The Bosnian Civil War was an internal conflict between the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the self-declared Serbian state of Republika Srpska. Following a successfull independence referendum within the Serbian state, Bosnian airstrikes against the capital Banja Luka prompted war. It began on January 2 2014 and ended on December 9 2018 with a brokered ceasefire ordered by the United States and other senior NATO members. Casualties were rife, prompting a new era of Balkan migrants to the world.
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Background
Ever since the end of Bosnia and Herzegovina's bloody partition from Yugoslavia, the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska had ruled the Serb-dominated areas of the Federation with their own autonomy, but staunch allegiance to Sarajevo which prompted rife Serbian nationalism within the micro-state and in Serbia, with Vojislav Seselj gaining 5% of the total vote in the Serbian Federal Elections of 2012, the highest that his Serbian Radical Party ever received. Bosnian President Bakir Izbetgovic's meeting with American, Canadian and German officials to discuss NATO admission in early 2013 prompted mass protests across the Serbian community, with calls for the referendum that was supposed to happen in 2008 to be ruled. Republika Srpska's president Goran Hadzic, who had been a convicted war criminal in the Bosnian Partition from Yugoslavia [1992-95] but pardoned on the grounds of mental health, demanded a referendum to be held on the grounds of Article 14 in the Bosnian Constitution which allowed local autonomy amongst the Bosniaks, Serbs ands Croats of the Federation. Croatian leader Vladimir Saf was firmly against the vote, but Izbetogovic allowed it on the grounds he personally beleived it would not work.'
Referendum
On November 26 2013, 1,114,500 registered voters voted in the Republika Srpska Independence Referendum, with 92.77% of citizens voting for independence. Sarajevo was shocked by the result and issued an ultimatum to Banja Luka: Forget it or face destruction. President Hadzic was insistent that Republika Srpska would remain independent and any Bosnian attempt to re-integrate it would be met with heavy force. In response, Izetbegovic ordered airstrikes on Serbian government targets in Banja Luka and explicitly warned Belgrade not to be involved. The resulting airstrikes killed 129 civilians and wounded at least 630 more. An emergency meeting called by prime minister Biljana Plavsic expressed an address to the new nation's people
" The new Republika Srpska has barely been 24 hours old and already received foreign destruction that we have suffered for the years we have been part of this failed Bosniak federation conspired by American imperialists to destroy the Serb race in the Balkans regions for we go against their general interests of supporting Islamic Mujahedin. We, as a Serbian diaspora state, call on proper Serbia to assist in the interests of us and fight to keep our independence alive. This is a declaration of war for the Banja Luka Airstrikes that harmed so many innocent lives. We will fight Bosnia and any of her allies that dare cross the border. To preserve the Serbian Republic, we must go to war. I'm afraid there is no other choice"
Battle of Banja Luka
Upon the declaration of war, the 3rd Division of the Bosnian Army attacked Banja Luka, capital of Republika Srpska, from their post 6 km away. Forces from the Republika Srpska barricaded the city in an effort to stop Bosnian advancements, but they were no match for Bosnia's bomber planes and aircraft of the Croatian Air Force, destroying several targets including government buildings and civilian establishments, harming hundreds. Prime Minister Plavsic repeatedly called for intervention from Serbia, but the Serbian Government refused on the grounds it was too risky and they did not want to be caught in another Balkan conflict again. Montenegro and Macedonia, two Eastern Orthodox nations, came to the Republic's aid, declaring war on Bosnia and Herzegovina. In response to the possible extinction of Bosnia and even themselves, the Croatian Government joined Bosnia's side in the war in a controversial vote that was deemed as "forged and wrong" by many within Croatia. Croatian tanks pulled to the outskirts of Banja Luka, where Montenegrin and Macedonian troops had just arrived. The first battle of the Civil War was underway, with the Bosnian-Croatian Coalition doing considerable damage to the new Bosnian Orthodox Alliance.