Bosnia and Herzegovina
I spent several months total in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in late 2021 and 2022 as I traveled back and forth to neighboring Serbia. While there, I received an education about the horrific civil war that only ended thirty years ago. Most of my time was spent in Sarajevo, the capital city, but I was also able to explore many other beautiful areas of the country. I will have my travel guide published soon. The rest of this page is dedicated to the history of this underrated country and the dark chapters it has endured at the expense of extreme nationalistic ideologies.
Partial view of Sarajevo; December 8, 2021
For hundreds of years under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Sarajevo served as a vital center in the Ottoman trade route that connected the East with the West, as well as a cosmopolitan cultural hub centered at the convergence of the three major Abrahamic monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
However, Sarajevo’s influence and political autonomy faded in the later years of the 19th century as the rise in Balkan nationalism weakened the Ottoman Empire and led to the occupation of BiH by Austro-Hungary, as stipulated in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. While investments were made into its infrastructure and educational system, Sarajevo’s role diminished as many resources and development were concentrated on several other cities, particularly Vienna. Modernization efforts were cynically made so that the city would eventually serve as an administrative outpost once BiH was eventually integrated into the Austro-Hungarian system.
Throughout the occupation, the western Balkans served as a point of contention with resentment growing towards Austria-Hungary, most notably in Serbia, where many nationalists favored unification with BiH. The Dual Monarchy’s policies promoted the spread of Germanic culture and Catholicism into occupied territory, which marginalized Ottoman Islamic culture and Slavic Eastern Orthodoxy. As burgeoning nationalism started spreading across Central and Southeastern Europe, so too did virulent anti-Semitism. Vienna mayor Karl Lueger openly expressed anti-Semitic views and advocated for anti-Semitic policies. This sentiment pervaded public discourse throughout the Balkans as well as Central and Eastern Europe and was highly influential in shaping the views of a young Adolf Hitler, who resided there from 1907-1913.
In 1908, as the Young Turk Revolution in Macedonia against the Ottomans threatened Balkan stability, Austro-Hungary officially annexed BiH to consolidate power and prevent rivals Russia and Serbia from expanding their influence. Tensions reached an inflection point in 1914 when 19-year-old Bosnian-Serb nationalist, Gavrillo Princip, assassinated Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo. “The powder keg of Europe” was the moniker assigned to the Balkans after Austro-Hungary’s occupation decades earlier, and Princip’s shot ignited a Great War that would greatly alter the course of history.
The assassination in Sarajevo sparked a complex web of alliances and escalations among European powers, which ultimately led to World War I. Austro-Hungary soon declared war on Serbia, prompting Russia to mobilize in its defense, which then led Germany to back Austro-Hungary. Within weeks, nearly all of Europe was embroiled in a war that would devastate the continent and profoundly reshape its political borders.
Unaffected by the war, BiH was absorbed into the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in 1918, which also consisted of Macedonia, Vojvodina, Montenegro, and Kosovo. As rising ethnic nationalism fueled demands for regional autonomy, King Alexander I changed the country’s name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929, in an effort to unify the country under one name: the southern Slavs.
BiH remained administratively fragmented during the interwar period, which further exacerbated ethnic tensions among the three groups. In 1934, coalition members of the Ustaše, a Croatian ultra-nationalist rebel group, and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) assassinated King Alexander I while he was in Marseille, France. As discontent towards the kingdom persisted over the next five years, an agreement was finally made, which granted greater autonomy to Croatia. Two years later, as the Nazis and Italian military started razing their way across Central Europe, Adolf Hitler allied with the Ustaše and established a Nazi puppet state, ironically named the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), in which BiH was also incorporated.
The Chetniks, a Serbian ultra-nationalist group formed during the 1912 and 1913 Balkan Wars, positioned themselves as defenders of the monarchy against the Ustaše. Meanwhile, the communist Partisan movement, led by future Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, emerged in response to the Axis occupation and the atrocities they committed. The Partisans distinguished themselves by promoting a multi-ethnic, anti-fascist ideology aimed at unifying all Slavs.
The entire Balkan region became ravaged by the war over the next few years. Tito, a Slovenian Croat, turned the Partisans into the most effective resistant movement within occupied Yugoslavia and one of the most effective fighting forces against the Nazis in the entire war. They had already occupied large parts of Yugoslavia by the time Tito’s forces gained control of the capital city, Belgrade, in October 1944 and, with the help of Soviet troops, were able to completely liberate the country early the following year.
After the war, the Communists abolished the monarchy by holding elections in which Tito was elected as Prime Minister. He later consolidated power by assuming the title of President as well, establishing a single-party rule with himself as the supreme leader of a volatile region rife with nationalistic factions all competing for power.
BiH was re-established as one of six republics, and the Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs were officially recognized as equals. As dictator, Tito’s main focus was quelling any burgeoning nationalist movements that threatened the integrity of the Yugoslav experiment, which he successfully managed until his death in 1980. By that time, Yugoslavia had become greatly decentralized, and each of the six republics held a great deal of autonomy, including the two provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, after he amended the constitution in 1974. The reason why he declined to grant them full republic status, equal to the others, was because he feared ethnic uprisings by ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina and Albanians in Kosovo.
