Paramilitary and War Crimes Committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Paramilitary and War Crimes Committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: The last armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which took place between 1992 and 1995, was a bloody one. Not only was lots of real blood were spilled, but metaphorically speaking, it resulted in millions of displaced persons, hundreds of mass graves, hundreds of places of detention, hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war, hundreds of thousands of tortured and destroyed lives. During the aftermath of the war, around 700 war crime cases were prosecuted, spanning one thousand defendants, and including all possible war crimes, including genocide. These war crime trials could be observed from different perspectives. While most of these crimes were committed by soldiers and police officers, among those who were not soldiers or police officers, one category is to be particularly observed, the paramilitary. Members of the paramilitary, not soldiers or civilians, according to the database of war crimes, were charged in some 5% of all war crimes cases. But then, if these persons are not soldiers or civilians, the question is who were they, and why they do what they did? Furthermore, what interest did they have in behaving in a way that is characterized as criminal, more precisely, a war crime. Among number of the war crimes committed by the paramilitary groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this paper will analyze ones including most serious crimes and those of most significance. By doing that, this paper will contribute to the better understanding of the position and behavior of the paramilitary groups involved in committing war crimes, further legal regulation of their position, and social understanding of the nature of paramilitary forces in and after the armed conflict.

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