Bosnia War

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The Bosnian War (Serbo-Croatian: Rat u Bosni I Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини)

was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and
1995. The war is commonly seen as having started on 6 April 1992, following a number of
earlier violent incidents. The war ended on 14 December 1995 when the Dayton accords were
signed. The main belligerents were the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the
Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, and the Republika Srpska, the latter two entities being proto-states
led and supplied by Croatia and Serbia, respectively
The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Following the Slovenian and Croatian secessions
from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, the multi-ethnic Socialist Republic of
Bosnia and Herzegovina – which was inhabited by mainly Muslim Bosniaks (44%), Orthodox
Serbs (32.5%) and Catholic Croats (17%) – passed a referendum for independence on 29
February 1992. Political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs boycotted the referendum, and
rejected its outcome. Anticipating the outcome of the referendum, the Assembly of the Serb
People in Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Constitution of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia
and Herzegovina on 28 February 1992. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of
independence (which gained international recognition) and following the withdrawal of Alija
Izetbegović from the previously signed Cutileiro Plan (which proposed a division of Bosnia into
ethnic cantons), the Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadžić and supported by the government
of Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), mobilised their forces inside
Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to secure ethnic Serb territory. The war soon spread across the
country, accompanied by ethnic cleansing.

The conflict was Initially between Yugoslav Army units in Bosnia which later transformed into
the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) on the one side, and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia
and Herzegovina (ARBiH), largely composed of Bosniaks, and the Croat forces in the Croatian
Defence Council (HVO) on the other side. Tensions between Croats and Bosniaks increased
throughout late 1992, resulting in the escalation of the Croat–Bosniak War in early 1993. The
Bosnian War was characterised by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns,
ethnic cleansing, and systematic mass rape, mainly perpetrated by Serb, and to a lesser extent,
Croat and Bosniak forces. Events such as the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre later
became iconic of the conflict.

The Serbs, although initially militarily superior due to the weapons and resources provided by
the JNA, eventually lost momentum as the Bosniaks and Croats allied against the Republika
Srpska in 1994 with the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina following the
Washington agreement. Pakistan ignored the UN’s ban on supply of arms, and airlifted anti-tank
missiles to the Bosnian Muslims, while after the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO
intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force targeting the positions of the Army of the
Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war. The war ended after the signing of the
General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Paris on 14 December
1995. Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio, and were finalised on 21 November 1995.

By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted forty-five
Serbs, twelve Croats, and four Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia.
[needs update] Estimates suggest over 100,000 people were killed during the war. Over 2.2
million people were displaced, making it, at the time, the most violent conflict in Europe since
the end of World War II. In addition, an estimated 12,000–50,000 women were raped, mainly
carried out by Serb forces, with most of the victims being Bosniak women.

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