Tito’s death occurred at a time of economic instability, with no successor in place. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) decided to institute a collective presidency to prevent one person from gaining the same amount of power and regional dominance. It would rotate annually between top representatives from each of the six republics and two provinces. A chairperson also acted as head of state for one year at a time. Unfortunately, the federal system became more strained as discontent fostered across the republics, as they sought more autonomy. This system came to an end on May 8, 1989, when Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milošević assumed the presidency after years of political maneuvering, which concentrated his power. He immediately stripped away the autonomous status of Kosovo and Vojvodina and incorporated them into the Serbian Republic.
During the tumultuous 1980s, nationalism ramped up as the economy declined, and people from the republics started blaming their neighbors for their hardships. Tensions were especially heightened in Slovenia and Croatia, whose respective parliaments declared independence from Yugoslavia an hour apart on June 25, 1991. By this time, the federal government in Belgrade had been purged and replaced with Serbian hardliners who had every intention of preserving the dying country, and Milošević subsequently responded with military force.
The Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) bombed Slovenia for ten days before realizing that the logistics of conducting an offensive war in a mountainous area against a new enemy were effectively a lost cause. Slovenia thus gained de facto independence as Belgrade focused its sights solely on keeping Croatia under its influence. Taking advantage of the situation, Macedonia declared independence on September 8, becoming the only republic to escape any kind of retaliation from Milošević, even when his attention later turned to Kosovo.
During this time, the Croatian nationalist movement became increasingly concerned about the safety of Bosnian Croats and began advocating for the creation of Herzeg-Bosnia, effectively declaring that 30% of BiH territory should be incorporated to form a Greater Croatia. Bosnian Croat Mate Boban, originally a businessman with many important connections in the region, was a staunch Croatian nationalist and became a vigorous supporter of what would soon be known as Herzeg-Bosnia throughout much of the war. Boban quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the leader of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ-BiH) and earning the trust and support of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.
As the war in Croatia waged on, BiH held a two-day referendum on its independence the following year, as February turned into March. Instead of expressing their disapproval at the ballot box, the Bosnian Serbs decided to cross their arms and boycott the referendum, which, unsurprisingly, ended with BiH declaring independence on March 3, 1992. Fearing this inevitable outcome, Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadžić proclaimed the creation of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which included the other 70% of BiH, declaring Sarajevo as its capital city. Eight months later, the newly formed entity soon changed its name to Republika Srpska [serp-ska].
The Bosnian Serbs aimed to create a homogeneous state inhabited solely by Serbian Orthodox Christians and eventually integrate with Serbia, which had the full support of Milošević. Initially, the JNA began violently occupying important territory and infrastructure around BiH and laid siege to Sarajevo on April 5. After the international community officially recognized BiH’s independence, the JNA withdrew from BiH over a month later, after widespread pressure and condemnation.
However, despite the official withdrawal, the JNA effectively handed over its personnel, equipment, and infrastructure to the newly formed Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), commanded by General Ratko Mladić, a former JNA officer. Sarajevo, situated in a valley in the Dninaric Alps, was still under siege and would be for the next 1,425 days, until February 29, 1996. Virtually all access to provisions, medicine, and electricity was severed. There was no viable pathway in or out of the city for about one year, until a tunnel was made underneath the U.N.-controlled airport, aptly named the Tunnel of Hope, which has since been turned into a small museum.
While the Serbs and Croats in BiH received support from their ethnic neighbors, the Bosniaks were forced to fend for themselves. Although they managed to defend and maintain control of the cities of Tuzla, Goražde, and Bihać, suffering heavy casualties in the process, they were unorganized at the beginning and militarily unprepared to adequately defend themselves. The Bosnian government, led by Alija Izetbegović, soon formed the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) on April 15, 1992, ten days after the siege of Sarajevo.
Over 14,000 people perished during the siege. The VRS indiscriminately shelled the city’s infrastructure while snipers terrorized the population. The United Nations (UN) declared Sarajevo a “safe area,” but failed to stop the violence. Minimal humanitarian aid was provided, and smuggling through the Tunnel of Hope became a key survival strategy. Some were able to escape, but most were forced to endure the terror.
Although alliances were made between the Croats and Bosniaks to fight back against the VRS, conflicts between them persisted across the region until March 18, 1994, when the Washington Agreement, brokered by the US, ended the conflict between them. The deal established the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) until the war ended. After its signing, the Croats and Bosniaks worked together to defeat the VRS, which would happen the following year.
Located less than three kilometers from the Drina River, which divides BiH and Serbia, are the Bosnian villages of Srebrenica and Potočari, an area that was designated by the UN as a safe zone for Bosniak refugees. The area was guarded by around 400 soldiers of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) Dutch Battalion division (Dutchbat), who were tasked with protecting around 25,000 Bosniak refugees from the VRS, despite being under-equipped, under-supported, and outmanned.
