1. Dr. Zoltán Grossman The Evergreen State College,
THE YUGOSLAV WARS
Dr. Zoltán Grossman The Evergreen State College,
Olympia, Wash.
Slovenia
Croatia
Bosnia
Serbia
Monte-
negro
Kosovo
Macedonia

2. Social and Territorial Definitions of Place
Defines place as belonging
to one ethnic or racial group
(“Law of the Blood”)
TERRITORIAL
Defines place geographically
as home for all who live there
(“Law of the Soil”)
“Ethnic cleansing” in early ‘90s
to match ethnic, state boundaries
Bosnian
Flag
(Bosniak/
Muslim)
Bosnia
multiethnic
state flag

3. State Identity Ethnic Identity Slovenian Croatian Bosnian Serbian
Montenegrin
Kosovan
Macedonian
Slovene
Croat
Bosniak (Muslim)
Serb
Montenegrin
Kosovar (Albanian)
Macedonian-Slav or
Macedonian-Albanian
Croatian Serbs, Bosnian Serbs, Kosovan Serbs
Bosnian Croats, Serbian Croats, etc.
Also: Serbian Hungarians (Voivodina), Kosovan Roma,
Serbian and Montenegrin Muslims (Sanjak)

4. Ottoman Empire

5. Austro-Hungarian Empire, Serbia, Montenegro

6. Yugoslavia I

7. Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Yugoslavia I:
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Serbs, Croats, Slovenes united kingdom after WWI;
Named “Yugoslavia” (Land of South Slavs), 1932

8. Fascist Europe Greater Romania Greater Hungary Greater Croatia
Greater Albania
Kosovo
Jasenovac,
Croatia

9. World War II fighters USTASE (Croat Nazis) CHETNIKS
(Serb nationalists/fascists)
PARTISANS
(multiethnic Communists)

10. Social Federated Republic of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia II:
Social Federated Republic of Yugoslavia
Communist Josip Broz Tito
revived Yugoslavia in 1945.
Croatian who promoted
“brotherhood & unity”

11. Six republics of Yugoslavia, 1945-1991
Croatia,
Slovenia
(Catholic)
Serbia, Montenegro,
Macedonia
(Orthodox)
Bosnia
(Muslim)
Kosovo
(Albanian
province
of Serbia)
Six republics of Yugoslavia,

12. Kosovo province of Serbia
Tito puts Albanian majority in charge;
Serbs have become minority but maintain historic claim

13. Yugoslavia in 1980s Tito dies; replaced by weak rotating leadership.
Economic crisis leads to
(multiethnic) worker strikes.
Republic leaders start to
use nationalist messages,
weaken Yugoslav identity
Yugoslavia in 1980s

14. Models of ethnic harmony, 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
By 1992, both cities were torn by ethnic uprisings,
gang rule, and troops on the streets

15. Theories of ethnic hatred
It’s a tool used for political and economic power
It’s always there; politics
can keep a “lid” on it
Communism collapses in
Eastern Europe, 1989
Croatian and Serbian leaders
stoke ethnic hatred after 1989

16. Conflict among similar peoples
(Serbs vs. Muslims vs. Croats)
Same race, spoken language
Different religion,
script, “ethnic” group
Intermarried, cooperated,
1950s-80s; at war 1990s
Muslim and Serb refugees
from Sarajevo, Bosnia

17. Yugoslav ethnic groups before break-up
Ethnic Serbs
and Croats
for irredentism
Bosnians,
Kosovars
for secession
Use of maps
as weapons

18. “Greater Serbia” Slobodan Milosevic appeals for ethnic Serb rights
at 600th anniversary of Kosovo Polje battle, 1989
Backs ethnic territoriality in Croatia & Bosnia;
also State territoriality in Kosovo,
where Serbs are a minority

19. Serbs and Montenegrins

20. “Greater Croatia”
Tudjman’s Bosnia
partition plan
Pres. Franjo Tudjman

21. Croats

22. Kosova Liberation Army (KLA)
“Greater Albania”
Kosova Liberation Army (KLA)

23. Albanians

24. Former Yugoslavia Break-up
Slovenia 1991
Croatia 1991
Bosnia 1992
Macedonia 1992
F.R. Yugoslavia 1992
(Serbia-Montenegro 2003; Montenegro ind. 2006)
Kosovo 1999
(declared 2008)

25. Secession of Slovenia, 1991 Alpine republic close to
Austria; no Serb minority.
Belgrade let go after short fight.
Soldiers’ mothers stepped in.

26. Secession of Croatia, 1991 Historic rival to Serbia Close to Germany.
Used WWII symbols
Large Serb minorities in
Krajina and Eastern Slavonia.

