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BOSNIA

 

INFO::: Transitional Justice > Bosnia

 

 

THE SERBIAN ELITES AND GENOCIDE
IN BOSNIA

By Sonja Biserko

HCHRS

Ever since the foundation of the modern Serbian state in the 19th century, but especially since the Congress of Berlin, Serbia's elites have viewed Bosnia as a territory which could solve all their frustrations over borders. It was, namely, at that time that they set the goal of gaining access to the sea and expanding living space, something that could only be had at Bosnia's expense. The idea was that this 'must be solved by force' because without a sea Serbia was 'without economic breath, without lungs'. When later the southern Slav peoples united in one state - Yugoslavia - the objectives of the Serbian elites were more or less achieved. The Serbian elites looked upon Yugoslavia as their own country, namely an expanded Serbia. Such perceptions of Yugoslavia reflected the fundamental misunderstanding between the Serbian elites and their Yugoslav counterparts, which also had their own ideas of how Yugoslavia ought to be arranged...

 

 

 

 

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