safner, Susan Orsini
Period 5
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Reflection by Tori Safner
The ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia is prime example that although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created especially to bring about change and to reassign human rights as a priority that must be protected under all circumstances, it did exactly the opposite. The Declaration was established to restore peace and ensure that every individual possessed his own natural rights at all times, and to prevent another castastrophe like the Holocaust, and yet, in the decades since it was sanctioned, tragedies concerning the human rights of people have occurred all over the world. Sure, it was a very noble gesture, but again and again the UN has proved futile in going out and implementing these changes and when it decides to step in to dissolve conflicts, it is always too late.
In the case of Yugoslavia, the ethnic groups chose violence as an outlet to their pent-up hatred and desire for liberty from the federation; the Serbs would hunt the Bosniaks out of their territories, the Croats would drive the Serbs out of their nation, the Serbs would fight the Albanians in Kosovo, the Bosniaks would continually kill Serbs in their country. Yes, the UN and NATO stepped in in order to try and get the groups to a negotiated peace, but even their "secured safe areas" were not completely safe from enemy sniper attack, and they had only entered after the major brute of the warring was over, and already thousands of people and civilians on both sides had been killed or forced to leave their homes.
This ethnic cleansing was similar to Holocaust, though clearly not in statistics. The killings were carried out deliberately, based solely on personal identity- being a Serb to the Bosnians, Croatians, Slovenians, and Albanians, and being Muslim to the Serbs. In the case of the Srebrenica Massacre, Muslim males were singled out for the sole reason that they were, in fact, of a different religion, and methodically murdered by the thousands, in comparison to the mass murder of Jews and other minorities by the Nazis in the Holocaust. In a case like Srebrenica, it was, in fact, a genocide of sorts, as the Serbs had systematically planned to eliminate all the Bosniaks from Srebrenica. In other areas, though not as extreme, civilians were murdered individually during their daily routines: at soccer games, walking down the street, in stores, singled out and sniped for no other reason but because they were ethnically different. People were forced out of their homes, raped, beaten, and starved. Many similarities can be drawn between the Yugoslav conflicts and the Holocaust, except for one outstanding factor: in Yugoslavia, hits were being continually taken on both sides, whereas in the Holocaust, the Nazis were nearly invincible and few dared to attempt to stop their reign.
Humanism and the ethical philosophies that accompany it in relation to this case were clearly denied during the Yugoslav wars. The concept of humanism is that of the idea that all individuals matter; their dignity and worth should be protected, and based partly on rationalism. For instance, though the Croatians believed it was in the best interest of their race to banish the Serbs from their state, in doing so, they lost the capacity to realize that their actions were not morally or ethically right for the sake of all people. If any of these people based their principles solely on humanism, there would have been no sniping, no burning, no smuggling of illegal arms; any plotted terrorism of sorts. The Yugoslavian people as a whole lost the idea of the individual, and decided to single out ethnicities to eliminate from their territories. Your identity as an individual didn't matter, if you were a Bosniak, you were simply a Bosniak to any Serb on any given day; not a person with a valuable life; but an enemy, and nothing more. People were automatically and stereotypically identified by their ethnic background, and all other individual self worth or rights were lost in the matter.
This event made me realize how insecure governments can take a tragic turn for the worse. After the dissolution of the USSR, communism became questionable, and the peoples of Yugoslavia could not agree on a rotational presidency. Some nations strived for autonomy from the federation, but the Serbs wanted Yugoslavia to remain unified; it would be more powerful that way. I do not blame the Croats or the Slovenians for wanting to break away, tension and discordance had existed between the neighboring nations for centuries, and they felt justified in wanting freedom. Unfortunately, because of the extent of the terms the nations were on with each other, I don't even know if the whole warring incident could have been prevented. However, I do not believe what the leaders did on either side, Milošević especially, was justified. By no means do I think that "ethnically cleansing" certain ethnicities from certain areas for the sole purpose of a "purer nation" was morally justified. The people killed were a majority of unarmed civilians singled out for their religion and/or ethnic background, and had done nothing to deserve the punishments thrust upon them.
Yugoslavia had been held together under the rule of Josip Broz Tito, so the antics by the people after his death were inexcusable, as they had before at least proved they could live alongside one other for the most part. I feel this only proved that power-hungry leaders can be elected at any point in time, and genocide is still a current issue- the Yugoslav issues occured just a little over a decade ago, and the conflict in Darfur is still ongoing! I feel no sympathy for those who participated in these travesties of justice, only contempt for disgracing the human race with their despicable actions.
Though I have always believed the actions taken by the United Nations were questionable, researching for this project only confirmed my doubts. Time and time again, they have set noble goals for themselves, such as enforcing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but then failing to take immediate action when said policies are violated. Thier own policies prevented them from going out and fixing the violations in former Yugoslavia; the UN Protective Force was strictly a peace-keeping force, and was prohibited from engaging in fighting under any circumstances, even to defend the UN-designated "safe areas." Thus, UNPROFOR members were forced to stand and watch, helpless, as Serbs rounded up hundreds of Muslims and massacred them in places like Srebrenica.
