Bosnia's lesson for Syrian slaughter
cnn / Christiane Amanpour
05-Apr-2012 (2 comments)

CNN (CNN) -- Twenty years ago, April 5, 1992, Suada Dilberovic and Olga Sucic were shot and killed in Sarajevo. They were the shots heard around the world and they started the Bosnian War.

I covered that war, and many colleagues are gathering in Sarajevo now to commemorate what took hundreds of thousands of lives, left so many more wounded, and created millions of refugees. This was the war that introduced us to the term "ethnic cleansing."

The dominant Balkan power at the time, Serbia wanted to keep Yugoslavia together, and failing that, to carve out ethnically pure areas in the breakaway states to create a Greater Serbia.

It was a horrible fantasy that sought to destroy an ethnically mixed, intermarried community that had lived peacefully and progressively together in Bosnia.

This war was defining for the region, for the world and for those of us who covered it.

See some amazing photos from the war

We witnessed the heroic resistance of a population under siege and sh... >>>

Darius Kadivar

Christiane Amanpour Opinion

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Amanpour: Bosnia was where I learned objectivity does not mean drawing a false moral equivalence
  • Amanpour: No crisis is the same but in Syria the military is fighting a heavily outgunned opposition
  • Amanpour: In Bosnia the time came when the world could no longer watch as civilians were butchered


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It was quite a Long time Amanpour hadn't said something right for a change.

 

Welcome Back Christiane !