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.