The UN should have included circumstances such as that as exceptions to the policy; they made themselves appear almost hypocrital, making all this hype about protecting human rights when they can't even go out and enforce it themselves! And then, the UN placed an arms embargo on all of Yugoslavia, with good intentions, but it only ended up hindering the poorly armed Muslims more, and giving the JNA-supported Serbs the advantage against the Muslims, causing even more violence. In cases such as this, I think the UN's current policies are unacceptable, they should be allowed to step in and make a change. Forget sovereignty for the moment, the people in Yugoslavia had too many issues and no universal leader to make a fuss about sovereignty at the time, anyways; but the violation of anyone's human rights anywhere at anytime is absolutely unacceptable, and the UN should have possessed power to intervene for the sake of the human race! Sovereignty issues can be put on hold in such dire crises, but the killings of innocent humans absolutely cannot.
However, if the UN wanted to step into the sovereignty of the U.S., I should hope that it would only be under the exception of a crisis violating such a crucial thing as human rights. If we were seriously violating them, then by all means, yes, I would not have a problem with the UN intervening. I believe the sovereignty of nations should always be respected, but that exceptions should be made in circumstances when the nation involved is in a conflict dealing with the violation of human rights.
In the case of Yugoslavia, the ethnic groups chose violence as an outlet to their pent-up hatred and desire for liberty from the federation; the Serbs would hunt the Bosniaks out of their territories, the Croats would drive the Serbs out of their nation, the Serbs would fight the Albanians in Kosovo, the Bosniaks would continually kill Serbs in their country. Yes, the UN and NATO stepped in in order to try and get the groups to a negotiated peace, but even their "secured safe areas" were not completely safe from enemy sniper attack, and they had only entered after the major brute of the warring was over, and already thousands of people and civilians on both sides had been killed or forced to leave their homes.
This ethnic cleansing was similar to Holocaust, though clearly not in statistics. The killings were carried out deliberately, based solely on personal identity- being a Serb to the Bosnians, Croatians, Slovenians, and Albanians, and being Muslim to the Serbs. In the case of the Srebrenica Massacre, Muslim males were singled out for the sole reason that they were, in fact, of a different religion, and methodically murdered by the thousands, in comparison to the mass murder of Jews and other minorities by the Nazis in the Holocaust. In a case like Srebrenica, it was, in fact, a genocide of sorts, as the Serbs had systematically planned to eliminate all the Bosniaks from Srebrenica. In other areas, though not as extreme, civilians were murdered individually during their daily routines: at soccer games, walking down the street, in stores, singled out and sniped for no other reason but because they were ethnically different. People were forced out of their homes, raped, beaten, and starved. Many similarities can be drawn between the Yugoslav conflicts and the Holocaust, except for one outstanding factor: in Yugoslavia, hits were being continually taken on both sides, whereas in the Holocaust, the Nazis were nearly invincible and few dared to attempt to stop their reign.
Humanism and the ethical philosophies that accompany it in relation to this case were clearly denied during the Yugoslav wars. The concept of humanism is that of the idea that all individuals matter; their dignity and worth should be protected, and based partly on rationalism. For instance, though the Croatians believed it was in the best interest of their race to banish the Serbs from their state, in doing so, they lost the capacity to realize that their actions were not morally or ethically right for the sake of all people. If any of these people based their principles solely on humanism, there would have been no sniping, no burning, no smuggling of illegal arms; any plotted terrorism of sorts. The Yugoslavian people as a whole lost the idea of the individual, and decided to single out ethnicities to eliminate from their territories. Your identity as an individual didn't matter, if you were a Bosniak, you were simply a Bosniak to any Serb on any given day; not a person with a valuable life; but an enemy, and nothing more. People were automatically and stereotypically identified by their ethnic background, and all other individual self worth or rights were lost in the matter.
This event made me realize how insecure governments can take a tragic turn for the worse. After the dissolution of the USSR, communism became questionable, and the peoples of Yugoslavia could not agree on a rotational presidency. Some nations strived for autonomy from the federation, but the Serbs wanted Yugoslavia to remain unified; it would be more powerful that way. I do not blame the Croats or the Slovenians for wanting to break away, tension and discordance had existed between the neighboring nations for centuries, and they felt justified in wanting freedom. Unfortunately, because of the extent of the terms the nations were on with each other, I don't even know if the whole warring incident could have been prevented. However, I do not believe what the leaders did on either side, Milošević especially, was justified. By no means do I think that "ethnically cleansing" certain ethnicities from certain areas for the sole purpose of a "purer nation" was morally justified. The people killed were a majority of unarmed civilians singled out for their religion and/or ethnic background, and had done nothing to deserve the punishments thrust upon them.
