Late Intervention in Bosnian War by the International Community - Research Paper Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tutor :xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Title : Late intervention in Bosnian war by the international community Institution : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date :xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx @ 2011 Late intervention in Bosnian war by the international community Introduction The conflict in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995 involved three major ethnic groups the Muslims, Serbs and Croats. The end result was a genocide in which according statistics about 100,000 people lost their lives, 20,000 were missing and 2,000 000 became refugees. The Muslims were on the receiving end as the Serbs released their anger on them. Bosnia as a country broke up from Yugoslavia which was multicultural in nature and a creation of the Western allies after World War I. Yugoslavia was owned by formerly bitter rival groups like Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox Christians represented by Croats, ethnic Albanians and Serbs respectively. Background to the war In the Second World War Nazi Germany invaded and split Yugoslavia. Josip Tito an able leader led a tough resistance which reunited Yugoslavia after the defeat of Germany. In this effort he brought back together self governing Kosovo and Vojvodina provinces together with Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia. Tito maintained diplomatic ties with the USA and the Soviet Union. This made him get various forms of assistance from them (Singh, 2008 pg 149). When he died in 1980 he left behind a crisis since Yugoslavia sank into economic and political turmoil. Tito was later succeeded by Slobodan Milosevic who incited hatred between the Christians and Muslims in Kosovo which was then an independent province. Milosevic later dominated Kosovo which had lost its independence due to continuous political unrest. In 1991 June, the declaration of Croatia and Slovenia that they had become independent from Yugoslavia sparked civil unrest. Serbs were the minority in Croatia and together with the Jews they became the target for murders by the Croats during World War II since they were pro-Nazi. Tens of thousands of Jews and Serbians were massacred during the war. With the assistance of Serbian guerrillas living in Croatia the forces of Milosevic invaded Croatia in 1991 July under the pretext of protecting the few Serbians living there. They bombarded Vukovar city and made rubble out of it. They started mass killings of Croatians as they made mass graves in which they buried them. Limited and late international community response The intervention of the international community in this war was limited. At that time the United States was led by President George Bush who decided to stay clear of the war. As a result the U.S recognizing the independence of both Croatia and Slovenia did not have military involvement in the war (Paul 2000 pg 81). War in Bosnia This is a war that took place in Herzegovina and Bosnia in the year 1992 in the month of April to December 1995. There were several sides that were involved in this war and the people who mainly fought came from the republic of Bosnia and this means that they used their military forces to fight. There were also other entities from the Croat of Bosnia (Carole 1998 pg 131). Croatia and Serbia decided to give Bosnia political support in all possible ways thus it decided to send some parts of its military to go and fight during the war. This war came about after the break up of Yugoslavia whose population consisted of mainly Muslims. The break up of Yugoslavia really affected the peace and stability in Bosnia because more fights emanated from it. This is one of the fights that affected the relationship existing between Bosnia and many other countries very much since there was tension as far as peace was concerned. Bosnia which was a multiethnic country passed on a referendum for their independence in the year 1992 but was rejected by the political representatives of Serb of Bosnia after they had boycotted it and established their own republic of Srpska. The Serbian government was supported by the military forces of Bosnian Serb after the declaration of the independence and after doing this the army of Yugoslavian people also attacked Herzegovina and Bosnia (Wiebes 2003 pg 59). This attack was meant to protect the Serbian territory but later on war broke all over Bosnia and many properties were destroyed and many lives were lost during this war. The eastern part of Bosnia was highly affected by this war because most of the people in that part had ethnic issues thus when war broke the enmity also increased making people to kill each other mercilessly (Benon 1992 pg 113). The Bosniak population consisted of people from different ethnic groups who never had understanding between themselves thus when the war broke, most of them took the chance to air their grievances towards each other. The war that broke in Bosnia did not necessarily involve the Bosnian but the Croats had their forces on one side while the Serbian also had their own forces on the other side. After fighting for a long the political leaders in the Croats and the Serb found it necessary to partition Bosnia using the agreements of Graz and Kradordevo and this led to the forces of Croats to turn on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s army. The war became very violent because it was being fought under bitter terms that led to unforgettable genocide, mass rape that was systematic and ethnic cleansing (Daniel 2002 pg 51). Most of the people who had been bitter with their enemies found the opportunity to retaliate against each other since their conflicts had been there