5th February, Sarajevo, Bosnia: The capital had been under siege for almost two years. Thousands had died in the city killed by sniper and shell attacks. But this was a dark day even by the standards of the Bosnian war. Secret Wars Uncovered: Battleground Bosnia, History 2020
Western powers were divided over how or whether to intervene. ibid.
The war had already ripped apart a nation. It would go on to threaten the credibility of Nato and the UN. It would force foreign powers into secret and unsavoury alliances. And it would lead to the worst act of genocide in Europe since the Holocaust. ibid.
‘Yugoslavia had succeeded against all the odds in reconciling most of these nationalities roughly into a state. When Tito died, it fell apart and that natural quilt – that patchwork quilt of nationalities – became a source of great instability.’ ibid. Michael Clarke, military specialist
The Federation splintered along national and ethnic lines … Bosnia & Hertzegovina was the most diverse of the Yugoslav republics. ibid.
On 3rd March 1992 the Bosnian parliament in Sarajevo formally declared the country’s independence. ibid.
A plan directed from Belgrade by [Radovan] Karadzic’s key ally – Slobodan Milosevic posed as a strong man. The President of the Serbian republic, he had seized power on a wave of nationalism. Now he sought to carve out a greater Serbia from the remains of Yugoslavia. ibid.
What would the rest of the world do about it? ibid.
In the early days of the war the Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniacs were allies against the Bosnian Serbs … They began fighting each other instead. ibid.
A secret weapons conduit was developed to try to bolster the Bosnian government. Donations from the Middle East were used to buy weapons from Hungary, Argentina, the former USSR and Pakistan … The investigation was a whitewash. ibid.
The people of Bosnia were the ones to suffer. The cost of that international indecision was about to become horrifyingly clear. ibid.
Bosnian Serbs seized 400 UN troops and held them hostage as human shields. ibid.
Peace talks began and a ceasefire was declared. ibid.