Yugoslavia had been held together under the rule of Josip Broz Tito, so the antics by the people after his death were inexcusable, as they had before at least proved they could live alongside one other for the most part. I feel this only proved that power-hungry leaders can be elected at any point in time, and genocide is still a current issue- the Yugoslav issues occured just a little over a decade ago, and the conflict in Darfur is still ongoing! I feel no sympathy for those who participated in these travesties of justice, only contempt for disgracing the human race with their despicable actions.
Though I have always believed the actions taken by the United Nations were questionable, researching for this project only confirmed my doubts. Time and time again, they have set noble goals for themselves, such as enforcing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but then failing to take immediate action when said policies are violated. Thier own policies prevented them from going out and fixing the violations in former Yugoslavia; the UN Protective Force was strictly a peace-keeping force, and was prohibited from engaging in fighting under any circumstances, even to defend the UN-designated "safe areas." Thus, UNPROFOR members were forced to stand and watch, helpless, as Serbs rounded up hundreds of Muslims and massacred them in places like Srebrenica.
The UN should have included circumstances such as that as exceptions to the policy; they made themselves appear almost hypocrital, making all this hype about protecting human rights when they can't even go out and enforce it themselves! And then, the UN placed an arms embargo on all of Yugoslavia, with good intentions, but it only ended up hindering the poorly armed Muslims more, and giving the JNA-supported Serbs the advantage against the Muslims, causing even more violence. In cases such as this, I think the UN's current policies are unacceptable, they should be allowed to step in and make a change. Forget sovereignty for the moment, the people in Yugoslavia had too many issues and no universal leader to make a fuss about sovereignty at the time, anyways; but the violation of anyone's human rights anywhere at anytime is absolutely unacceptable, and the UN should have possessed power to intervene for the sake of the human race! Sovereignty issues can be put on hold in such dire crises, but the killings of innocent humans absolutely cannot.
However, if the UN wanted to step into the sovereignty of the U.S., I should hope that it would only be under the exception of a crisis violating such a crucial thing as human rights. If we were seriously violating them, then by all means, yes, I would not have a problem with the UN intervening. I believe the sovereignty of nations should always be respected, but that exceptions should be made in circumstances when the nation involved is in a conflict dealing with the violation of human rights.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Overall view of ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing: Over all view
1.Different g policies or practices that make a certain place one ethnicity not a diversity of ethnicity's therefore making ethnically "pure" society.
2. An example of ethnic cleansing is like Hitler did to Germany he wanted a whole German society no other ethnic groups allowed such as the Jews.
3.This practice happened in the Balkans in 1990’s
Most ethnic cleansing was removing the Jews. Some groups were Germany, The Balkans, etc.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Pictures
A map of former Yugoslavia from 1991 and the ethnicities within it prior to the conflicts. Note the especially mixed population in Bosnia.
A building in Sarajevo lies in rubble after being attacked by Serb forces.
Refugees from Kosovo flee the borders, in search of a safer place to lay their heads.
Serbian tank fire blows up a parliament building in Bosnia.
A sign in Sarajevo during the Yugoslavian civil war, warning citizens of Serbian snipers hiding nearby.
A grave site in Sarajevo in 1997, once a field where children played, is now a cemetery to hundreds of fallen victims of the Serbian attacks against the Bosnian capital.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Pictures To Help Explain Things Further
This picture shows the no stability or progress five years after the NATO intervention.
Reader Involvement:
I did a lot of research on the effects of the NATO stepping in, and I found out that them bringing war only did more destruction. What are your views on the matter?
Despite peace protests, the violence went on after the public called for powerful and immediate action by the international community to stop "ethnic cleansing".
Reader Involvement:
I researched many examples of peaceful protests and I found out that even though the international community said that they understood and were going to help, not much came to them. I can't figure out why, do you have any ideas?
The "ethnic cleansing" in Yugoslavia was mainly shown through vicious hatred, violence, sexually commited crimes and other forms of hate crimes. In this photo, a young Bosnian Muslim man is doused with water by two Serb police after being thrown out a window.
Reader Involvement:
Many of the ways that "ethinic cleaning" was being done were so horrible and morbid. Do you think I should post some pictures of these crimes, even though they are disturbing, so that you can get a better understanding of what was happening to ensure "ethnic cleansing"?
This picture is one of a Serb woman with her child in Kosovo during the summer of 1999. This is what is left of their once 11 member family. After the Serbs invaded their city, only these two escaped, thankful for their lives.
Reader Involvement:
Many family members who lost those who they loved claimed they wished they were one of the dead, so that they wouldn't have to live without their loved ones, or see the destruction that was done. Which side do you take? Would you rather live to know your family is all dead and to see all the destrustion with all the added horrors, or be one of the thousands who died?
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