Sample Essay on Effects of the Bosnian War
The Bosnian War, which was fought until 1995, had far-reaching effects locally and internationally. From casualties to the international response, some of the effects changed the lives of Bosnians forever. In this essay, we discuss some of the effects of the war, that left hundreds of thousands dead, scores of others and wounded and social structures damaged.
Even though the International Community did almost nothing at the peak of the war, it reacted later by seeking justice for the victims of the atrocities. For instance, the UN Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. According to history, it was the first tribunal after the Nuremberg Trials of between 1945 and 1946 and the first to handle cases of genocide among other crimes against humanity. The ICTY indicted Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, who served as the army commander of Serb during the war.
The indictment of Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic was not the end of the road to justice as ICTY charged more than 160 people for the next two decades of various crimes, which were perpetrated during the conflict. In 2002, Slobodan Milosevic was charged and he served as his own defense lawyer in the case. However, the case was never heard because of deteriorating health, which led to the postponement of his case until 2006 when he died in custody.
Another major effect of the Bosnian War was the casualties, together with those who sustained injuries during warfare. Nonetheless, it is important to note that settling on a specific number of people who di0ed in the war has spurred debate and politicized, making it a contentious issue. There are huge disparities in the casualties, ranging from 25,000 people to 329,000. One of the challenges of settling on a specific number has been the definition of victims of war. Some organizations based their findings on military records of those who died during direct involvement in the combat.
On the other hand, other findings included indirect deaths, which occurred owing to the conditions created during the warlike hunger, diseases, cold, and accidents among others. Several revisions of the documents were recommended to avoid cases of duplication of victims, since it was noted that some appeared in multiple lists, thus limiting the accuracy and reliability of most statistical records for the war.
Besides merciless killings that occurred in the former Yugoslavia, rape cases were widespread. A case in point was where drunk militiamen attacked a gymnasium and kidnapped over a hundred Muslim women and later gang-raped them for 26 days, day and night. This compelled Serbian forces to conduct ethnic cleansing of Muslim villages, which suffered cruelty in Eastern and Western Serbia. The Bosnian War also led to the forceful displacement of people from their land. For example, Croats were removed from over 30% of their territory. The territory was later to be occupied by the military, and ethnically cleansed Croats from other places. This was repeated in other parts of the region. Serbs cleansed over 70% of the territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina before NATO intervened and stopped Serbs from taking over the territory.
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Retrieved from:
http://www.nato.int/du/docu/d010306c.pdf
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/10/05/bosnia.elections.mostar/