Articles by Jocelyn Woods

These are people. It is not just origin, race, or religion that war is trying to destroy. Persecutors grab these with their bloody hands and use them as targets for discrimination. But these are not just ethnic targets that can be devoured, destroyed, and consumed as if they were no less than slaves, no less than a herd of cattle being forced with lashes of hate. These are people dying. These are people being massacred. These are people being driven out of their homes. People.

Will the hate cease? Will the vicious circle of craze wear itself out and leave the people at last with peace, with the hatred replaced instead with respect? "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools," spoke Martin Luther King, Jr. In some ways this is true. But the vicious cycle will not stop as long as the earth revolves around the sun, as long as men live. There will be men that choose to love, but there will also be men that choose to hate.

War can divide and split up nations, friends, even families. Brother has fought brother, once friends but now divided because of some ethnic difference. Propaganda has played a big part in the Balkan wars, it has won people's support, sometimes true but most of the time false. Power has played a big role in the minds of leaders, sometimes coming across as if it is for the good of the people, but most of the time the power tries to control the people and devour them.

As Slobodan Milosevic came to presidency, Serbia was in a highly communistic posture. Russia had an influence, of course, but the country was becoming very government oriented. Government control increased. Slobodan was member of the Communist Party when he became president. This man was later to be charged with committing horrendous atrocities and proclaimed war criminal. He, who was to have Kosovo under martial force, would later push thousands and thousands of families from their home with military power, commit atrocities and massacres. He was born of Montenegrin descent, and his father, who was a school teacher, left home when Milosevic was only in elementary school, and later committed the ugly crime of suicide. His mother chose the same path. Milosevic went on to marry Marjana Markovic. She was his high-school classmate, and a Communist activist. Her family was known as a leading Serbian Communist family. Milosevic studied law at the University of Belgrade.

Kosovo's autonomy was revoked by Milosevic that year of 1989, when he was leader of the Communist Party. The decade was to bring years of wars, successions, migrations, fleeing, and death.

The upcoming years would bring region after region pulling away from the Yugoslav nation and proclaiming independence. But it would also bring more war. More death. More bloodshed.

One by One

These wars were to be known as the Wars of Yugoslav Succession. It is called this because the fighting searched to determine which countries would succeed, or supersede, Yugoslavia. This Yugoslavia was disintegrating, the republics were claiming independence, one by one.

It started with Croatia. After the government became more Serb-dominated, the leaders of both Slovenia and Croatia yearned for freedom. It all started the summer of 1991, after Croatia declared independence in June. The Serb-controlled Yugoslavia used the reason that there was a good minority of ethnic Serbs who did not want to seceded from the Yugoslav nation. So they developed their own "quasi-state", separate from Croatia, called Krajina. In September of that year the United Nations prohibited the shipment of weapons and military equipment to any of the current or former Yugoslav republics, and put military troops in the Serb-dominated region of Croatia that they had carved out for their own.

But it is not as simple as this. Because often in situations such as this, there are many things used as reasons, when really there is another motivation behind it. And caught up in the midst of it are people, who are sometimes almost ignored, or rather not looked at with eyes of humanity. They are rather looked at with a numbness developed by those who seek only power and control, who become insensitive and blind to the death and torture caused by the rages of war. Because for the people it was real. It was happening.

The next few months that were to come brought air raids, then attacks, and then hellish nightmares that became engraved in the minds of the survivors, who remember vividly their own experiences and encounters. There were real witnesses, real people, real families and real children who witnessed the reality of the war. Ivana was one, who the team corresponded with and interviewed. She was only 11 years old when Croatia claimed independence. Her childhood and teenage years were in many ways consumed by this war, and her letters spoke passionately from the heart. "I will never forget that October as long as I live. I remember every single day, every single minute," she relates. "Thank God, I was just a child, I thought everything was just a game. I can't imagine what was my mother going through. There's nothing to tell really. It was hell. One improvised shelter, twenty people in it and 4,000 shells a day. Ground was shaking, we couldn't go out for days. Then someone said that Serbs are coming and we'll be all executed. We fled. That was the first time I cried. Then and never again."

