BOOK: The Aggression Against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Planning, Preparation, Execution

Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada
Published: April 17, 2005  

(Great)Serbian ideology and the policy of aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina and genocide against Bosniacs

About the Serbian great-state project

The numerous and versatile forgeries based on politics and ideology have appeared around the end of the 20^th and beginning of the 21^st century which present the untruthful facts about the events, which they interpret without relying on any documents or archives, and they construe political truths about present circumstances. Unfortunately, the most ruthless abuse of science by scientists who lack any dignity and responsibility and pseudo scholars – researchers are present on the stage at this time. This is particularly characteristic for the great-Serbian intellectuals, who build and formulate bases for ideologies, policies, and practice of genocide.

The Serb nationalists, under the leadership of Dobrica Ćosić still persist on pursuing and achieving the Serbian great-state project, convinced that they will achieve, in the changed international circumstances, their Nazi and genocidal plan – unification of all “Serb” states and Serb people (“unification of Serbianhood”), as well s creation of unified Serb state – Great Serbia. In this process of achieving their activities, they use all the political methods and tools applicable to new circumstances (conditions). The use of science(s) is emphasized in this process under the influence of great-Serbian ideology and politics. This science may be qualified as an official science, whose task is to secure “arguments” for the theses on the need to build, construct, and establishment of a single great-Serbian state.

In this regard, the history as a science is particularly used, as well as numerous historic disciplines with a series of so-called historians who have “new” arguments to prove and clarify previously specified thesis. With the purpose of concealing aggressive war and aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the criminal intent and genocidal plan to exterminate Bosniacs, Serb nationalists deceive the national and international public with their false epic-mythical theses:

-                      On Bosnia and Herzegovina as a “Serb state” (- part of “Serb space”), in which the orthodox Serbs “have lived for centuries as a dominant nation”;

-                      That the “Muslim population are Serbs of Islamic religion” (“Islamic Serbs”, “Mohammedan Serbs”);

-                      That the Chetnic movement of Draža Mihailović is antifascist;

-                      That the cessation Republics (Slovenia and Croatia) are guilty for the fall of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, and the Vatican – American conspiracy against Serbs, and the Islamic fundamentalism;

-                      That the civil war was pursued in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an internal conflict of three sides, rather than the crime against peace or standard armed aggression (international armed conflict) of Serbia and Montenegro / Federal Republic of Yugoslavia against the Republic of bosnia and Herzegovina, and they use the term “ethnic cleansing” instead of genocide, in which all three sides (equally) committed crimes, whereby some deny the Serb great-state project  while the others do not want to admit its fascist and criminal character.

Among the numerous lies and deceits are the subsequent “knowledge” and “truths” of Dobrica Ćosić about “democratic lies in the Bosnian war”, in which and in his opinion nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina “chased each other, shed blood, and burnt houses and sacral building to each other”; - “the lie about the Srebrenica genocide became a sacral and global truth”; - Serbs fought for “their freedom” in Bosnia, and in this fight “they again defended the Christian Europe from the Jihad Islam”.

Pointing at the “danger” from the “Jihad Islam” for the “Christian Europe” and the “sacred” duty of Serbs to “fight for the historic truth about the Bosnian war, that is, the lies, deceits, and forgeries, Dobrica Ćosić, a notional leader of Serbs, as a “Father of a nation” and in his full criminal image, who knew the truth about “Bosnian war” and in his attempts also to avoid the responsibility for destroying the Constitutional concept of the defense of SFRY, creation of internal crisis in SFRY and the destruction of common state, as well as planning, preparation and the organization for the execution of genocide, used the language of hatred which intensified the national, ethnic, and religious hatred among the peoples and citizens of SFRY and other criminal activities within joint criminal enterprise, and also to minimize, relativize and deny the aggression against Bosnia and genocide against Bosniacs, presented the concept of achieving the historic goal and the strategy for its achieving: “from the truth on the destruction of Yugoslavia by the wars pursued in its territory, especially from the truth about the Bosnian war, the future of Serbs and its reputation in the world depend directly on it”.

The crime of genocide is apparent, and the amnesty from it is “immediate requirement for the future of Serb people and its reputation in the world”, envisaged and developed by the Academician Dobrica Ćosić, who used lies, forgeries, and deceits to justify crimes, especially aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to deny genocide against Bosniacs, which is in the opinion of the most renowned scientific authorities on Holocaust and genocide the last stage of genocide.

Considering these lies, deceits and forgeries of the great-Serbian intellectuals (secular and spiritual) elite, led by Dobrica Ćosić, one of the key ideologists of Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, and the author of the essay on the role of lies in the history of Serbs, it is necessary for the sakes of human, scientific, historic truth and dozens, and hundreds of thousands, and millions of victims in the Balkans during the last two centuries, point to important facts on the roots, causes, objective, intention and the extent of Serbian great-state project, based on Serb fascist ideology and politics and genocidal practice, which contains full truth on all the aggressive great-Serbian wars in the Balkans, especially against Bosnia and Herzegovina and the genocide against Bosnian Muslims – Bosniacs. Historic truth, based on numerous documents, of various provenances is:

-                      Serb great-state project (“all Serbs in one state”) is, unfortunately, reality. Although defeated in the WWII, at the time when it was an official political program of the Chetnic movement of Draža Mihailović and the government in exile in London, persistently supported by the Allies, that project was against revived in the second half of the 80’s of the 20^th century, and it escalated in aggressive wars and other crimes against humanity and international law, including genocide against Bosniacs in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina  at the end of the 20^th century;

-                      The project, depending on the relations among the forces, was pursued in the continuity of discontinuity, meaning that it was implemented in various eras of social and historic development, and whose implementation resulted in huge consequences reflected primarily in large human victims and material destruction;

-                      The project is of Nazi, fascist, and genocidal character, because it also contains two large, mutually related elements:

-          Territorial expansion – occupying other territories (lebensraum), including Bosnia and Herzegovina, and

-          Extermination of peoples, that is, genocide, the crime of all crimes, including the one against Bosniacs in Bosnia and Herzegovina (for the “final solution” of Muslim issue);

-          All the options of the Serb great-state project were aggressive and anti-Muslim: fighting for land and extermination of Muslims;

-          Expansion of living space (lebensraum), by the Serb fascistic ideology and politics, and confirmed in practice, is a primary criterion for the expansion and preservation of “ethnic purity”, similar to Nazis, and the planned territorial expansion, which by itself understands the extermination of all non-Serbs peoples in the way, including Bosniacs, members of national, ethnic, and religious group as such;

-          The project has been (since the beginning of the 19^th century) developed and implemented through various plans, program, and action documents of genocidal character:

-          ideology, policy, and practice of Serb rebels (since the beginning of the 19^th century, with its guerrilla element, whose integral parts are mass and individual crimes: murders, plundering, destruction), including the bishop Matej Nenadović, who, “like his predecessors” believed that “he has to offer offering to God in form of somebody else’s blood;

-          “Načertanije” 1844. - program (“of extremely covert character”) which emphasized conquering territorial objectives of Serbia to achieve its “historic” mission: Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire), to replace with the Serbian-Slavic (published in 1906, the document “became an implementing program of Serb politics with or without Pašić”);

-          “Mountain wreath” 1847 – paradigmatic instruction of intolerance and religious hatred, whose objective is to “clear land from non-Christians”;

