Bosnian War

The Bosnian War took place between late February 1992 and December 14, 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is some dispute on the actual starting date. The Serbs consider the Sarajevo wedding shooting on March 1, 1992 as the catalyst to the fighting. Others claim that the war officially began on April 6, 1992 after the Sljekovac killings, the Bijeljina massacres, and a demonstrator was killed on April 5.

The fighting began after the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Several events happened that contributed to the strife in the including the weakening of the confederation, a surge in ethnic nationalism, adoption of amendments to the Serbian Constitution that allowed Serbia to take control of independent Kosovo and Vojvodina. After Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence, the Serbian army mobilized in order to protect Serb territory in the two countries. As the war spread it also became a war about the ethnic division and became a war of ethnic cleansing. Fighting raged in cities, mass rape took place mostly by Serbian, Croat, and Bosniak forces. It is estimated that 12,000-20,000 women were raped during the war.

At first the Serbs appeared to be the strongest army, but it eventually became clear that their force was growing weary and was not able to keep up with the Bosniaks and Croats after and their alliance to the Republika Srpska.

The end of the war was brought about by negotiations that took place at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio during the month of November 1995. The official peace treaty was signed in Paris on December 14th. In all around 100,000 people were killed as a result of the war and 2.2 million people had to leave their homes.