Cities, citizens still scarred by war

SARAJEVO — To understand the impact on Bosnians of the 1992-95 war, ask anybody in this country old enough to remember it.

From the bellhop who grows morose and silent when questioned about the fighting to the top imam in Bosnia, all have horror stories. A country the size of West Virginia, Bosnia has far more than its share of misery per acre.

Bosnia's Muslims suffered genocide, the worst crimes in Europe since the Holocaust. They were killed, raped, tortured. "Ethnic cleansing" squads forced them from their homes. Livestock and houses were destroyed. Horrific massacres filled mass graves, and other victims starved in concentration camps.

Why did this happen? Yugoslavia was not a country that naturally coalesced over the centuries. Proclaimed at the end of World War I, it was made up of largely Muslim Bosnians, called Bosniacs; Eastern Orthodox Serbs who are traditionally pro-Russian; and Catholics called Croats. Several "republics" operated within the Yugoslav framework.

The history of the former Yugoslavia is complex, with shifting alliances and a succession of parliaments and rulers. Between the end of World War II and the late 1980s, it was ruled by the communist dictator Josip Broz Tito, who managed to keep the country's hostile factions from attacking one another. But after Tito's death in 1980, Yugoslavia began to fracture along ethnic lines.

In 1986, Slobodan Milosevic — an advocate of "ethnic cleansing" against Bosniacs and Croats — took power as Yugoslavia's strongman. "Between 1991 and 1992, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia all seceded from Yugoslavia," says a U.S. State Department Web site.

These republics met varying levels of resistance from the republic of Serbia and local ethnic Serbs. Slovenia easily forced Serb troops out, but Bosnia paid a monstrous toll.

Bosnia-Herzegovina held a referendum in 1992 and proclaimed independence, leading to attacks from ethnic Serbs in this republic. However, some Serbs defended the country.

The international community imposed a weapons embargo against the former Yugoslavia on the theory that if combatants have no guns they can't fight. But Serbia inherited the army of Yugoslavia, the fourth largest in Europe, according to Nedim Hasic, a journalist from Sarajevo who assisted the Deseret Morning News.

Targeting children

While driving through Sarajevo, Adi Sokolija — another translator for the paper — pointed out the high hills around the city. A child when the war began, he and his family left Sarajevo for Zagreb, Croatia. He mentioned recent reports that Serb gunners had artillery in place every 30 meters to shoot down into the capital city.