-          Politics and practice of the Kingdom of Serbia;

-          Language nationalism - “Serbs all and everywhere” – by Vuk Karadžić;

-          Documents of secret organizations and associations (“Unification or death”; “Serb defense” and other);

-          “racial prejudice” (“… Serbian race”) by Jovan Cvijić, 1908;

-          Materials of Corfu Declaration, 1917;

-          Genocidal document (secret, confidential) “Moving out of Arnauts” “about the intentional, systematic, and energetic” moving out and assimilation of Albanian Muslims in Yugoslavia by professor (at the School of Philosophy in Belgrade) and the Secretary of the Serbian cultural club, Vaso Čubrilović, 1937 – sent in May 1938 to the state authorities (with the moving out of Albanians, according to Čubrilović “a last link between our Muslims in Bosnia and Novi Pazar and other Muslim world would be cut, and that fact would expedite their civilization”);

-          (secret) elaborate by dr. Ivo Andrić on Albania from 1939 (published only in 1977) – genocidal project on moving out of Albanians from Yugoslavia to Turkey was unselfishly supported by dr. Ivo Andrić in the eve of the WWII (high ranking Yugoslav diplomat, later on Nobel prize winner, promoted by Milan Stojadinović, President of the Yugoslav Royal Government, pro Germany orientated, to his closest associate, who “mainly agreed with his, that is Duke Pavle, general foreign policy”, who was credited an Approval from the Germans, as his was the Stojadinović’s trust worthy man), who also supported the division of Albania, emphasizing that the division of Albania and “merging its northern and central parts to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia would be a national success and achievement of natural aspirations”;

-          Nationalistic program of Serb military and civil circles, the best described by the Serbian cultural club and his genocidal program document known by the Moljević expose “HOMOGENOUS SERBIA”, 30 June 1941;

-          Genocidal program of the Chetnic movement of Draža Mihailović on the extermination of Muslims (1941-1945), which represent a continuity in the great-Serbian criminal ideology and the politics in the country and abroad (especially among the leading Serbs in the Royal Yugoslav Government) and the implementation of that politics in practice – in the field, especially the area of Sandžak and Bosnia and Herzegovina;

-          Conclusions of the Chetnic Dinara Division, March 1942 and Chetnic conference in Šahovići in early January 1943;

-          Genocidal elaborate “Problems of the minorities in new Yugoslavia” by Academician Vaso Čubrilović, 1944;

-          Genocidal ideology, expansionistic policy and practice of the Eastern Orthodox religious nationalism of the Serb Orthodox church;

-          Programs of various Serb societies and associations;

-          political-program document of the Serb Academy of Science and Arts (SANU), especially Memorandum, 1986 – saw the establishment of the Serb state on the bases of the monarchist Yugoslavia, which according to the conclusions of the SANU leadership from March 1991, when the historic objective was so apparent, “had significant impact on the social development” and it was “understood as a sort of national program for the future development of the Serb people”.

Continuity of the SANU genocidal policy, especially the Academician Vaso Čubrilović, is confirmed in his statement (18 December 2021): “No village in this state, Yugoslavia, or Serbia was conquered without blood, no village will be surrendered without blood” (a few years later, Academician Čubrilović became aware of consequences of such ideology, politics and practice, as well as its bleak future);

-          ample historiographic, philosophic and literary works, and “scientific” works of the orientalists;

-          political platforms, programs, agitation and political propaganda in the speeches of the political leaders, representatives of the authorities, and dignitaries of the Serb Orthodox Church;

-          strategic plans of the military leadership of the Yugoslav National Army (“transformed” in great-Serbian Army, whose task according to the General Veljko Kadijević, Minister of Defense, was to “protect the territories with Serb population, armed them, and secure borders of the future, wanted Yugoslavia”) and the state – political leadership of Serbia;

-          strategic plans of the Yugoslav Army;

-          documents of the Serb Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.

The core of the great-Serbian ideology, politics, and practice is a pathological hatred towards anything, which is not Serb or Eastern Orthodox. Hatred towards Muslims and Islam is vividly present in the Serb historiography, literature, and politics. This genocidal ideology, politics, and practice motivated biological and spiritual extermination and destruction of Muslims, especially Bosniacs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly at the end of the 20^th century;

-          Serb great-state project presented historic objectives, defined in these documents through strategic, operative, tactical, and instrumental objectives. Fundamental historic objective is the establishment of ethnically clean Serb State – Great Serbia (in Balkans), in which only (all) Serbs would live (and such state is possible only with the war of aggression and genocide);

-          The basis for the Serb fascism lies in the core of the (great)Serb (aggressive) national culture, and the core of its myth, which is integral part of the Serb historic consciousness, and it contains lies, a large quantity of the hatred and violence, permanent intention to commit genocide, and that “culture” of lies, hatred, killing, and plundering is nourished within family and tribal tradition, and through the myth on Kosovo and the Njegoš “Mountain wreath”, by which the extermination of Muslims is a holy and sacred act, and thus, the genocide, unfortunately, becomes a part of family tradition;

-          The prominent nationalistic Serb intellectuals, including unfortunately even the leadership of the Serb Orthodox Church are holders of this project;

-          The Serb fascism is of massive character, thanks to the Serb nationalistic intellectual (secular and spiritual) and political elite, doe to which it gained its number and massive support among the Serb people;

-          The state as the most powerful political subject stood behind the Serb fascism, and it directly planned, organized, and pursued genocide;

-          The known, available, clear, sufficiently valid evidence confirm that the Serb fascism contains subjective element of genocide – intention (mens rea) and genocidal plan to commit genocide against Muslims, including Bosniacs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and among them are also the orders to execute genocide;

-          The Serb fascism is (pathologically) obsessed with the eastern orthodox beliefs and the Serbianhood, or as Mirko Kovač claims, that sick phenomenon, “which places Nation above God, and in there it finds a justification for all the crimes committed by the great-Serbian ‘national idols’”, who rely on the “Nemanjić‑Eastern Orthodox tradition”;

-          The concept of the Serb great-state ideology, politics, and practice has anti‑civilization, antidemocratic, and anti-Bosnian character;

-          Serb great state project denies historic, national, political-legal, and territorial integrity of the states and nations that entered the territory of the imagined and planned Serb great state interest, which is clearly seen in the attempts to conquer other territories (Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Sandžak, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia). These are all the apparent elements which define such a fascist project, whose objective is establishment of ethnically clean Serb great state;

-          Serb great state project and great Serbian nationalism was supported, during the 90’s of the last century, by almost all the Academicians of the Serb Academy of Science and Arts, then, writers, artists, and dignitaries of the Serb Orthodox Church and other public officials – so called “nationalistic elite”. All the groups of the Serb academicians (“ … a group of the so called ‘immortals’ …”) has for years analyzed ‘maps of Bosnia trying to locate even a path to reach Karlovac from Belgrade crossing only Serb villages and towns”. The leading Serb institutions were behind the fascist project of Great Serbia at the end of the 20^th century, supervised by the Serb Academy of Science and Arts and Serb Orthodox Church (so, the project was supported by intellectual, political, military, and confessional elite, and unfortunately a significant number of Serb people);

-          The Muslims of Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Sandžak, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with great Serbian ideology, politics and practice of the Serb great state project have in several wars been subjected to genocide and other forms of crimes against humanity and international law. Genocide against the Muslims in the Balkans, especially Bosniacs in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been the result of the collective Serb fascist ideology and politics and genocidal criminal practice of extermination of Muslims;

A number of the specified (Serb) programs, plans, and action documents of genocidal character have been identified after several decades. That fact suggests the basic indications of probability that there are other similar documents which will be detected in the future. The illustration is a redacted and hidden document of the Supreme Council of Defense of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was also hidden by the leadership of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the ICTY Judges.

