I gave thumbs down to the first three answers here because of some serious faults in their story:
a) First, cwfraggl, tells that: “up comes some Croatians. who say "you are living on our land in our home" technically they do have a claim.”
Technically speaking, Republic of Croatia was Federal Republic constituted by Croats, Serbs and minorities. This means that Serbs were as constituent in Croatia as Croats, despite how that sounds. When Croats declared their country independent, they threw Serbs into the status of minority.
b) Geoff says: “Eventually, the UN and NATO stepped in to stop the killing and calm things down and Bosnia-Herzegovina is now also recognized as a sovereign nation.
Similar processes had happened in an area of Serbia called Macedonia, and the US stationed troops there to prevent the so-called Macedonians from being invaded by the Serbs”
No.
NATO was the cause of the Bosnian part of the civil war, and the biggest cause of all the escalation which led to so many deaths, after their involvement starting with Bosnia. I explain this further after. Macedonia was a Republic as much as Serbia was, and it gained independence peacefully. The reason why US troops got stationed there had nothing to do with some Serb idea of conquering Macedonia…
c) Thedoppe…’s answer is completely unreasonable throughout and there is no need to bother with his view other than amuse.
The answer to your question is a very complicated one:
Atrocities:
a)The Slovenian militia attacked the Yugoslav military posts and several young men serving the regular army were unnecessarily killed. There is an Austrian documented film showing how some were killed having their hands up. Even today, there are some unsolved issues in Slovenia; concerning minorities in Slovenia not given the Slovenian citizenship (some 20,000 people). Imagine, the Slovenian supreme justice ruled the order for these people to be given citizenship, but can’t be passed into action…, speaking about a country which belongs to EU…
b)There was ethnic cleansing in Croatia upon Serbs, and great many atrocities committed from the top commanding Croat line.
c)In Bosnia, there were atrocities on all three sides. The reason you hear of only the Serb side having committed, is because of the media manipulation and the fact that the Serbs had a weapon supremacy.
d)In Kosovo, the Yugoslav army fought against independence fighters supported by the Albanian minority masses and against the NATO at same time, and there were atrocities committed upon Albanians during this “killing field.”
Side to blame:
This depends what you mean by that. This is how I see it:
a)Germany launched a political pressure upon other European countries for Croatia to gain independence, which escalated the conflict where 30,000 people were killed.
b)The Badenter’s Group, which was sent by Europe to legally define the situation in Yugoslavia before things escalated, gave political instead of legal conclusions. The consequence was the escalation of conflict in Croatia. This is what I call legal atrocity…
c)NATO and Middle East countries (Iran, Saudi Arabia) pushed the Bosnian Muslims into civil war promising a country run by the Muslims.
d)Many UN personnel was taking the Muslim side (read: American-Middle East side), instead of a neutral, which escalated the Bosnian civil war in which 120,000 people were killed. Blame NATO for this corrupting of everything and anything they can.
e)The media manipulation, run by corrupted and biased journalists and agencies, specially the CNN one, escalated the conflict in which the Serbs were satanized. (CNN should be rather seen as weapon of mass destruction than news agency.) It is said that the media manipulation against Serbs was the biggest in history. When you have one side always being accused and the other stimulated to proceed with the war, then the consequences are as catastrophic as they were. There were several events in Bosnia in which there is a probability that the Muslims killed their own people to take attention away from some other event and have Serbs accused and some "global" action done against them...
f)NATO bypassed UN Security Council when attacking Serbia. Prior to that was the Racak event, which was an orchestration made by USA to blame Serbia and launch the attack.
g)When you have a side in the conflict as is the NATO, which does not accord with UN, and which is immune in Hague, then it is clear who is the “most to blame.” We all know how NATO breathes and what has always been their primary motive…
h)Around 1965 Tito decided that Yugoslavia was not to continue existing after his death… He is to blame because he destroyed his opposition while creating a time bomb to the events that followed.
What they wanted:
a)Croatia wanted independence and getting cleansed from Serbs. They had this plan ever since 1918… From the 20%, Serbs fell to 4.5%.
b)Slovenia had a good market in Yugoslavia for their industry, but the political situation with the Serbs was not going well to them, so they turned toward Europe.
c)Serbia wanted to maintain political control in Yugoslavia. Central control from Belgrade was their legacy given by Tito, an ill one…
d)Muslims in Bosnia were offered independence support at a critical moment of them deciding the fate of Bosnia. They refused a confederation agreement which they agreed to a day before…
e)Albanians in Serbia wanted independence.
f)Germany wanted to help their historical ally Croatia, and to destroy Serbs who ****** them up twice in history before that. I will add here that the German forces in Kosovo were destroying Serb corpses dug out. Same thing they did in Afghanistan some months ago.
g)USA wanted to destroy the influence of Serbia in the region and make ground for their base as tactical action for the strategic goal against their mortal enemy Russia…
h)The rest; wanted money into their bloody pockets. Money coming from interest groups like military lobby in USA, heroin channels, etc. Corruption and fear; Germany and USA.
Underline of history before the conflict:
Before WW1 there has evolved certain animosity between Serbs and Croats in the Austria Hungary held territory. This animosity is of historical and religion background.
Serbia was the winner in WW1 and it integrated Slovenia and Croatia into the kingdom.
During WW2, Croatia proclaimed itself independent; German ally (Germany-Austria-Croatia-Vatican), under which some 700,00 Serbs, Jews and other minorities were killed by the Ustasha regime. Serbs were also killed by Albanians in Kosovo. The communists under Tito came out triumphant and formed a new Yugoslavia. Some 1,800,000 people were killed during WW2 in Yugoslavia.
Tito was a mild dictator in Yugoslavia. The nationalist and other historical issues were suppressed for the sake of his ruling. Serbs who were the dominant nation due to dispersion, history and number, were “kept under control.” Albanians in Kosovo, under Tito, started pushing Kosovo’s independence. Croatia was awaiting their historical chance too.
After the death of Tito, Yugoslavia was marching toward Europe as an apparently healthy nation, but it was slowly decomposing. Even in 1991 there was chance to remain together and enter EU…
What I have told you is not enough, but I hope it gives you streams to follow toward the ocean of truth.