Serb Republic/Republic of Srpska/Republika Srpska

What's the general opinion here




Edited by Milos Obilic

I'm not going to tone down my response this time.

It shouldn't be given independence because it is an entity established by ethnic cleansing and genocide. The international community should continue doing what it has done for the last decade - facilitate the return of Bosniak and Bosnian Croat survivors back to their homes of generations and clip a few feathers off the "republic's" wings every time they get a chance.

I will not tolerate a state established on the blood of my people. If it is given independence, which would never happen, I will fight. Surely Serbian nationalists can understand, they feel the same way about Kosovo.

So - never independent. And as for the last option - let the people of the Serb Republic decide? Yes, lets. And be sure to include the hundreds of thousands of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats driven away in the referendum. My guess is we'll see the same results we say in our independence referendum in the 1990s.

99% in favor of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a 70-something per cent voter turnout.

Edited by Mila

Originally posted by Mila It shouldn't be given independence because it is an entity established by ethnic cleansing and genocide.

This should really end any debate.

Edited by Leonidas

Originally posted by Leonidas Ideally Bosnia should stay together as a multiethnic state that respects the rights of everyone as equals. Bosnian serbs feel they are bosnian, from the ones i knew anyway. Self detirmation would be impracticacle. If they feel they want to be a part of serbia, well, then there will be problems in the future.

95% of the RS Serbs want to see the Serb Republic independent.

More than 300 bodies have been identified and burried in the Potocari memorial cemetery, from the thousands pulled from mass graves and currently being held in morgues, this year alone.

It's a well-documented process.

1. Exhuming the bodies from the mass graves.


2. Inviting families for clothing, following by DNA identification.


3. Sorting the bodies for burials, held typical 50-bodies at a time.


4. Burials at the Potocari memorial cemetery.


5. Praying for justice.


"By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. The Appeals Chamber states unequivocally that the law condemns, in appropriate terms, the deep and lasting injury inflicted, and calls the massacre at Srebrenica by its proper name: genocide." (ICTY 2004, para. 37)
The Commission for the Investigation of the Events in and around Srebrenica between 10^th and 19^th July 1995, published 2004. The Events in and around Srebrenica between 10^th and 19^th July 1995.

There are similar resolutions from every European Union country except Greece and most United Nations countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

These are some of the more recent burials. You can count them yourself if you like, there's well over 300.





As for 10,000 Serbs killed in Sarajevo, I'll copy this directly:

Among the more controversial topics regarding the siege of Sarajevo is the alleged ethnic cleansing that took place at the time. Namely, after several years in the 1990s characterised by denial of the widely held view of the Serb role in the Yugoslav wars, a trend has developed in the 2000s where Serb nationalists have attempted to draw Bosniak and Croat parallels to such infamous examples of attrocities as Srebrenica. Regarding Sarajevo, the typical claim is that between 1992 and 1995, 150,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Sarajevo, with several thousand killed. The allegations were brought to the media forefront in early 2005 when the premier of Republika Srpska, Pero Bukejlović, claimed that genocide was committed against Serbs during the siege of Sarajevo that exceeded that of the Srebrenica massacre.

Such claims are, upon careful analysis, fairly easy to refute. First of all, the often cited number of 150,000 ethnically cleansed Serbs is impossible, considering that there were only around 150,000 Serbs in Sarajevo. For such claims to be true, every single Serb in the entire Sarajevo region would had to have been ethnically cleansed. Furthermore, the number of killed and wounded in the siege of Sarajevo has been carefully documented. Out of 12,000 people killed, around one fourth were ethnic Serbs or people of Serbian ancestry. Taking into account civilian and military deaths, the number of Serbs killed is relatively proportional to the percent of the Sarajevo population they made up at the time.

