War in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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| War in Bosnia and Herzegovina | ||||||||||
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| Part of the Yugoslav Wars | ||||||||||
 The parliament building burns after being hit by artillery fire in Sarajevo May 1992.; Ratko Mladić with Bosnian Serb soldiers; a UN soldier in Sarajevo. Photos by Mikhail Evstafiev |
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| Combatants | ||||||||||
 Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
 Croatian Defence Council
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 Army of Republika Srpska
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| Commanders | ||||||||||
| Alija Izetbegović (President of Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Sefer Halilović (Army chief of staff 1992-1993) Rasim Delić (Army chief of Staff 1992-1995) |
Franjo Tuđman (President of Croatia)
Mate Boban (President of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia) |
Slobodan Milošević (President of Serbia)
Radovan Karadžić (President of Republika Srpska) Ratko Mladić (Commander of the army) |
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| Yugoslav wars |
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| Slovenia – Croatia – Bosnia (1st NATO intervention) – Kosovo (2nd NATO intervention) – Preševo valley - Macedonia |
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an armed conflict that took place between March 1992 and November 1995. The war involved several ethnically defined factions within Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats as well as a smaller faction in Western Bosnia led by Fikret Abdić. These factions changed their objectives and allegiances several times at various stages of the war (see Parties Involved).
Since the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a consequence of events in the wider region of former Yugoslavia, and due to the involvement of neighboring countries Croatia and Yugoslavia, there is an ongoing debate about whether the conflict was a civil war or a war of aggression. Most Bosniaks and many Croats claim that the war was a war of aggression from Serbia, while Serbs tend to consider it a civil war. The involvement of NATO, during the 1995 Operation Deliberate Force against the positions of the Army of Republika Srpska made the war an internationalized conflict.
A trial is ongoing before the International Court of Justice, following a suit by Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia for genocide (see Bosnian genocide case at the International Court of Justice) intended to shed more light on the character of the war.
The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Paris on 14 December 1995 [1]. The peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio, and were finalized on 21 December 1995. The accords are known as the Dayton Agreement.
The most recent research places the number of victims at around 100,000–110,000 killed (civilians and military), and 1.8 million displaced (see Casualties).[2][3][4]
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[edit] Political situation before the war
[edit] Dissolution of Yugoslavia
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Crisis emerged in Yugoslavia with the weakening of the Communist system at the end of the Cold War. In Yugoslavia, the national Communist party, officially called Alliance or League of Communists of Yugoslavia, was losing its ideological potency, while the nationalist and separatist ideologies were on the rise in the late 1980s. This was particularly noticeable in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to a lesser extent in Slovenia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
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| History of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Chronology |
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Rulers |
In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after adoption of amendments to the Serbian constitution. This allowed the Serbian republic's government to re-assert effective power over the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Until that point, their decision making was independent. Each also had a vote on the Yugoslav federal level.[citation needed] Serbia, under president Slobodan Milošević, thus gained control over three out of eight votes in the Yugoslav presidency. With additional votes from Montenegro and, occasionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia was thus able to heavily influence decisions of the federal government. This situation led to objections in other republics and calls for reform of the Yugoslav Federation.
At the 14th Extraordinary Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, on 20 January 1990, the delegations of the republics could not agree on the main issues in the Yugoslav federation. As a result, the Slovenian and Croatian delegates left the Congress. The Slovenian delegation, headed by Milan Kučan demanded democratic changes and a looser federation, while the Serbian delegation, headed by Milošević, opposed this. This is considered the beginning of the end of Yugoslavia.
Moreover, nationalist parties attained power in other republics. Among them, the Croatian Franjo Tuđman's Croatian Democratic Union was the most prominent. On December 22, 1990, the Parliament of Croatia adopted the new Constitution, taking away some of the rights from the Serbs granted by the previous Socialist constitution. This created ground for nationalist action among the indigenous Serbs of Croatia. Furthermore, Slovenia and Croatia shortly after began the process towards independence, which led to a short armed conflict in Slovenia, and all-out war in Croatia, in the areas that had a substantial Serb population.
[edit] The pre-war situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
On the first multi-party elections that took place in November 1990 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the three largest ethnic parties in the country won: the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, the Serbian Democratic Party and the Croatian Democratic Union.
After the elections, they formed a coalition government. The primary motivation behind this union was to maintain an atmosphere of harmony and tolerance and further their common goal to rule as a democratic alternative to the Socialist government that preceded them [citation needed].
