Jump to content

Draft:Genocide of Bosniaks in World War II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Genocide of Bosniaks in World War II
Part of World War II in Yugoslavia
LocationBosnia and Herzegovina, Sandžak
Date1941-1945
Attack type
Genocide, ethnic cleansing, decapitation, burning alive, deportation, forced conversion, rape, etc.
Deathsc. 86,000-103,000
PerpetratorChetniks
MotiveAnti-Bosniak sentiment
Islamophobia
Greater Serbia
Ultranationalism

The Genocide of Bosniaks in World War II (Bosnian: Genocid nad Bošnjacima u Drugom svjetskom ratu) was a series of ethnic cleansings and according to some sources and scholars, genocide, of Bosniak civilians in World War II, committed by the royalist Chetniks from 1941-1945.[1] The Chetniks and their collaborators systematically murdered around 100,000 Bosniak Muslims via torture, mass shootings, decapitation, burning them alive, deportation, forced conversion, rape etc. Through this genocide, the Serb Chetniks wanted to create an ethnically pure Greater Serbia[2] that included the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosniak majority region of Sandžak.

Background

[edit]
Stevan Moljević's Greater Serbia, 1941.

The Chetnik movement started as a guerilla movement established in 1902,[3] they had strong anti-Ottoman, anti-Muslim and anti-Habsburg sentiments. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which controlled Bosnia, collapsed and the South Slavic states of Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and the territory of Vojvodina were annexed into the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929). During this time, Bosniaks were discriminated and attacked, according to the Bosnian Grand Mufti Džemaluddin ef. Čaušević to the French jounalist Charles Rivet, in the Le Temps newspaper he stated that 270 Muslim villages were attacked and robbed, thousand of Muslims killed, 76 women were burned alive, and that he requested the protection of the French government.[4] All of this happened from the time of the creation of the Kingdom to the spring of 1919. Another incident of Bosniak persecution was the Šahovići massacre that took place in November 1924.[5] The local Orthodox population of Kolašin and Bijelo Polje massacred the Bosniak Muslim citizens of the village Šahovići, located in Bijelo Polje (Sandžak).[6]

World War II

[edit]
Draža Mihailović in 1943, one of the main instigators of genocide of the Bosniaks in WWII. Sentenced to death in 1946.

Bosniak politicians such as Mehmed Spaho attempted to bring awareness to the discrimination in political, social and religious life, Spaho was believed to be poisoned during his visit to Belgrade in 1939. As Yugoslavia was invaded and annexed by Nazi Germany in 1941, and the royal Karađorđević family fled the country, the puppet state Independent State of Croatia was created which included the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Local independence movements formed, namely the Yugoslav Partisans, led by the Communist Josip Broz Tito and the Chetniks, led by Draža Mihailović. The Bosniaks were seen as traitors by the Chetniks, maily due to their Muslim faith, they were often seen either as "Turks" or as Serbs who commuted apostasy and betrayed their faith. These ideologies were not only rooted in the Chetnik ideology but also by many local political parties, such as the Serbian Radical Party. Mihailović organised the Chetniks and formed the Central National Committee as their advisory body; within this Comittee Mihailović grouped many other Serb cultural clubs. Many other Serb movements in Serbia and Croatia started to conform to Chetnik ideologies, even Tito's Partisans were initially allies with the Chetniks but later came into conflict due to ideological differences and the Chetniks collaborating with the Italians and Germans.

Genocide of Bosniak Muslims

[edit]

The Chetniks encomposated the idea of a homogenous and pure Greater Serbian state, to achieve this purely Serb state, the Chetniks began mass murdering all non-Serbs in their lands, namely the Croats and Bosniaks. Per their own documents, cases of resettling, murdering, killing and burning of Muslim civilians, mainly in the area of Eastern Bosnia, Eastern Herzegovina and Sandžak, can be found.

