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Bosnia's Genocide and Religious Conflict

The document discusses the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina following its independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, where over 100,000 people, primarily Bosniaks, were killed by Bosnian Serb forces. It highlights the ethnic tensions that escalated during the collapse of communism and the subsequent war, including the siege of Sarajevo. The author advocates for interfaith dialogue and education about different religions as a means to promote peace and understanding among conflicting groups.

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10 views1 page

Bosnia's Genocide and Religious Conflict

The document discusses the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina following its independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, where over 100,000 people, primarily Bosniaks, were killed by Bosnian Serb forces. It highlights the ethnic tensions that escalated during the collapse of communism and the subsequent war, including the siege of Sarajevo. The author advocates for interfaith dialogue and education about different religions as a means to promote peace and understanding among conflicting groups.

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Tiarah Shard

Professor Ally
Cultural Diversity
2/23/18
Blog #1
In the April of 1992, the government of the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina
declared its independence from Yugoslavia. Bosnian Serb forces, in later years, with the backing
of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, targeted both Bosnian Muslim and Croatian civilians for
barbaric crimes resulting in the deaths of over 100,000 people, 80 percent being Bosniak, by
1995. It was the worst act of genocide since the Nazi administration’s destruction of over 6
million European Jews during World War II.
Although many different ethnic and religious groups had lived together for 40 years
under Yugoslavia’s oppressive communist government, this changed when the country began to
collapse during the fall of communism in the early 1990s. The territory of Slovenia and Croatia
declared independence, and war quickly followed between Serbia and these breakaway
republics. Ethnic tensions were brought to the forefront, and people who had lived peacefully for
years as neighbors turned against each other and took up arms. Mass executions, concentration
camps, rape and sexual violence, and forced displacement were all extremely prevalent. The
“siege of Sarajevo” is considered to be one of the most dramatic and representative parts
Yugoslavia’s breakup. When Bosnia attempted to secede, Serbia, under Slobodan Milosevic’s
leadership, invaded with the claim that it was there to “liberate” fellow Serbian Orthodox
Christians living in Bosnia. While the war was widely covered in the press and individual policy
makers at times took strong stands against human rights abuses in Bosnia, in general the UN, the
European Union, the United States and Russia minimized the aggressive nature of the conflict
and treated the fighting as a conflict between equal warring parties.
In the eyes of many, religion is inherently conflictual, but this is not necessarily so.
Therefore, in part, the solution is to promote a heightened awareness of the positive peace
building and reconciliatory role religion has played in many conflict situations. More generally,
fighting ignorance can go a long way. Interfaith dialogue would be beneficial at all levels of
religious hierarchies and across all segments of religious communities. Where silence and
misunderstanding are all too common, learning about other religions would be a powerful step
forward. Being educated about other religions does not mean conversion but may facilitate
understanding and respect for other faiths. Communicating in a spirit of humility and engaging in
self-criticism would also be helpful.

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