How did the declarations of independence in Slovenia and Croatia affect the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina?
A. Bosnia and Herzegovina, as we saw, is at the heart of the former Yugoslavia, and the people there, besides the Muslim Bosnians, you have Serbs and Croats there. Now, as a result, the setup in Yugoslavia suited the people in Bosnia, and survey showed that just before the war they were in favor of keeping their Yugoslav federation but on the condition that the federation be balanced, that is to say, that it included Serbia and Croatia as well. Bosnia was right in the middle and there was this desire of seeing this balance maintained, but once the federation no longer included Slovenia and Croatia, Bosnia ended up face to face with Serbia and was on unequal terms because there was a lot more Serbs and they have a lot more power. So that solution whereby Bosnia would stay within the new Yugoslav federation that was dominated by the Serbs, well, was favored by the Serbs and the Croats. The Muslims of Bosnia were very much against that. So, once the federation fell apart, the majority of
