Genocide in Bosnia: The Policy of "Ethnic Cleansing"

by Norman Cigar

Book Overview

Few events in history have received as much real-time exposure as the atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Few dilemmas have perplexed peacekeepers and negotiators as has the victimization of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia. With the memories of the Jewish holocaust so freshly etched in people's memories, could such genocide have happened again? What catalysts vault nationalism across the threshold into inhumanity?

In this compelling and thorough...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585440043
• ISBN13: 9781585440047
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Powerful testimony to genocide

This is a best book on war in Bosnia by foreign writer that I have found to date. It is certainly not biased as Mr. Cigar is christian and Bosniaks are muslims. It is a powerful account of events that happened there and recommended reading for everyone interested in Balkans!

Invaluable!

This book reveals the gruesome atrocities that were committed in Bosnia during the Bosnian war. Many people assume that it was a civil war, when in fact it was a genocide. It has been corroborated that Serbians started the war in an attempt to annihilate non-Serbs and create a "Great Serbia", comprising of serbs only. Other reviewers who have criticized the book are clearly oblivious to the following facts: of the 300.000 victims in Bosnia- 85% were Muslims; 90% of all war crimes in Bosnia were committed by Serbs ( Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, Arkan and numerous others). On that account, we can conclude that Serbs are the perpetrators and Muslims are the victims. This is a fact of life. I highly recommend this book to people who want to know the truth about the war in Bosnia.

Essential reading from ?Books on Bosnia?

Rigorous and thoroughly documented analysis, demonstrating the planned and systematic nature of `ethnic cleansing'. Especially valuable on the ideological preparation for this policy in Serbia, analysing the responsibility of senior academics and churchmen. (This short review is from "Books on Bosnia" published by The Bosnian Institute)

Essential to understanding the genocide in the Balkans

This book is a searing and courageous account of the genocide in Bosnia, told by one of the world's experts on the Balkan tragedy, meticulously documented. Of special importance is the author's use of the primary texts (in Serbo-Croatian) that formed the basis for the ideology of genocide--for justifying and motivating "ethnic cleansing." Cigar's analysis of how radical Serb nationalists found a platform for their extreme racist and religiously intolerant views in the official publications of the Serbian Orthodox Church is stunning. It constitutes a truly trenchant and groundbreaking analysis of how the hate speech of a few became the world view of a large portion of Serbian society. Essential reading for anyone concerned about Bosnia, Kosovo, human rights, and the issue of genocide. The presentation and analysis of the participation of radical Croat leaders and forces in the genocide is equally compelling.

Chronicles Bosnian genocide-from concept to execution.

Cigar's work describes in detail the genocide perpetrated in Bosnia against non-Serbs. Cigar demonstrates, through analysis and concrete sources, that genocide does not just happen spontaneously - but is the final outcome of a nationalist manifesto adopted and promoted by Serbia's intelligencia, its media and subsequently carried out in the Bosnian theatre of war. The result, as Cigar convincingly shows, is the systematic attempt to exterminate and "cleanse" the target ethnic group from militarily conquered territories. Taking the international community to task for failing to act decisively to avert ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, Cigar also examines possible future implications of policies of appeasement and complicity in the face of genocide and territorial expansionism. This book will most certainly be criticized as anathema by pro-Serbian propagandists. But Cigar's conclusions, supported by a methodical and critical examination of events leading up to ! and during the conflict in Bosnia, appear to be beyond logical and impartial repudiation.