for a long period of time. Some of the most memorable events that have ever taken place in war histories of the world such as the Srebrenica massacre took place during this war and these were the events that were there to typify all the conflicts that existed in Bosnia. When the war began, the Serbs were seen to be superior and more powerful to their enemies because they were the ones with the most powerful weapons but later on they were seen to be losing their momentum because the war became tougher for them after Croats and Bosniaks had allied themselves against the Republika Srpska in the year 1994. This was after the Washington agreement that led to creation of the federation of Herzegovina and Bosnia which also aimed at creating peace and stability in Bosnia. After the war had lasted long, peace negotiations were being sought out by the international community since the war was getting out of hand. In most cases when countries that fight against each other are usually left to fight and air their grievances against each other for sometime and they are expected to stop fighting at some point but when this does not happen, then the international community finds a way of stopping it and this is done through many possible ways like coming up with peace negotiations or sending troops from the United nations to create peace and stability (Martin 2005 pg 99). After the Markale massacres of 1995, actions were being taken towards bringing the war to an end because it was seen to be continuing and more lives being lost thus some intervention was needed and this is when NATO intervened in it. The army of the republic of Srpska was seen to be getting out of hand thus something was to be done towards reducing its pace of war and dealing with the conflicts that existed was only seen to be possible during the last stages of the war. The Operation Deliberate Force also contributed towards terminating the massacres and this was done in many possible ways that entailed signing some peace treaties that would see the war to an end. The General framework of the peace agreement in Bosnia was held in Paris in the month of December in 1995 and this was one of the biggest steps that were taken towards terminating the war in Bosnia since it was one of the successful steps after several other attempts had failed. Even though the peace negotiations had been finalized in Paris, their accords are believed to be called the Dayton agreement since they had been held in Ohio, Dayton. Even though much effort was being put towards terminating the war in Bosnia, the international community was still seeking to find out which country had been reliable for most of the fight and Serbia was believed to have a major contributor to this fight and this was done by Central Intelligence Agency. Serbia contributed a lot in the war because most of the crimes had been committed by them and since they had most powerful weapons during the war it was evident that they had contributed a lot in the war. As most of the people that were fighting during the war in Bosnia tried to back up and stop the war, the Serbians were seen to be more aggressive and could not back down they kept on moving forward making their enemies to continuing retaliating. More evidence was given towards the fighting in Bosnia after some convicts were being sought out by the International community when a tribunal against the convicts of Yugoslavian fight was formed in the year 2008. The list that was given out proved that a majority of the convicted suspects came from Serbia since their number was 45 out of the 62 that had been convicted and this meant that they were more associated with the war crimes that took place in Bosnia (Lee 1996 pg 61). A lot of research has been done towards knowing the accurate data of people who died during the war in Bosnia and the number of people that got displaced and the number that has been noted is around 100-110,000 people who died and approximately 2.2 million who were displaced. As far as research is concerned, this has been noted as the conflict that turned out to most devastating after the Second World War in Europe because European countries had been peaceful after World War II. These data were being sought so as to reduce chances of the same thing to happen again in the future since the same actions have a possibility of happening. All the factors mentioned above contributed a lot to the war that took place in Bosnia in the year 1992-1995 and all these factors affected the country very much (Clark 2002 pg 87). If the war never took place in Bosnia, there is a lot of development that would take place in that country but this never happened. Answering the question as to why some of the countries of the international were being slow to intervening this war becomes easy to answer because all the events that took place can easily direct someone to the answers without a doubt. Owing to the fact that some of the groups that were participating in the war already had sufficient weapons to support themselves, the international community found it hard to intervene thus they could not risk their troops without scrutinizing how the war is going on and how long it would last. Breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia was one of the reasons behind the war in Bosnia in the year 1992-1995 and this was due to the fact that the communist system that was there before and during the Cold War was being weakened and this meant that nationalists would take over and they did not want this to happen. Having a communist system, Yugoslavia believed that everything would be fine with them until when they realized that it was being weakened slowly with time and one of the only ways of keeping it firm was through fighting for it (Lucarelli 2000 pg 79). Nationalists and separatists showed potency during