Aside from these documented victims there were, according to the International Red Cross[2], there were only 242 ethnically Serb missing persons in the Sarajevo area. When it's taken into account that the number of missing persons for various towns in eastern Bosnia is in the thousands, the Serbian claims are proven baseless. Furthermore, the ability of the Bosnian government to stage a genocide of such a magnitude while under siege and being perpetually bombarded is highly questionable. The Hague has yet to make any accusations for individuals that had a role in the alleged Sarajevo genocide, which cannot be said of most major centers of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Commander Mu�an Topalović Cace did commit crimes against Sarajevo citizens in 1993, but he was quickly liquidated by the government. Certainly it is plausible that some Serbs were ethnically cleansed, but more than likely these were isolated incidents and not a consequence of direct government action or strategy. Tellingly, though hundreds of mosques in Republika Srpska were demolished, no orthodox church was harmed during, or following, the siege of Sarajevo.

Of course the question remains; what happened to the 100,000+ Serbs who are no longer in the city? It must be noted that following the siege of Sarajevo the population of the city had shrunk by around 250,000 people, meaning that besides Serbs 150,000 former citizens of Sarajevo of different ethnicities were also no longer there. Ethnic cleansing had certainly occurred in areas of the city held by Serb radicals; Ilid�a, for example, had nine detention camps for non-Serbs. It is no secret that Karad�ić's intention was to split the city into two at a point that would have required the ethnic cleansing of over 150,000 Bosniaks and Croats. Once the war was over and Sarajevo firmly in the hands of the Bosniak-Croat Federation, it is understandable that many Serbs would not have wanted to stay in a city where they would have been viewed with suspicion and been a clear minority. In the communities of Grbavica and Ilid�a, seized by Serb radicals during the siege, Serbs looted and destroyed what was left of the area to make life harsher for returning Bosniak and Croat refugees. Upon the return of the ethnically cleansed, the remaining Serb community was harassed and looked upon with suspicion, pushing many more to leave the city as well[3]. Thousands of the Serbs who had left the city by then went to what is today "East Sarajevo", a politically distinct Sarajevo suburb that in reality is virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the city and home to a couple dozen thousand Serbs. Leading up to the siege itself, the Serb forces surrounding the city had allowed many Serb citizens to leave while forcing members of other nationalities to stay behind.

Today, Sarajevo citizens of all nationalities generally take accusations of ethnic cleansing in Sarajevo during the war as a highly offensive insult. In response to premier Bukejlović's statement, many have demanded a public apology to all Sarajevo citizens. The president of the Serb citizens council/Citizen's movement for equality, Mirko Pejanović, stated that "Nobody, not even Bukejlović, can change or cover up the truth for the sake of current political needs. In Sarajevo, during the four year siege carried out by Karad�ić's military forces and the SDS, there were deaths of Sarayliyas of all ethnicities. The people were both suffering and dying from hunger, cold, they were being killed by mortar shells... among the 12,000 killed Sarayliyas recorded in the war, at least one fourth were members of the Serb nation or had Serb ethnic ancestry. Thus, we can not talk of an extermination or genocide of Serbs, but of a responsibility of the SDS and Karad�ić's military forces for the overall extermination of Sarajevo and Sarayliyas, and within that of the Serb people".

Edited by Mila

Originally posted by Milos Obilic You all support independence of Kosovo and Montenegro (two Serbian states) but not independence of the Serb Republic. what up with that??! Reality? Objectivity? WHERE??

Why is it so important to you that Republika Srpska becomes part of Serbia (which I have no doubt it will after independence)?

What rights and freedoms are Bosnian Serbs lacking today that they are demanding unification with Serbia? Such a desire for seperation can only be related to strong nationalism and obsession with the idea of Greater Serbia (which lead to this whole mess anyway).

I do not see what good will come of such a secetionist act.

The borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina are inviolable and seperatism is unaccapetable, the only justification for seperatism would be if the human rights of the Serbs were violated in some way (like was the case with Kosovo Albanians), but I believe currently this is not the case.

http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henobrnbalkans_human rights_2001.html&s=o&o=archive/bcr/bcr_20010716_1_hr _eng.txt

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=tri&s=f&o=261801&apc_stat e=henptri

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=tri&s=f&o=261568&apc_stat e=henptri

the result should be out sson.

It's all a conspiracy. You're not responsible for the consequences of your actions.

I agree.