27. Yugoslav Army attacks eastern Croatia cities
Much of Vukovar & Osijek
in eastern Slavonia
destroyed by Serbian shelling;
Croatian scorched earth

28. Secession of Bosnia, 1992 Muslims, Croats did not want to stay
in Serb-led Yugoslavia
Serbs, Croats shared
historic hatred of Muslims
Gangs form militias;
looting, confiscations
response to economic crisis

29. Pre-war Bosnia Muslims 44% Serbs 31% Croats 17% Other 8% Three-way
fight

30. Western recognition of independence
Led by united Germany;
Premature without
guarantee for minority
(Serb) rights.
Krajina and Bosnian Serbs
see replay of WWII;
fight for Greater Serbia

31. Bosnian Serb snipers
besiege Sarajevo,

32. Olympic Stadium
in Sarajevo

33. Mostar (Bridge) Ottoman bridge separated Croat and Muslim
neighborhoods;
Croatians blew
it up in 1993.

34. “Ethnic cleansing” Forced removal of an ethnic group
Croats expelled from
Vukovar (Croatia), 1992
To make area ethnically “purer,”
increase percentage of majority in state
Serbs expelled
from Krajina
(Croatia), 1995
Albanians
expelled
from Kosovo
(Serbia), 1999

35. (Ridgeway/Mladenovic)
Burn This House
(Ridgeway/Mladenovic)
Ultranationalism not “ancient hatreds” but modern method of divide and control
Economic reasons for ethnic cleansing, mass looting, seizure of homes
Minority rights within new states must be paramount

36. Ethnic Cleansing
of Bosnian Muslims

37. Arkan’s
Serbian Tigers
(Zeljko
Raznatovic)

38. Serbs kill up to 7,000 Muslims
Srebrenica massacre, 1995
Serbs kill up to 7,000 Muslims
Dutch UN
troops
powerless

39. Croatian ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Krajina, 1995
U.S. aided Croatian offensive into Krajina (borderland) and
western Bosnia to defeat Serbs, but civilians expelled

40. Croatian ethnic cleansing of Serbs
from Krajina, 1995

41. Humanitarian War? Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights
to Sell War
Jean Bricmont asserts that "to call on an army to wage a war for human rights implies a naive belief of what armies are and do, as well as a magical belief in the myth of short, clean, 'surgical' wars."

42. Humanitarian War?
Humanitarian arguments against “barbarous customs” have always been used to rationalize European colonial expansion. His point of view "readily admits the barbarous nature of such customs, but considers that our interventions do much more harm than good, including in relation to making barbarism recede. And it points out that there is a considerable amount of 'barbarism' in our own 'civilized' countries, especially as they interact with others.”

43. Post-war Bosnia Separate armies, currencies, etc. Two governments
with contiguous territories

Central gov’t?
Refugee returns?
Nationalist parties?

44. Comparing
1991 and
1995
Dayton
Accord
Line

45. Dayton Accord (de facto Partition), 1995
Federation of
Bosnia-Hercegovina
(Croat/Muslim)
Republika Srpska
(Serb Republic)
U.S. rubberstamps
ethnic cleansing?
New republics now
“purer” than 1991

46. Western troops
In Bosnia

47. Between Serbia and Kosova Liberation Army (KLA);
Kosovo fighting,
Between Serbia and Kosova Liberation Army (KLA);
2,000+ killed

48. NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, 1999

49. NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, 1999
Resentment even from anti-Milosevic Serbs
after civilian targets, opposition cities bombed

50. Ethnic Cleansing of Kosovar Albanians, 1999

51. Destroyed
Kosovo village

52. Ethnic Cleansing of Kosovar Albanians, 1999

53. Kosovo refugee crisis

54. NATO troops in Kosovo Camp Camp Bondsteel Bondsteel Serb pocket from
Mitrovica to north;
both sides want
ethnic partition

55. KLA ethnic cleansing of non-Albanians after NATO arrives
Serbs, Roma, Turks, Jews etc. accused
of siding with Milosevic, left in fear. Those
left behind in Albanian areas targeted by pogroms.
Kosovo now ethnically “purer” than in 1999.
Clashes in northern Serb enclave of Kosovska Mitrovica

56. Roma (Gypsies) Non-territorial ethnic group traced to India;
5-7 million in Central/Eastern Europe.
Victims of Holocaust and skinheads;
Cultures threatened by settlement, internal divisions

57. Macedonia Crisis Ex-KLA fighters for Greater Albania
in NW Macedonia, and in
Presevo Valley (Serbia),
Full-scale war headed off by NATO.

58. Serbians vote out, overthrow Milosevic, 2000
Milosevic on
trial in The
Hague for
war crimes.
Croatians also
vote out
nationalists.

59. End of Yugoslavia, 2003 New leader Kostunica criticalof U.S. too.
Montenegro came near
independence; Kosovo
de facto independent.
West wants no more wars.
Co-equal name, :
Serbia and Montenegro

60. Independence of Montenegro, 2006
Montenegro has history of
separate statehood from Serbia,
despite common heritage
Bare majority for independence
from Serbia followed by
immediate declaration
Serbia acquiesces in independence
to maintain allyship with former
Yugoslav republic

61. Unilateral independence of Kosovo, 2008
Prime Minister Thaci (KLA)
declares independence with
majority Albanian support
U.S. and Western EU members
recognize new “state” in Serbia’s
province (not ex-republic)
Serbia, Russia, China, Spain see
as dangerous precedent
Serbs in north threaten to secede;
could create new conflict

63. Ralph Peters