Table Of Contents

1. Welcoming letter................................................................3
2. Introduction of the committee............................................4
3. Introduction of the topic.....................................................5
4. Historical Background..........................................................6
4.1 NATO's operational intervention.......................................7
5. Discussion of the topic.........................................................8
5.1 Concluding lawsuits............................................................8
6. Actions already taken...........................................................9
7. Questions to ponder.............................................................9
8. Bibliography.........................................................................10
1. Welcoming letter

Honorable Delegates,
We are extremely honored to welcome you all to the NATO committee of
INMUN'22. As members of the board of the NATO, we firmly believe that you
will meet the expectations of the countries which you are appointed to
represent in front of this. Within this study guide you will find all the necessary
information and guidelines which will help you endeavor in the problematic of
the situation between Serbia and Bosnia which lasts for years.
We wish you all to have productive and helpful beginning for committee and
INMUN'22!
Should you have any queries, do not hesitate to communicate with us!

Kind regards,
Nazo Karhan, Secretary General
2. Introduction of the committee
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United
States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective
security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military
alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere.
After the destruction of the Second World War, the nations of Europe
struggled to rebuild their economies and ensure their security. The former
required a massive influx of aid to help the war-torn landscapes re-establish
industries and produce food, and the latter required assurances against a
resurgent Germany or incursions from the Soviet Union. The United States
viewed an economically strong, rearmed, and integrated Europe as vital to the
prevention of communist expansion across the continent. As a result, Secretary
of State George Marshall proposed a program of large-scale economic aid to
Europe. The resulting European Recovery Program, or Marshall Plan, not only
facilitated European economic integration but promoted the idea of shared
interests and cooperation between the United States and Europe. Soviet
refusal either to participate in the Marshall Plan or to allow its satellite states
in Eastern Europe to accept the economic assistance helped to reinforce the
growing division between east and west in Europe.
The collective defense arrangements in NATO served to place the whole of
Western Europe under the American “nuclear umbrella.” In the 1950s, one of
the first military doctrines of NATO emerged in the form of “massive
retaliation,” or the idea that if any member was attacked, the United States
would respond with a large-scale nuclear attack. The threat of this form of
response was meant to serve as a deterrent against Soviet aggression on the
continent. Although formed in response to the exigencies of the developing
Cold War, NATO has lasted beyond the end of that conflict, with membership
even expanding to include some former Soviet states. It remains the largest
peacetime military alliance in the world.
3. Introduction of the topic
Bosnia and Herzegovina also declared its independence from the former
Yugoslavia with the referendum held on 29 February-1 March 1992. The
ongoing clashes between Croatian forces and Yugoslav soldiers in Croatia,
which gained independence in 1991, also spread to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Serbian-controlled Yugoslav army attacked the Bosnian village of Ravno,
whose population was mostly Croats at that time. Thus, the war in Bosnia and
Herzegovina began unofficially with this attack.
The event, which was described as genocide according to the International
Court of Justice, which lasted 3.5 years, caused thousands of Bosnians to die,
be raped, abducted or neglected.

