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In 1991, Bosnia had a poulation of 4,365,000 people, 44% of the total population were Muslim, 31% of the total population were Serbs, and 17% of the total population were Croats. Traditionally the people of Bosnia were called Bosnians, but now are referred to as Bosnian Croats (Catholic faith), Bosnian Serbs (Eastern Orthodox background), and Muslim Slavs (descendants of Christain Bosnians who accepted Islam 500 years ago).
Slobodan Miloshevich rose to power as President of the Serbian Republic with an extreme Serb nationalist agenda, his agenda called for a solution of the national question by the creation of a Greater Serbia, uniting all Serbs in a single state. By the end of 1987, Miloshevich was calling for a new, recentralized Yugoslavia, united under a single strong hand. In 1989, Miloshevich initiated a crackdown on Serbia's ethnic Albanians, which form the majority of the population in the country's province of Kosovo. The continued presence of a large and politically assertive Muslim Albanian population in Kosovo is percieved as intolerable to the national vision of Serbia. In 1990, Miloshevich issued decrees abolishing the autonomous status of all the Serbian Republic's minority regions and severly curbing the educational and political rights of ethnic minorities. March of 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina declared it's independence. On April 5, 1992, following the declaration of independence by Bosnia's parliament, there was a mass demonstration by citizens of Sarajevo (Croats, Serbs, and Muslims) calling for peace among Bosnia's three major communities. Yugoslav National Army snipers and Serb Nationalist militants, hidden on rooftops opened fire on the crowd, killing and wounding scores of unarmed citizens.
In the summer of 1992, the concentration camps of Manjaca were started.
In the city of Banja Luka, the following Mosques were destroyed by Serbs......
Sefer-Beg Mosque on April 9, 1993
Ferhanlija Mosque and Arnaudija Mosque on May 7, 1993
Hadzi-Zulfikar Mosque on May 17, 1993
Behram-Efendi Mosque on May 26, 1993
Gananferja Mosque, Sofi Mehmed Pasha Mosque, Hadzi-Begzad Mosque, and Mehdi-Beg Mosque on July 4, 1993
Hadzi-Saban Mosque and Hadzi-Kurt Mosque on July 14, 1993
Hadzi-Osmanija Mosque on September 8, 1993
Hadzi-Salihija Mosque and Hadzi-Omer Mosque on September 9, 1993
By the end of 1993, 60% of the non-serbs had left their homes in the city of Banja Luka. Hundreds of Mosques throughout Bosnia have been reduced to rubble.
In September of 1993, in the city of Pocitelj, Muslim residents were rounded up and marched off to concentration camps.
In the city of Zvornik, there was once dozens of Mosques, in 1991 the majority(60%) of the residents were Muslim Slavs, now the city is 100% Serb.
In June of 1993, the UN Security Council passed a resolution to create six "safe areas" for Muslims, unfortunately these safe areas came under attack by Serbian forces. The city of Tuzla was one of the "safe areas" and on May 25, 1995 at 9 pm a rocket propelled grenade was fired into the center of Tuzla by Serbs, this is known as the Kapija Massacre, there were 71 deaths, and over 100 wounded the majority of the casualties were between the ages of 18 and 25.
Among the methods of "ethnic cleansing" used by Serb forces are the selective killing of the non-serb communiy's religious and intellectual leaders, the confinement of all males of military age in concentration camps, and the use of mass rapes as a weapon of terror.
Tens of thousands of Muslims were detained in concentration camps and mass prison compounds where they were tortured, and deliberately killed on a daily basis,thousands of these detainees are still missing. Over 50,000 Muslim women and girls were raped. More than 200,000 Muslims were massacred. In October of 1995 there was an approaching 2 million refugees. There are still about 25,000 people that disappeared that are still missing.
One of Mate Boban's (Croat Warlord) militiamen stated, "It is not enough to cleanse Mostar of the Muslims, the relics must also be destroyed."
Non-Serb inhabitants remaining in the zones under Serb control have been barred from employment in the private sector and are required to display white flags on their homes.
© 1997 alharbi@compu.net
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