I know this sounds simplistic, but this is pretty much exactly what happened for every nation (except Slovenia) which left Yugoslavia. Serbs were sizable minorities within all the now independent countries, when the countries declared their independence the local Serb population, almost always the largest minority group, wanted to remain a part of Serbia and keep their homes, so they tried to again break off from the new nations and rejoin Serbia. The Balkan Wars are really a series of wars between Serbs and their neighbors over how much territory should be held be Serbia and how much should be given to the new entities. I wrote a paper about this, two actually but the second one was more of a big picture type and less focused on the Serbs themselves, which I can email to you or something if you'd like to read it. It's about 12 pages and briefly discusses the history of Serbia, how Serb nationalism led to not only WWI but also the creation of Yugoslavia, and how the same forces led to the eventual collapse of Yugoslavia. I thought it was a great subject to study but I make no guarantees that the paper I wrote could be considered a "scholarly" source as it was written for a 400 level class, not meant to be published.

In short, the wars in the Balkans were one big @%%#^ up.

Seeing as Tito died, the country was in a real bad situation. Historically, Croats, Serbs and Bosnians cant really stand eachother. Different cultures, different views etc. So yes, Nationalism was holding all of us by the %*%$$%. Eventually, came Socialism with Josip Broz Tito, and it changed everything. We could live with eachother, be neighbours and not shoot at each other occasionally. A good example of Socialism, mind you.

Tito died, Yugoslavia was starting to fall apart. First Slovenia went, 10 day bombing of Ljubljana by Yugoslav soldiers. Apparently Slovenia had this planned for a long time, for they removed the "Welcome to Yugoslavia" signs from the border and replaced them very quickly.

Eventually, Croatia and Bosnia went, and having that total pile of swastikas Slobodan Milosevic in power, everything went from bad to worse. The territory known as Republika Srpska [I have no clue what its called in English, to be honest. Thats what you call it in Serbian] Is actually a area within Bosnia where the majority of people living there were Serbian. I dont see why Bosnia wanted to keep it at all, seeing as we couldnt stand them and vice versa.

Lots of the accusation of Serbian war crimes [Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, for example] are a bit narrow minded. The attacks they commited on the Bosnian/Croatians was for self defence, for they would have gladly blown us inside out if they had the equipment.

If Slobodan Milosevic wasnt in power, things would have been different. Now almost everyone in Serbia is a nationalist idiot who cant tell the difference between elephant $%^%# and Albanians [My people hate Albanians alot, but i dont.] and are all convinced that constitutianal monarchy is the answer to everything. FORTUNATELY a good number of Socialists remain.
Basically, without Russia Serbia wouldnt be unlike Iraq.

Lord, it sounds real messed up in there.

I was mixed up in the kosovo campaign in the US: they sent me to Italy, told me it was a good bye tour for all my faithful years of air force service, then started a war when i got there. sheeesh.

we ran the air sea rescue group out of brindisi. our group was responsible for getting a few pilots out that made the mistake of eating a few SAMs on their way in to do what pilots do. I just never could understand why all those people in that area hated each other so much.

Its not as bad anymore. Our leader now [Boris Tadic] isnt optimum, but he isnt a biased peice of @#$% # like Milosevic.

But its only the dim-witted Nationalists that cant stand each other. Oh my god it gives me a headache to think about it..

FORTUNATELY there are still a fair amount of Socialist Yugoslavs, and we could be either Bosnian, Croatian, Slovenian etc. and it wouldnt matter. I know a lot of Croatian people and they are really good people.

Goes to show how much easier it is to accept people in Socialism, doesnt it?

Republika Srpska is the name used in most English sources too, some will change it to Republic of Srpska or I once saw it as Srpska Republic, but we mostly stick to the Serbian form of the name.

Originally Posted by Damien435

Republika Srpska is the name used in most English sources too, some will change it to Republic of Srpska or I once saw it as Srpska Republic, but we mostly stick to the Serbian form of the name.

Convenient.

I have a contact that i talk to regularly, and he lives just outside Republika Srpska [In Bosnia. But he visits Republika Srpska every day].

As far as he is concerned, Republika Srpska is a independent country, seeing as Bosnian influence there is very little, and basicaly everyone there is Pro-Serbian/Russian.

Originally Posted by The Other Guy

This region is a REAL big mess. Mostly the Serbians invading everyone.

It's okay to love us and enjoy stories about our history,
but to write comments like this?

2 options?
Hm, lets see-
1.You openly hate Serbs, and you are trying to provoke and offend, even tough you know you are wrong.

2.You are totally ignorant about the regions history.

Originally Posted by therise21

Can anyone give me the basic background info on the serbian war regarding who was on which side, etc. I would like to read up on it, but i need a quick primer.

I was given a thorough background briefing prior to deploying to the Balkans. The main thing that I took away is that the Balkans (derived from Turkish for mountain). They have been the place for fighting and bloodshed back beyond the 13th Century. Yugolsavia itself was an artificial country, made up of many different ethnic and religious groups, bordered by several countries, which had either ruled or tried to rule various parts of the Balkans at 1 time or another. The upshot, and this is a sweeping generalisation, is that many of the people tend to be fiercely independent, have suffered immensely (so tend to stick within their ethnic groups) & will repay any insult as quickly and as forcefully as possible, they are also very hospitable and giving, if they do not feel threatened.

The brief background to the war is (& you really need to look at the ethnic, religious & economic context, because the splits are really tricky):

1. Tito died, escalating unemployment & poor leadership the age old grudges started re-emerge.

2. Milosovic (Serb) was elected president, serbs were the majority ethnic group. The other republics felt that this was a step backwards and secede, Slovenia, then Croatia, B-H and Macedonia.

3. Fighting started between the Bosnian Serbs, who wanted to keep Yugoslavia intact and republics who wanted to break away.

4. The Bosnian Croats fought heavily with the Muslims in central & SW Bosnia, this ended with the formation of a Federation.

5. USA got more robust, after the UN debacles peace was declared at Dayton, Ohio. It involved, disarming of paramilitary groups, agreement of boundaries & political accpetance of all the republics, NATO troops were deployed to ensure / enforce this peace with much wider and more robust rules of engagement than the UN troops had.

Quick gallop, doesn't cover it all, by far, well worth reading up on, as I've left many details out & the old grey cells aren't what they once were. My advice do your research, use multiple sources & never take 1 persons word for fact, unless they buy you a pint - then its gospel.

4. The main fighting was between the B

The balcans are screwed only because of two reasons:
-about 80% of serb citizens are big nationalists(in the balkan(serbia counted out) there is an average of 25% of nationalists).
-Bosnia

Now i could have written a larger post,but i accidentally deleted it so i am too depresssed to make this larger,if you have anything to ask me,a real balkan guy about the situation in the balkans then just ask.

Originally Posted by gotcha1234

The balcans are screwed only because of two reasons:
-about 80% of serb citizens are big nationalists(in the balkan(serbia counted out) there is an average of 25% of nationalists).
-Bosnia

Now i could have written a larger post,but i accidentally deleted it so i am too depresssed to make this larger,if you have anything to ask me,a real balkan guy about the situation in the balkans then just ask.

Actually, from what I discovered everyone was a nationalist, be they Serb, Croat, Montenegran, Bosnian or just unhappy with their lot. Add to that the religious element, the opportunity to grab power and a free rein, the whole thing added up to a complete gangf$%k, where the UN was scared to enforce the demands for humanity & protect innocents. For once the media reported the situation & forced the politicians in the UN to react, ultimately leading to the Dayton Peace Accords.