Interethnic Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina Research Paper

Interethnic Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Research Paper Example The Bosniacs mainly belongs to the Islamic religion, while the Serbs belong to the Orthodox tradition. The Croats, on the other hand, are affiliated to the Roma Catholic. This has seen the three ethnic communities engage each other in one of the worst ethnic violence that took place from 1992 to 1995. The war has been regarded as the worst ethnic violence ever witnessed in Europe since the end of World War II. Latest figures indicate that an estimated 100,000 people out of the country’s 4.4 million people were mercilessly killed in the war and left thousands other injured2. The massacre received wide condemnation from the international community as the war spread throughout Bosnia. The report indicates that Srebrenica was the epicenter of this ethnic violence where an estimated 70,000 Bosniac boys and men were massacred by the Serbian forces. Due to the magnitude and the number of people who died in the war, the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hagu e terms the massacre an act of genocide. The report indicates that the ethnic cleansing resulted in the displacement of more than two million people. The World Bank report more than 60% houses in Bosnia and Herzegovina and more than 50% of schools were destroyed3.     Bosnia and Herzegovina are ethnically diverse states. The dominant ethnic communities in the two states include the Bosniacs, Serbs, and Croats. These ethnic communities coexisted peacefully for a very long time even though they sometimes found themselves at odds with one another or with the government. However, the peaceful coexistence ended in 1992 when civil war broke out in among the three dominant communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina4. The war began following a disagreement between the three ethnic groups on the political future of the republic just soon after the extrication of Yugoslavia in 1991. Research indicates that the Croats and Muslims voted overwhelmingly in favor of the March 1992 referendum in support of the secession from the former Yugoslavia. This led to the session of the two countries resulting in the declaration of Serbia as an independent state. A report indicates that the minority ethnic group boycotted the election and staged protest throughout the coun try. This is because they wanted Bosnia and Yugoslavia to remain one single state. The protest also resulted in an ethnic violence, which left more than 100,000 people dead, in a war, which began in 1992 and ended in 1995. Of those who died, a majority estimated at about 80,000 was Bosniacs who belong to the Islamic religion.