The Tragedy Of The Bosnian Genocide - 1412 Words

Reflections about major significant historical occurrences often lead to a philosophical inquiry as to whether the outcome could have been changed. Often inspired by unfortunate events, historians may never know if they could have been prevented. Genocides are an example of such an event, as they are often influenced by delicate situations, and are often very tragic. The deepest tragedy of all is that we will never know if these mass murders of specific ethnicities could have been averted. One such dreadful occurrence became known to the public as the Bosnian Genocide. Lasting from 1992 till 1995, the Bosnian Genocide erupted after the ruination of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was a communist government that was formed in 1929 from several†¦show more content†¦By 1991, emboldened by the absence of a unifying figurehead, several provinces declared their independence from Yugoslavia, which was now in ruins. Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia all officially formed their own nations in 1991. Slobodan Milosevic had taken control of Serbia in 1987, which was largest by land area, and inspired strong nationalist feelings in Serbs. In 1992, Bosnia declared its independence as well. Bosnia was composed of several ethnicities, including the Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks), who were the majority, Bosnian Serbs, and Bosnian Croats. Savo Heleta, who was living in Bosnia at the time, described the ethnic boundaries in her book, Not My Turn To Die: â€Å"...there were no clear-cut boundaries- there weren’t three different regions, one for each ethnic group. Peop le lived in ethnically mixed cities, villages, neighborhoods, and apartment buildings.† The presence of borders may have prevented the genocide, and at least it might have softened the degree and severity of the killings. Boundaries might have been able to allow the ethnicities to split peacefully and without forcing anyone out of the area or out of the world. The declaration of Bosnian independence was not received favourably by the Serbs. Since Bosnia, in 1991, was composed of forty-four percent Bosniaks, thirty-one percent Serb, and seventeen percent Croat. Due to the clear majority of the Bosniaks, the Serbs had fears about