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