yugoslavias implosion

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ChApter 1
later renamed Republika Srpska, and up till now it has managed,
under constant fighting, in most cases to secure for it borders coinciding
with the distribution of the Serb people in about 61 percent of the
total territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serb people in Bosnia
and Herzegovina has de facto succeeded in realizing its right to
self-determination. At this stage, its choice is Republika Srpska, which
is a reality and which the international community must volens nolens
recognize as a separate international entity. The unification of the Serb
people and the creation of a powerful state based, of course, on democracy
would constitute, in view of the geopolitical position of that state,
a veritable bulwark against both the German and the Islamic-fundamentalist
menace. Europe, which is treating the Serb people in such
a shameful manner at present, ought to be grateful to it for this some
day. 148
The homogenization and consolidation of Serbian ethnic space
in Bosnia took place after the July 1995 massacre in Srebrenica,
which abolished all Muslim enclaves in the Serbian ethnic area save
Goražde. The French newspaper Liberation 149 likened the fall of Srebrenica
to Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815. With the Dayton
Accords, the international community forced the Serbian side and
the other parties to sign an agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina
laying down the “entity” borders, an electoral system, human rights
protection instruments, and the return of refugees and displaced
persons. Bosnia and Herzegovina, or the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, would have joint institutions, a
two-chamber parliament, a three-member presidency, a council of
ministers, a constitutional court, and a central bank. Sarajevo would
remain undivided.
148 Ibid .
149 Liberation, July 21, 1995