Genocide victims of the Serb great state project have mainly been Muslims, including Bosniacs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sandžak, and Montenegro. To this end, it is especially important to suggest the fact that Bosniacs, as history has proven, have never had any plan to exterminate other nations, nor they had any fascist ideology or fascist movement, which is important civilization heritage nourished by this nation.

This fact is important for the history of Bosniacs, their existence, sustainability, and development in this region, for which they have to be proud, as well as the fact that Bosniac intellectual elite (spiritual and secular), led by Islamic community, during the worst conditions of the fascist occupation in summer 1941, opposed Ustasha genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma people. The Muslims resolutions were known that appeared to be unique phenomenon in the Second World War. Even the King Petar II Karađorđević confirmed that in his speech at the 5^th All-Serb Congress in Chicago, who stated: “we Serbs should not forget that the most respectful Muslims stood against Ustasha crimes trying to defend Serbs living in NDH” (“Bosanski pogledi”, London 1984, p. 317).

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Relevant facts on events in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of 20^th century[1]

[1] The presentation is based on the most relevant, scientific and theoretical sources of knowledge and important results of empiric scientific researches by the author (For more complete information, see: www.institut‑genocid.ba)

Numerous relevant sources of different provenance reliably suggest the two initial and basic, essential fundamental assumptions and provisions for the contemporary events and episodes in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of XX century:

-          First, a classic armed aggression was conducted against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, it was crime against peace and safety of mankind which is according to the basic understanding and definition an international armed conflict and

-          Second, the gravest crime – crime of genocide was committed in the occupied territory of the independent and universally recognized Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a member of the United Nations, as well as towns under siege, and against Bosniacs.

These are the crimes, created on the foundations of the fascist ideology, two genocidal policies, two great-state projects, two joint criminal enterprise, two nationalistic movements, two aggressive and genocidal strategies, two states, than two or better to say three collaborationist and fifth column creations, two foreign armies, four collaborationist military formations, and several other armed units and groups, including the foreign mercenaries (Russians, Greeks, and others). Such fascist ideology, policy and practice of genocidal character had one objective – formation of great-Serbian and great-Croatian states on the account of independent and sovereign, historically permanent and clearly defined state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The objective of these ideologies, policies, and practices was the conquering war for territories, “living space”, occupying somebody else’s, Bosnia and Herzegovina territory.

Considering previously mentioned basic assumptions, it is necessary, for the purpose of historic truth, to remind of the relevant facts determined based on the original and relevant documentation:

-          Serbian Nazism again – during the last decade of the 20^th century – generated the gravest crimes known to the mankind;

-          Serbian nationalistic elite (political, intellectual, and clerical), in accordance with the great Serbian project of great Serbia (“all Serbs in one state”), during the last decade of the 20^th century, caused an internal crisis in SFRY and destroyed the common state;

-          The Milošević’s nationalistic politics and practice of mass meetings and coup methods dismissed in Serbia, Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Montenegro the legally elected leaderships and removed unwanted personnel;

-          The Republic of Serbia, by the 28 September 2021 Amendments to the Constitution, revoked the autonomy of Vojvodina and Kosovo and practically made the cessation (from SFRY) and took over the functions of independent and sovereign state, by which it was excluded from the legal system of SFRY, which based on the SFRY laws constituted the gravest criminal offense;

-          A collaborationist regime was established in Montenegro;

-          A process of homogenization of Serbs, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina was expedited;

-          Slobodan Milošević received a massive support from the Serb Academy of Science and Arts, Serbian Association of Writers, Serb Orthodox Church, Yugoslav National Army (JNA as of the 90s of the 20^th century did not have either Yugoslav or national character), political and cultural institutions, and unfortunately a massive support of Serbs;

-          JNA leadership accepted Serb nationalistic ideology and policy, and became and instrument of Serb great-state project, whose task was to “protect territory with Serb population, armed them and secure borders of the future Yugoslavia”;

-          The aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and genocide against Bosniacs make the essence of joint criminal enterprise conducted by the states of FRY (Serbia and Montenegro) and the Republic of Croatia, their leadership, and numerous top representatives of their respective political, military, police and administration, as well as their fifth column, collaborationists and mercenaries;

-          The intention (mens rea) of that criminal act, based in the Serbian and Croatian project of great state, had for its objective taking over of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the state, and “final solution” for the Muslim issue – extermination of Bosniacs or their limitation to an insignificant ethnic group. The fifth column from Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Croatian Community Herzeg‑Bosnia”, “Republika Srpska” and “Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia”) and from the Republic of Croatia (“Republic of Serbian Krajina”) joined obediently, as associates and executors, the function of these criminal activities;

-          To achieve this joint criminal enterprise, the following activities were undertaken:

-          the Constitutional concept of the defense of SFRY was destroyed;

-          the Territorial defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina was reduced and disarmed as well as some other constitutive elements of the Federation;

-          JNA was “transformed” from antifascist and multiethnic to the great Serb army;

-          the great Serbian and great Croatian movements were renewed and they escalated;

-          the methods, mechanisms, and procedures for planning and preparation of the crimes were defined;

-          the principle agreement on the destruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina (March 1991) was reached between the heads of neighboring states (Pact Milošević‑Tuđman);

-          new borders of great Serbia and great Croatia were drawn;

-          the fifth column of the neighboring countries was organized and armed (great Serbian and great Croatian) in Bosnia and Herzegovina;

-          the command in the occupied territories was united in the hands of heads of neighboring countries – occupational forces;

-          the initial positions for the aggression were taken as well as for other criminal activities, including genocide against Bosniacs;

-          The aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina and genocide against Bosniacs were planned (intellectually, ideologically, politically, militarily, economically, in media, intelligence, psychologically, etc), with clearly set objective, and ordered from the respective political and military centers, and executed as planned, systematically, and well organized. The state aggressors, then ideologists, planners, order issuing authorities, executors, and associates are well known, and also how these crimes were committed and why;

-          The Belgrade and Zagreb regimes, headed by Slobodan Milošević and Franjo Tuđman, planned, prepared, and organized the aggression against the republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and genocide against Bosniacs, managed and commanded the execution of aggression, and controlled the operation, and prepared, coordinated, guided, and through their officers conducted military operations against Bosnia and Herzegovina; ensured manpower (senior officers and soldiers), a complete logistic support (tanks, transporters, helicopters, artillery and infantry weapons, radar-computing means, ordnance, ammunition, fuel and other strategic resources; medical material; health insurance and all the other military equipment, salaries and pensions, and thus directly took part in the execution of genocide and other forms of crimes and against humanity and international law. It was only by the 31^st December 1994 that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia secured 89.4% infantry, 73% artillery, and 95.1% antiaircraft ammunition for the aggression. These records were, on a timely basis, even during the court proceedings, in the hands of the International Court of Justice, but unfortunately, just like many other crucial evidence on direct participation and responsibility of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and genocide against Bosniacs, which the Court did not consider;

