The Trouble in Bosnia
1992-PRESENT
THE TROUBLE IN BOSNIA
Bosnia-Herzegovina, the central-most state in the former Yugoslav nation, is a melting pot of all the diverse Yugoslavian cultures. Serbians, Croatians and Balkan Muslims each control their respective regions of Bosnia–a close association that has bred discontent punctuated with spates of ethnic bloodletting. Bosnian Serbs, the minority sect, perceive themselves to be the victims of Croat and Muslim (Bosniacs) hatred, factions who likewise mistrust each other. Thus, when Bosnia-Herzegovina struck for independence from Yugoslavia in January 1992, the Europe was reluctant to extend recognition until a referendum could determine which sect would control the new nation. The minority Bosnian Serbs boycotted this referendum out of fear of being voted into subjugation by their rivals. As a result, the Bosnian Muslims gained control of the new nation. Official recognition by Europe and the US came on 7 April 1992. This left only Serbia and Montenegro as the remaining provinces within the original Yugoslavian republic.
Bosnian independence further piqued Yugoslavian (Serbian) anger, not just at the loss of another province, but because their blood kin, the Bosnian Serbs, were now at risk for ethnic reprisals. The Yugoslav Army assailed Bosnia in an attempt to open corridors to Bosnian Serb enclaves. International economic sanctions shortly prompted the withdrawal of this (largely Serbian) Army, but not before the Bosnian Serbs had been well armed and trained. Bosnian Serbs now took over the fighting on their own, particularly around the capital of Sarajevo.
The United Nations intervened in this morass, endeavoring to broker a ceasefire while undertaking to protect and feed the innocent. United Nations personnel quickly found themselves in harm’s way. To care for casualties among the UN forces, a US Army mobile surgical hospital was set up at UN Camp Pleso, near the airport in Zagreb. Staffing for this hospital rotated between US Army, Navy, and Air Force medical personnel. From March to August 1994, Navy Fleet Hospital 6, staffed from NMC San Diego, ran this facility.
Numerous failed ceasefires culminated, in February of 1994, with Bosnian Muslims and Croats forming the “Bosnian Federation,” an alliance against the better-armed Serbs. The ensuing stalemate led all parties to the negotiating table at the Dayton Peace Proximity Talks in 1995. This accord assigned enforcement to NATO in the form of a Stabilisation Force (SFOR). SFOR was replaced in December 2004 with the more permanent “EUFOR Althea,” whose tripartite governance and peacekeeping activities continue today.
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CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Covey, D.C. “Another First-Hand View of the Former Yugoslavia”. Proceedings of the USNI, Vol 122 (6), June 1996, p. 61.
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, 3rd ed. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
Hamilton, J. Bruce. “Navigating the Balkan Crisis”. Proceedings of the USNI, Vol 122 (6), June 1996, pp. 54-60.
Mazower, Mark. The Balkans: A Short History. New York, NY: Modern Library, 2002.
NATO SFOR website. www.nato.int/sfor/indexinf.htm, 16 June 2004.
Spencer, Christopher. “The Former Yugoslavia: Background to Crisis”. Canadian Institute for International Affairs, Vol 50 (4), Summer 1993, p. 7.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Initial NATO enforcement of the General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP) produced at Dayton was through an Implementation Force (IFOR), which gave way to the SFOR.