One of the reoccurring words that survivors of the war in Yugoslavia repeat is “neighbors”. This is striking because they have been victim to horrible acts of violence committed by people they formerly lived, chatted, attended school, and considered friends. Many of the mass killings, tortures, and rapes were committed by one neighbor and inflicted on another. One man Joe Sacco interviewed told a story to him of an intense firefight in which he nearly died: “When the Serbs got as close as 50 meters, I recognized my neighbors…one of them had spent a lot of time with my youngest son, a lot of time at my house…doing homework with my son.” The ghastly acts of ethnic cleansing were not all committed by a few, soulless, powerful men. Instead, those men gave the orders that were carried out by ordinary people, people who bombed their own neighborhoods and cities and raped and murdered their formerly close friends.
In studying the war in Yugoslavia, I was shocked by this aspect of the conflict. Different accounts hold the same. One rape victim, speaking with Jeri Laber, recounted the story of her rapist, a doctor from her same hospital: “I would have expected him to be different from the others…I knew him for ten years…I saw him every day in the restaurant for hospital personnel. We talked, we were acquaintances, I never sensed any hostility. He was a golden guy, refined, polite.” Another victim echoed her confusion: “There were fifteen of them, I knew them all, they were neighbors.” Again, Laber writes, “’Yesterday we were friends,’ said a Muslim, a young man of twenty-four, describing how his wife was raped before his eyes by a Serb he knew. ‘I shake when I think of it. I can’t believe it happened…we knew these people; we knew them all. Overnight we became enemies. I don’t know why.”
How could this have happened? Neighbors and friends, on both sides of the conflict, overnight turned from peaceful acquaintances to sadistic rapists and killers. Some, such as Milovan Djilas, believe that it was the war conditions combined with inherent human nature: “The Serbs are no better or worse than other people…they just had more opportunities. For me this is a human phenomenon, not a nation one. There are elements of evil in every person, but the majority are able to control themselves.” Others blame Karadzic’s creation of mass-paranoia among Bosnia’s Serbian population. Sacco, summarizing Karadzic’s assertions, wrote, “Karadzic warned that Bosnia would go down a highway of hell” before relinquishing control of Bosnia to Muslims. Defenders of this argument claim that Karadzic and other Serb leaders convinced peaceful civilians that their ethnicity, their way of life, traditions, and family were under attack. They were led to believe that, unless they attacked first, they would be destroyed.
But would even this claim of mass hysteria result in the extreme brutality that occurred in the war?
In studying the war in Yugoslavia, I was shocked by this aspect of the conflict. Different accounts hold the same. One rape victim, speaking with Jeri Laber, recounted the story of her rapist, a doctor from her same hospital: “I would have expected him to be different from the others…I knew him for ten years…I saw him every day in the restaurant for hospital personnel. We talked, we were acquaintances, I never sensed any hostility. He was a golden guy, refined, polite.” Another victim echoed her confusion: “There were fifteen of them, I knew them all, they were neighbors.” Again, Laber writes, “’Yesterday we were friends,’ said a Muslim, a young man of twenty-four, describing how his wife was raped before his eyes by a Serb he knew. ‘I shake when I think of it. I can’t believe it happened…we knew these people; we knew them all. Overnight we became enemies. I don’t know why.”
How could this have happened? Neighbors and friends, on both sides of the conflict, overnight turned from peaceful acquaintances to sadistic rapists and killers. Some, such as Milovan Djilas, believe that it was the war conditions combined with inherent human nature: “The Serbs are no better or worse than other people…they just had more opportunities. For me this is a human phenomenon, not a nation one. There are elements of evil in every person, but the majority are able to control themselves.” Others blame Karadzic’s creation of mass-paranoia among Bosnia’s Serbian population. Sacco, summarizing Karadzic’s assertions, wrote, “Karadzic warned that Bosnia would go down a highway of hell” before relinquishing control of Bosnia to Muslims. Defenders of this argument claim that Karadzic and other Serb leaders convinced peaceful civilians that their ethnicity, their way of life, traditions, and family were under attack. They were led to believe that, unless they attacked first, they would be destroyed.
But would even this claim of mass hysteria result in the extreme brutality that occurred in the war?
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