Parties divided the power along the ethnic lines so that the President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was a Bosniak, president of the Parliament was a Bosnian Serb and the prime minister a Croat.
[edit] Independence referendum in Bosnia and Herzegovina
After Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina organized a referendum on independence as well. The decision of the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on holding the referendum was taken after the majority of Serb members had left the assembly in protest.
These Bosnian Serb assembly members invited the Serb population to boycott the referendum held on February 29 and March 1, 1992. The turnout in the referendum was 64-67% and the vote was 99.43% in favor of independence. Independence was declared on March 5, 1992 by the parliament. The referendum and the murder of a member of a wedding procession on the day before the referendum was utilized by the Serb political leadership as a reason to start road blockades in protest.
[edit] Establishment of the "Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina"
The Serb members of parliament, consisting mainly of the Serb Democratic Party members, but also including some other party representatives (which would form the "Independent Members of Parliament Caucus"), abandoned the central parliament in Sarajevo, and formed the Assembly of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina on October 24, 1991, which marked the end of the tri-ethnic coalition that governed after the elections in 1990. This Assembly established the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on February 9, 1992, which became Republika Srpska in August 1992. The official aim of this act, stated in the original text of the Constitution of Republika Srpska, later amended, was to preserve the Yugoslav federation.
[edit] Establishment of the "Croat Community of Herzeg-Bosnia"
On November 18, 1991 the Croats of Herzegovina, formed the "Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia" (Hrvatska Zajednica Herceg-Bosna) as means of "self-organization" of the Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (On 28 August 1993, the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia declared itself the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, after the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina into three ethnic entities in the talks in Geneva, in the midst of the war between Croats and Bosniaks.)
[edit] Cutileiro-Carrington Plan
The Carrington-Cutileiro peace plan, named for its creators Lord Peter Carrington and Portuguese Ambassador José Cutileiro, resulted from the EU-hosted peace conference held in September 1991 in an attempt to prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina sliding into war. It proposed ethnic power-sharing on all administrative levels and the devolution of central government to local ethnic communities. However, all Bosnia and Herzegovina's districts would be classified as Bosniak, Serb or Croat under the plan, even where ethnic majority was not evident. Initially the plan was accepted by all three sides but eventually Alija Izetbegović (Bosnian Muslim leader and President of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the majority Bosniak Party of Democratic Action) withdrew his consent.
[edit] The war
[edit] General information
The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officially left Bosnia and Herzegovina briefly after independence was declared in April 1992. However, most of the command chain, weaponry, and higher ranked military personnel, including general Ratko Mladić, remained in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Army of Republika Srpska. The Croats organized a defensive military formation of their own called the Croatian Defense Council (Hrvatsko Vijeće Obrane, HVO) as the armed forces of the Herzeg-Bosnia, the Bosniaks mostly organized into the Army of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine, later Armija BiH). This army had a number of non-Bosniaks, especially in the 1st Corps in Sarajevo that was commanded by general Jovan Divjak; the Army of Republika Srpska had a Bosnian Muslim company named after the Muslim Serb author Meša Selimović, operating in the Derventa area.
Various paramilitary units were operating in Bosnian war: the Serb "White Eagles" (Beli Orlovi), Arkan's "Tigers", "Serbian Volunteer Guard" (Srpska Dobrovoljačka Garda), Bosniak "Patriotic League" (Patriotska Liga) and "Green Berets" (Zelene Beretke), and Croatian "Croatian Defense Forces" (Hrvatske Obrambene Snage), etc. The Serb and Croat paramilitaries involved a lot of volunteers from Serbia and Croatia, and were supported by right-wing political parties in those countries.Allegations exist about the involvement of the Serbian and Croatian secret police in the conflict. Forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina were divided in 5 corps'. 1st Corps operated at the region of Sarajevo and Gorazde while a stronger 5th Corps held out in western Bosanska Krajina pocket which cooperated with the HVO units in and around the city of Bihac. From late 1993 3rd Corps saw the influx of volunteers from the Islamic countries forming the core of, amongst others, the 7th Muslim Brigade, operating in the Zenica and Zavidovici area. [5]
Initially it was Bosniak and Croat forces together against the Serb forces. The Serbs had the upper hand due to heavier weaponry (despite less manpower) that was given to them by the Yugoslav People's Army and established control over most areas where Serbs had relative majority but also in areas where they were a significant minority in both rural and urban regions excluding the larger towns of Sarajevo and Mostar. The Serb military and political leaders, from ICTY received the most accusations of war crimes many of which have been confirmed after the war in ICTY trials.