Đurišić's report from 13 February 1943 informing Mihailović of his massacres against Muslims in Čajniče and Foča in southeastern Bosnia and in Pljevlja, near Sandžak.

The first killings of Bosniaks happened in the area of Eatern Herzegovina, in summer in Avtovac near Gacko[7] and notably in the Čavkarica Pit (near Bileća) where 468 Bosniaks were documented being thrown into the pit from August-September 1941.[8] Estimates reach up to 700-1,000 due to majority of witnesses dying or being killed, and due to the fact entire families were murdered. Again in November of 1941 the local villages around the city of Višegrad were captured,[9] the Chetniks killed women, children, elderly and civilians. People from the city escaped to the city where a famine happened, they only recieved food from Foča, Kalinovik and Mostar. Outside of Višegrad the Chetniks entered into the city of Foča and her surrounding villages, notably killings started taking place in Miljevina, Ustikolina, Kolun, Bujakovina, Dobratići, Kozja Luka, Derolovi, Smječa, Kruševo, Kratine and other local villages, the killings also took place in the Foča city proper.[10][1] Alongside Foča, in Čajniče, Goražde, Rogatica, Prača, and even Srebrenica we see the same cases of mass killings, many of the victims were women and children. [1] Outside of Eastern Bosnia, around Varcar-Vakuf, Jajce and Glamoč we see cases of killings of the Chetniks, notably it Pljevski Podovi where 10 Bosniaks were killed. Although the Partisans didn't target civilians during the war as viciously and violently as the Ustashe and Chetniks, in Prijedor and the village of Pašinac, the local Partisans killed a total of 227 civilians, 138 of which were Bosniaks. 60 bodies were burried in a mass pit in Pašinac.

Casualties and demographics

[edit]
Below is a list of documented massacres against Bosniaks, numbers vary due to the lack of surviving family members
Massacre Location Date Casualties
Avtovac massacre Avtovac, Gacko

East Herzegovina

28 June 1941 47
Ljubinje massacre Ljubinje, East

Herzegovina

June 1941 25
Bosanska Krupa massacre Bosanska Krupa July 1941 20
Čavkarica pit Čavkarica, Bileća,

East Herzegovina

August-September 1941 468 documented,

estimated 700-1,000

Varcar-Vakuf (Mrkonjić Grad) massacre Mrkonjić Grad and Jajce May-December 1941 56 total, 44 Bosniaks
Massacre in Pljevski podovi Pljevski podovi, Mrkonjić Grad August 1941 10
Plana massacre Plana, Bileća, East

Herzegovina

September 1941 475
Prača massacre Prača, Eastern

Bosnia

November 1941 at least 76
Foča genocide Foča, Eastern

Bosnia

Late 1941 6,000
Goražde massacre Goražde, Eastern

Bosnia

Late 1941 2,000-7,000
Koraj massacre Koraj November-December 1941 70-100
Tuholj massacre Tuholj, Kladanj December 1941 38
Čajniče massacre Čajniče, Eastern

Bosnia

Late 1941-early 1942 1,500
Višegrad massacre Višegrad, Eastern Bosnia Late 1941-early 1942 5,000
Rogatica massacre Rogatica, Eastern

Bosnia

Late 1941-early 1942 2,000, over 300 in Žepa alone,

27 killed underage girls in the village of Pločnik

Glamoč massacre Glamoč Late 1941-early 1942 24 total, of which 23 were Bosniaks
Srebrenica massacre Srebrenica, Eastern

Bosnia

August 1941-January 1942 1,000
Prijedor massacre Prijedor and Pašinac, Bosanska Krajina May-June 1942 227, of which 138 Bosniaks
Pašinac mass pit

(part of Prijedor massacre)

Pašinac, Prijedor May-June 1942 60 (number includes, Croats, massacre commited by Partisans)
Kremin massacre Kremin, Foča October 1942 24 women and children
Prozor massacre Prozor and Jablanica October 1942 1,019 – 2,000, documented

