The UN at Bay, 1990-2011 » The UN in Bosnia and the Balkans, 1991-99

The breakup of Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia was a country in south-eastern Europe made up of six republics, including Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its people belonged to different ethnic groups, such as Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims (also called Bosniaks). In 1991 the country began to fall apart. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in June 1991, and the Serb-led Yugoslav army and local Serb forces fought against Croatia.

In 1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina also voted for independence. Bosnia was the most mixed republic of all, with Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats living side by side. Bosnian Serb leaders, backed by Serbia, rejected independence and war broke out in April 1992. This was an identity war: a civil war fought between groups defined by ethnic group, religion or clan, rather than between two countries. These wars are hard to end because there is no single government that all sides will obey.

The fighting included ethnic cleansing: forcing people of one ethnic group out of an area, often by terror and killing. Around 100,000 people died in the Bosnian war and millions were driven from their homes.

Key terms:

• Ethnic cleansing: forcing an ethnic group out of an area by terror and violence.
• UNPROFOR: the United Nations Protection Force, the UN peacekeeping force sent to the former Yugoslavia from 1992.
• Safe area: a town the Security Council said should be free from attack and protected by the UN.
• NATO: the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a military alliance of Western countries including the USA and Britain.

The UN protection force and the safe areas

The UN sent UNPROFOR in 1992, first to Croatia and then to Bosnia. Its job was to protect aid convoys and help bring a ceasefire. Peacekeepers are not an army that fights a war. They normally work with the agreement of the sides and may use force only to defend themselves. In Bosnia there was no peace to keep, and the sides did not all agree to the UN's presence.

In 1993 the Security Council named six towns as safe areas, including Srebrenica and Sarajevo. They were meant to be protected from attack. But member states sent far fewer extra troops than the UN's own commanders said were needed, and the peacekeepers in the safe areas had light weapons. The UN depended on its members for troops, as it did in Somalia, and many were unwilling to risk their soldiers in another civil war.

Srebrenica, 1995

Srebrenica was a town in eastern Bosnia, crowded with Bosniak families who had fled there from the countryside. It was guarded by a small UN force of about 400 Dutch peacekeepers. In July 1995 the army of the Bosnian Serbs, led by General Ratko Mladic, attacked and took the town. The Dutch force was too small to stop them, and the air support requested was too limited and too late.

After the town fell, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed. It was the worst mass killing in Europe since the Second World War. Courts later ruled that it was genocide. Srebrenica became the clearest sign that the 'safe areas' had not been safe, and it hurt the reputation of the UN badly.

NATO and the Dayton Agreement

After Srebrenica, Western countries decided to act more firmly. On 28 August 1995 a shell hit a market in Sarajevo and killed many civilians. NATO then began a bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb forces, which lasted from 30 August to 20 September 1995. At the same time, Croatian and Bosnian government forces were advancing on the ground. The Bosnian Serbs were put under real pressure for the first time.

The USA then brought the leaders of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia to talks at Dayton, Ohio, in November 1995. The Dayton Agreement, signed in Paris in December 1995, ended the war. Bosnia stayed one country but was divided into two parts: a Federation shared by Bosniaks and Croats, and a Bosnian Serb republic. A NATO-led force of about 60,000 troops took over from UNPROFOR to keep the peace.

So the war was ended mainly by NATO and the USA, not by the UN. The UN had provided aid and a presence on the ground, but the threat of NATO force and American diplomacy brought the peace.

Kosovo, 1999

Kosovo was a province of Serbia where most people were ethnic Albanians. In 1998-99 Serbian forces fought the Kosovo Liberation Army, and hundreds of thousands of Albanians were driven from their homes. Talks failed. Russia, a permanent member with a veto, would not agree to force against Serbia, so the Security Council did not authorise action. NATO acted without it and bombed Serbia from 24 March to 10 June 1999.

When Serbia gave in, the Security Council passed Resolution 1244 on 10 June 1999. It placed Kosovo under UN administration, with a NATO-led peacekeeping force. The UN's role was to help rebuild after the war, not to stop it. Changed: in the 1990s the UN faced identity wars inside states, and the big military decisions were taken by NATO. Stayed the same: the UN's success still depended on the Great Powers and their willingness to act.

Exam-style question

Explain TWO causes of the failure of the UN to protect the safe area of Srebrenica in 1995. [8 marks]

Remember that you need to explain two causes. One cause on its own cannot score more than half the marks.