the early 80’s thus Yugoslavia decided to breakup and this was also one of the reasons behind the war in Bosnia. This could be easily noticed in Bosnia, Serbia and other parts of Macedonia after the constitution had allowed the government of Serbia to take control over provinces that were autonomous like the Kosovo and the Vojvodina. Political factors were also some of the major contributors to the war in Bosnia and this was because Serbia had a president who wanted to exercise his ruling power over other small republics and they could not allow that to happen. The president had gotten enough votes thus even the extra votes that he had received made him have control over all republics. The government introduced the federation of Yugoslav which could not be agreed upon by the delegations of different republics since it was believed to be very harsh thus they wanted it to be loosened a little (Ivana 1992 pg 75). During the Congress of the league of Communists of Yugoslavia, some of the delegates from Slovenia and Croatia decided to leave the congress since they were not satisfied with the decisions made. This misunderstanding is what was believed to be the end of the country of Yugoslavia. When the united Soviet Union collapsed, it was very hard for the international community to believe it that one of the European countries like Yugoslavia could easily collapse the way it did so violently. There were very many factors that contributed to its collapse and some of these factors are such structural, social and economic factors. It cannot be claimed that structural factors alone could have contributed to the collapse of Yugoslavia because there were other factors also. After Tito had, Yugoslavia was seen to be a weak state and this was clearly demonstrated by the recessions of Slovenia and Croatia. The economy of Yugoslavia was also not stable when it collapsed and this was mainly because of the political instability in the country. Social factors was also one of the factors that contributed to the collapse of Yugoslavia because many people ended up bringing their ethnic differences and thus conflicts rose from this and emanated into a very big war that the world had not seen for a long time. With the state becoming weak, many ethnic groups became stronger because they became united in one way thus some of the people in that population especially the Muslims, Croats and many other Serbs feared for their security since they did know how safe they were. The fear that rose in different ethnic groups cheered up the urge to fight between people of different ethnic groups because their fears were high and the tension was also higher than usual. Most people armed themselves so as to avoid being killed by anyone since they believed that they were not safe and that the enemy could attack anytime. The manner in which ethnic groups were spread all over Yugoslavia was one of the main concerns of people in that country during the war because it was easy for people to find their enemies and kill them. Some groups took advantage of the fact that their rivals were afraid thus they decided to attack them before they could be prepared for war even though they were already armed. Since there were many ethnic groups that wanted to fight against each other in the country, the International community found it a little bit hard to intervene in the war and decided to do it slowly. There were various that the international community had that hindered them to intervene very fast in the war. The war was just within the country and had not yet started affecting the international community thus they did not find it necessary to jump into the fight. A constitution that was put across by the Croatian government ensured that people from Slovenia were denied some of their rights and this also contributed to the war and the break up of Yugoslavia. The break up of Yugoslavia was not a main concern to the international community because some of the countries like America was not supporting the United Soviet Union thus when the country was fighting, they had some political reasons behind it (Martin 2005 pg 99). The international community did not want Bosnia to be unified by the Islamic communities that planned to do so thus they waited before they could intervene. The Muslims were fighting so hard to ensure that they have united the people of Bosnia and this would mean that they rule over them thus was also a political plan since the Americans would not allow that to happen. Reasons Why the International Community were Slow to Intervene Cold War War broke in Bosnia barely after the cold had ended and that political leaders all over their world were still trying to find out their hearing. It was difficult for the international community to just come and intervene in the war because they did not have sufficient information (Danielle 1999 pg 43) on it and also every country that was part of cold war was not ready to start fighting but to protect their territories as the cold war was still taking place. Third Parties The third parties in the war were not seen to be effective thus this also affected the pace at which the international community was going to intervene into the war in Bosnia. The crimes that had been committed in Yugoslavia really needed some serious intervention and this means for the international community to intervene it had to be well prepared and use very effective diplomatic approaches. (Korbel 2007 pg 67) Images of the Enemy Another factor that contributed to the slow intervention of the international community was the fact that the level of victimization was very high and that most people feared for their security. The crimes committed were very harsh and people wanted to revenge for their lost properties, raped women and killed members thus the international community had to