Most of the capital Sarajevo was predominantly held by the Bosniaks although the official Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina government continued to function in its relative multiethnic capacity. The Serb objective was to prevent the Army of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, allegedly deployed out of the town, from functioning well. The Army of Republika Srpska surrounded it (alternatively, the Bosnian Serb Army situated itself in the areas surrounding Sarajevo which were all mainly populated by Serbs – the so-called Ring around Sarajevo), deploying troops and artillery in the surrounding hills what would become the longest siege in the history of modern warfare that lasted nearly 4 years. See Siege of Sarajevo.
Numerous cease-fire agreements were signed, and breached again when one of the sides felt it was to their advantage. The United Nations repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempted to stop the war and the much-touted Vance-Owen Peace Plan made little impact.
[edit] Chronology
[edit] 1992
The first casualty in Bosnia is a point of contention between Serbs and Bosniaks. Serbs consider Nikola Gardović, a groom's father who was killed at a Serb wedding procession on the second day of the referendum, on March 1, 1992 in Sarajevo's old town Baščaršija, to the first victim of the war. Bosniaks meanwhile consider the first casualty of the war to be Suada Dilberović, who was shot during a peace march by unidentified gunmen on April 5.
Note that this was not actually the start of the war-related activities on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On September 30, 1991, the Yugoslav People's Army destroyed a small village of Ravno located in Herzegovina, inhabited by Croats, during the course of its siege of the city of Dubrovnik (which was on the territory of Croatia itself). On September 19, the JNA moved some extra troops to the area around the city of Mostar, which was publicly protested by the local government.
During the months of March-April-May 1992 fierce attacks raged in eastern Bosnia as well as the northwestern part of the country. In March attacks by the SDS leaders, together with field officers of the Second Military Command of former JNA, were conducted in eastern part of the country with the objective to take strategically relevant positions and carry out a communication and information blockade. Attacks carried out resulted in a large number of dead and wounded civilians. [6]
Bosnian Serb Army was able to take over 70% of the country during these months. Much of this is due to the fact that they were much better armed and organized than the Bosniak and Bosnian Croat forces. Attacks also included areas of mixed ethnic composition. Doboj, Foča, Rogatica, Vlasenica, Bratunac, Zvornik, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Kljuc, Brcko, Derventa, Modrica, Bosanska Krupa, Bosanski Brod, Bosanski Novi,Glamoc, Bosanski Petrovac, Cajnice, Bijeljina, Višegrad, and parts of Sarajevo are all areas where Serbs established control and expelled Bosniaks and Croats. Also areas in which were more ethnically homogeneous and were spared from major fighting such as Banja Luka, Bosanska Dubica, Bosanska Gradiska, Bileca, Gacko, Han Pijesak, Kalinovik, Nevesinje, Trebinje, Rudo saw their non-Serb populations expelled. Similarly, the regions of central Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo, Zenica, Maglaj, Zavidovici, Bugojno, Mostar, Konjic, etc.) saw the flight of its Serb population, migrating to the Serb-held areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In June 1992, the United Nations Protection Force which had originally been deployed in Croatia had its mandate extended into Bosnia and Herzegovina, initially to protect the Sarajevo International Airport. In September, the role of the UNPROFOR was expanded in order to protect humanitarian aid and assist in the delivery of the relief in the whole Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as aid in the protection of civilian refugees when required by the Red Cross.
In October of 1992 the Serbs captured the city of Jajce and expelled the Croat and Bosniak population. The fall of the city was largely due to a lack of Bosniak-Croat cooperation and rising tensions, especially over the past four months.
[edit] 1993
On January 8, 1993 the Serbs killed the deputy prime minister of Bosnia Hakija Turajlić after stopping the UN convoy which was taking him from the airport. On May 15-16 96% of Serbs vote to reject the Vance-Owen plan.
Much of the year was dominated by the Croat-Bosniak war which erupted in March of 1993, although there were several incidents in 1992 such as the June 20, 1992 Croatian Defence Council attacks on Gornji Vakuf, and Novi Travnik and the October 23, 1992 attack and on Prozor after which the Croats expelled the Bosniaks from the city..
After the failure of the Vance-Owen peace plan, which practically intended to divide the country into three ethnic parts, an armed conflict sprung between Bosniaks and Croats over the 30 percent of Bosnia they held. This caused the creation of more ethnic enclaves and further bloodshed.
Mostar was also surrounded by the Croat forces from three sides for nine months, and much of its historic city was destroyed by shelling by the Croats including the famous Stari Most.
