Past Genocides

The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was signedin December 1948, and has been in force since January 1951. Article II of the conventiondefines genocide as ANY of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:(a) Killing members of the group.(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physicaldestruction in whole or in part.(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.(e) Forcibly transferring children of one group to another group.The United States ratified the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of theCrime of Genocide in 1987.For information on the conflicts that have been identified as genocide, please see the links tothe right.

Genocides 1901-1951

German Southwest Africa 1904-1908: Genocide of HererosOttoman Turkey 1915-1923:

Ittihad

Genocide of Armenians and Assyrians USSR 1932-1934: Soviet Genocide/Famine in Ukraine (

Holodomor

) Nazi Occupied Europe 1941-1945: Genocide of Jews (

Shoah/Holocaust

) Nazi Occupied Europe 1941-1945: Genocide of Roma-Sinti (

Parajmos

)

Genocides Since 1951

East Pakistan 1971: Genocide in East Bengal Burundi 1972: Selective Genocide of Hutus. Cambodia 1975-1979: Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields"and Genocide Guatemala 1981-83: Genocide in the Maya Highlands Iraq 1987-88:

Anfal

Campaign in Kurdistan Bosnia-Herzegovia 1992-1995: Serb

"Etnicko Ciscenje

" of Bosnian Muslims.

Rwanda 1994:

Akazu

"Hutu Power" Genocide of Tutsis

Bosnian Genocide

In the late-1980’s, the heterogeneous Yugoslav federation began to cleave along ethnic lines. Civil war erupted in 1992 against a backdrop of increasingly nationalist politics, including the idea of “Greater Serbia”. Between 1992 and 1995, Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks soldiers and paramilitaries usedwidespread use of rape, torture and forcible displacement against civilians. The actions of some Serbunits were particularly heinous, featuring attempts to eliminate non-Serb culture, a tactic soon to beknown as “ethnic cleansing”. Across Bosnia and Herzegovina civilians were herded into camps assmall scale massacres were committed. The most notorious of these was the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, when more than 7,500 Bosniak men and boys in the U.N.-safe area, were executed byforces under General Radko Mladic. The estimates for the human cost of the Bosnian civil wars rangefrom 96,000 to 200,000, with a recent University of Washington-Harvard University study placing thefatalities near 167,000. Violence against civilians in Yugoslavia led to the creation of the InternationalCriminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in 1993.When?The Bosnian referendum for independence took place on April 6, 1992. That day, Serb militantsopened fire on thousands of peaceful demonstrators in Sarajevo, killing at least five and wounding 30.One day later, Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic responded by blocking all roads leading to Sarajevoand shutting down the airport. About 400,000 Bosnian residents were trapped in the siege while beingcut off from basic life necessities such as food, medicine, water, and electricity. Food shortage was ahuge issue for those who managed to survive death by ammunition. An average Sarajevan lost 30 lbsduring the siege (Donia 2006). In 1994, UN officials reported that 7,272 flights had brought in 81,948tons of aid into Sarajevo via the humanitarian airlift. However, due to airport closings and airliftsuspensions caused by shelling and sniping attacks in the area, this effort is often suspended (UN1994).A number of tragic events took place during the siege. On June 1, 1993 at a soccer game, at leastfifteen people were killed and 80 more were wounded as a result of a mortar attack. Red Cross truckswere raided and destroyed and maternity wards were hit, killing mothers and newborns alike. Manymore were killed while in line for water. On February 29, 1996, the Bosnian government declared thatthe siege of Sarajevo was over but the scars still remain. By the end, its population had decreased byover 430,000. Not all of those people died though, many were able to escape via an 800-meter woodand iron tunnel. After opening in the summer of 1993, it was the only direct link Sarajevo had with theoutside world. It was used to transport everything from weapons to wounded people.Other massacres included the Lasva Valley case (1991) where the first destruction of mosques andBosnian homes, the first murders of civilians, and the first acts of pillage occurred. Around 2,000community members disappeared or were killed at this time.The Ahatovici massacre of 1992 saw heavy shelling by the Bosnian Serb Army. Sixty-four males between 15 and 75 years of age were taken away and tortured. They were put on a bus after being toldthat they would be part of a prisoner exchange. The Serbs then fired on the bus with automaticweapons and threw grenades in. Eight of them survived by hiding under the dead bodies of the other fifty-six men.Another atrocity, where Bosnian men were told they were part of prisoner exchange, happened onMount Vlasic in August 1992. 200 men were brought to the edge of a ravine at Koricani, shot and pushed over the 100-meter high cliff. Twelve victims survived by hanging on to the bushes and hidingin them but suffered further abuse while being treated for their wounds at the hospital.

