nobody said that the Serbs had cornered the market on atrocities during the conflict; but there is nothing the muslims or Croats did that came close to a Srebenicza. even the most rudimentary statistical analysis suggests that the Serbs killed almost half again as many civillians as the other two racial groups combined.
the problems in Kosovo/ Bosnia go back further than 20 years ago- to when Serbia was defeated at the Battle of Kosovo in the ?1400's?. ever since there has been a cycle of peasant violence that gave rise to some pretty brutal acts when Serbia gained its independence. Relative peace was restored with the formation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1920. with a Serbian King and a Serbian dominated government there tended to be much favour for Serbian ideas- most notably the attempts to make Serbian the national language and to eradicate Slovenian, Croatian and Albanian. the war years witnessed another round of inter ethnic violence- massacres of entire villages were not uncommon. generally, the Croatians and Muslims supported the Germans and the Serbs supported the Allies, although there were many exceptions. this is to give the conflict itself a higher meaning- Croatians also tended to be monarchists whilst Serbians tended to be communists. whilst there were high minded men and women on all sides, the opportunity to settle scores dating hundreds of years proved too irresistable to some members of these organisations.
it says much of Josip Tito that he not only dreamed of a truly united and equal Yugoslavia but that he managed to enforce that peace. but the period following the war- from May 1945 to early 1946, saw a cycle of revenge attacks as scores built up during the war were settled. because of the concurrent Greek Civil War much of this went unreported in the West. Tito enforced a peace- he did not succeed in uniting the peoples of the various republics. his death was the signal to prepare for the next cycle of violence.
the excesses of the following Bosnian and Kosovo wars were regrettable but inevitable. without a strong moderate at the centre it was only a matter of time before Yugoslavia was torn apart. largely because the Serbians were coming to see Yugoslavia as there own Empire, the split was going to be sooner rather than later.
Slovenia's economic progress was such that the Serbian commitment to socialism was retarding its growth- this served as the catalyst to begin preparations for their independence. how Croatia became involved is not known to me- it seems that the Croatians simply took advantage of the situation in the north, but this does not preclude, by any measure, that their was a collaboration between the Croats and Slovenians. either way the Serbian dominated Yugoslavian army's response was as inept as it was precipitate; by attempting to move out of their barracks it gave the impression that the Serbians were attempting a coup de main against the republican governments- by doing so without even the least of measure of deception it gave the republicans time to prepare. the humiliation of the Serbian senior generals would have great repercussions on the conduct of the Bosnian War.
Montenegro stayed loyal to Serbia- Macedonia took advantage of the political upheavel to break away. The Croatians chose to 'force' out the Serbian minority within its border; though not official policy it was the beginning of the cycle of war crimes. Bosnia was in a unique position- it had no ethnic base to become independent and the influx of Croatia's displaced Serbs led to a steady rise in the cycle of violence. at this stage it would (and probably could) have been divided between Serbia, Croatia and Albania. a number of factors prevented this, not the least Serbian intransigence, Croatian greed, Bosnian stupidity and UN interference.
The Kosovo situation was even more problematic. it had been ethnic cleansing in the early days of the Turkish occupation that had allowed Muslims to become the dominant group in the region- 500+ years ago. because of its symbolic importance to the Serbian people, any attempt to remove it from Serbian control would be met with violence. the important thing to remember here is that after the humiliations in Croatia and Slovenia, the Bosnian war was being fought with militias. the powerful army of Serbia and Montenegro was still largely ready to be deployed- probably keen to make up for the past. it was the presence of regular troops that prompted EU, UN and NATO intervention.
yes civillians died in Serbia; but however unforunate it was the failure of moderate elements to retain or gain control of Serbia that led to the more extreme incidents during the war- indeed popular support during the earliest days of the conflict when it seemed likely that the Serbs would win without provoking Western intervention was in the 80% range. but it was the excesses in Bosnia led to the OVK's actions- do unto others before they do it to you.
even at this time there are more than enough people preparing for a renewal of the conflict to presume that it only awaits the first incident to begin again.
one special feature of these wars was the claim by feminist and human rights groups that pornography led to many of the rape horror stories. having studied many of the incidents in this region in the closing days of World War 2 it strikes me that most are simply repeats of what happened then. perhaps instead of pornography a more insidious instuctor was to be found in Grandpa's war history.