In an attempt to protect the civilians, UNPROFOR's role was further extended in 1993 to protect the "safe havens" that it had declared around a number of towns including Sarajevo, Goražde and Srebrenica.
[edit] 1994
In 1994, NATO got involved, when its jets shot down four Serb aircraft over central Bosnia on February 8 1994 for allegedly violating the UN no-fly zone.
In March 1994, Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia signed the Washington peace agreement, establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This effectively ended the war between Croats and Bosniaks, and narrowed the warring parties down to two.
[edit] 1995
Final peace signing in Paris on December 14, 1995
The war continued through most of 1995, and with Croatia taking over the Serb Krajina in early August, the Bosniak-Croat alliance gained the initiative in the war, taking much of western Bosnia from the Serbs. At that point, the international community pressured Milošević, Tuđman and Izetbegović to the negotiation table and finally the war ended with the Dayton Peace Agreement signed on November 21, 1995 (the final version was signed December 14, 1995 in Paris).
In July 1995. Serb troops under general Ratko Mladić, occupied the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia,which was harbouring Naser's troops, in which around 10000 men ageing from 14 to 84 were killed(women and children where expelled to Bosnian-forces held teritory) (See the Srebrenica Massacre article for details). The ICTY ruled this event as genocide in the case Prosecutor vs. Krstić.
[edit] Casualties
The death toll after the war was originally estimated at around 200,000 by the Bosnian government. This figure is still often quoted by the Western media. The United Nations' agencies had previously estimated 278,000 dead and missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They also recorded around 1,325,000 refugees and exiles.
Today, it is generally estimated that around 100,000 Bosnians and Herzegovinians - Bosniak, Serb and Croat - were killed in the war.
Research done by the International Criminal Tribunal in 2004 by Tibeau and Bijak determined a more precise number of 102,000 deaths and estimated the following breakdown: 55,261 were civilians and 47,360 were soldiers. Of the civilians, 16,700 were Serbs while 38,000 were Bosniaks and Croats. Of the soldiers, 14,000 were Serbs, 6,000 were Croats, and 28,000 were Bosniaks. [7]
Another research was conducted by the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center (RDC) that was based on creating lists and databases, rather than providing estimates. ICTY's Demographic Unit in the Hague, provide a similar total death toll, but a somewhat different ethnic distribution.[8]. As of October 2006 the count of the number of casualties has reached 97,884.[9] Further research is ongoing.
Large discrepancies in all these estimates are generally due to the inconsistent definitions of who can be considered victims of the war. Some research calculated only direct casualties of the military activity while other also calculated indirect casualties, such as those who died from harsh living conditions, hunger, cold, illnesses or other accidents indirectly caused by the war conditions. Original higher numbers were also used as many victims were listed twice or three times both in civilian and military columns as little or no communication and systematic coordination of these lists could take place in wartime conditions. Manipulation with numbers is today most often used by historical revisionist to change the character and the scope of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, most of above independent studies have not been accredited by either government involved in the conflict and there are no single official results that are acceptable to all sides.
It should not be discounted that there were also significant casualties on the part of International Troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some 320 soldiers of UNPROFOR were killed during this conflict in Bosnia.
| Total 102,622 |
Bosniaks & Croats | c. 72,000 |
| Serbs | c. 30,700 | |
| Total civilians 55,261 |
Bosniaks & Croats | c. 38,000 |
| Serbs | c. 16,700 | |
| Total soldiers 47,360 |
Bosniaks | c. 28,000 |
| Serbs | c. 14,000 | |
| Croats | c. 6,000 |
| Total 96,175 |
Bosniaks | 63,994 | 66.5% |
| Serbs | 24,206 | 25.2% | |
| Croats | 7,338 | 7.6% | |
| other | 637 | 0.7% | |
| Total civilians 38,645 |
Bosniaks | 32,723 | 84.7% |
| Croats | 1,899 | 4.9% | |
| Serbs | 3,555 | 9.2% | |
| others | 466 | 1.2% | |
| Total soldiers 57,529 |
Bosniaks | 31,270 | 54.4% |
| Serbs | 20,649 | 35.9% | |
| Croats | 5,439 | 9.5% | |
| others | 171 | 0.3% | |
| unconfirmed | 4,000 |
[edit] Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing was a common phenomenon in the war. This typically entailed intimidation, forced expulsion and/or killing of the undesired ethnic group as well as the destruction or removal of the physical vestiges of the ethnic group, such as places of worship, cemeteries and cultural and historical buildings. In Bosnia, parties mainly performed ethnic cleansing of their territories. Bosniak-controlled Sarajevo saw a fraction of its Serb and Croat population remain, as well as Tuzla in the northeast of the country. Currently, Croats do not inhabit Posavina, Serbs are not in parts of Bosanska Krajina, while many Bosniaks did not return to many urban areas in the today's Republika Srpska.
