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During the early 1990s the former nation of Yugoslavia disintegrat- ed into chaos. Yugoslavia had been a post–World War I construct that artificially conglomerated Serbs, Slovenes, Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Albanians, Macedonians, Montenegrans, Hungarians, and others into a single state. Historic ethnic rivalries had been exploited by German and Italian occupation authorities during World War II and then ruthlessly suppressed by Communist strongman Tito during his subsequent 35- year rule. After Tito's death in 1980, ethnic rivalries bubbled up again, achieving particular virulence with Serbian leader Slobodan Miloševic. Fearing the worst from Miloševic's ferocious Serbian nationalism, Slo- venia and Croatia broke free from Yugoslavia in sharp, relatively brief wars of independence during 1991.
The Muslim plurality of Bosnia-Herzegovina was not so fortunate when it attempted to follow suit. At that time Bosnia was 44 percent Muslim, 33 percent Serb, and 17 percent Croat. When the European community recognized Bosnia-Herzegovina as an independent state on April 6, 1992, its constituent Serbs revolted from within it. The Serb- dominated Yugoslav National Army (JNA) heavily assisted the Bosnian Serbs; soon thousands on both sides were dead and over a million were refugees. The Serbs had the upper hand initially and forced Muslims and Croats out of one village after another. A gruesome campaign of murder, rape, and intimidation labeled "ethnic cleansing" forced dis- possessed refugees from areas the Serbs wanted to control.