The biggest conflict between Croats and the Bosnian government was the Ahmici massacre of Apri,1993. No one was spared when the Croat forces shelled the Bosnian part of the village and destroyedtwo mosques as the youngest victim was a three-month-old baby boy who was machine-gunned todeath in his crib. The oldest victim was a 96-year-old woman. They were two of the 120 estimateddeaths that day.Between 1992 and 1994 in Foca, all Bosnians were expelled from the area. Some 2,704 people aremissing or were killed during the massacres period. Additionally, Serb authorities set up locations – commonly described as rape camps – in which hundreds of women were raped. Aside from rape, thecampaign against non-Serb civilians in the region also included ethnic cleansing, mass murder, andthe deliberate destruction of Bosnian property and cultural sites.In the early evening hours of May 25, 1995, the Army of Republika Srpska shelled a gathering of young people in the city of Tuzla. 71 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. All of thevictims were civilians and the majority was between the ages of 18-25. Three days later they wereshelled from the same position.With many more massacres to name, the genocide lasted from Bosnia’s secession from Yugoslavia in1990 to the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. In October, 1992, EU’s Lord David Owen and former I.S.Secretary of State Cyrus Vance proposed a draft constitution organizing Bosnia into a decentralizedfederation according to the “Vance-Owen” plan. Bosnian Serbs rejected this plan. Then in 1994, theUnited States decided to take on a more active role, seeking to back diplomacy with the threat of NATO air power in protecting safe areas and UN peacekeepers. That same year the US special envoyhelped to reach a cease-fire between Bosnian Croats and Muslims. Shortly after, a five nation ContactGroup (United States, Russia, Britain, France,a nd Germany) drafted the 51/49 territorial compromisethat all sides eventually accepted. The Dayton Peace Agreement allotted 51% of the country to theCroat-Muslim Federation and 49% to Republika Srpska, or the Serb Republic. This took place from November 1 to November 21, 1995. The main participants from the region were Serbian PresidentSlobodan Milosavic, Croatian President Franjo Tudman, and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic,with Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed “Mo” Sacirbey. After its initiation in Dayton, Ohio, the fullagreement was signed in Paris, France on December 14, 1995. Other politicians of importance thatsigned the document were French President Jacques Chirac, U.S. President Bill Clinton, UK PrimeMinister John Major, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and Russian Prime Minister ViktoChernonmyrdin. Part of the agreement mandated international organizations to monitor, oversee, andimplement crucial parts of the agreement. One of the major criticisms of this agreement, though, isthat the current legal structure of the peace agreement does not follow some of the basic principles of international law, thus leaving the Bosnian territorial and political situation highly unstable andsensitive since 1995 when it was implemented.In 1996, SFOR (stabilization force) sent 20,000 American troops to prevent new hostilities. Accordingto Richard Holbrooke, the chief architect of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the country would not havesurvived without the presence of the troops. Also, contrary to popular belief before their deployment,no lives have been lost among those peacekeepers.Who?PerpetratorsSlobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia used public media in their respectivedomains and turned television and radio into effective propaganda tools that intensified tensions between Serbs and Croats while demonizing the Muslims. At the same time, they were suppressingindependent media advocating for multi-ethnic coexistence. Milosevic, who is a declared war criminal, aimed at reviving dark memories of World War II, Ustasa’s (Croatian Nazi-like movement)killing of Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies. He did so by exhuming mass graves of Serbs and using those as proof that the Croats are enemies thus legitimizing his attacks on their lands.