sit down and come up with an effective strategy of resolving the conflicts first of all (Bell 2008 pg 27). More reasons Owing to the fact that the population of Bosnia consisted mainly of Muslims, the international community decided to show up and help slowly because the Islamic factor could not allow them to easily intervene. There were possibilities that if the international community would make the war more violent since there were countries like the United States of America that did not have good relationship with Islamic countries during that time. Most of the countries in the international community believed that if they rushed to intervene in the Bosnia war they would end up making it worse thus they had to go slow into it (Heiker 2001 pg 73). The Muslims wanted to united people who were fighting in Bosnia and since they were the majority in number then it was easier for them to mobilize more people to increase the war. The level of terrorism would increase if the international community just entered into the war because the Islamic majority would not find the war and the process of stopping it impossible. There are also other factors also other factors that hindered the international community to intervene in the war in Bosnia so fast and one of these factors is the ethnic communities that were involved in the war. The ethnic communities that were involved in the war were many and this means that the war was only in one part of the country but that the whole country was involved in the war thus intervening would require a very calculating strategy to be taken (Madeleine 2007 pg 43). The international community was being relied upon to help negotiations between the groups that were fighting each other thus if they intervened then it would mean that negotiations would not be possible and effective. The international community was composed of countries that were superior in war due to the fact that they had powerful weapons and this means that if they intervened earlier than they did then more lives would be lost. Properties would also be destroyed by their superior weapons thus they had to sit back and watch as things happened. The war began just after the international community had been involved in a recent war of the World War II and this meant that if they were to intervene in the war soon enough then it would look like another world war. The international community had been informed that they were supposed to assist in the negotiations and not consulted since they had to see the outcomes of the war. Before intervening with the war in Bosnia, the international community was supposed to ratify which side was on the wrong and how they could start the negotiations since the main aim was to end the war and this is one of the reasons as to why they were slow to intervene in the war (Faber 1994 pg 93). When a country or a group of people have been chosen to go and settle some disputes somewhere they are not allowed to support any side because this will mean that they want to support one side to out do the other thus if the international community rushed into the war, it would be seen as though they were taking sides. Since the war had started, the United States did not want to intervene in it because of its policy makers and mainly the pentagon which did not support the idea of America getting involved in other wars in the world. The policymakers were very strict on the deployment of their troops thus the U.S found it hard to get involved in the war since the main purpose of their troops was to protect their own state and not to involve itself in some other wars that did not involve them (Martin 2005 pg 99). After a while the country had to agree to send its troops into the war in Bosnia but mainly under agreements of patrolling the war grounds and monitor it as they controlled the cease-fire lines. The United States sought cooperation between the Serbs and Croats of Bosnia before they could get involved in the war since they knew that one of the only ways for them to assist effectively would be through ensuring that the people that they were assisting were also cooperative (Martin 2005 pg 99). The Croats and Serbs were supposed to submit to the representations of the Milosevic and the Tudjman respectively since through doing this the International community would find it easy to end the war and make peaceful negotiations possible. Another factor that made the international community to intervene slowly in the war was that there were differences in the aims of the parties that were fighting. The parties that were fighting against each other all had different aims in the war grounds and this made the war to continue for sometime making it hard for negotiators to intervene. All the three parties involved in the war wanted to have power over each other and this was not possible because power that was to be allocated in Bosnia was being fought on by Muslims and the Croats. Each party wanted the power to be allocated in Bosnia under their own terms and conditions and this is something that could not be possible unless if they had to agree on how to take part in the decisions made on the allocation of power. The Muslims wanted to continue ruling over the population in Bosnia while the Croats wanted to have power shared among them equally and this was not easy because the Muslims wanted to have full control. The Croatians wanted power to be shared among three nations that were constituents equally since they thought if this was done then the war between them would end but this was not the case because power sharing was not considered as an option by the Muslims who were the majority. The Croats wanted to establish an entity for them in Bosnia and at the same time Muslims also wanted to be given the power rule over the Croatians and this resistance was already