Bosnia-Herzegovina was the heart of the former Yugoslavia both geographically and culturally. Bosnia was the home of 4.36 million people; 44% were Bosniak (Muslim), 31 % Bosnian Serb and 17% Croat. An election in 1991 would predict the split between all three ethnicities. There was a struggle for control in Bosnia, so Bosnia demanded to be a part of the Serbian state in the Balkans known as "Greater Serbia." After the United States and the European countries recognized the independence of Bosnia, the Yugoslav army began their bombardment of Bosnia's capital Sarajevo. Even though Bosnia's population majority ethnic diversity, there was not much territorial division between the ethnicities. "Leopard skin" was a saying used to identify most people in Bosnia, especially in the urban centers where there was a high proportion of mixed marriages.

Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1992. This newly independent republic struggled from the beginning. The neighboring republics of Serbia and Croatia aimed at carving out enclaves of pure Serbian and Croatian ethnicity. Since this aggression, the Bosniak ethnicity really suffered during the 1992-95 war as a focus of "ethnic cleansing." This cleansing included mass killings, rape, and deportation of non-Serbs in occupied areas. The Bosniak genocide was particularly notable for its use of organized rape as a weapon of choice. During this war, a large number of Bosniaks lost their lives and over one million left the country. Thousands became refugees in their own land resulting in the transformation of the demographic and social pattern.

The government of the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from the country Yugoslavia in 1992. In the years following this event, Bosnian Serb forces began to dominate the Yugoslav army and committed horrific crimes that would result in the death of 100,000 people, about 80 percent of whom were Bosniak. The Bosniak genocide was compared to the destruction of about 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust. Contributing to the tension was the rise of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. He insisted on a disconnection between Bosnia and all its surrounding neighbors. By 1971, Muslims represented one of the largest populations in Bosnia, but Serbs and Croats started to immigrate into Bosnia the next two decades.

The Dayton Accords, brokered by the United States, brought an end to the fighting at the end of 1995, but left Bosnia divided into two ethnicities. Despite the massive NATO military presence, most refugees were unable to return to their homes and country. The tempo of Bosnia's recovery depends a lot on the democratic transformation.

After the genocide, Radislav Krstic was one of the first to be convicted of the genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, receiving a sentence of 46 years. Slobodan Milosevic was scheduled to be retried, but died in prison in The Hague on March 11, 2006.

Text by Kayla Benavides