The genocide in Bosnia began in 1992 and lasted until 1995 and involved the massacre of Muslims by Serbs. The United Nations and the world's great powers have failed Bosnia in providing support and aid. To understand what went wrong during the crisis in Bosnia you must first look at the situation that existed there before the conflict. Bosnia is made up of three different ethnic groups, Muslims made up 45% of the population, Serbs 33% and Croats the remaining 16%. The main difference between these ethnic groups is not their language but their religion. Muslims generally practice Islam, Serbs were traditionally Orthodox, and Croats were primarily Roman Catholic, but the conflict between them was not so much based on their religion as nationalism (pg691). The different ethnic groups were not separated in Bosnia; instead they were all mixed together. For example, villages consisting mainly of Serbs may surround a largely Muslim city. The different ethnic groups did not interact with each other on a regular basis but neither were they separated into different and exclusive areas (pg691). Tensions between these three ethnicities had risen steadily throughout history, but were generally kept in check by external forces. They were initially forced to coexist under the Ottoman Empire, then a Serbian monarchy forced them to cooperate, and finally it was Tito who established order in Yugoslavia. After Tito's death, each of them began to embrace the freedom they had never had and that was when the violent ethnic conflicts began (pg691). In addition to different ethnicity, another part of...... middle of paper ......to prove their worth due to the failures of previous peacekeeping operations, including Somalia. Furthermore, the rules and structure of the United Nations create many difficulties that make it difficult to achieve any goal. Finally, the peacekeepers faced many obstacles that they were unable to overcome. There were problems within the existing peacekeeping forces that limited what they were able to accomplish, and although they attempted to complete their assigned tasks, it was impossible to do so with the resources they were given. The Srebrenica situation is an example of the impact that UN failures have on a real peacekeeping mission. The Bosnian civil war is an unfortunate crisis that the United Nations should take as an opportunity to learn from its mistakes, because unfortunately their mistakes cost the lives of large numbers of people.