According to international human rights orgazinations, the United Nations, NATO and the ICTY, the major part of the Bosnian War ethnic cleansing was perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces against mainly Bosniaks and Bosnian Croat population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian Serb government has strongly denied these claims, pointing out that no warring parties can be labelled as just “agressors” or “victims”.
[edit] Galleries
[edit] Gallery of maps
 The front lines in 1993, while HVO (blue) was still allied with the Bosnian Muslims (green) |
 The front lines in 1994, at the end of the Bosniak-Croat war and after the signing of the Washington Agreement |
 The front lines in 1995, before Operation Storm |
 The front lines in 1995, before the Dayton Agreement |
 Ethnic composition in 1991 |
 Estimated ethnic composition in 2005 |
 Former Yugoslavia during war |
 Territories controlled by ABiH during the war |
 Territories controlled by HVO/Croatian Army during the war |
 Territories controlled by BSA during the war |
[edit] References
- ^ Dayton Peace Accords on Bosnia. US Department of State (1996-03-30). Retrieved on 2006-03-19.
- ^ "War-related Deaths in the 1992–1995 Armed Conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Critique of Previous Estimates and Recent Results", European Journal of Population, June, 2005.
- ^ "Research halves Bosnia war death toll to 100,000", Reuters, November 23, 2005.
- ^ "Review of European Security Issues", U.S. Department of State, 28 April 2006.
- ^ Article in the Sarajevo "Dani" weekly about the formation of Islamist brigades of the Bosniak Army [1]
- ^ CCPR Human Rights Committee. "Bosnia and Herzegovina Report". United Nations. 30 October 1992 [2]
- ^ Nilsen, Av Kjell Arild; "Death toll in Bosnian war was 102,000"; Free Republic - Norwegian News Agency, [3]
- ^ Krsman, Natasa; "Mirsad Tokača: Samo fizički me mogu spriječiti da radim" (Bosnian only); Nezavisne novine; 18 March 2006 [4]
- ^ Research and Documentation Center; "The Status of Database by the Centers"; current [5]
[edit] Further reading
- Howard, Les. Winter Warriors - Across Bosnia with the PBI 1995/1996 The Book Guild, 2006, ISBN: 1 –84624-077-8
- Shrader, Charles R. The Muslim-Croat Civil War in Central Bosnia Texas A&M University Press, 2003 ISBN 1-58544-261-5
- Simms, Brendan. Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia. Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-028983-6
- Raguz, Vitomir Miles. Who Saved Bosnia Naklada Stih, 2005 ISBN 953-6959-28-3
- Beloff, Nora. Yugoslavia: An Avoidable War. New European Publications, 1997. ISBN 1-872410-08-1
- Loyd, Anthony. "My War Gone By, I Miss It So." Penguin, 1999. ISBN 0-14-029854-1
- Maas, Peter. Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War. Vintage Books, 1996. ISBN 0-679-76389-9
- Dr. R. Craig Nation. "War in the Balkans 1991-2002." Strategic Studies Institute, 2002, ISBN 1-58487-134-2 [6]
[edit] See also
- 1991 Bosnia and Herzegovina Population Census
- Anti-Bosniak sentiment
- Bosnian Genocide
- High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Keraterm camp
- Manjača camp
- Celibici camp
- Markale massacres
- Omarska camp
- Operation Deliberate Force
- Peace plans offered before and during the Bosnian War
- Religious war
- Siege of Sarajevo
- Srebrenica massacre
- Trnopolje camp
- The role of foreign fighters in the Bosnian war
[edit] External links
- List of people missing from the war
- Stanislav Galic judgement
- Research and Documentation Center Sarajevo
- The Death of Yugoslavia Part I (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian)
- The Death of Yugoslavia Part II (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian)
- UN report on prison camps during the war
- Open UN document on Serb attrocities towards non-Serbs
- Guardian Unlimited special report on Serb soldier crimes (Guardian Unlimited)
- Genocide in Yugoslavia
- Serbian War Crime Testimonies
- hWeb - Convoy to Sarajevo, a personal account of relief work during the Bosnia War
