yugoslavias implosion

184
ChApter 2
pure Serbian territories. With a ypa contingent formally transformed
into the army of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska in May 1992,
the Serbs held 70 percent of Bosnia-Herzegovina territory until 1995.
On May 22, 1992, the Army of Republika Srpska (vrs) was created
from parts of the ypa consisting mainly of Bosnian personnel. It
operated in the territories in which the Serbs had already established
their autonomy. The transformation of the Second Army into the rs
Army did not require much effort, save changing insignia and flags.
Local Serbian politicians explained the new army in Bosnia-Herzegovina
by the need to “engage the Krajina population with a view
to establishing a unified armed force for the protection of the Knin
Krajina, Lika, Kordun, Banija, Western Slavonia and the Bosnian
Krajina.” 297 The new army—incorporating forces from Knin, Bihać,
Banja Luka, Tuzla, Sarajevo, Bileće, and as well as the V Corps—was
placed under the supreme command of General Ratko Mladić.
On account of the ypa’s/rs Army’s military supremacy, the Belgrade
regime expected a brief conflict—as did many Serbian residents
of Sarajevo, who left the city without taking their possessions
with them because Radovan Karadžić and Momčilo Krajišnik had
reassured them that “everything has been settled and the war will be
a short one.” 298 The main Serbian objectives in the war were to capture
Sarajevo and to ethnically cleanse territories in order to control
the Drina Valley (populated mainly by Muslims), the Sava Valley (to
secure a corridor through Bosnian Posavina), and the left bank of the
Neretva River. Sherif Bassiouni, the chairman of the Security Council’s
Commission to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian
Law in the Former Yugoslavia, said in testimony before the
u.s. Congress on April 4, 1995:
297 Borba, May 7, 1992 .
298 Vreme, August 29, 1994 .