The Yugoslavian genocide is hard to explain. So many factors have contributed to the war—and eventually, the genocide in Bosnia—that many UN soldiers didn’t even know what to do about it. A lack of response, though, made the problem worse. And looking back on some of the cowardice and indifference, I’m sure many countries involved would like to go back in time and do it over. A combination of historical aspects, such as the division of religion, the world wars, the Iron Curtain, and the fall of the Soviet Union, were part of what led to a conflict that lasted for years in this sensitive region in Europe.

Throughout the Bosnian War of 1992-1995, the Yugoslavian or Bosnian genocide describes either the Srebrenica massacre or the larger criminal activities against mankind and ethnic cleaning project performed by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in areas controlled by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). More than 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys were killed in Srebrenica in the year 1995, while another 25,000-30,000 Bosniak people were expelled by force.

Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats were targeted in ethnic cleaning in VRS-controlled areas—extermination, illegal confinement, mass rape, sexual assault, abuse, ransack and damage of personal and public property, and inhumane treatment of people; targeting of politicians, intellectuals, and experts; illegal deportation and transfer of citizens; illegal appropriation and plunder of real and personal effects; damage of houses and services. The activities met the requirements for "guilty acts" of genocide, and "certain physical criminals had the purpose to physically get rid of the safeguarded populations of Bosnian Muslims and Croats," according to the report.

Let’s take a look at what happened, what caused it, and what it led to.