4. Historical Background
The country, which started to disintegrate after the Yugoslavian Civil War that
broke out after Croatia and Slovenia officially declared their independence on
June 25, 1991, consisted of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia,
Slovenia and Macedonia. Continuing clashes between Croatian forces and
Yugoslav soldiers in Croatia, which gained independence in 1991, also spread
to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serbian-controlled Yugoslav army attacked the
Bosnian village of Ravno, whose population was mostly Croats at that time.
Thus, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina began unofficially with this attack.
Bosnian Croats and Serbs, who took advantage of the disintegration of
Yugoslavia, announced that they established a republic that included Bosnians
in order to share the lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina among themselves. The
Croats proclaimed the Croatian Republic of Herzegovina-Bosnia on 18
November 1991, and the Serbs declared the Respublika Srpska on 9 January
1992.
After the Serbian and Croats who wanted to seize Bosnia declared their
independence, the Bosnian Serbs, armed by the Serb-controlled Yugoslav army
and intelligence units, started ethnic cleansing against Muslim Bosniaks. The
Bosnians, on the other hand, fought against the Serbs in the north and east,
and the Croats in the south and west, under the leadership of their leader, Alija
Izetbegovic, to preserve the integrity of the country.
Thousands of Bosnian men, women and children took refuge at the UN
peacekeeping headquarters in Potocari, just outside of Srebrenica, under the
control of 400 Dutch soldiers.
However, when Serbian troops under the command of Ratko Mladic entered
the "safe zone" Srebrenica under the protection of Dutch (UN) soldiers on July
11, 1995, thousands of Bosniaks were left to their fate. The Serbian army,
which entered Srebrenica under the command of Mladic, massacred at least
8,372 Bosnian civilians in forest areas, factories and warehouses. The
murdered Bosnians were buried in mass graves.
During the Yugoslav Civil War, between 13-18 July 1995, 8,000 young and
adult Muslim men were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in the Bosnian town of
Srebrenica. During the war, almost no Bosniaks were left as a result of the
ethnic cleansing carried out in many cities such as Prijedor, Foça, Zvornik and
Visegrad. Some had to emigrate, some were killed.
In the middle of Europe, in the indifference of the international community,
there was a war that lasted 3.5 years and in which many massacres, genocides
and crimes against humanity were committed. The war ended with the Dayton
Peace Treaty signed in 1995.
4.1 NATO's operational intervention
"Operation Deliberate Force" was launched by NATO against Serbian targets in
Bosnia at around 02:00 on 30 August 1995. The operation ended on
September 21, 1995. More than a thousand rockets hit Serbian targets in the
intervention, in which approximately 400 warplanes and 5000 soldiers from 15
countries participated.
As part of the "Decisive Power Operation", 3,515 flights were carried out to
338 targets, while a total of 750 attacks were carried out. The arsenals of the
Bosnian Serbs, anti-aircraft batteries, radar and communication facilities, and
artillery depots were especially targeted in the attacks of warplanes departing
from military bases in Italy and the aircraft carrier "Theodore Roorsvelt".
Military and politically, the NATO intervention, which was to make the Bosnian
Serb government decide to lift the siege of Sarajevo and withdraw heavy
weapons, quickly achieved its purpose. As a result of this NATO operation, the
Serbs stopped bombing the capital Sarajevo 3 years and 4 months after the
war that started in 1992 and had to lift the siege on the city.

After NATO's attacks on Serbian forces destabilized the war, the Serbs were
persuaded to sit at the peace table. Thereupon, on November 21, 1995, the
Dayton Peace Agreement, which silenced the weapons in Bosnia at the Wright-
Patterson Air Base in Dayton, Ohio, in the east of the USA, was initialed by the
warring parties Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia.
5. Discussion of the topic
In 1993, the UN declared Srebrenica a "safe zone" for Bosniaks.
After a two-year siege by the Bosnian Serbs, Srebrenica fell in July 1995.
Thousands of Bosnian men, women and children took refuge at the UN
Peacekeeping headquarters in Potocari, just outside of Srebrenica, under the
control of Dutch soldiers. Dutch soldiers told those who took refuge in the
headquarters that they would be safe here. However, the soldiers handed over
thousands of Bosnians to the Serbs after the Bosnian Serb forces besieged the
camp. Serbian forces took the 300 men they had separated from those who
took refuge in the headquarters in trucks and killed them. Women and children
were also taken to other parts of Bosnia. More than 8,000 Muslims were killed
in the town.

5.1 Concluding lawsuits

The Dutch state was found "partially" guilty of the massacre in Srebrenica. The
court stated that "Dutch soldiers should have foreseen that 300 people handed
over to the Serbs would be killed" and decided that 300 men should pay
compensation to their relatives.
At the same time, the International War Crimes Tribunal held the former
leader of Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, responsible for the events in
Srebrenica and sentenced him to 40 years in prison.

Prosecutors of the court also demanded that former Bosnian Serb General
Ratko Mladic, whom they say ordered the killing of Muslims in Srebrenica, be
sentenced to life imprisonment.
6. Actions already taken
Resolution 816 of the United Nations Security Council is a resolution adopted
by the UN Security Council on March 31, 1993. Resolutions 781 and 786,
adopted in 1992 and banning military flights over Bosnia and Herzegovina,
were expanded with resolution 816. Accordingly, the Council, the United
Nations Charter VII. The flight ban, which it started to implement in its
previous decisions, was made to cover fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft and
decided that all necessary measures would be taken.

7. Questions to ponder
1. Evaluation of NATO's operational coordination in Bosnia
2. Prevention of separatist movements in Bosnia and Balkans with foresight
3. Protection of civilians in military interventions in the crisis area
4. Diplomatic and logistical development of NATO interventions
8. Bibliography
https://pesd.princeton.edu/node/736
https://www.britannica.com/event/Bosnian-War/War-crimes-and-trials
https://www.infoplease.com/world/countries/bosnia-and-herzegovina
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_67655.htm
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_111582.htm
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/