Bosnia and Herzegovina 1990 – 2020. The War, State and Democracy

Although it is undeniable that numerous foreign actors interfered in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995, according to scientific standards it was primarily a civil war – a violent conflict between members of the three constituent peoples for the territory, organization and identity of the state. The patterns of producing and recruiting political adversaries who engage in violent confrontations show that the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, just like in other civil wars, was primarily a “war of acquaintances, not a war of strangers”. Sometimes, the adversary was a rather specific acquaintance – member of the own family, schoolmate, work colleague, neighbor, friend – and sometimes a figurative acquaintance sharing equal or similar life experiences in the same country. Among their torturers victims recognized their school teachers and students, salespersons and buyers from shops and markets, innkeepers and guests, drivers and passengers of communal buses, managers and workers from factories, first neighbors and their children’s schoolmates. This made the war worse than if the country had been attacked from the outside, because internal conflicts destroy not only political and social institutions but also the very fabric of society – interpersonal relations.