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.