The Balkan Third War
The Balkan War, or rather the third war in the area, was started by a capitalist with a splash of a Hitler ego, who knew how to be charismatic and smooze his way into a presidency (Amanpour, 2008). Once he was in power he opened the gates of hell onto a region which suffered greatly under his reign. Within the powder-keg region of the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Croatia, Slobodan Milosevic knew how to get what he wanted (Watson, 2012). With these areas constantly at odds with each other, this man manipulated armies and militia to practically wipe out whole ethnic groups and/or drive neighbor against neighbor. When the people lost faith in their bloodthirsty leader, three to five years had really taken its toll on the people of these countries, and they are still trying to recover.
The Conformity with the Devil When the charismatic Yugoslav Gorbachev (Amanpour, 2008) or so Slobodan Milosevic was coined, became president, he stood to become a Serbian savior (Amanpour, 2008). Milosevic knew only greed, and with his new position of power he played each ethnic group against each other. Because of the past conflicts in this region of Serbs, Muslims, Albanians, Croatians and Bosnians (Watson, 2012), Milosevic knew what to say to the Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian army’s to become kill squads to do unspeakable genocide within their countries and cultural regions. He knew how to reach the prejudice in the Serbian armies and let them use that reason to gain cohesion throughout the region. Although the region was riddled with senseless deaths they did not go quietly. Many of the Muslim’s families still morn for the missing 7,000 men and sons of their families (Amanpour, 2008). What could make such hatred to exterminate ethnic differences? As Hitler had done, Milosevic gained the respect of Serbians and other followers, and used their hatred for the indifferences of one another’s culture with each other, and then played devil’s advocate to set one nation, one belief, one culture against one another.
The Relationship of Social Perception and Social Cognition Social perception and social cognition are where individuals get a sense of the people, their habits and their routines through interaction and observation (Zebrowitz, 2012). When the armies of the murderous president moved throughout each town, each region, they knew how to hurt their enemies. They knew this because of the blending of people running from one country to another seeking refuge from one tyranny or war to another. All these countries had a mix of Serbians, Croatians, Bosnians, and Muslims (Watson, 2012), and they all knew where to find each other. They knew by the way they behaved and their routines that were essential to their lives. Being emerged with each other was unbearable at best, but it gave a unique insight on their new targets. This egocentric president was smart enough to use this intelligence to his advantage to enrage the inhabiting Serbians to go out into their own villages and kill families they were living next to or to kill in the streets where their enemies would meet. Having this unique intelligence on the enemy allowed battles to be won, and with that winning so did the popularity of Milosevic (Amanpour, 2008). As his popularity had grown and he was seen as the savior they had hoped for, however he would not be a savior at all (Amanpour, 2008).
As the ending grew near, the once famed president began to lose his touch with the region. The people were beginning to see the devastation on their countries, on their lives and there was nothing to be proud of anymore. Milosevic has lost his support and was now trial for the genocide he carried out in Europe (Amanpour, 2008).
Resolutions in the Balkan Region Even through all the bloodshed in the Balkan region, the people have been unfortunate to inherent a conflict that will not be solved easily. As most countries who have treaties, a treaty cannot stop hatred, intolerance and revenge. Croatia and Bosnia are two countries where they share similar religious beliefs, but what are the differences they hold so sacred that it makes them hate each other? No one probably could answer those types of questions, not even the inhabitants of intolerance. As far as the Serbs and the rest of the region, well the same answer is applicable here as well. These wars are ruins of pride within people who no longer know what they are dying for and if they do maybe they can explain it to the hundreds of thousands of massacred brethren and their families who did not understand. If there comes a time when the Balkan region actually wanted to come to a peaceful resolution, they would have to see each other as equals. No matter who is a Serb, Albanian, Bosnian, Muslim, Croatian, or even Christians, everyone would have to see each other as equals. They would have to improve their prejudice of cultural differences, plus they would have to want to improve their way of life and stop killing for the name of a God or person. These countries would have to start rebuilding the relationship between countries in trade or to at least establish cultural respect for one another. Only when the drive to increase peace comes from all those who are done dying for past sins of their fore-fathers, can peace really start to surface and determined talks can begin. In time the world might actually get to see the resolution of these conflicts and see the rebuilding of hope within the region.
Conclusion
It is easy to speculate what causes a war, what would be reason for conformity among those who fight in a multi-generational war of intolerance and how they could resolve those issues to become peaceful. However it is an outsider looking into a fish bowl of fighting fish. To really understand why someone would think the end of one ethnic group would solve the problem, one would have to be inside the head of that mad man. Milosevic was that mad man consumed with greed and the intelligence of getting it. He watched his countrymen kill, consume, and destroy their lands all in the name of vengeance. He never tried to end the money making scheme that was created out of the deaths of innocent inhabitants who were living their lives as they should have. From a psychological standpoint, the vulnerability of the Balkan region was a sweet treat to power hungry ego-driven maniac. Milosevic was a psychopath who used carnage to gain capital for himself with no concern for the people of his region. He played on the vulnerability of defeated pride of Serbians who took his empty promises for full value and killed hundreds of thousands of their countrymen. Once the blinders were off, Milosevic was done leading those who once trusted him with their futures. This was the first step of gaining independence and freedom within the region of tyranny of chaos.
References:
Amanpour, C. (2008). People vs. Milosevic, Part 2: Balkan wars. Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Watson, D. (2012, January 23). Balkan Military History. United States.
Zebrowitz, L. (2012). Social Perception. Retrieved from <a href="http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/594/Social-Perception.html">Social Perception</a>
