From 1992 through 1995, civil war in Bosnia claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left 2 million people seeking refuge. During the civil war the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina was under siege for four years. It was the longest siege in the history of modern warfare. The ethnic cleansing and other war crimes that took place during the civil war were some of the most horrific scenes of violence since the end of World War II. Shown in the picture our bodies of people killed in April 1993 near the city of Vitez in Central Bosnia. In 1995, President Bill Clinton deployed 20,000 U.S. Troops to Bosnia to enforce the Dayton Peace Accord that ended the war.
Following the declaration of independence from Yugoslavia, the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and Croat civilians suffered atrocities at the hands of the Serb dominated Yugoslav army. At the time of the declaration, Bosnia's population was about 4 million with 44 percent being Muslim (Bosniak), 31 percent Serb and 17% Croatian. 1990 elections resulted in a coalition government split between these three ethnicities. As tensions mounted the Serbian leaders withdrew from the government and set up their own "Serbian National Assembly". Following this, on March 3rd, Bosnia declared their independence. In early May, just two days after the U.S. and Europe recognized the independence of Bosnia, Bosnian Serb forces launched an offensive by bombarding the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo. During this attack, Bosniak civilians were brutally and forcibly removed from Bosnia (ethnic cleansing). By the end of 1993, Serbian forces held nearly three-quarters of Bosnia. Only three towns remained under the control of the Bosnian towns and designated as safe havens by the U.N and were protected by international peacekeeping forces.
Fighting continued into 1994, when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for the first time ever used force to shoot down four Serbian aircrafts violating the no-fly zone. Under 'Operation Storm', European forces helped Bosniak and Croat forces recapture some of their territory, while retried U.S. military personnel helped to train the Croatian army. The tide now began to turn against the Serbs, but the massacre continued. On July 11, 1995 the Serbian forces advanced on Srebrenica overwhelming the peacekeeping forces and massacred the Bosniak civilians there, killing about 8,000. Women and girls were put on busses where some were raped or sexually assaulted. The remaining in the town were killed immediately or bussed to mass killing sites.
In August of 1995, NATO in concert with the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) ground operations began a large-scale air campaign called 'Operational Deliberate Force' As many as 400 NATO aircraft participated in the air campaign, dropping 1,026 bombs on 338 Bosnian Serb targets. By September 14, Bosnian Serbs agreed to end the siege of Sarajevo, laying the groundwork for peace talks to take place in Dayton Ohio. Twenty-one days later the talks concluded with a General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The peace plan brought an end to four bloody years of war that claimed more than 250,000 lives and more than two million refugees. In the siege itself 13,952 people were killed including over 5,000 civilians.
But, a peace accord without proper enforcement would be futile. President Clinton had to sell not only the peace accord, but also the deployment of 20,000 U.S. Troops to Bosnia as part of a 60,000 peace keeping force. On November 27, 1995 President Clinton addressed the American public from the oval office. He encouraged Americans to support the dispatch of U.S. troops to Bosnia, despite that there would be some risk to military personnel involved. Clinton promised that our mission would be limited and focused while under the command of an American General. On December 3rd, 1995 the first set of troops were sent to Bosnia to prepare the ground for implementing the Dayton peace accord.
On January 23rd, President Clinton delivered his State of the Union Address. In this address, he reminded Congress and the American people of the atrocities of the war in Bosnia, and why he authorized the deployment of 20,000 U.S. Troops in harm’s way.
"And we stood up for peace in Bosnia. Remember the skeletal prisoners, the mass graves, the campaign to rape and torture, the endless lines of refugees, the threat of a spreading war. All these threats, all these horrors have now begun to give way to the promise of peace. Now our troops and a strong NATO, together with our new partners from central Europe and elsewhere, are helping that peace to take hold."Just two weeks earlier, President Clinton and a bipartisan congressional group visited our troops in Bosnia, calling them "warriors for peace". President Clinton spoke on a chilly airfield in Tuzla a group of 500 soldiers dressed in camouflage. "We can't be everywhere, and even you can't do everything," he said. "But where we can make a difference, where our values and our interests are at stake, we must act." In his State of the Union Address, he continued.
"As all of you know, I was just there with a bipartisan congressional group, and I was so proud not only of what our troops were doing but of the pride they evidenced in what they were doing. They knew what America's mission in this world is, and they were proud to be carrying it out."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-before-joint-session-the-congress-the-state-the-union-10 [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].Bosnia, U. and House, W. (2019). U.S. Troops in Bosnia. [online] C-SPAN.org. Available at: https://www.c-span.org/video/?68567-1/us-troops-bosnia [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
Daalder, I. (2019). Decision to Intervene: How the War in Bosnia Ended. [online] Brookings. Available at: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/decision-to-intervene-how-the-war-in-bosnia-ended/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Dayton Accords | international agreement. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Dayton-Accords [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
History.com. (2019). Bosnian Genocide - HISTORY. [online] Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/bosnian-genocide [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
Nytimes.com. (2019). Clinton Visits Bosnia to Thank the G.I.'s. [online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/14/world/clinton-visits-bosnia-to-thank-the-gi-s.html [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
The Independent. (2019). Clinton sends first troops to Bosnia. [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/clinton-sends-first-troops-to-bosnia-1524065.html [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
The National Interest. (2019). Forgotten Failure in Bosnia. [online] Available at: https://nationalinterest.org/commentary/forgotten-failure-bosnia-7365 [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].B
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