The Kosovo Genocide

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Learning from the Holocaust, the international community did ward off the Kosovo genocide via intervention diplomatically and armed intrusion. Systematic killing, extermination, an abborhant adversity; All of these words can equate to the same thing, genocide (American Heritage Dictionary). The Holocaust was the Nazi’s genocidal actions towards 6 million European Jews (Oxford Dictionary). However, Kosovo was the Serbian’s genocidal annihilation of 100,000 Bosnians, which occurred in more recent history occurring a semicentennial later in the 1990’s. Both genocides were inflamed by ethnic cleansing. The former being anti-Semitism and the latter anti-Bosniak sentiment. The international community did not prevent the anti-Semitism which lead to …show more content…
They created furor by disrupting the League of Nations (LON) and remilitarizing the Rhineland. To disrupt the League, “Hitler took Germany out of the League of Nations when it failed to grant Germany ‘equality of military rights’” (European Response). The LON wanted Germany participating for amicable interactions. The LON was now fixed on getting Germany to reassemble while simultaneously the international community was trying to pull back their “military rights.” “Hitler abrogated both the Versailles and Locarno treaties by entering the Rhineland in 1936” (European Response). The remilitarization kept countries occupied. With the major European powers otherwise distracted or allied, Germany was able to continue the anti-Semitism which lead to the …show more content…
The United Nations, the modernized LON, organized areas of safety for the persecuted. “Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde remained under control of the Bosnian government. The U.N. had declared these “safe havens” (Bosnian Genocide). In addition to the UN, “Russia sent aid as well, contributing eight hundred peacekeepers... already in the country” (Descent into Oblivion 32). In the aftermath, “The U.N. Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia” (Bosnian Genocide). Conversely and on the more coercive side, NATO’s air forces played a grave role in the end of Kosovo. “Nato forces bombed Kosovo in order to protect the Albanian population... NATO forces damaged the Yugoslavian electricity system... an international force would be stationed in the region in order to keep the peace and prevent the resumption of violence” (Bosnia 1992-1995).“Nato sent jets to shoot down Serb aircraft” (Descent into Oblivion 32). These events and actions led to the quick denouement of the genocide in