-          The armed aggression and conquering war against Bosnia and Herzegovina were the integral part of the Milošević and Tuđman state politics, in whose name was the biggest part of Bosnia and Herzegovina occupied, Bosniacs killed, expelled or taken to the concentration camps just because of their national, ethnic, or religious background and conquering of their living space;

-          The aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with embargo on weapons and humanitarian policy by the United Nations, Europe, and international community, and the international strategy of ignoring the great state fascistic and genocidal project of great Serbia, was an integral part of the Milošević state policy, in whose name the biggest portion of Bosnia and Herzegovina was occupied, Bosniacs killed, expelled, taken to the concentration camps because of their national, ethnic or religious belonging, taking over of their land, looting of the property and other moveable items, and taking and confiscation of their houses and apartments, as well as eradication of the traces of their cultural and civilization heritage;

-          Serb Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the leadership of war criminal Radovan Karadžić supervised, created and guided the operation of the great-Serbian ideology, politics, and practice in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately, surprisingly large number of Serb accepted this policy. It is even more horrifying that many antifascist Serbs from the Second World War ended their career at the end of the 20^th century as fascists. “Leadership of Bosnian Serbs”, or more precisely, the leadership of Serb Democratic Party and Serb collaborationist creation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina/Republika Srpska) was involved in the joint criminal enterprise under the direct political and operative leadership of Slobodan Milošević, whose objectives and intentions were to destroy Bosniacs, a national, ethnic, and religious group as such;

-          Collaborationists and the fifth column of the (great)Serbian aggressor (political, military, police, and administrative-executive potential of Republika Srpska regime) under the direct management, organization, command, participation and support of the state of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), which occupied more than 70% of the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, took part in genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against Bosniacs and war crimes against other nations;

-          Fascist and genocidal leadership of the para-state and collaborationist creation of Republika Srpska, with Radovan Karadžić, Momčilo Krajišnik, Biljana Plavšić and others at its top, generated by the Serbian Nazism and on bones of the killed Bosniacs inaugurated a genocidal creation called a Republic, had a genocidal intention and genocidal plan to exterminate Bosniacs that were subjected to targeted genocide;

-          There was a genocidal criminal intention and genocidal plan to exterminate Bosniacs, a group (national, ethnic, and religious) protected by international humanitarian law (there are also order to commit genocide, including the formation of concentration camps);

-          Genocide against Bosniacs was committed in the ambient of aggression against independent, internationally recognized state Bosnia and Herzegovina, a UN member, even through the three and half years of occupation of a large part of its state territory. The convicted war criminal Biljana Plavšić at the 17^th session of the Republika Srpska Parliament, held on 24 – 26 July 1992, stated that 70% of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina was conquered. Radovan Karadžić at the 34^th session of the Republika Srpska Parliament, held on 27 August – 1 October 1993, stated: “And we preserved 250,000 places of living space where Muslims used to live”. Slobodan Milošević also stated on the 15 April 2022 at the session of the Supreme Council of Defense of the Federal Republic Yugoslavia: “ … out forces control 72% territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina”;

-          Genocide against Bosniacs was carried out continuously, with major or minor oscillations by the end of 1995, in accordance with the great Serbian genocidal ideology, policy, and practice, following the model of fascism and Nazism, irrespective of the number of the killed, injured, expelled, raped, or other acts. The intention to exterminate Bosniacs existed ever since the very beginning and was practically pursued throughout the aggression. Executors of the genocide, considering that their acts were tolerated by the international community, believed that they would via facti achieve the legalization of genocide as their political practice:

-          The Serbian Montenegrin aggressor in the occupied territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in the territory of the Serb strategic priorities of East and North Bosnia, as well as Bosnian Krajina carried out massive destruction of civilians, mainly Bosniacs. The biggest slaughters were in the municipalities with the Bosniac majority in Podrinje, Bosanska posavina, Potkozarje, and along the Sana valley, and the area of Sarajevo, especially part of Sarajevo under siege and other places of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

-          Great Serbian aggressor and its collaborationists killed dozens, hundreds, and thousands of innocent civilians in the territory of: Trebinje, Bileća, Gacko, Ljubinje, Nevesinje, Kalinovik, Foča, Goražde, Čajniče, Rudo, Višegrad, Rogatica, Sokolac, Han-Pijesak, Srebrenica, Vlasenica, Bratunac, Zvornik, Bijeljina, Brčko, Bosanski Šamac, Doboj, Bosanski Brod, Derventa, Teslić, Maglaj, Zavidovići, Prnjavor, Kotor-Varoš, Skender-Vakuf, Banja Luka, Ključ, Bosanski Petrovac, Sanski Most, Bosanska Gradiška, Prijedor, Bosanska Dubica, Bosanski Novi, Bosanska Krupa, Kulen-Vakuf, Sarajevo, and other places, and forcibly expelled the complete population from majority of these places and eradicated the traces of their existence. Men and women were arrested, detained, expelled, deported, forcibly expelled from their homes, separated from each other and taken to camps and other place of incarceration, where many were killed, severely beaten up, tortured, physically ill-treated, while many women, girls, and young girls were systematically raped and/or subjected to other forms of sexual abuse, especially degrading from women (with the use of various tools). Mass graves and concentration camps (Omarska, Keraterm, Manjača, Sušica, Penitentiary in Foča, Batkovići, Luka-Brčko, and other) are crucial indicators of aggression and the implementation of its primary objective – biological and spiritual extermination of Bosniacs and/or genocide against this people (the oldest camp inmate – old lady Hanka Kustura, in the camp Rasadnik - Rogatica, was 101 year old, and there were also newborn babies in the camps and other places of incarceration);

-          Almost all these regions, from Trebinje in southeast, via Bijeljina in northeast, Sarajevo in central Bosnia, to Bihać area in northwest make today Republika Srpska (entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina), legalized by the Dayton Peace Accord, which, as it can be seen from its very start, emerged on genocide and other crimes against humanity and intentional law;

-          Genocide against Bosniacs in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the result of collective great-Serbian ideology, politics, and practice of the extermination of Bosniacs. Only in the systematic and planned genocide against Bosniacs of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the UN safe area Srebrenica in July 1995 involved (on various grounds and in various ways), according to the results of the research by the Republika Srpska Government, over 25,000 people;

-          The way and tools used for killing may be defined as monstrous. Women, men, and children were killed with firearms, infantry weapons, mortars, modified bombs, knives, and specially designed tools. There is evidence that Bosniacs were burnt alive, brutally killed, even the entire families, so that the mortal remains of the entire families were found and identified in some of the mass graves;

-          In the “operation of killing”, in mainly four days, with the intention and based on precisely defined pattern, more than 8,000 captured and detained Bosniacs of Bosnia and Herzegovina were executed, because they were Muslims and they lived in the territory which the great Serbian aggressor wanted to occupy and join Serbia (in the wider area of Srebrenica, from 1992 to 1995, more than 12,000 Bosniacs were killed);

-          In the take over of Srebrenica, the United Nations Safe Area, and the execution of genocide against Bosniacs in July 1995, in addition to army and police forces of the collaborating, fifth column, fascist and genocidal creation of Republika Srpska, even the armed forces of Ferderal Republic Yugoslavia (Yugoslav Army and Republic of Serbia Ministry of Interior special forces) took part in it;