"I forgot everything about the four years that followed. I can just remember dark, tears, fear and desperation."

Ivana's story relates the war from the perspective of one experiencing it from a day to day basis. Nothing else could more voice the hope of the people than her letters that were sent to our team. Many others like her had their childhood consumed by the horrors of war, who lost their precious family members, either their fathers who had gone off to fight, or other loved ones who were killed in the bombings and attacks. The war in Croatia resulted in more than 5,000 deaths.

Many of the Serbs living in Croatia during the earlier stages of the war fled to their quasi-state of Krajina. Friends, neighbors, and even family became separated, fighting at each other now because of the panic being spread by Milosevic in Serbia. Relations deteriorated badly, friends became enemies, neighbors became armed antagonists, and family became adversary. Terror filled the minds of the citizens as the country split in this deadly panic.

The rest of the war seemed like a nightmare for many like Ivana, and memories of pain that they would more rather forget than live over again. When a war begins, the people, both the leaders and the survivors are not aware of the terrors that it would bring, and it can only be known by someone who has lived through it, day to day, in the horrors of war. The leaders of a nation many times don't know this pain, they don't know this horror because their motives are many times not for the benefit of the people, but for the benefit of their control, of their power, and of their authority. The Serbian National Council had declared their quasi-state as the Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina. Because of the Serbs that had fled to the region, and the ones already living there, it was a territory in which the Serbs were majority. Because of this, there was reason to declare it independent, and it created a ground from which the Serbs could try to defend their region, and try to claim back Croatia, or rather keep as much control as they could. The Serbian rebel government did not even agree to recognize the Croatian government that was in the area of Krajina, actually, they refused to respect any authority. They were pledged allies with Yugoslavia.

Conflicts escalated as more panic turning into war-like hatred enveloped the areas. The Serbs established two other Autonomous Regions besides their one quasi-state of Krajina: Slavonia and Baranja. Their proclaimed autonomous regions were about all they wouldn't loose from their grasp of control, and only Slavonia and Baranja would remain under Serb domination. Croatia was to become independent.

After Croatia's declaration of autonomy, the Yugoslav army interfered. They interfered under the order of the Milosevic government in Serbia. This army, allied with the rebels who opposed independence and were pledged with Yugoslavia, went in with a mission of accomplishing one of two things: either to martially force Croatia to continue to be under Yugoslav authority, or to claim their own region, about one-third of Croatia's territory, and add it to Serbia, establishing a "Greater Serbia". During the Serbian guerrillas' inhabitancy of Krajina, they forced out the remaining Croatian residents and fought the Croatians into the winter. Thousands were killed, thousands were injured, and over 250,000 refugees had either fled or been forced out of the conflict zones.

When the year turned to 1992, the international community finally and officially recognized Croatia as an independent state. The first month of that year, the United Nations Protection Force was put in the conflicting lands that were occupied by Serbs, as a cease-fire came into effect. In October the UN issued a so-called Vance-Owen plan. This stated that the Yugoslav army was to be removed from Croatia, that martial forces were to be disarmed, and that Croatian authority would return to the region of Krajina, with ample autonomy for the Serbs. This was to allow all refugees to return to their homes. At least, this was the plan.

By the middle of 1993 it was discovered that the plan failed. The elections in Croatia took place, and the government in Zagreb prepared for a new round of fighting, accusing the UN peacekeeping force of failing to maintain the Croatian authority in Serb-occupied territories. But arrangements continued, as the war became long and drawn out over peace talks and negotiations. When the year turned again, Croatia and Serbia signed an accord involving two parties and promised to reestablish communication and transportation between both republics, but Serbs continued to remain in Croatia, and the tension continued.

By May 1995 the tensions were increasing. An attack was launched by the Croatians against the Serb rebels and they recaptured a western part Slavonia. They launched a large attack late summer at the Krajina region. A second region was recaptured. Thousands and thousands of Serbs fled the area.

