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 remember it both my husband and my sister served out there… they don’t like talking about it, which is telling I think.

I remember it. I wasn’t involved at all so I don’t think about it unless there is a prompt such as this thread. I suspect true of most events for most people or it would be too painful to live.

The planes flew across above our house almost every night en route to bombing Yugoslavia in 1999
I remember this too. I live in Italy and we could hear the planes. Horrible time.

@MimosaFields

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

Same!

I remember it. I had friends serving out there as part of SFOR/IFOR. Was going through an old box of letters recently and came across the blueys they sent. Our church supports a youth peace and reconciliation project in Bosnia. There is an old BBC drama on YouTube called "Warriors" which showed aspects of it.

I remember it was shocking. As I remember it was basically muslim against non muslim , but everyone was white, as in the same race.
The first World War broke out after the shooting in Sarajevo of Franz Ferdinand. Which shows the very long standing animosity. I am happy to be corrected.
From the 'historylearningsite.co.uk. www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/causes-of-world-war-one/assassination-at-sarajevo/

The murder of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo is accepted by historians as the immediate cause of World War One though serious trouble – long term causes – had been brewing for sometime.

On June 28th 1914, the heir to the Austrian Empire, Franz Ferdinand, was visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia.

Bosnia was in the very south-east corner of the Austrian empire and some people there wanted to be independent from Austria and set up their own state which could run itself.

I remember these terrible events when people today want us all to be 'loved up' and bear no malice, these things run soooo deep. Humans are very flawed. For example, the thread about immigrants and someone saying everyone should live where they want - Hmmmm, we're human, that is not going to work.

I was a young teenager then, about 13-14. I remember it, I think that was when the War Child CD was released as a charity record??
As with much politics from the early 90s I remember it happening but didn't really understand why it happened.

It’s about to kick off again, so yes, I do think about it.

My family are from the area so I think of it. Although there were some close calls, we were fortunate not to lose anyone. I have friends who lost everything - their home, family members, their way of life and escaped the country with nothing.

Our way of life is fragile.

The current situation with Russia and Ukraine frightens me. The continued rising of the far right in Poland frightens me. It's all so unstable.

I read a book when I was about 8 or 9 called ‘Zlata’s Diary’. It was a diary account by a ten year old girl living in Sarajevo in the early ‘90s. She was a couple of years older than me and it really affected me. I used to scour the newspapers at the time, reading about the atrocities. We also had a music teacher at our school at the same time, who was from Bosnia. I often wondered if she had fled the war but never dared ask anyone.

It pops into my thoughts from time to time. I did do a bit of research into the war a few years ago, as I only had a child’s understanding of what had happened.

Yes, I certainly remember Bosnia, but I doubt my DC have any idea about it. I agree there's a lot of talk about WW1 and WW2 and other wars don't get a mention. I think it's earlier to glorify war if we just stick to something that happened a long time ago. It's a safe thing to discuss with children. I think the Faulklands war was also glorified at the time and for some years afterwards, but that never gets mentioned now.

I think it's very easy, if your family isn't directly involved, to turn a blind eye to wars that are relatively close to home.

I remember it. My then husband was working on a project with the MoD, and had to go out there to work on an ‘installation’. We had a meeting with the Foreign office, as they needed to plan a possible emergency exit route. He was out of touch for weeks at time. On the few occasions he phoned, I could hear the shelling and gunfire in the background, and he was hiding under a table in a monastery. The friends he made whilst out there told us horrific stories, and I have never forgotten them.

I was school age at the time but remember it being on the news every night. It was the stories about the snipers which stuck out for me. That people would go out to try and buy bread but have to dodge snipers shooting from tall tower blocks.

I do, but not in as much detail as I should.

There’s a good BBC documentary series you can probably get on iplayer - the death of Yugoslavia. If you want to know more.

Yes, I do. But as someone who lived through the Troubles I’m more attuned to ‘forgotten’ and underreported conflicts than many of my peers here in England.

I had been to Sibenik (Croatia) before the war and Belgrade after, for work, so have often thought about the people affected.

Will never forget what was filmed and reported. The image of lines of people, walking, walking.

Sheer horror.

Yes, I know people who served in Kosovo and NI. All really struggling with their MH.

I watched a film set in Srebrenica at the time of the massacre. I asked 22YO DS if he had heard of the war and he was shocked as he hadn't. He was appalled that it isn't taught in (Scottish) schools.

@lydia7986

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.

I find it interesting that OP has completely ignored these posts - presumably because they don't reflect well on the attempt at virtue signaling.

The reason people "go on" about the World Wars OP is precisely because a) the scale of them meaning there was conscription and almost every family was therefore affected and b) there was a direct impact on people in the UK in that bombs were literally falling here.

You can't be pissed off that people don't remember a smaller conflict that took place elsewhere (even if it was Europe) thirty years ago when, as PP said, there have been dozens of wars around Europe in recent memory you're apparently not aware of.

You remember the one you remember because you were involved personally.

@MollyMalonee is there a moral difference between fighting for a government as a paid national army and fighting for whoever pays you i.e. being a mercenary?.

Remember it well.

I went to school with the children of Croatian refugees whose parents had fought with the Germans against communist partisans under Tito. Post WW2, those same partisans managed to suppress long-standing ethno-religious rivalries until the death of Tito when Yugoslavia split along those same lines leading to the 90s conflict.

The Serbs were basically attempting to reestablish themselves in historically Serbian areas that had been encroached into by “Turks” as they were known locally - remnants of the Ottoman Empire in Albania that had expanded into Kosovo.

The Serbs had been the southern bulwark against the spread of Islam into Europe, and were ultimately treated very badly by NATO members as the establishment of Kosovo as a separate state was forced on them.

I remember it. The news coverage haunted me, and I later became friends with a man who’d been a Professor at the University in Mostar, who’d had to flee to the UK, but could only find work here as a taxi driver. He was very badly affected by his experiences.

A few days ago, a friend and I were talking about a mutual acquaintance who hasn't been the same since he was in Kosovo during the conflict there (he's a news cameraman).

Our conversation digressed to the Bosnian war, and we couldn't remember if the Kosovo conflict was part of that.

So yes, it does enter my mind from time to time. And when it does, it brings back the memory of a really harrowing article that appeared in the Independent at the time, that has lingered with me ever since.