On July 11, 1992, Hayrudin Kelvavac, the famous director who directed the famous Yugoslav war movies "The Bridge" and "Walter Defends Sarajevo", with endless hunger and despair, died at the age of 66 in the heroic city he single-handedly created, Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Outside the city, his once-loyal homeland had vanished, and all that came into the house was the rumbling cannon fire of the Serbs.
This tragedy was only part of the siege of Sarajevo. In the Civil War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the fiercest war since World War II, the tragedy of the siege of Sarajevo was staged all the time.
So, how did the Serbs and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina turn against each other? What happened to the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
If you want to ask which country in this world is the most screwed and the life is the most awkward, then Bosnia and Herzegovina must be on the list.
Because there are three peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina who look down on each other, namely Serbs, Muslims and Croats, they form two political entities of the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Mugh Federation, filling in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is simply "Bosnia and Herzegovina".
Moreover, these three peoples are equally powerful to each other, and no one can rule anyone, even the Mukh Federation composed of Muslims and Croats is only a superficial entity, but in fact the two peoples are still independent.
At this time, many people may be curious, since the three ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina have such an awkward life and the three ethnic groups look at each other and hate each other, why not simply separate their families and leave for a future?
Speaking of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is necessary to mention the political entity to which it originally belonged, Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav region, in the Balkans, is the key point of transportation from Asia to Europe, and has been coveted by many powerful countries since ancient times. The Germans, Russians, and Turks all carved up the place. The difference in the territories occupied by each country led to the continued division of Yugoslavia in its history.
After World War II, Tito, the national hero of Yugoslavia, relied on his outstanding achievements in the fight against Germany to integrate the Yugoslav states and establish the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
But the Yugoslav Federation was not a very tight union, and its internal political entities were deeply divided, relying largely on Tito's personal prestige to maintain the stability of the country, in a situation somewhat similar to that of austria-Hungary, one of the european powers before it.
Of course, the situation in austria-Hungary was somewhat worse than in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, because Austria and Hungary did not even understand the language. The Yugoslav Chinese common language, and there is no problem in communication, and the biggest problem is still the religious problem.
Croatia and Slovenia in the Confederation of Yugoslavia were universally Catholic because of their long reign by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, on the other hand, were closer to the Byzantine Empire and Greece, so they generally believed in Orthodox Christianity.
And because of the Ottoman Turkish Empire's operations in the Balkans, there were large numbers of Muslims in Croatia and Serbia, who were generally called Bosnians in the official division of Yugoslavia.
Of course, in Tito's view, as long as the languages are exchanged, these are not things. After all, there is a place for religious forces under him.
Under Tito's strong rule, the six countries of the Confederacy abandoned religious barriers and became intimate with each other, single-mindedly contributing to the construction of the motherland.
It was only after Tito's death in 1980 that the Confederation lost the biggest political ballast stone, and the top brass was in a dilemma in handling political affairs, which caused various dissatisfactions in the six countries of the Confederation.
Coupled with the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, everyone has re-embraced religion, so naturally they have returned to the embarrassing state of who looks at everyone as a heretic between the six countries. The stability of the Confederation of Yugoslavia also ceased to exist, and it split into three major pieces on the spot.
The first to jump back were Slovenia and Croatia, two countries that are also more Catholic and closer to the West. In the three kingdoms of the Orthodox Church, Serbia inherited the main body of the Yugoslav Federation and did not want to separate the family very much, so it pulled up to Montenegro and created a Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, referred to as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Macedonia intends to separate its families, and as a catholic, Serbia is not difficult for him. Now everyone's eyes are on Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The reason is simple, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a very troublesome place. Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosnians live here, and none of them count more than half of them.
Croats and Muslims intend to split up, and the most powerful Serbs, though opposed, were not strong enough to defeat both groups at the same time. So the scene reached a stalemate.
In the end, the Croats and Mu took the lead in declaring the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serbs immediately established the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina and remained in the Federation. In order to compete for the dominance of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bosnian Civil War officially began.
At the beginning of the war, the Serbs were clearly superior, seizing 65% of the country's land and encircling Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for four years. Croats and Muslims were forced to unite against the Serbs. However, just as Serb victory was in sight, NATO blended in.
The reason is simple, countries such as the United States do not want to see a strong Serbia.