Tudjman, who also carries the title of a declared war criminal, “rehabilitated” the genocidal Ustasharegime. He proposed that the new Croatian coat of arms look similar to the one used by Ustasha’s inWWII. He was even a proponent of renaming streets in Croatia after Ustasha leaders.Radovan Karadzic, president of the illegitimate Bosnian Serb Republic, joins the other two as adeclared war criminal. Bosnian Serbs operated under his leadership but he denied their involvement inthe genocide.The Serbian perpetrators came in primarily through Eastern and Northern Bosnia. The Serb paramilitary units crossed the rivers into Bijeljina and began a campaign of terror. Their use of force,intimidation, and provocation was aimed at partitioning Bosnia and displacing non-Serbs from mixedareas even if Serbs were a minority there. They murdered defenseless civilians and drove the rest fromtheir homes and businesses, which were then looted and destroyed. All sides of the conflict committedthe so-called “ethnic cleansing” but the scale and intensity at which the Serbs did it made it a clear genocide against Musims. Serbs were specifically targeting intellectuals, professionals, and politicalleaders in an attempt to eradicate the Bosnian Muslim culture. The UN Genocide Convention, in itsdefinition of genocide, considers this an integral part of a crime on a specific ethnic group.VictimsThe massacre, which occurred in Srebrenica in July of 1995, was the largest massacre in Europe sinceWorld War II. The town was surrounded by Serb-controlled territory but was declared a UN “safearea” thus promising the residents protection from Serb terror. Serb authorities refused the UN permission to deliver food, medical supplies, and other humanitarian necessities to those inSrebrenica. Not only were the residents lacking supplies, but the town was also swollen with“cleansed” refugees from the surrounding area. Beginning on July 12, 1995, over 20,000 Bosnianwomen, children, and elderly were bussed out ot the front line to Muslim-controlled territory. Theywere separated from their men and boys who were taken by buses to execution sites where they weremowed down by automatic weapons and machine guns. All in all, 8,000 Bosnian males fromSrebrenica were systematically slaughtered in this carefully planned operation. They were then hauledto mass graves.Of the female victims of genocide, the vast majority were Muslim men who took orders from Serbauthorities were sometimes told to impregnate the women as a means of destroying the BosnianMuslim people. Women and young girls were subject to rape in front of their own parents and familymembers. These atrocities happened in their homes when the paramilitary units attacked their towns.Gang rape was also common and in some camps, women were held captive for use as sex slaves.How?The Yugoslav leader, Josip Broz Tito, died in 1980. This allowed Slobodan Milosevic, who becameSerbia’s leader in 1987, to also become the leader of Yugoslavia. With the power that he had,Milosevic encouraged Serb nationalism in other Yugoslav states such as Bosnia. This resulted insecret concentration, mass killings, as well as destruction of Muslim mosques and historicarchitechture. Despite media reports of this, the world community remained mostly indifferent.Serb-run camps in Northern Bosnia were symbolic of all that is inhumane. People were pressedtightly into barracks and deprived of basic life necessities. Sadly, most resorted to quenching their thirst with excretion. Not every one of the 14,000 Muslim men in the camps of Northern Bosnia wasmarked for death (as was seen in the Holocaust) but due to the poor living conditions in those camps,over 10,000 died anyways. U.S. officials became aware of these concentration camps as early as Mayof 1992, but this did not prevent any of the 677 detention centers or camps to stop incarcerating people. The worst of the camps was Omarska. Here, thousands of civilian men, both Muslim andCroat, were held in metal cages and killed in group of ten to fifteen every few days. Serbs deniedaccess to all those who wanted to investigate their camps, including relief officials and journalists. As