This is hanging in the museum in Potočari. I wanted to see if I could recreate it down below.
On July 11, 1995, the VRS launched an attack on the area and overwhelmed the Dutchbat in Srebrenica, causing thousands of people to flee to Potočari and into the countryside. The VRS systematically separated the women from the men and boys. The women were mostly sent to the Bosnian-controlled town of Kladanj, located north of Srebrenica, while around 8,000 men and boys were summarily executed over the next few days and buried in mass graves. Upon learning that the international community was made aware of their heinous crimes, the graves were later exhumed, and the bodies were relocated to various parts of VRS-controlled territory in an attempt to hide the evidence. Efforts by families to retrieve their relatives’ missing body parts remain an ongoing process.
Videos of these gruesome events can still be found on YouTube and various corners of the internet. Members of the Scorpions, a Serbian paramilitary group, recorded a video depicting their daily routine, which included murdering innocent Bosniaks. One father was forced to call for his son to return from the forest, forcing him to lie by promising that it was safe to come out. The stories from the museum in Potočari are heart-wrenching and hair-curling. While I felt it necessary to go there, the experience left an indelible mark on my psyche, which still gives me goosebumps and brings me to tears when I think about it. A resident of Sarajevo was absolutely correct when he told me that visiting Srebrenica requires a strong stomach. Understand what you will experience if you decided to make the trip out there.
The massacre at Srebrenica was later ruled a genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Court (ICJ). After news of the slaughter broke, the UN and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) finally decided to take a more active role in ending the war, but still failed to act in a timely manner. This inaction led to a deadly mortar attack by the VRS on the Markale marketplace in downtown Sarajevo, less than half a kilometer away from the Latin Bridge, killing 43 civilians.
NATO finally decided to take action two days later, carrying out airstrikes against VRS strongholds and infrastructure in a campaign called Operation Deliberate Force. Lasting throughout the month of September, the goal of the campaign was to break the siege of Sarajevo and force the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table, which they did on November 21, 1995, with the signing of the Dayton Accord in Dayton, Ohio. Again brokered by the US, the agreement effectively ended the conflict and lifted the siege on Sarajevo, although the city wouldn’t officially be liberated until February 1996.
War crimes were committed by all three sides, with most having been adjudicated by the ICJ and ICTY. More Bosnian Serbs were convicted than both the Croats and Bosniaks combined, and many investigations are still ongoing. While many high-ranking officers, like General Ratko Mladić and RS leader Radovan Karadžić, were convicted of genocide, many Bosnian Serbs still walk the streets of RS and Serbia, having faced zero consequences. The Dutch government was also heavily criticized by the international community for its failure to protect the refugees. In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that Dutchbat was responsible for the deaths of 350 Bosniaks.
While the Dayton Accord has many flaws, it did put an end to the sanguinary conflict that terrorized the country. The agreement established the creation of two entities within BiH, with Republika Srpska controlling 49% of the territory and Herzeg-Bosnia controlling 51%. It also mandated that the Implementation Force (IFOR), a NATO-led peacekeeping force consisting of 60,000 troops, be deployed to ensure compliance with the agreement. In order to ensure the preservation of peace in the region, a Special Envoy to Bosnia and Herzegovina is appointed by the United States or EU, whose job is to promote peace and political stability by pushing for systemic institutional reforms that would facilitate BiH’s ascension into the EU. The current position is held by German diplomat Christian Schmidt.
Another stipulation is that each of the three ethnic groups must be represented by a president of their respective ethnicity, meaning that the country will always have three presidents governing simultaneously. Nationalist Milorad Dodik, the Serbian representative of the presidency and a staunch denier of the Srebrenica genocide, has faced criticism over his desire for RS to secede from BiH and eventually merge with Serbia, which has caused a lot of anxiety within the population that history could once again repeat itself. These feelings are justified, as there have been numerous reports of Bosnian Serbs expressing that same desire.
Dodic shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin
On May 13, 2002, while I was in Bijeljina, a small city located just a few kilometers from Serbia in northeastern BiH, I happened to witness a rally of vehicles proudly waving both the flags of Serbia and RS, which is basically just an upside-down version of the Russian flag.
BiH is a case study of how nationalism can easily lead to the destabilization and eventual dissolution of a country. Not all forms of nationalism are bad or toxic, and sometimes it’s necessary for a country to maintain a sense of identity separate from its oppressive neighbors, which is a key roadblock that prevents the ideology from taking a hard right turn towards demagoguery and fascism. Ukrainian nationalism, from my experience visiting as Russia currently occupies Crimea and the Donbas, was one of separate identity but also a multicultural one as well. There was no sense of superiority about it. I noticed the same feeling in Georgia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Albania, Moldova, and even Transnistria. Serbian nationalism, unfortunately, continues to manifest in the most toxic of ways that are not unlike what is seen in places like Russia, Turkey, and the United States.
While tensions remain high in some parts of the BiH, the country is completely safe for tourists. Mostar and Sarajevo experience the most amount of visitors, but the entire country is definitely worth exploring if you have the time and budget to rent a car.