-          The great-Serbian aggressor and its collaborationists committed mass crimes in Sarajevo and other towns under siege (Goražde, Maglaj, Tuzla, Bihać, …): in water and food queues, markets, schools, universities, hospitals, trams, buses, streets, residential buildings, at work, during funerals, and so many other places, where among other things, a coordinated, widespread, long-lasting, and systemic discriminate shelling campaign against civilian areas and civilians was pursued from the artillery, mortar, and infantry weapons. The shelling and sniping activity resulted in the death of thousands of civilians, both gender and all age groups, including children, women, and the elderly. Only in besieged Sarajevo, between April 1992 and December 1995, a total number of killed and deceased according to the ICTY amounted to 18,889 individuals.[2] On 25 May 1995, there was a massacre in Tuzla, when in shelling 71 civilian got killed (15 - 25 years old) and more than 200 injured;

-          The Serbian-Montenegrin aggressor committed numerous crimes against children, as vital group of which the future generations depend. So many children got killed and injured. Only in besieged Sarajevo, around 1,600 children got killed or died of hunger and cold. After the take over of the UN safe area Srebrenica in July 1995, around 800 children got killed, who were below 18, including around 400 of those below the age of 14. Many young girls were raped and they also watched their mother being raped and tortured. The criminal killed, tortured, and raped their parents before the eyes of children. They took away their homes and childhood, and many lost one or both parents;

-          The aggressor, in some places, converted Muslims by force to Eastern Christianity. There are numerous testimonies about it from people of Kalimanići, Rogatica, Bjelimići, Foča, Kozarac, Semberija and other places;

-          Aggressor systematically plundered, demolished, destroyed, and eradicated the traces of around 1,200 facilities of Islamic architecture, including numerous mosques, Islamic schools, Teki, and other sacral facilities, including many of immense historic-cultural, artistic, or scientific value, which cannot be replaced. At the same time, the Serbian-Montenegrin fascists destroyed or damaged more than 500 Catholic church facilities and some Jewish;

-          Aggressor systematically plundered, took over, demolished, and burnt numerous residential and business facilities. It is estimated that between 60% and 70% of the total residential units in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was damaged. Numerous infrastructure facilities (railways, roads, postal communications and TV transmitters) were damaged;

-          Aggressor plundered, destroyed, and demolished numerous industrial facilities, agricultural goods, hotels, motels, and tourist centers, entrepreneur centers and privately owned shops. It is estimated that between 50% and 60% of industrial facilities were damaged;

-          Great Serbian aggressor destroyed about 55% of health care facilities, including thousands of hospital beds. They killed 349 doctors and other medical professionals, mainly at work (47 only in Sarajevo). They destroyed about 400 ambulances;

-          Perhaps the worst results of the aggression are demolition and destruction of almost all educational, scientific, cultural and sports facilities. It suffices to say that the aggressor shelled and burnt National and University Library in Sarajevo (collection of periodic publications with more than 30,000 titles from all the disciplines of science and life in general. Periodicals had almost half million of volumes, National Library had about 850,000 monographic publications). Aggressor burnt the Oriental Institute, including archive and library, and it destroyed almost all the facilities from the time of XIV Winter Olympic Games 1984, and several century old Jewish cemetery was turned into the nest for killing civilians under siege in Sarajevo;

-          Aggressor disabled or cut off water supply installations, electricity installations, gas, and telephone installations, in towns under siege, especially in Sarajevo. In this way, the aggressor subjected civilians to harsh conditions that were supposed to result in their destruction, full or in part;

-          Serbian-Montenegrin aggressor and its collaborationists did not abide by any war conventions, and they used methods forbidden by all international and humanitarian laws and standards. The aggressor used fragmentation and incendiary ammunition against civilians, residential and industrial facilities and hospitals, and it also used chemical poisons, cluster bombs, sniper, etc. All the artillery pieces were used against towns, settlements, and villages with predominant Bosniac population;

-          Aggressor systematically starved the population, especially in Sarajevo, and prevented their medical treatment and epidemiological protection, prevented UNHCR and other international and local organizations from delivering supplies. Also, in occupied places with a smaller number of Bosniacs and Croats, the aggressor would fire them from their jobs, evict from their apartments, and force them first to sign that they give up their property, and it deprived them from welfare and medical care;

-          During the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, aggressor particularly used siege as a way of warfare and indiscriminate and disproportional force, which is characteristic for Sarajevo, Goražde, Žepa, Srebrenica, Bihać and other places under siege;

-          The armed forces of the Republic of Croatia (Croatian Army – HV, and its collaborationists and fifth column – Croatian Defense Council - HVO, who acted under the overall control of the Republic of Croatia and for its interests, as both de facto and de iure instrument of the Republic of Croatia, which pursued the overall control over HVO, whereby even the crimes of HVO are credited to Republic of Croatia) committed numerous crimes against Bosniac civilians in the valley of rivers Rama and Neretva, and in central Bosnia, such as massive slaughters, which included also women and children, forcible transfer and relocation of population, arrests and detention of civilians in concentration camps and other places of  incarceration, rapes, attacks against towns, destruction of villages, religious and other civilian facilities. That was, in accordance with the Tuđman nationalistic program related to the establishment of “common Croat state within its ethnic and historic borders”, a part of intentional and systemic policy and practice of genocide, committed in an organized manner by the HV and HVO in those places and areas.;

Such genocidal politics was pursued in the municipalities of: Stolac, Čapljina, Mostar, Jablanica, Prozor, Gornji Vakuf, Bugojno, Kiseljak, Busovača, Usora, Žepče, Vitez, Travnik, and Vareš. The most apparent example of mass crimes are slaughters in Ahmići and Stupni Do, where many civilians, including women and children were killed or burnt alive, while the houses were set on fire by incendiary bullets, grenades or gasoline. In that occupied territory, the Republic of Croatia “had a role of an occupational force, due to the general control which it had over the HVO, support it provided, and the close relations which it maintained”. Due to the “general control which Croatia pursued over HVO, the property of Bosnian Muslims, at the moment of destruction, was under the control of Croatia and it was under the occupied territory”;[3]

-          the armed formations of Fikret Abdić, who placed himself at service of the aggressor, committed numerous crimes against civilians and POWs, especially members of the 5^th Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia ands Herzegovina such as: murders, injuring, maltreatment, physical and mental abuse, beating, especially in camps, then rapes, plundering and destruction (indiscriminate shelling) of residential and other civilian facilities;

-          even some Bosniacs, during the defense of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the aggression and biological extermination, committed some war crimes against Serbs and Croats, which obligates the BiH institutions to prosecute those crimes as well. The energetic actions against a certain number of individuals and their prosecution were undertaken even during the aggression and genocide;

-          the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, internationally recognized state and UN member state, during the aggression and genocide, suffered huge human losses and material destruction. Total number of killed, forcibly transferred, injured, and victims of other crimes against humanity and international law in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not been scientifically concluded. Based on available results of various studies and research, the number of killed ranges between 25,000 and 328,000.[4]

In addition to the mass and individual murders, numerous other forms of crimes against humanity and international law were committed, such as:

-          several hundreds of thousands of the injured, of which several tens of thousands of children;

-          several hundreds of thousands of the incarcerated in over 650 concentration camps and other places of incarceration;

-          several tens of thousands of rapes and sexually abused girls and women, even men;

-          more than 2,200,000 persons (1,170,000 refugees and 1,030,000 displaced persons) were expelled from their homes, who were in panic and fear, and this is more than one half of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina population according to the March 1991 census;

-          1,370,000 persons are with severe psychological injuries;

-          the Great Serbian aggressor, in towns under siege and UN safe areas and other settlements near the frontline, imposed such living conditions that targeted the destruction in full or in part of a targeted group;

-          several dozens of thousands died as the result of aggression and genocide and due to the increase in the mortality rate;

-          significant decrease of birth rate, related to the reduction in births, caused by severe conditions of aggression and genocide;

-          440,000 refugees have never returned to the country even after 16 years since the war.