in the Holocaust, the Serbs wanted to hide what was happening. Brutality included grinding Muslim bodies into animal, among other atrocities.Bosnians and Croats held Serbs in similar camps, but similar violence was not committed. In a 1993UN document, it is reported that by late summer of 1993, 62 Serbs had died in Croat concentrationcamps. This number is significantly lower than the number of deaths on the other two sides, but it isstill important to note that Serbs experience violence and death as well.Eventually, the United Nations deployed troops to protect the distribution of food and medicine todispossessed Muslims. However, the troops were not allowed to interfere militarily against the Serbs,even though the U.N. could eerily predict when each town or village was going to fall. Throughout1993, confident that the U.N., United States, and the European Community would not take anymilitary action, Serbs in Bosnia freely committed genocide against Muslims. On February 6, 1994, a plea was finally made to then-president Bill Clinton for military intervention against the Serbs after amortar shell struck a marketplace in Sarjevo, killing 68 and wounding over 200 people. Clintonreacted by issuing an ultimatum through NATO, demanding that Serbs withdraw their artillery fromSarajevo. The Serbs compiled and a cease-fire was declared.That did not stop the Serbs from continuing the genocide. They attacked safe havens as well as theU.N. peacekeepers. NATO’s response was to launch limited air strikes against Serbs’ ground positions, but that did not prevent the massacre in Srebrenica from happening.The AftermathFollowing the genocide, Srebrenica was re-inhabited by Serbs who moved in to occupy the Muslims’homes. These Serbs were refugees themselves and were forced out of their homes by the Muslim andthe Croat units. There is not much appeal left for those who were even considering going back toSrebrenica because their homes have been destroyed, there are no jobs, little water, and few suppliesto go around. Clearly, people have not yet recovered from internal displacement, let aloneinternational re-settlement.Most places in the countryside are littered and in ruins, much like Srebrenica. Hundreds of thousandsof those Bosnians who fled violence have not yet returned and one of the reasons for that is the highrate of unemployment that awaits them. Because most of the educated people are leaving for better opportunities and more promising futures abroad, this is causing a “brain drain” in Bosnia that further weakens any prospects for economic and socail recovery in the region.While most criminals remain at large, trials were prepared for the following war criminals: RadocanKaradzic, Slobodan Milosevic, and Ratko Mladic.Radovan Karadzic is charged with a wide range of crimes, from genocide to crimes against humanityto grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The formal ccharge of 1995 was for administering thekilling of thousands of people by sniping and shelling in the siege of Sarajevo, and later for theSrebrenica massacre of 8,000 men and boys. He was arrested in Belgrade after being on the run for 13years.Slobodan Milosevic was indicted in May, 1999, but was found dead in his cell at The Hague on March11, 2006. Therefore, his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity has ended without a verdict.Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic has been indicted with genocide, extermination, murder,deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians, committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia. A fugitive from the ICTY, he is suspected to be hidningeither in Serbia or in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska. Pressure has been put on Serbia to hand him over tothe court by halting negotiations with the EU regarding membership.

Currently, Bosnia is largely peaceful and troops are finally pulling out. Regardless, relations betweenthe two newly created entities of Bosnia and Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) are still strained andcooperation is minimal at best.*

Majra Mucic of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies researched and wrote thisdescription. CHGS is a partner of World Without Genocide.

Timeline:

1948UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of theCrime of Genocide, signed the current accepted definition of genocide1951Definition of genocide is in force1980sMilosevic expanded his power base and promoted Serbiannationalism1991Breakup of Yugoslavia into Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia andHerzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and twoautonomous provinces within Serbia: Kosovo and Vojvodina1991Lasva Valley case1/1992Serbs retaliate against Bosnia: declare Serbian Republic of Bosnia4/1992Bosnia’s independence recognized by EC and United Statesand war broke out two days later on April 8, 19921992Reports of “ethnic cleansing,” concentration camps, massrapes1992Ahatovici massacre (56 dead)4/1992Siege of Sarajevo begins8/1992Shocking pictures of emaciated Muslims being held inOmarska camp8/1992Mount Vlacis massacre – “prisoner exchange” (200 dead)92-93Gas, water and electricity service are at best sporadic inSarajevo4/1993The U.N. Security Council declares six “safe areas” for Bosnian Muslims: Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihac, Srebrenica, Zepaand Gorazde1993Sarajevo tunnel opens4/1993Ahmici massacre – two mosques destroyed (120 dead)6/1993Mortar attack at a soccer game in Sarajevo (15 killed, 80wounded)2/1994NATO jets shoot down four Serb aircraft over centralBosnia; marks alliance’s first use of force since it wasfounded in 1949.2/1994Mortar attack at a marketplace in Sarajevo (68 dead, 200wounded)3/1994US-arranged peace accord is signed by Bosnian Muslims andCroats1992-1994Foca massacres– rape camps, destruction of cultural sitesand Bosnian property (2,704 missing or killed)1994Bihac is shelled and bombed relentlessly. NATO “strikes back” and bombs the runways in the Serb held airport in