making the country to be divided into two distinctive ethnic states. As all this was happening, The Serbs wanted to ensure that they have strengthened their state and that their boarders are safe. All the issues that these three states were arguing over could be solved by the Bosnian army but people just wanted to continue fighting as the international community was just watching them. All these misunderstandings and confusions contributed a lot to the slow entrance of the international community to intervene in the war. Islamic Impact During the war that took place in Bosnia the international community had to slow down in coming to intervene in the war due to the fact that the Islamic influence was vey high in the country and that if they were to be allowed to continue fighting then the war would not easily come to an end. There was much fear for security in Bosnia because the Muslims were not being viewed as people who can cooperate with each other and this was thought of due to the fact that their Jihad war does not require negotiations. Issues associated with security were one of the main reasons as to why the international community could not easily get into the war (Ann 2000 pg 39). The parties that were involved in the war consisted of people who were not very willing to negotiate so as to end the war since each side wanted its petition to be heard and adhered to in all possible ways. The international community did not want to cheer up the war but to end it and it knew that if they did not use a strategic approach to intervene in the war then the outcome of the war would not be interesting (Charles 2003 pg 101). Ethnic Conflict and International Community Intervention in Bosnia After the war had prolonged for a while, the international community decided to intervene since there were no signs of the war coming to an end anytime soon. Both parties wanted to have control over each other even after the international community had given them time to wind up the fight. Since the parties that were involved in the war did not want to end the war, the international community decided to come up together and find a possible strategy that would ensure the war has been terminated. They had no other option than to use force thus they came up with a police force that they used to control the parties that were fighting each other (Charles 2001pg 111) The activities that each party was taking during the war were controlled by the government thus it was possible for them to continue fighting each other. The government organized that most of the people who are to work in the country during the times of war were only those who were obedient to what it says. Even though the government arranged some provincial authorities to help in the negotiation between the warring parties, they made it so clear that all of them had to be democratic so as to avoid more rebellions to start (Kristen 2009 pg 53). The proposal that the international community made was not confirmed as to whether the questions that bodies that were democratic could be supported by the majority vote or not. Everyone was supposed to adhere to the terms and conditions of how the negotiation was to take place and all these questions had been left open so as to protect the rights of the minority since here it is only the powerful party that would be given its right and the arrangements also focused on protecting the national rights of each party (Hazan 2004 pg 91). As part of the negotiation process the international community ensured that all the plans that were made was focused on being transparent to both parties and it did this through ensuring that all the military that was given to protect the rights of the minority was based in Bosnia and was being controlled by the government of Bosnia. In the year 1993 the idea of having a unified military for the negotiation in Bosnia was deleted and it was replaced by a different concept known as “the progressive demilitarization of the country” which was still proposed by the negotiators. Another concept was introduced and it was known as “the Vance-Owen plan” which was established in order to come up with a court of Human Rights since most people wanted to be given their rights after the war. Many bad things had happened during the war in Bosnia that needed human rights to be involved especially when the negotiation was being made between the different parties (Cousens 2001pg 141) The human rights court was supposed to help reduce the chances of revenge among people since victims of circumstances were still living with their enemies. Another thing that really made it necessary for the negotiators to come up with the Human Rights Court was the fact that many women had been raped during the war and thus the women needed to be given their rights of protection, children were also being abused in very many different ways and it is only this court that could help solve these issues (Robertson , 2007). Conclusion In conclusion even though the international community was slow to intervene in the war in Bosnia, they eventually brought it to an end. They took all possible efforts towards terminating the war in Bosnia and they were able to end it even though it was a very hard task they managed to resolve the conflicts. Many people had lost their lives and properties and there was nothing that could be done because there still people who knew they had properties but due to the fact that their rights could not be hard, it was hard for them to claim what was theirs (Gibbs,2009). The human Rights court was highly needed since there were many issues that required to be solved by them during and after the war because massacres cannot take place and people who are responsible are just left to go free and yet people know them. 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