Systemic pattern in forcible takeover of powers; perpetrated crimes; extent and pattern of attack; intensity; a large number of killed Bosniacs; expelling, deportation, and brutal treatment of them in the concentration camps and other places of incarceration, and targeting individuals relevant for their survival as a group (prominent, intellectual, political, spiritual, and rich Bosniacs) are clear evidence of intention and committed genocide against Bosniacs. Unfortunately, Bosnian Muslims were partly exterminated at the end of the 20th century. In many regions, where they used to live for centuries, they do not live any longer. They are only symbolically present, they vegetate biologically, but they do not constitute any social or political factor, and they are only a statistical number.

-                      Genocide against Bosniacs is still concealed, minimized, relativized, contested, denied, including Judgments by the international (ICTY and ICJ) and national (Federal Republic of Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina) criminal courts, as well as results of the Commission for the Research of the Events in and around Srebrenica between 10 and 19 July 2021 by the Republika Srpska Government and the Working Group for the Implementation of Conclusions from the Final Report of the Commission for the Research of Events in and around Srebrenica between 10 and 19 July 2021;

-                      The victims of genocide and the perpetrators (criminals) have been permanently and continuously equalized, which is unacceptable (it has been talked more and more about crimes on all “sides”, by which genocide and other forms of crimes against humanity and international law are reduced to war crimes only, which, least to say, insults the scholars of these crimes, particularly the victims of genocide), and the qualification is given to this important issue, judgmentally and in a wrong way, such as the character of crime, which finally does not correspond the state of facts and it is in contravention of the relevant documentation;

-                      We are witnesses, unfortunately, of frequent manipulation of the victims of genocide in Bosnian and Herzegovina at the end of the 20^th century, particularly their number and status (instead of civilian and combatant, the terms civilian and soldier are used), whereby particularly active are the pseudo scholars. The holders of the manipulation are different and versatile, individuals, groups, various associations, institutions, and others, whose interests and objectives are very different and difficult to be articulated, detected, identified, established, and formulated in a unique manner. We have identified them as not well intentioned, counterproductive, and with hidden agenda, with potentially long-lasting harmful implications for Bosnia and Herzegovina as the state and all of its citizens, irrespective of their national, religious, or political background. The basis for this qualification stems from the fact that the so-called studies have not been organized or executed on a scientific ground or scientifically defined procedure, by which the process is defined – from the research idea to the establishment of the results of a scientific research and their potential application in a scientific and social practice. It is well known that there is only one truth, and the objective of science is a scientific truth, reachable only by the application of scientific methods;

-          The criminal prosecution of genocide and other forms of crimes against humanity and international law before the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been continuously obstructed, least to say, whereby we have the forces on the stage which, instead of gravity of the crimes, character, status and number of victims, choose cases based on the ethnic background of the victims, for the purpose of making balance among the crimes committed against three peoples (Bosniacs, Serbs, and Croats) and the pronouncement of the victim of genocide – criminal; moreover, they want to change, through the procedure, the character of “conflict” and the character of crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so that the international armed conflict, that is, the aggression, could be qualified as a civil war and the crime of genocide as “ethnic cleansing”;

-          The planners, order issuing authorities, participants, accessories, co-perpetrators, and perpetrators of genocide are in the great Serbian ideology, politics and practice the biggest heroes in the Serbian people (in science, culture, art, education), who live unpunished and enjoy, unfortunately, in the results of genocide while mocking with the victims of those crimes;

-          The Serbian people and its political and scientific elite have not distanced from the committed genocide, let alone that they apologized to victims or asked for the forgiveness offering the hand of reconciliation. Instead, they keep denying genocide and they transfer responsibility to the victim of genocide, and fabricate and forge the historic facts such as, for example, “thesis” that the legitimate authorities of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina expelled Serbs from Sarajevo, including “more than 650 University professors and assistants”;

-          Entity Republika Srpska is a genocidal creation of the great Serbian Nazism, that is, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia /Serbia and Montenegro/ (Republika Srpska is the legacy of genocide – it is national-socialist genocidal creation created on grave violations of international humanitarian law, marked and soaked mainly in Bosniac blood and bordered and covered with numerous mass graves and concentration camps, in which fascistic organization legally operate. Political leadership and other structures of Republika Srpska, in accordance with great Serbian genocidal ideology, policy, and practice, forge historic facts and deny genocide against Bosniacs, and obstruct in all possible ways the strengthening of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the state, and they keep pursuing the policy of cessation, destruction, and annulling of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

-          Dayton Agreement legalized great Serbian Nazi ideology, politics, and practice of genocidal character. Moreover, it changed the name of the internationally recognized state (Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina), excluding from its name the word Republic, crediting it to the criminals as a reward for genocide. The forces which took part in the aggression and genocide were not removed from the structures of the entity Republika Srpska, including the genocide against Bosniacs in and around UN safe area – Srebrenica in July 1995, what was confirmed by the results of the research of the Republika Srpska Government, unlike Germany which removed the Nazi elements from its administration after the WWII, so that these forces are still politically active and they openly destroy the state Bosnia and Herzegovina.

These are only the most basic facts, deeply engraved in the mind of all the survivors of genocide and other forms of crimes against humanity and international law, and they constitute part of social reality, and as such they by all means try to maintain (live and legal) the great state projects of fascist and genocidal character that finally imply permanent instability of Bosnia and Herzegovina, deny the political-legal and state continuity, sovereignty and independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, deny the possibility of common living and the improvement of quality of common living, which among other things very seriously undermine the universal human values, freedoms and rights, civilization, and cultural legacy.

It is the time indeed, and the necessity to unify and ally all the antifascists and the antifascist forces to fight for the sustainability of human dignity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Holocaust and genocide scholars play key role in this project.

[1] The presentation is based on the most relevant, scientific and theoretical sources of knowledge and important results of empiric scientific researches by the author (For more complete information, see: www.institut‑genocid.ba),

2 ICTY, Demographic department, ICTY OTP, Case Milošević (IT-02-54), E. Tabeau, J. Bijak and N. Lončarić, Number of victims in the siege of Sarajevo from April 1992 – December 1995, Study on the mortality rate based on eight sources of information, The Hague, 18 August 2003; ICTY, Case Galić (IT-98-29), E. Tabeau, M. Zoltkowski and J. Bijak, Human losses during the ‘siege’ of Sarajevo from 10 September 2021 to 10 August 1995, Report on the research prepared for the case STANISLAV GALIĆ (IT-98-29-1), The Hague, 10 May 2002; ICTY, PROS

3 ICTY, TRIAL CHAMBER, PROSECUTOR V. TIHOMIR BLAŠKIĆ, JUDGMENT, 3 March 2000, Para 149ECUTOR V. STANISLAV GALIĆ, JUDGMENT AND OPINION, The Hague, 5 December 2003.