170 in Jablanica, 849 in Prozor

Stari Brod massacre Stari Brod, Višegrad (then part of Žlijeb) November 1942 450-500
Slatina massacre villages of Slatina and Jošanica,

Foča

Late 1942 300
Bijelo Polje massacre Bijelo Polje, Sandžak (Montenegro) January 1943 1,400, of which 1,000 were civilians
Bukovica massacre Bukovica, Pljevlja, Sandžak (Montenegro) February 1943 at least 500
Foča, Čajniče, Pljevlja and

Priboj ethnic cleansing

Foča, Čajniče, Pljevlja and

Priboj, Eastern Bosnia and Sandžak

February 1943 9,200
Goražde massacre (1943) Goražde March 1943 500
Višegrad massacre Višegrad October 1943 Over 2,000
Goražde massacre (1944) Goražde May 1944 50

Total number of Bosniak Muslim varies by estimates, it is known that the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina had the biggest total losses during the war, the biggest number of casualties were amongst the Serbs, then by the Muslims.

Estimate by In SR Bosnia & Herzegovina Outside SRBiH Total estimate
Vladimir Žerljavić[11] 75,000 28,000 103,000
Bogoljub Kočović[12] 75,000 11,000 86,000

Refrences

[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Dedijer, Vladimir; Miletić, Antun (1990). Genocid nad Muslimanima, 1941-1945: zbornik dokumenata i svedočenja (in Serbo-Croatian). Svjetlost.
  2. ^ Tomasevich, Jozo (1975). The Chetniks. ISBN 978-0-8047-0857-9.
  3. ^ "Chetnik". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  4. ^ Agić, Jasmin (16 March 2018). "Reis Džemaludin Čaušević podržao stvaranje Jugoslavije, a onda se žestoko pokajao".
  5. ^ Zulfikarpašić, Adil (1984). Bosanski pogledi: nezavisni list muslimana Bosne i Hercegovine u iseljeništvu, 1960-1967 (in Bosnian). Bošnjački Institut.
  6. ^ Hajdaparšić, Raif (1996). Kolašinska kapetanija i bošnjački narod (in Bosnian). Udruženje Bošnjaka Porijeklom iz Sandžaka. p. 112.
  7. ^ Čekić, Ismail (1996). GENOCID NAD BOŠNJACIMA U 2. SVJETSKOM RATU (in Bosnian). Udruženje Muslimana za antigenocidne aktivnosti. pp. 21–22.
  8. ^ Čekić, Smail (1996). Čekić, Smail - GENOCID NAD BOŠNJACIMA U 2. SVJETSKOM RATU (in Bosnian). MAG - Udruženje Muslimana za antigenocidne aktivnosti. pp. 18–20.
  9. ^ Čekić, Smail (1996). GENOCID NAD BOŠNJACIMA U 2. SVJETSKOM RATU (in Bosnian). MAG - Udruženje Muslimana za antigenocidne aktivnosti. pp. 43–45.
  10. ^ Čekić, Smail (1996). GENOCID NAD BOŠNJACIMA U 2. SVJETSKOM RATU (in Bosnian). MAG - Udruženje Muslimana za antigenocidne aktivnosti. pp. 95–97, 160–162, 200–206.
  11. ^ Žerjavić, Vladimir (1995). "Demografski i ratni gubici Hrvatske u Drugom svjetskom ratu i poraću". Časopis Za Suvremenu Povijest (in Croatian). 27 (3): 543–559.
  12. ^ Geiger, Vladimir (2012). "Human losses of Croats in World War II and the immediate post-war period caused by the Chetniks (Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland) and the Partizans (People's Liberation Army and the partizan detachment of Yugoslavia/Yugoslav Army) and the Yugoslav Communist authoritities. Numerical indicators". Review of Croatian History (in Croatian). VIII (1). Hrvatski institut za povijest (published 109): 77–121.