Do you remember the most recent war in Europe?

[MollyMalonee]

And the genocide that was part of it?

Just struck me that there's a lot of talk about world wars one and two in the UK but not so much about Bosnia. Does anyone in the UK even think about it now?

Yes - I have a friend staying in Sarajevo right now, so I have been thinking about it a lot recently. As with Northern Ireland, it’s easy to forget just how recent peace is.

Yup. My home country was heavily involved in some of the worst atrocities, not something that will fade from our collective conscience anytime soon. The region is also incredibly unstable still, which should be getting a lot more attention than it is I feel. The plight of the Muslim population in Republika Srpska is very worrying

It’s only in my thoughts because my DH was deployed out there very early on in his army career. No deployments are “good” , but that was a really tough one for him, he saw some really awful stuff.

It must have been harrowing, WaningMoon.

Part of my university dissertation was about that war, so I do remember it well

Yes, I was just in Croatia recently and talking to many people about the "Homeland War." The international community did very badly with that war. The United Nations was a disaster, the European Union was completely not ready for prime time, the UK's policy of neutrality was disgraceful, and the US was also disgraceful until they finally got their act together in 1995.

Wow good to hear others remember it too. I was v junior in an NGO, we were overwhelmed as the troops were just making it up as we went along. The Spanish were useful. You need people to break rules in that situation.

But I think most people won't give it thought. They'll chat about WWII till the cows come home though.

@PrincessNutella

Yes, I was just in Croatia recently and talking to many people about the "Homeland War." The international community did very badly with that war. The United Nations was a disaster, the European Union was completely not ready for prime time, the UK's policy of neutrality was disgraceful, and the US was also disgraceful until they finally got their act together in 1995.

I'm shocking ignorant on foreign policy during this time, would love to hear more if you've got time to explain.

I was in Kosovo in an area where the war was still going on well after the official end. Blonde blue eyed Finnish troops on one side of the road, Gurkha's on the other, both hyper vigilant. Americans looking super relaxed. Russians looking hungry.

Not to diminish what you’re saying about Bosnia, OP, but it’s not ‘the most recent war in Europe.’

What about the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, where Russia invaded Georgia, seized control of a third of Georgian territory and expelled ethnic Georgians from those territories?

Or the ongoing Russian war in Eastern Ukraine? People still die in that conflict every single month - and Russian troops are currently mobilised on the Ukrainian border, possibly preparing to launch a full-scale invasion.

Plus Azerbaijan’s invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh earlier last year, and the genocidal atrocities Azeri soldiers committed against the ethnic Armenians living there.

@ElvisPresleyHadABaby I'm not too hot on facts either and I was there so the information I got was fragmented like it is when things are chaotic. We had people coming to us from the central triangle who had had their houses burnt and family killed and they were just walking. They walked for days. We reported accounts to the nearest UN base. For us that was the Spanish. There were un everywhere every region had a different country troop. But they were all peacekeepers so they couldn't fight. So even if folks were killing each other the UN couldn't stop them. They had all the war kit but they couldn't use it. The Spanish lads near us did what they could ie getting kids out, that's all any folk wanted, they just wanted their kids out of there. So the Spanish worked with the NGOs like me in that region. But most of the time the UN troops couldn't do much because of the international treaties. And the fighters in the various armies knew that and they murdered and tortured right in UN areas, like mass massacres, you know getting everyone from a town, asking their surnames and shooting them, they had false trials in Sarajevo all sides did, they'd line them up on the hill and just say guilty, they'd say it was a state execution, it wasn't, it was just guys with guns and badges, and they were shelling all the time as well, and the UN couldn't use their tanks or guns because they were peacekeeping, but there wasn't any peace that's the thing.

@Athrawes interesting. There were shit loads of mercenaries in the original (OG? haha) war as well. They'd just be on the road waiting for a lift to the front. That's why this head banging about extra national troops in the ME makes no sense to me: there's always some fool wanting to fight for someone else. Sometimes quite a lot of them.

The planes flew across above our house almost every night en route to bombing Yugoslavia in 1999. I was pregnant and cried every night thinking of the innocent civilians those bombs were heading for

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia

Yes, I think of the massacre at Srebrenica from time to time. Can't really get my head around the horror of what went on in that town and how recent it must feel for those left behind to mourn. The UN really fucked up there.

They were pretty targeted I think the bombs. The main problem with all of that I think was that it was a bit late and a bit misguided. The real damage had been done years earlier and no one stopped that. Clinton was probably grated that there was a continuing theatre loosely associated that he could get his teeth into especially against the Serbs who were the big bad guys.

The whole thing was a mess really.

Probably grateful

I'm a bit to young to remember that war. But our Primary School had refugees from an Orphanage.

Some of us were involved in that conflict. Some of us were taken away from Sierra Leone - also a horrid conflict - to go deal with it.

YANBU for asking.

But I think YABU for thinking nobody else thinks about it. Brits were involved. Did you think we evaporated post conflict?

As someone else pointed out, the Russians that have mobilised on Ukraine's borders is still ongoing.

Yes, I remember it clearly. I had just had my first child and was very scared about what kind of world I had brought him into if this could happen, and would it spread across Europe. I was so sad and utterly horrified about Srebenica and even wrote to my MP to urge action. Must have been terrible for those on all sides who lived in that region who lived through it.

I remember it, it's the first news story I remember seeing on the TV. I also used to play "news reporter" and report on it using the remote as a microphone.

Serving in Bosnia was the defining moment of my military career. It changed me in many ways and made me the person I am now. It took a long time to appreciate that though. I am still in touch with some of the people I cared for/worked with back then and we still speak (at times) of our experiences.

I was talking to our eldest just this week about Srebrenica. My DH was out there in the latter years so we've got an awareness from that. I do worry about what's happening in the Ukraine and whether that might escalate into something bigger.

Yes, I remember the conflict in Bosnia very well. I have a friend that served in the Army and was posted out there at the time (she never talks about it). I also worked with someone who fled the country as a child with her family, came.to the UK with nothing and started again.