4 See more: S. Čekić, ISTRAŽIVANJE ŽRTAVA GENOCIDA SA POSEBNIM OSVRTOM NA BOSNU I HERCEGOVINU: Naučno-teorijska i metodološko-metodska pitanja i problemi, Sarajevo, 2007. Studija je 2009. objavljena i na engleskom jeziku (RESEARCH OF GENOCIDE VICTIMS, WITH A SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: Problems and Issues in Scientific Theory, Methods and Methodology)

Bosnia has never been the same after the Genocide

The greatest failure of the West since the 1930s” Richard Holbrooke, U.S Assistant Secretary of State. ( Bosnia…).  July, 1991, Bosnians Population was 4,364,574, and at the end of 1995, there were 2.9 million left.

Today there is still no known information for about 4,000 draft-age men and The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia took President Milosevic and more than 160 Serbs to trial for their crimes against humanity and the murder of more than 200,000

Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992 – 1995  - 200,000 Deaths

In the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, conflict between the three main ethnic groups, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims in Bosnia.

Bosnia is one of several small countries that emerged from the break-up of Yugoslavia, a multicultural country created after World War I by the victorious Western Allies. Yugoslavia was composed of ethnic and religious groups that had been historical rivals, even bitter enemies, including the Serbs (Orthodox Christians), Croats (Catholics) and ethnic Albanians (Muslims).

During World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany and was partitioned. A fierce resistance movement sprang up led by Josip Tito. Following Germany’s defeat, Tito reunified Yugoslavia under the slogan “Brotherhood and Unity,” merging together Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, along with two self-governing provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina.

Tito, a Communist, was a strong leader who maintained ties with the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War, playing one superpower against the other while obtaining financial assistance and other aid from both. After his death in 1980 and without his strong leadership, Yugoslavia quickly plunged into political and economic chaos.

A new leader arose by the late 1980s, a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic, a former Communist who had turned to nationalism and religious hatred to gain power. He began by inflaming long-standing tensions between Serbs and Muslims in the independent provence of Kosovo. Orthodox Christian Serbs in Kosovo were in the minority and claimed they were being mistreated by the Albanian Muslim majority. Serbian-backed political unrest in Kosovo eventually led to its loss of independence and domination by Milosevic.

In June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia both declared their independence from Yugoslavia soon resulting in civil war. The national army of Yugoslavia, now made up of Serbs controlled by Milosevic, stormed into Slovenia but failed to subdue the separatists there and withdrew after only ten days of fighting.

Milosevic quickly lost interest in Slovenia, a country with almost no Serbs. Instead, he turned his attention to Croatia, a Catholic country where Orthodox Serbs made up 12 percent of the population.

During World War II, Croatia had been a pro-Nazi state led by Ante Pavelic and his fascist Ustasha Party. Serbs living in Croatia as well as Jews had been the targets of widespread Ustasha massacres. In the concentration camp at Jasenovac, they had been slaughtered by the tens of thousands.

In 1991, the new Croat government, led by Franjo Tudjman, seemed to be reviving fascism, even using the old Ustasha flag, and also enacted discriminatory laws targeting Orthodox Serbs.

Aided by Serbian guerrillas in Croatia, Milosevic’s forces invaded in July 1991 to ‘protect’ the Serbian minority. In the city of Vukovar, they bombarded the outgunned Croats for 86 consecutive days and reduced it to rubble. After Vukovar fell, the Serbs began the first mass executions of the conflict, killing hundreds of Croat men and burying them in mass graves.

The response of the international community was limited. The U.S. under President George Bush chose not to get involved militarily, but instead recognized the independence of both Slovenia and Croatia. An arms embargo was imposed for all of the former Yugoslavia by the United Nations. However, the Serbs under Milosevic were already the best armed force and thus maintained a big military advantage.

By the end of 1991, a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire agreement was brokered between the Serbs and Croats fighting in Croatia.

In April 1992, the U.S. and European Community chose to recognize the independence of Bosnia, a mostly Muslim country where the Serb minority made up 32 percent of the population. Milosevic responded to Bosnia’s declaration of independence by attacking Sarajevo, its capital city, best known for hosting the 1984 Winter Olympics. Sarajevo soon became known as the city where Serb snipers continually shot down helpless civilians in the streets, including eventually over 3,500 children.

Bosnian Muslims were hopelessly outgunned. As the Serbs gained ground, they began to systematically roundup local Muslims in scenes eerily similar to those that had occurred under the Nazis during World War II, including mass shootings, forced repopulation of entire towns, and confinement in make-shift concentration camps for men and boys. The Serbs also terrorized Muslim families into fleeing their villages by using rape as a weapon against women and girls.

The actions of the Serbs were labeled as ‘ethnic cleansing,’ a name which quickly took hold among the international media.

Despite media reports of the secret camps, the mass killings, as well as the destruction of Muslim mosques and historic architecture in Bosnia, the world community remained mostly indifferent. The U.N. responded by imposing economic sanctions on Serbia and also deployed its troops to protect the distribution of food and medicine to dispossessed Muslims. But the U.N. strictly prohibited its troops from interfering militarily against the Serbs. Thus they remained steadfastly neutral no matter how bad the situation became.

Throughout 1993, confident that the U.N., United States and the European Community would not take militarily action, Serbs in Bosnia freely committed genocide against Muslims. Bosnian Serbs operated under the local leadership of Radovan Karadzic, president of the illegitimate Bosnian Serb Republic. Karadzic had once told a group of journalists, “Serbs and Muslims are like cats and dogs. They cannot live together in peace. It is impossible.”

When Karadzic was confronted by reporters about ongoing atrocities, he bluntly denied involvement of his soldiers or special police units.

On February 6, 1994, the world’s attention turned completely to Bosnia as a marketplace in Sarajevo was struck by a Serb mortar shell killing 68 persons and wounding nearly 200. Sights and sounds of the bloody carnage were broadcast globally by the international news media and soon resulted in calls for military intervention against the Serbs.

The U.S. under its new President, Bill Clinton, who had promised during his election campaign in 1992 to stop the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, now issued an ultimatum through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) demanding that the Serbs withdraw their artillery from Sarajevo. The Serbs quickly complied and a NATO-imposed cease-fire in Sarajevo was declared.

The U.S. then launched diplomatic efforts aimed at unifying Bosnian Muslims and the Croats against the Serbs. However, this new Muslim-Croat alliance failed to stop the Serbs from attacking Muslim towns in Bosnia which had been declared Safe Havens by the U.N. A total of six Muslim towns had been established as Safe Havens in May 1993 under the supervision of U.N. peacekeepers.

Bosnian Serbs not only attacked the Safe Havens but also attacked the U.N. peacekeepers as well. NATO forces responded by launching limited air strikes against Serb ground positions. The Serbs retaliated by taking hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers as hostages and turning them into human shields, chained to military targets such as ammo supply dumps.

At this point, some of the worst genocidal activities of the four-year-old conflict occurred. In Srebrenica, a Safe Haven, U.N. peacekeepers stood by helplessly as the Serbs under the command of General Ratko Mladic systematically selected and then slaughtered nearly 8,000 men and boys between the ages of twelve and sixty - the worst mass murder in Europe since World War II. In addition, the Serbs continued to engage in mass rapes of Muslim females.

