'Death Would've Been Kinder': The Bosnian Genocide

On July 11th, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic began the systematic killing of nearly 10,000 Bosnian Muslim (sometimes referred to as “Bosniaks”) men and boys in the area of Srebrenica, a small town located about halfway between the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo and the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Widespread ethnic violence in what had been Yugoslavia led to the outbreak of the largest armed conflict in Europe since the end of WWII (since eclipsed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022). The horrific images beamed worldwide on news programs, newspapers, and magazines shocked the world, bringing back memories of the Holocaust and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, which began in the same region.

Along with the nearly four-year-long siege of Sarajevo, the massacres at Srebrenica reminded the world that despite its modernity and sophistication, Europe still struggled with its dark past, which was made worse with the most modern weapons and technology.

Welcome to a Day in History. Thank you for joining us. Today, we bring you the tragic story of the Srebrenica Massacre during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. 

You’ll sometimes hear a word on the news or history books... “Balkanization.” Balkanization occurs when a larger state breaks down into smaller states, usually hostile to each other. The Balkan Peninsula is the large region to the southeast of Austria across to the Black Sea and south to the borders of Greece and European Turkey. The Balkan countries are Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Serbia claims Kosovo, but most nations around the world, except for Russia and its allies, recognize it as an independent state. Greece is sometimes listed as a Balkan country as well.

For centuries, warlords, kingdoms, and empires fought over the rugged landscape: Romans, Huns, Magyars, Turks, Russians, Germans; the list goes on and on. In the late 1300s, the Ottoman Turks began to expand into the Balkans and controlled much of the region by the last half of the 1400s. One of the lasting results of the Turkish occupation, which lasted in various forms until the late 19th century, was the conversion of many people in Bosnia to Islam, which, as you might imagine, brought religious conflict into the region. With tensions high between the westward looking and Catholic Croatians or Croats and the eastward-looking Orthodox Serbs, the introduction of a large number of Muslims in the area only increased tension in what was to become Yugoslavia in the early 20th century.

#srebrenica #genocide #history #bosniacmuslims

Music: Epidemic music

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[DawnSuttonfabfour]

"The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history"

[gishjalmr]

I worked with two brothers, Mirza and Abdullah, that were in Bosnia when this was going on. Some of the things they talked about were horrific. This was just another example of how useless the UN is, just like in Rwanda when they watched over a million be massacred.

[tebourbi]

To this day, Serbs are still justifying it.

[evanpetelle]

I’ll never forget how scarred and traumatized the young girl students were who came to my school after fleeing the situation. Some of them couldn’t speak for months.

[youamazing]

Europe didn't react the same way for this like they reacted to Ukraine
Interesting....

[derpybatman]

Keep in mind that the UN was present at Srebrenica

[jaberalsakka]

War is when the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other

[Emily-vpxe]

I had heard of the Bosnian Genocide from a video I watched a while back where a man mentioned he was a child at the time the genocide happened. Later on my younger sister and I would read a book called Hotel Sarajevo, I was looking for a book to read and picked this one randomly. Both my sister and I wanted to cry at certain points of the book, especially the ending.

[Boz]

This is just one of the many dark parts of Balkan history. I'm so thankful my family managed to escape this situation with their lives intact.

[A..]

No wonder why Serbia and Israel are best friends!

[MrG]

When I was little I went to Yugoslavia a place called Rabac. It was beautiful, our hotel was on a clifftop and the people were so friendly. A woman called Marian looked after me and my sister sometimes and I often wonder what happened to her. Very sad.🙏

[rogergarner]

I went to school in america with alot of bosnian kids in the 2, 000's they all just showed up at the same time when i was in second grade. Nobody every really gave us an explanation and even when i asked some as an adult they just said there was a civil war and that europe kicked the refuges all out once the war ended.

[milenabucalo]

The reason why this war is called the worst war ever was because people who were killing each other were like brothers to each other.

[bellabjorklund]

The balkans and their long history of conflict has never been given the proper coverage and it's showing here too. This video glossed over or didn't even mention so many important points, even for the victims of this genocide. But I don't blame you to the fullest extent, neglected history isn't documented properly. However, I always find it interesting that the coverage of this war continues to be made in such a black and white manner despite the amount of layers it has. Among many things it has such consequences for the understanding and knowledge of modern conflicts within or outside of europe

[Seevawonderloaf]

I saw a really good bbc audio-documentary on this including interviews with people who had been in the camps. It’s horrible what they went through. It is absolutely insane and some of these guys are still walking around to this day! The general even killed someone in public in the most horrifying way possible with hours of torture. How are these criminals not brought to justice?

[mrfugazi]

It’s a terrible thing when a man has to die because of his religion, it’s no different nowadays unfortunately.

[Rtrhumppa]

You forgot Milosevic, who wasn't in fact fully prosecuted, but died before the jury could come to a verdict.

[milansimonovic]

Why didn't you say that Naser Oric, raided Serbia viliges around Srebrnica, and ran back to Dutch refuge.

[frbrbrgrblgrr]

It's interesting to see this getting coverage at least proper coverage in modern times. My uncle spent a-lot of time in the Bosnian War as a Peace Keeper. Seemed like hell but never heard much about it after the dust settled, so to speak. You did a good job touching on the surface but I do implore others to look into it deeper. Not only because the crimes committed are worse than depicted here but also the uploader didn't touch much on the fighting that went on with NATO. They had boots on the ground early and the fighting and clean up didn't end until 2010. They were not as hands off as this almost made it seem.

It's the same tale that's currently happening now.

[robertcrosby]

Forgetting the prior history of Serbs being treated much worse.