Krajina from which bombing raids are flown. Serbs holdover 300 UN troops hostage against further air raids.1/19951000th day of the siege of Sarajevo2/1995United Nations tribunal on human rights violation in theBalkans charges 21 Bosnian Serb commanders withgenocide and crimes against humanity. This action marks thefirst time that a Western political body openly charged Serbswith genocide.3/1995CIA report completed earlier in the year has concluded that90% of the acts of “ethnic cleansing” were carried out bySerbs5/1995Serbs ignore a U.N. order to remove heavy weapons fromSarajevo; NATO aircraft attack a Serb ammunition depot. Inretaliation, Serbs begin shelling Muslim safe areas.5/1995Tuzla shelling (71 killed, 200 wounded). Happened againthree days later.6/1995Serbs seize Srebrenica and Zepa7/1995Srebrenica massacre – largest massacre in Europe sinceWorld War II (20,000 Bosnian women, children and elderly bussed out; 8,000 boys and men systematically slaughteredand placed in mass graves)9/1995Foreign ministers of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia agree todivide Bosnia into Serb and Muslim-Croat entities.12/1995First official NATO peacekeeping troops arrive in Sarajevoalong with some other 13,000 American soldiers12/1995Peace agreement signed in Paris2/1996Siege of Sarajevo ends1996The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia begins work in the Hague1996SFOR sent 20,000 American peacekeeping troops to Bosnia1998The first Bosnian Muslims and Croats are convicted of war crimes in the Hague.1999Slobodan Milosevic indicted8/2001Hague war crimes tribunal finds Bosnian Serb Gen. RadislavKrstic guilty of genocide for his role in the massacre of thousands of men and boys in Srebrenica. Krstic sentencedto 46 years.6/2006Largest war crimes trial to date over the 1995 Srebrenicamassacre opens at the UN tribunal in the Hague2006Slobodan Milosevic found dead in his cell at The Hague – trial ended without a verdict2/2007The International Court of Justice rules that the 1995Srebrenica massacre constituted genocide, but clears Serbiaof direct responsibility.7/2008Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, wanted onwar crimes charges, has been arrested in Belgrade after nearly 13 years on the run

Genocide in Bosnia

The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed inDecember 1948, and in force from January 1951, provides the current accepted definition:Article IIIn the present Convention, genocide means ANY of the following acts committed with intent todestroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Genocide DefinitionWhat happened in Bosnia(a) Killing members of the group200,000 lives were lost in the time period between 1992 and 1995(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of thegroupConcentration camps, massexecutions, and rape were widelyused(c) Deliberately inflicting on thegroup conditions of life calculatedto bring about its physicaldestruction in whole or in partSerbs prevented entry of aid tocities like Srebrenica whereresidents needed food andmedical services(d) Imposing measures intendedto prevent births within the groupMen and women were separatedto be killed and rapedrespectively; Serb forcesimpregnated Muslim women tomake them have Serb children(e) Forcibly transferring childrenof the group to another groupThe forgotten “rape babies” donot exist in the eyes of the lawand are unacknowledged by their families. Most grow-up in a state-run orphanage in Zenica, a run-down building with brokenwindows.According to Gregory H. Stanton, the President of Genocide Watch, “Genocide is a processthat develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventivemeasures can stop it. The later stages must be preceded by the earlier stages, though earlier stages continue to operate throughout the process” (1998). While the first stages precede thelater stages, they stay in effect throughout the genocidal operation. They are all reinforced byeach other and a strategy aimed at prevention should target each stage. The eight stages areclassification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation,extermination, and denial.In the following table we see the 8 stages of the BOSNIANGENOCIDE and the fact that no preventative or reactionary steps were taken by anyone.8 STAGES OF GENOCIDEWHAT CAN BE DONE?WHAT WAS DONE INBOSNIA1. Classification:Us versus them based on ethnicity, race, religion,or nationalityPrevention:Developuniversalistic institutions thattranscend ethnic or racialInstitutions for unificationwere unsuccessful because people joined nationalistic