Refugee and Immigrant Populations in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
Bosnians
Additional Readings and Information
Source: www.3baylor.edu/~Charles_Kemp/bosnian_refugees.htm
The current Bosnian refugee situation can be attributed to the Balkan
War from 1991-1995. The origins of the most recent conflict, however,
can be traced back to 1878 and the Congress of Berlin. The Congress redrew
the map of the Balkans largely without considering the wishes of the local
populations and created the new countries of Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania.
In the years following the Congress of Berlin, two Balkan Wars were fought
in 1912-1913 in an attempt to end hundreds of years of Ottoman rule in
the region. Soon after in 1914 a Serb assassin killed Archduke Ferdinand,
heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in Sarajevo thereby triggering World
War I. As a result of World War I, the country of Yugoslavia, the ‘Kingdom
of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes’ was formed out of territories formerly
occupied by the Ottoman and Austrian empires. In 1944, Josip Broz Tito
and his partisans established a communist regime in Yugoslavia, which
remained in place until the start of the Balkan War in 1991.
In June 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared independence from the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, leading to the overrunning of 30 percent
of Croatian territory by Serb forces. In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina
declared independence that resulted in the seizing of 70 percent of those
countries' territories and a siege on Sarajevo. Prior to the war, Bosnia
was comprised of 44% Bosniak ('Muslim'), 31% Serb and 17% Croat. From
1992 to 1995, an estimated 700,000 Bosnians fled their homes. In July
1995, the region of Srebrenica in Bosnia fell to Serb forces, leading
to the slaughter of 7,000 males in the largest single mass killing in
Europe since World War II. In August 1995, Croatia launched Operation
Storm and retook the Krajina region from the Serbs. In November 1995,
the Dayton Peace Accord was signed to end the hostilities in Bosnia and
allow for the return of refugees and displaced persons. Hundreds of thousands
of people still have not returned to their homes.
(Abridged from UNHCR and Bosnia
Institute websites)
UNHCR - http://www.unhcr.ch/
Bosnia Institute - http://www.bosnia.org.uk/default.cfm
US population
Bosnian population – 108,803 (2002), www.unhcr.com
Minnesota population
Primary Refugees in MN since 1993 – 2367 (MN Department of Health)
Bosnian born in MN – 2,193 (census 2000)
Bosnian born in Twin Cities – 1,401 http://www.lmic.state.mn.us
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Created by: Lindsey Lund, Karissa Demmert, Emily Rackow and Julia Wynn