Why did fighting break out between the ethnic groups living in the republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina when it?

Answer 1

Essentially, it was an ethnic and religious conflict that occurred following a referendum that was held in 1992 that came out in support of independence. Yugoslavia began to disintegrate at the end of 1990, when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from the rest of the Federation. Slovenia achieved independence with little trouble, but Croatia was engaged in a short but bloody war with Serbia in '91, which ended when the European Union officially recognised Croatia as a separate state and help to broker a diplomatic end to the fighting. Bosnia, however, was a different case- it is inhabited by ethnic Serbs, ethnic Croats, and indigenous Bosnian Muslims, each one of whom had different aspirations for Bosnia. The Serbs wanted it to remain as part of a rump Federation with Serbia, the Croats wanted it to be annexed to Croatia, and the Bosnian Muslims wanted it to be a completely independent state in it's own right. In addition, there were intolerant religious tensions between the Muslims on one hand, and the Christian Croats and Serbs on the other. A referendum on Independence was held on 1st March '92, during which the Croats voted with the Muslims in favour as a means of prising the country away from Serb control- they had already seen Croatia and Slovenia going their own ways, and were determined not to be left behind. The combined votes of the Croats and Muslims resulted in a 'Yes' vote, whereas most Bosnian Serbs had voted 'No'. After that, all hell broke loose- the Serbs, desperate to retain Bosnia as their own, took up arms against the other two groups, supported by Serbia proper- the Croats were equally keen to break away and ally Bosnia with Croatia; they also turned against the Muslims, who were stuck in the middle demanding a seprate Bosnia independent of either of it's two Slavic neighbours. The poor Muslims were very much the jam in the sandwich, with BOTH of the other nations hostile to them, and were forced to take up arms as much in self-defence as anything else.

So this is how the war began- it ended in early '96 following the brokering of the Deighton Peace Agreement in the USA. Since then, the remaining parts of the Yugoslav Federation (Serbia itself, Montenegro and Macedonia) have also achieved independence, and there has been fighting within Serbia's own provinces (i.e. Kosovo) which have sought to break away from Serbia.