The war ended in 1995. The war was over, but problems were not. Croatia's president was accused of implementing authoritarian regime by putting restrictions on the mass media and giving the CDU (Croatian Democratic Union) a dominant position in just about everything. But they continued to win more elections. Slavonia and Baranja were to remain under UN protection for one year. It was still under UN protection in the spring of 1997.

Yes, the war was over. Or was it? It resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries. And it made a toll on the survivors, one that would stay with them as long as the memories remained with them. Another war was to follow this one, this time Bosnia. "I was so bittered and disappointed watching same thing happening in Bosnia again," Ivana wrote in her letters. "And no one giving damn about it." All through the Croatian wars, they had hoped for help from some outside source, for deliverance, but to many, it never came. The war wasn't over. It would live on like a never-ending, devouring fire in the Balkans, as one by one the regions would declare independence.

The Fire of War Continues: This Time Bosnia

This situation concerned three ethnic groups: Bosnia's Muslim population, Serbs, and Croats, who were pressured to take sides and coerced into competition, which resulted in tension, and eventually broke out in warfare.

The elections attempted to balance the three ethnic groups. But when Croatia claimed independence from Yugoslavia and war between them broke out, Bosnia was caught in the middle, pressured into taking sides with either nation, and afraid of what was to come. The three ethnic groups anticipated each other's alliance with one of the warring nations, and suspicion led to tension between groups. Serbs anticipated that the Croats and Muslims would join forces and try to push Bosnia into coalition with Croatia, while the Muslims and Croats feared Serbs were plotting with the Belgrade government to cause Bosnia to become part of a "Greater Serbia."

After armed warfare erupted in Croatia, the tension rose and the different groups started attempting to increase their control, or hold, over Bosnia, declaring autonomous regions, or announcing the formation of Herzegovina. All this claiming of territory led to more tension, which erupted eventually to martial actions and armed interference. Serbian radicals started establishing armed units in the autonomous regions, all of which were sided with the Assembly of the Serbian people, self-proclaimed. They condemned the government in Sarajevo, and threatened a civil war if Bosnia attempted to become independent from Yugoslavia and the power of Serbia. Atop all of this, the Milosevic government was accusing the Bosnian Muslims of creating an Islamic state, separate from Yugoslavia. All and all, the erupting Bosnia conflict was filled with anticipation, suspicion, two outside countries at war, and growing tension. And right at the top of this stood Milosevic, who was trying to maintain his growing power and popularity.

In 1991 the legislature stated that Bosnia was sovereign and neutral. The Serbs voted, however, to keep Bosnia a republic of Yugoslavia. At the same time, Croats had formed their own autonomous region in the area where they were majority: western Herzegovina. The declared that they did not desire to live in a Bosnian state if a large Serbian state evolved. Later that year, the community of "Herzeg-Bosnia" was created.

Bosnia advanced their independence after a step taken by the European Union, which agreed that they would acknowledge the independence of a Yugoslav republic seeking autonomy under some conditions, which included a commitment to human rights. Bosnia went ahead and pushed for independence. The year turned. A referendum was held in March, in which the three ethnic groups voted their favors. Most of the Muslims and Croats were in favor of independence. Most Serbs refused in protest.

In April of '92, Bosnia and Herzegovina was formally recognized as autonomous. However, the Serbs were not about to give up. Contrarily, they declared their own republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the power of Serbia. Two contradictory declarations, two firm determinations, and three differing ethnic groups. Unfortunately, the stage was again set for war. For more blood.

The same month brought armed conflicts, and launched attacks. The war had begun.

The Bosnian government was unprepared. While the Serbs gained support from Yugoslavia, including troops and military aid, Bosnia was thrown off guard. The Serbs were in alliance with their main power, Yugoslavia, which held two motives for rallying up with their minority in Bosnia: to expand and bring together the regions that they controlled, and to eliminate, or cleanse the regions of the non-Serb population.

