The Breakup of Yugoslavia
The Bosnian genocide is one of the results of a series of political conflicts during the 1980s. Yugoslavia used to be made up of six republics that were formed after WWII: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro; until nationalist tensions began to rise and Slovenia seceded first in 1991. Croatia tried to do the same, but due to most of their population being Serbian, their secession turned into a mass conflict with the deaths of many of their civilians. Around 80% of Bosnia's diverse population tried to secede from Yugoslavia in March of 1992. The vote was boycotted by the Bosnian Serb members of the presidency, and the Serbian President Slobodan Miloševic backed them up. This made it very hard to secede from Yugoslavia, but eventually on April 5, 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence. But by this time, non-Serbs were rounded up to be beaten, raped, or tortured. They were given curfews and were told where and when they had to go to certain places. All non-Serbs were stripped of their human rights. This was the beginning of the Bosnian genocide.