Genocide In Bosnia

The genocide that has been occurring in Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1992 demands national attention. Incidents of these atrocities have involved European, American, and Islamic interests; they have taken place in the heart of Europe which had promised never to tolerate such a bloodbath again; they have paralyzed mechanisms set up to prevent such genocide, from the UN Charter to the NATO mandate; and they have been monitored, observed, and documented in progress.

In July 1995, the Army of the Serbian Republic killed some 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica--the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II. Surviving the Bosnian Genocide is based on the testimonies of 60 female survivors of the massacre who were interviewed by Dutch historian Selma Leydesdorff. The women, many of whom still live in refugee camps, talk about their lives before the Bosnian war, the events of the massacre, and the ways they have tried to cope with their fate. Though fragmented by trauma, the women tell of life and survival under extreme conditions, while recalling a time before the war when Muslims, Croats, and Serbs lived together peaceably. By giving them a voice, this book looks beyond the rapes, murders, and atrocities of that dark time to show the agency of these women during and after the war and their fight to uncover the truth of what happened at Srebrenica and why.

This book punctures once and for all common excuses for Western inaction in the face of incontrovertible evidence of the most egregious crimes against humanity to occur in Europe since World War II.

Providing an indispensable resource for students and policy makers investigating the Bosnian catastrophes of the 1990s, this book provides a comprehensive survey of the leaders, ideas, movements, and events pertaining to one of the most devastating conflicts of contemporary times. In the three years of the Bosnian War, well over 100,000 people lost their lives, amid intense carnage. This led to unprecedented criminal prosecutions for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity that are still taking place today. Bosnian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide is the first encyclopedic treatment of the Balkan conflicts of the period from 1991 to 1999. It provides broad coverage of the nearly decade-long conflict, but with a major focus on the Bosnian War of 1992–1995. The book examines a variety of perspectives of the conflicts relating to Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo, among other developments that took place during the years spotlighted. The entries consider not only the leaders, ideas, movements, and events relating to the Bosnian War of 1992–1995 but also examine themes from before the war and after it. As such, coverage continues through to the Kosovo Intervention of 1999, arguing that this event, too, was part of the conflict that purportedly ended in 1995. This work will serve university students undertaking the study of genocide in the modern world and readers interested in modern wars, international crisis management, and peacekeeping and peacemaking.

The Bridge Betrayed reveals the crucial role of the religious mythology of Kosovo in the destruction of Yugoslavia and the genocide in Bosnia. A new preface discusses the deepening crisis in Kosovo - the epicenter of that mythology.

In the hills of eastern Bosnia sits the small town of Srebrenica--once known for silver mines and health spas, now infamous for the genocide that occurred there during the Bosnian War. In July 1995, when the town fell to Serbian forces, 12,000 Muslim men and boys fled through the woods, seeking safe territory. Hunted for six days, more than 8000 were captured, killed at execution sites and later buried in mass graves. With harrowing personal narratives by survivors, this book provides eyewitness accounts of the Bosnian genocide, revealing stories of individual trauma, loss and resilience.

"In this compelling and thorough study, Norman Cigar sets out to prove that genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina is not simply the unintentional result of civil war or the unfortunate by-product of rabid nationalism. Genocide is, he contends, the planned and direct consequence of conscious policy decisions made by the Serbian establishment in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its policies were carried out in a deliberate and systematic manner as part of a broader strategy intended to achieve a defined political objective - the creation of an expanded, ethnically pure Greater Serbia." "Using testimony from congressional hearings, policy statements, interviews, and reports from the western and local media, the author describes a sinister policy of victimization that escalated from vilification to threats, then expulsion, torture, and killing. Cigar also takes the international community to task for its reluctance to act decisively and effectively." "Genocide in Bosnia provides a detailed account of the historical events, actions, and practices that led to and legitimated genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It focuses attention not only on the horror of "ethnic cleansing" but on the calculated strategy that allowed it to happen. Cigar's book is important reading for anyone interested in the inherent violence of overzealous nationalism - from Rwanda to Afghanistan and anywhere else."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"Explores the widespread ethnic cleansing that occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 through 1995, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Serbs against Bosnian Muslims that fully meet the criteria for genocide established after World War II by the Genocide Convention of 1948...Contextualizes the East Bosnian program of atrocities with respect to broader scholarly debates about the nature of genocide."--Publishers website

"Straight from today's front-page headlines comes this shocking firsthand account of the current genocide perpetrated by Bosnia's Serbs against that country's Muslims. A Witness to Genocide is a compilation of Newsday foreign correspondent Roy Gutman's reports from Bosnia, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting." "Gutman and photographer Andree Kaiser (whose photos illustrate this book) were the first Western journalists to visit the death camps, and Gutman was the first to interview the survivors and report on the atrocities that were taking place there. His articles were partly responsible for the United Nations' condemnation of the camps and insistence that the International Red Cross be allowed to inspect them." "The articles include survivors' accounts of being transported to the camps in cattle cars in which many died of starvation or suffocation, the systematic murder of prisoners, the government-ordered rape of all Muslim girls and women, and the destruction of the six-hundred-year-old Muslim cultural heritage, including over half of all mosques, historical sites, and libraries. Not since the Holocaust have such widespread, blatant, and unrestrained atrocities been committed against a defenseless minority." "The articles are framed by a comprehensive prologue in which the recent history and breakup of Yugoslavia are explained, and an epilogue in which Gutman gives his recommendations on how to put a stop to this ongoing tragedy, and prevent others in its wake."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This book traces the reverberations of genocide, forced displacement, and a legacy of loss in Bosnia and abroad.