A Type of "Ethnic Cleansing", To be Seen Again

The Serbs of Bosnia were launching a campaign against the population. The population that was "non-Serb", that is. They went to the extent of clearing the Muslim populations from areas in the eastern regions. It was a type of "ethnic cleansing", designed to constitute an "ethnically pure" Serbian state in Bosnia, a way to link the territory with the power of the Milosevic government, to exterminate all other ethnicity within, leaving the population Serb-dominated.

In doing so there were reports of rape, torture and suffering, genocide and mass murder. Concentration camps were created where thousands of prisoners died of starvation or execution. It was a systematic campaign designed to rid Bosnia of population that was considered "unclean". By the way it was done, it was supposed that it only could have been planned by the highest authorities in Belgrade, giving suspicion of the Milosevic government.

That spring, a United Nations Protection Force came into Bosnia, as a humanitarian operation meant to give relief to the population, bringing supplies and provisions. The Vance-Owen plan was developed, which brought a plan to splitting Bosnia into nine independent regions, with three for each ethnic group. Sarajevo was to be united among all. But the Serbs refused the plan, and the plan was never put into action as a result of unsettlement.

There was a "war within a war" that lasted for ten months. This was the Croat-Muslim war, in which the Croats and Muslims experienced conflict. Within this there was harsh "ethnic cleansing" of their own, murder and death. At the same time, the Serb's "ethnic cleansing" continued. The Croat-Muslim war was settled the next spring. Cease-fire was put into effect.

As the year turned, a cease-fire was arranged for all of Bosnia. But, as happened before, the cease-fire broke down and war continued.

It was at this time that NATO became involved in Bosnia - many say it was too late, but some say it was only interference without cause. They bombed Serb ammunition stations and after Serbs supposedly mass murdered Muslim civilians, and launched an air raid against Serbian military posts. The US became more and more involved at this point. But they came to help a little too late, for thousands of lives had already been devoured in this war that developed into a raging ethnic battle. After long peace talks and campaigning, an agreement was reached, however. All three presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic initialed and signed an agreement. It was hoped that this would guarantee lasting peace and develop two individual regions, one for the Muslim-Croat federation, 51% of the country, and the Serb Republic, 49%. NATO forces entered Bosnia to establish implementation of the agreement as the United Nations withdrew.

The war had come to an end. But there was still a bridge to be crossed by all three of the ethnic groups if there was to be peace. This bridge was acceptance, it was respect. But the bridge was never crossed, at least not fully. Tension continued, and so did problems. The three sides complied with the agreement, but Serbs and Croats did not comply with integrating the population. They even resisted the return of refugees.

There were allegedly 263,000 deaths in Bosnia between the years 1992-95. Such mass killings, deaths, and suffering were unfit for human eyes. Yet it happened, and the war has been engraved on the minds of many. Many, with faith and strength, have come out of the war with a thankfulness greater than can be imagined. This thankfulness is for life. For being alive, and for hope that leads them on into the future, that encourages and motivates them. One such thankful young woman was interviewed in Bosnia. Her name is Sanela, and at age 25 she carries a thankfulness and happiness that can be an example to many (click on link to read her letters). "I was here in Sarajevo, Bosnia, during the war," she wrote to our team. "War is something you can not explain so easy and to tell you the truth I remember only the good and funny things from that time. Life is too short to spend it in anger or regret." Sanela has experienced war, and what it can do to many people. But she is not spending her time in bitterness or hatred. Contrarily, she is spending it in thankfulness. And in happiness, because she is a survivor of war, a conqueror of fear, and a possessor of hope. "I just think it is great to be alive..."

All this time, another war was brewing, and another experience was to come. This experience was the conflicts in Kosovo. It is real, close, and relevant in our minds, for it was the subject of our thoughts, the request in our prayers, and the enlightenment of our minds, for many of us. For caught up in this war were hundreds of thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands like before were caught in the conflict, the conflict that resulted in war, and in killings. But it was not something no. No, it wasn't new to the Balkans. It had happened before, and it had been brewing for centuries.

The plea of the people is one to recognize and respect. It is a plea for peace, for life, and for lasting hope and faith.

What follows is an account of the people.