The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

The anti-bureaucratic revolution was a populist movement which consolidated
Miloševi as a leader and entrusted the national mission to him.
The conviction predominated that, after the end of the Cold War and
with Tito gone, and with no outside power apparently willing to intervene,
the time had finally come to raise the Serbian question and to an -
swer it either by the Serbianization of all of Yugoslavia, or by the de limitation
of Serbia within ethnic boundaries.
The Serbian people were the only ones who had the strength to destroy
Yugoslavia. With 36%, it was the largest people in the federation, it held
most of the positions in the army leadership, and Serbs lived in all parts
of the country. Parts of the Serbian elite were convinced that they would
be powerful enough to get their way.
Tudjman gave expression to Croatian nationalism, with all its frustrations.
The new element was his goal of an ethnically homogeneous state.
Croatian nationalists had for centuries seen Bosnia-Herzegovina as their
territory, and the Drina River as their national boundary. This changed
under Tudjman for the first time: he saw as Croatian only what was inhabited
by Croats. This meant splitting Bosnia-Herzegovina, and was to
be achieved by forced or voluntary ethnic resettlement.
Bosnia-Herzegovina had the highest price to pay for the disintegration
of Yugoslavia. Its misfortune was due to the efforts of Serbia and Croatia
to extend their territories by dividing up Bosnia-Herzegovina. The thesis
of the Islamic danger which allegedly emanated from Bosnia was disseminated,
although neither Sarajevo nor anywhere else in Bosnia-Herzegovina
was marked by any atmosphere of fundamentalism during the
1990s. The war for a time put the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Muslims under
extreme pressure, and its leadership, out of a feeling of powerlessness
and in view of the genocides against the Bosniak people during the war,
copied some of the same nationalistic arguments its neighbours were
using. And since Bosnia-Herzegovina was actually attacked from Serbia
and Croatia, hence by Christians, and felt abandoned by other Europeans,
it was practically forced to accept the help which was proffered –
and this came from the Islamic states in the form of food, medicine,
weap ons, and some extremists.
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