Ethnic cleansing

Ethnic cleansing

However, Yugoslavia had been made up of six republics and it was a multi-ethnic country in which ‘nations and nascent states did not coincide’. Bosnia in particular was multi-ethnic. Its population consisted of Serbs, Croats and Muslims. There was undoubtedly potential for ethnic conflict and with the failure of communism and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, ethnic relation deteriorated rapidly. This was in large part due to the manipulative influence of elites who sought to establish nation states. Serbian nationalists looking to create a “Greater Serbia”, and Croatian nationalists attempting to establish a “Greater Croatia” manipulated ethnic relations with repetitive propaganda and “expert” opinion. Added to this, the fear and uncertainty created by the disintegration itself was a factor that led to ethnic cleansing, spawning nationalist ideologies and giving credibility rumours spread by elites. Furthermore, a history of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans made the transition from nationalism to ethnic cleansing short and easy, as well as making people more receptive to the influence of elite propaganda.
Existing communal conflicts in Bosnia were also in small part responsible for the levels of ethnic cleansing however these were exaggerated and intensified again by the influence of political and military elites.
To a great extent, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia can be attributed to the manipulative influence of elites. ‘Elite crisis discourse resonated at the grass roots, made for ethnic polarization, and got nationalists elected’. Elite discourse was one of the main factors that led to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Before its disintegration, there didn’t seem to be any problems with ethnic relations in Yugoslavia. Survey research into ethnic relations in mid-1990 found that in a national sample of 4,232 Yugoslavs, only 7 per cent believed that the country would break up into separate states, and 62 per cent reported that the “Yugoslav” affiliation was very or...

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