Among the original six countries of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbia has the strongest national strength, and the other five countries have many Serbs living there, and the capital of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is also located in Belgrade, serbia. However, Serbia was quite pro-Soviet because of its Orthodox belief.
As soon as the civil war broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbian President Milosevic firmly supported the Bosnian Serbs, hoping that they would return to Serbs with their land and form a "Greater Serbia". NATO, on the other hand, in order to limit Russia's influence in the Balkans, firmly supports Croats and Muslims.
In 1993, under the mediation of the NATO-led United Nations, the three belligerents of Bosnia and Herzegovina prepared to hold talks. NATO has called for the division of ten provinces in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the mixed occupation of the warring tri-ethnic groups. Serbia, of course, did not do it, after all, it had been fighting for a year, taking 65% of the territory, and now it was unreasonable to spit out half of it to the Croats and Muslims.
Since the talks are not close, let's continue to fight. This time, NATO tore off its friendly veil. Not only did they personally arm and protect the Mukh Confederate Forces, but they also directly divided the Serb-populated areas into war zones, sent air forces to bomb them, and imposed direct strikes and sanctions on Serbia, the mother country of the Bosnian Serbs.
The Muks and Croats, with NATO support, frequently massacred and purged Serb civilians during the counter-offensive. The Serb army also retaliated with tit-for-tat, and the bottom line of both sides gradually fell. In 1994, the Serb army created the Srebrenica massacre that shocked the world, killing more than 8,000 Muslims.
The international community has condemned Serbia one after another, but Serbia believes that this is nothing more than an ordinary act of retaliation against the three parties for many years of fighting each other. Condemn, and condemn all three parties together.
However, NATO's strength is by no means comparable to that of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. With their strong support, the advantages of the Serbs were gradually lost, and eventually they could not be sustained. In 1995, the Mukh coalition launched a massive counter-offensive with the help of NATO, the Serbs were defeated and forced to sign the Dayton Peace Agreement, ending the Bosnian civil war in 1992-1995.
The agreement stipulates that Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes an independent State, consisting of the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Mugh Federation, dividing 49 per cent of the territory to the Serbs and 51 per cent of the territory to the Mugh Federation. The Bosnian Serbs, who have lost large tracts of land and have not been allowed to become independent, have returned to their home country, Serbia, arguably the biggest loser in the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Croats and Muslims, though they gained more land, did not completely get rid of the unpleasant Serbs. Moreover, the unity of the Croats and Muslims was originally an expedient measure to face the powerful Serbs, and the relations between the two sides were not particularly good, and now they are directly tied up in the form of laws, and the Croats and Muslims are also on fire.
All in all, the Bosnian War was such a three-loss situation. As for the winner, it must be Europe and the United States and other countries thousands of miles away.
For the United States and NATO, forcibly encircling Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and denying them their independence is a serious violation of the principle of "national self-determination" that they have been advocating.
But they know that a country full of contradictions is much easier to control than a united country. Once independent, these countries are bound to merge with the home countries of Serbia, Croatia and Albania behind them, greatly enhancing their strength. In particular, the increase in Serbia's national strength is very unfavorable to NATO's operation in the Balkans.
The most ironic thing is that in 1999, when NATO manipulated the referendum on independence in the Muslim-majority Kosovo region of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, it chanted "respect for national self-determination" and completely forgot about the attitude of opposing the independence of the Bosnian Serbs and forcing them to live together with the Two Muks in one country.
Even NATO, in order to force the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to comply, did not hesitate to personally go down, launched the Kosovo War, and indiscriminately bombed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After the kosovo war, Milosevic, who later stepped down as president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, was also arrested and imprisoned in The Hague.
They insisted that Milosevic was inexcusably responsible for the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian civil war and the Srebrenica massacre. But until Milosevic died in The Hague prison in 2006, they also found no conclusive evidence, and could only declare in 2015 that Milosevic had not committed the crime of ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian civil war.
Although Bosnia and Herzegovina today has the name of a sovereign state, in fact, it has long since lost its sovereign state. Serbs, Croats and Muslims do not interact with each other, each with their own, and their feelings and ties to their home countries far exceed those of Bosnia and Herzegovina itself. And for the European and American countries that have produced all these bitter fruits, the pain and sorrow of small countries are indifferent, only their interests based on the bones and blood and sweat of third world countries are eternal.