Genocide in Bosnia - April 1992

When former US President Bill Clinton addressed the nation on November 27, 1995, he confirmed the figure of 250,000 Bosnians dead (90 % of them Muslims) during the Bosnian conflict which lasted more than three years (April 6, 1992 - December 12, 1995), this was indeed an acknowledgment of a total failure of Western Europe, the US and the UN.

The Bosnian war in view of its peculiar composition (Muslim majority population) has proven a difficult ground for collective security as the lack of compelling interests has spurred an ambiguous strategy on the part of the international community and the West especially, for the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina did not affect international economic and political equilibrium which would have justified a more traditional intervention for the simple reason that unlike Kuwait, Bosnia had no oil !

It was crystal clear to everyone including the World Decision-makers at that time, that the true war-initiators were the Serbs who held the upper hand in the former Yugoslavia and bear the full responsibility of all losses during this war. It was the Serbs that were the first to employ hyper nationalistic rhetoric and employed methods that violated the most basic humanitarian principles on which society rests.

Going back to this disastrous conflict of the early nineties where the Bosnian Muslims were surprisingly caught by the Serb offensive as they lacked an army to repel such aggression. As a result of this unbalanced power, Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered by the thousands and Sarajevo the capital was put under siege and thousands of Bosnian's became forced refugees. Secondly, elements of the Croat army and Bosnian Croats attacked central Bosnia in an attempt to win territory for Croatia who had just lost a third of its land during the 1991 war with Serbia.

So the gruesome and gloomy Bosnian landscape after such atrocities was turned in to a terrifying quagmire that left more than 250,000 Bosnian Muslims dead, about 18,000 Missing, more than 50,000 Muslim Women raped, thousands of Male Muslim Prisoners in Auschwitz like concentration camps and an equal number of injured people and more than one million Refugees and an unknown number of Muslim mass graves.

The above mentioned atrocities and crimes against Humanity and the new warfare version of "Ethnic-cleansing" and the deliberate artillery shell that landed in a crowded Sarajevo market place killing more than 70 Civilians in February 1995 made the headlines in the western media. This sad event struck a chord and the Americans who finally decided to act by drawing a NATO bombing campaign against the Serb positions who by that time had completely surrounded Sarajevo and were picking off civilians in the streets.

After two months of negotiations between the three sides (Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims) sponsored by the United States at the USAF base in Dayton, Ohio "Peace" was finally reached on the 21st of November 1995. As a result of this "Peace Plan" Bosnia-Herzegovina was to become a single state with an international legal personality composed of two distinct entities with equal rights and endowed with large autonomy: the Muslim-Croat federation, in a clear bid to deter any Muslim initiative regarding the future shape of a Muslim state in Bosnia and the Republika of Sprska, links of these two entities with "outside" states Croatia for the federation and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for the Serb republic were allowed short of secession, to the detriment of the orphan Bosnian Muslims who have no sponsor or parent state.

The essence of the "Dayton accords" was the 51% & 49% division agreed upon as the basis for "Peace", so the territorial provisions of the agreement were kept as close as possible to the map on the ground at the end of fighting, Srebrenica and Zepa were to be retained by Bosnian Serbs while Goradze was linked to the bulk of the federation territory by a land corridor.

The great injustice of accepting the results of "ethic-cleansing" by the Serbs in all parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina and especially its eastern region was balanced in view of the "peace" decision makers with the increased stability that the new arrangement would have in terms of the viability of the two entities.

But much to the great dismay of the Bosnian Muslim's, the main war criminals responsible for the whole tragedy in Bosnia were at large for years. Mladic & Karadzic, also known as the butchers of Srebrenica, carried out one of the most atrocious massacres of this genocide. Srebrenica was among the six "so-called" UN safe zones where on 11th of July 1995, more than 8000 Muslim males were hacked to death.

"How can there be such a league, seeing that if they get an advantage over you, they respect not in you the ties either in kinship or of a covenant" 8:6 Quran

Finally, an everlasting Tribute and a Divine supplication to all Muslim Martyrs during this war and especially to the Late Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic the great Muslim Erudite who against all odds steadfastly held the green flag in the heart of Europe until his death on the 19th of October 2003.