On August 30, 1995, effective military intervention finally began as the U.S. led a massive NATO bombing campaign in response to the killings at Srebrenica, targeting Serbian artillery positions throughout Bosnia. The bombardment continued into October. Serb forces also lost ground to Bosnian Muslims who had received arms shipments from the Islamic world. As a result, half of Bosnia was eventually retaken by Muslim-Croat troops.

Faced with the heavy NATO bombardment and a string of ground losses to the Muslim-Croat alliance, Serb leader Milosevic was now ready to talk peace. On November 1, 1995, leaders of the warring factions including Milosevic and Tudjman traveled to the U.S. for peace talks at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio.

After three weeks of negotiations, a peace accord was declared. Terms of the agreement included partitioning Bosnia into two main portions known as the Bosnian Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The agreement also called for democratic elections and stipulated that war criminals would be handed over for prosecution. 60,000 NATO soldiers were deployed to preserve the cease-fire.

By now, over 200,000 Muslim civilians had been systematically murdered. More than 20,000 were missing and feared dead, while 2,000,000 had become refugees. It was, according to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, “the greatest failure of the West since the 1930s.”

BOSNIA GENOCIDE BIBLIOGRPHY

Books

• Broz, S. Good People In An Evil Time: Portraits of Complicity and Resistance in the Bosnian War (Other Press)
• Curtin, L. Sunflowers in the Sand: Stories from Children and War (Madison Books)
• Darkulic, S., Balkan Express: Fragments From the Other Side of the War (Perennial)
• Filipovic, F., Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo (Penguin Books)
• Grant, J., I Dream of Peace: Images of War By Children of the Former Yugoslavia (Harper Collins)
• Neuffer, E., The Key to My Neighbors House: Seeking Justice in Bosnia and Rwanda (Picador)
• Sella, M., The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia (University of California Press)
• Roy Gutman, A Witness to Genocide (Macmillan)
• Steven M. Weine, When History Is a Nightmare: Lives and Memories of Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia Herzegovina (Rutgers University Press)

Video

• Harrison’s Flowers (Universal Studios)
• Good Husband, Dear Son (Appel & Honigmann)
• While America Watched: The Bosnian Tragedy (ABC)

Bosnian War (1992-1995).” Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts. Web. 03 Feb.  2011. <http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~bonne20s/>.

“Bosnian War.” USA People Search - Find People Now! Web. 13 Feb. 2011. <http://www.usa-people-search.com/content-bosnian-war.aspx>.

Bowman, Steven R. “Bosnia: U.S Military Operations.” CRS Issue Brief for Congress. 8 July 2003. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/ib93056.pdf>.

Bowman, Steven R. CRS Issue Brief for Congress; Bosnia: U.S. Military Operations.      Print

Chollet, Derek. “The Secret History of Dayton: U.S. Diplomacy and the Bosnia Peace Process 1995.” The George Washington University. National Security Archive, 21 Nov. 2005. Web. 07  Feb. 2011. <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB171/>.

“IFOR: The General Framework Agreement: Summary.” NATO - Homepage.       1995. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. <http://www.nato.int/ifor/gfa/gfa-summ.htm>.

Miller, Olivia. “Bosnian Americans.” Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. Ed. Jeffrey  Lehman. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 262-271. American History Reference Collecti

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The work of research titled The Aggression Against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Planning, Preparation, Execution by Prof. Dr. Smail Cekic, and whichis before you, represents the English translation of the identical original published in two volumes in Sarajevo, in 2004.

Bosnian Genocide was the brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing — in which more of one million Bosniaks were displaced; half a million permanently  removed from their ancestral land, and more than 100.000 Bosniak civilians and poorly armed defenders killed during the 1992-95 international conflict that took place on a territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian Genocide was characterized by the policy of systematic rapes of Bosniak women and girls, horrific and prolonged siege and shelling of Bosniak cities, starvation and terrorization of Bosniak population in camps and  in the besieged enclaves and targeted destruction  of Bosniak culture and history.

It is clear who the aggressors and who the victim was; To put things into perspective: During the war, not even one Serb city was under the siege by Bosniak forces; in fact, majority of Serb civilian casualties were killed by the Serbian army commanded by Gen. Ratko Mladic in the process of sniping and shelling multiethnic Bosnian cities . Serb people and Serb culture were not deliberately targeted for ethnic cleansing, rape, siege, shelling, and destruction in Bosnia; it was the Serb project of “Greater Serbia”, modeled on a Nazi policy of ethnic purification, that inflicted tremendous suffering on the Bosniak people between 1992 and 1995.

Numerous relevant sources of different provenance reliably suggest the two initial and basic, essential fundamental settings and provisions for the contemporary events and episodes in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of XX century:

First, a classic armed aggression was conducted against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was crime against peace and safety of mankind which is according to the basic understanding and definition an international armed conflict.

Second, the worst crimes – crime of genocide was committed in the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Bosniaks under siege.

The four international judgments acknowleding that genocide, indeed did take place in Bosnia, other than Srebrenica, include:

Prosecutor v Nikola Jorgic (Doboj region), Prosecutor v Novislav Djajic [Dzajic] (Foča region), Prosecutor v Djuradj Kuslic [Kusljic] (Kotor Varos) and Prosecutor v Maksim Sokolovic (Kalesija, Zvornik region). All three cases were tried in Germany — at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) — to ease caseload of the ongoing trials at the Hague.

The United States court determined that Radovan Karadzic is liable for acts of genocide, rape and torture.

Currently, former Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic are on trial for the 1992-95 Bosnian Genocide. They are charged with genocide in the following Bosnian districts: Bratunac, Foča, Ključ, Kotor Varoš, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Vlasenica, Zvornik and Srebrenica.

More about Bosnian Genocide

Prof. Dr. Smail Cekic, Professor at the Faculty of political science and Director of the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

Numerous relevant sources of different provenance reliably suggest the two initial and basic, essential fundamental settings and provisions for the contemporary events and episodes in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of XX century:

http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/relevant-facts-on-events-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina-at-the-end-of-xx-and-beginning-of-xxi-century/

Prof. dr. Smail Cekic, Professor at the Faculty of political science and Director of the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

Relevance of Scientific Research of Genocide, Contribution to the development of science of genocide

http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/relevance-of-scientific-research-of-genocide/

Prof. Dr. Smail Cekic, Professor at the Faculty of political science and Director of the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

Bosnia and Herzegovina – historic facts,

http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/bosnia-and-herzegovina-%E2%80%93-historic-facts/

Prof. Dr. Smail Cekic, Professor at the Faculty of political science and Director of the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

Bosnia and Bosniacs, past, present, and perspectives

http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/bosnia-and-herzegovina-%E2%80%93-historic-facts/

Prof. Dr. Smail Cekic, Professor at the Faculty of political science and Director of the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

The practice of the International court of justice, legal or political, case: Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Serbia and Montenegro

http://baginst.com/medjunarodni%20sud,%20engleska%20versizja.pdf

Prof. Dr. Smail Cekic, Professor at the Faculty of political science and Director of the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

Denial of genocide in Bosnia

http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/wp-admin/post.php?post=2804&action=edit

More about Bosnian Genocide

http://bosniangenocide.wordpress.com