Ethnic cleansing and war crimes, 1991-1995 β part twelve
TransConflict is pleased to present part twelveΒ of a chapter ofΒ “Confronting the Yugoslav controversies – a scholars’ initiative”, entitled “Ethnic cleansing and war crimes, 1991-1995”, which “aims at describing causes, features, and consequences of ethnic cleansing as a policy in Bosnia-Hercegovina during the war.”
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By Marie-Janine Calic
Deliberate Use of Violence
The ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing operations was to remove the target populationΒ from a given territory. All kinds of violent means were used as instrumentsΒ to achieve this goal by instilling fear among the victims. Methods used includedΒ administrative measures (such as dismissal from work, discrimination, refusal ofΒ hospital treatment) and intimidation, as well as repression and terrorizing acts,Β such as beatings, torture, shooting, or using explosives against homes, summaryΒ executions, and similar acts.[79]
Following the outbreak of military confrontation in MarchβApril 1992, the campaign of βpersecutionβ deliberately used the following methods:
- Killings during attacks on towns and villages
- Cruel and inhumane treatment during and after the attacks
- Forced transfer and deportation
- Unlawful detention and killing, forced labor, and use of human shields
- Cruel and inhumane treatment and inhumane conditions in detention facilities
- Destruction of cultural and sacred objects
- Plunder and wanton destruction
The authors of a research project among Bosnian refugees concluded thatΒ the extent and the features of violence used in the context of ethnic cleansingΒ operations were highly dependent on the specific conditions prevailing in theΒ area, such as ethnic composition, the distance to the line of confrontation, andΒ the political affiliations of the regional elite. The general characteristics were asΒ follows:
- Extreme violence was used by the perpetrators if the percentage of theΒ ethnic group to be evicted from a certain area was high.
- Ethnic cleansing was particularly brutally designed if the (defending) politicalΒ and military authority in the area concerned was poorly organized.
- The outcome of ethnic cleansing depended on the level of political organizationΒ and military supply of the attacking forces.
Measures usually went far beyond the degree of violence (physical and nonphysical)Β necessary to establish control over the public order, and they potentiallyΒ involved two distinct targets: those who were physically exposed to deliberateΒ coercion and violence, and those who observed the violence and whose fear theΒ perpetrator wanted to increase. Because the latter group identified with the victims,Β they perceived themselves as potential future victims and thus despaired orΒ complied.
The forced expulsions were consistently implemented by lightning attacksΒ and shelling followed by mechanized units entering the villages. Frequently, theΒ women were separated from the men and taken to detention facilities or were expelledΒ to other areas. Also, there was systematic burning of homes in rural areas,Β which had particularly devastating psychological effects on people. Building aΒ new house was a life project for which families worked for years. A house oftenΒ symbolized the social worth of a family; it was the proof of hard work and commitmentΒ to its future well-being.[80] Burning of houses was a particularly effectiveΒ tool to prevent the unwanted population from returning to its place of origin.Β In besieged Sarajevo, the Bosnian-Serb political and military leadership orderedΒ and carried out a campaign of sniping and shelling, the primary purpose ofΒ which was to spread terror among the civilian population. The objective was toΒ divide the Bosnian capital into Serb and Muslim sectors, using acts of terror toΒ intimidate the cityβs population and break its morale and spirit.
Mirsad TokaΔaβs research has determined that in 1992 alone at least 50,000Β persons were killed in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and the overwhelming majority ofΒ them were Bosniak civilians. Eighty percent of the killings occurred in May,Β June, July, and August 1992, thereby illustrating a direct correlation between ethnicΒ cleansing and killings. Major mass killings happened, for instance, in FoΔa,Β Sanski Most, Prijedor, and Bratunac and other places. In fact, there have beenΒ 1,100 recorded cases of mass killings and 320 potential sites where the bodies ofΒ individuals can be found.[81]
There were about four hundred detention facilities in thirty-four municipalities.Β These facilities included prisons, police stations, schools, barracks, factories,Β and community centers, where people were detained by force and exposedΒ to serious physical and mental abuse. Living conditions in these facilities wereΒ βdisastrous . . . inhuman and really brutalβ; the concept of sanitation did not exist.Β The temperature inside was low; the inmates slept on the concrete floor; andΒ they relieved themselves in the compound or in a bucket placed by the door atΒ night. There was not enough water, and any water that became available was contaminated.β [82] There were killings in thirty-eight detention facilities in twenty-oneΒ municipalities. Most victims were killed while in detention; others were killedΒ while performing forced labor or while being used as human shields during combatΒ operations. Over 1,600 detainees are listed as having been killed in nineteenΒ detention facilities, and the number killed in the remainder of the facilities is notΒ specified. The killings occurred between May and December 1992.
Grave violations of international humanitarian law also happened duringΒ the Croatian attack on the Krajina in 1995. Charges include the following: persecutionΒ of Serbs in the municipalities of Benkovac, Donji Lapac, DrniΕ‘, GospiΔ,Β GraΔac, Knin, Korenica, Obrovac, Ε ibenik, Sinj, and Zadar; systematic plunderΒ of public or private property by Croatian forces, including homes, outbuildings,Β barns, and livestock; deportation; murder of at least 150 Krajina Serbs; and otherΒ inhumane acts, including humiliation and degradation by Croatian forces. Furthermore,Β Croatian forces have been charged because they systematically set fireΒ to or otherwise destroyed villages, homes, outbuildings, and barns belonging toΒ Krajina Serbs and because they killed their livestock and spoiled their wells.Β Thousands of dwellings were destroyed.[83]
βEthnic cleansing and war crimes, 1991-1995β²Β is a component of the larger Scholarsβ InitiativeΒ βConfronting Yugoslav Controversiesβ (Second Edition), extracts of which will be published on TransConflict.com every Friday.
Previous parts of the chapter ‘Ethnic cleansing and war crimes, 1991-1995’ are available through the following links:
- Part one
- Part two
- Part three
- Part four
- Part five
- Part six
- Part seven
- Part eight
- Part nine
- Part ten
- Part eleven
Footnotes
79) Mirsad TokaΔa, Violation of Norms of International Humanitarian Law during the WarΒ in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Sarajevo: 2005).
80) Tone Bringa, Being Moslem the Bosnian Way: Identity and Comminity in a CentralΒ Bosnian Village (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), 86.
81) ICTY, Case No. IT-00-39&40/1-S, para. 42.
82) Ibid., para. 47.
83) ICTY, Case No. IT-01-45.
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