The main cause of the growing tensions between Bosniak Muslims and their neighbors was the president of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević. Milošević encouraged tension between Bosniaks and other groups in the region (Ward, 2011).
The main force between the genocide were Bosnian-Serb soldiers. These soldiers were backed by the Yugoslav army, which was dominated by Serbs (History.com Staff, 2011). These forces target Bosniaks and Croatians in order to "purify" Yugoslavia of these citizens. Milosevic believed that these people were lesser and were weakening Yugoslavia as a whole. His goal was to eliminate these citizens and unify Yugoslavia under his own control (Ward, 2011). |
Milosevic during his trial, shortly before his death (Ward, 2011) |
"Butcher of Bosnia", Ratko Mladic, leads Yugoslavian forces during the Bosnian War (Reporter, 2011)