Bosnian Ethnic Cleansing

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In 1992, the Bosnian Serb army with the support of the Yugoslav Army Serbia began an effort to ethnically cleanse all non-Serbian residents from a great deal of Bosnia. As a component of its ethnic cleansing operation, Bosnian Serb army used strategies such as systematic maltreatment through the use of things such as torture, murder, rape, harassment, unfairness, threats, displacement of people, confiscation and destruction of property, as well as the destruction of cultural objects such as churches. During the fall of Srebrenica and Cepa, Bosnian Serb forces had virtually achieved the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia. The fact that the mistreatment associated with “ethnic cleansing” were committed with intent to destroy and that such acts were carried …show more content…
in the safe zones has been in many occasions considered a very controversial topic. The establishment of the six safe zones that were provided for U.N. troops within the area. However, it was uncertain whether force could be used to protect the people and their population from attacks. U.N. troops interpreted it as they would only use force only for their own self-defense. An ensuing resolution stated that UNPROFOR was ordered to only deter attacks against the safe areas. Although U.N. troops were authorized to use force to protect the safe zones because of the fact that there was a shortage of troops, the U.N. could not guarantee the defense of the “safe areas.” The U.N. anticipated that it would need about 34,000 troops in order to ensure protection within the safe zones. It is believed that about 7,600 troops would be accessible. According to U.N. officials in the field only 3,500 were set out and only a few hundred of those were actually deployed in Srebrenica. This made it almost impossible to deter any attacks, if enough U.N. troops were actually deployed the amount of casualties could have possibly been avoided. U.N. commanders interpreted their order stating that U.N. troops could use force only to protect themselves, rather than to protect the civilian population who are inside the safe zones. Although the safe zones were primarily created with good intentions they resulted in some form of U.N administered

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