Viking_Yearbook_94

1992-1994 Bosnia Associated Press T he civil war in what was once Yugoslavia moved through its second year at terrible human cost: as many as 200,000 people were dead or missing, including 10 United Nations relief workers who had died by October. The 18- month-old civil was began in 1992 when Serbs rebelled over a vote by the republic's Muslims and Croats to secede from Serb- dominated Yugoslavia and form two separate governments. Croatia and Muslim- dominated Bosnia- Herzegovina initially allied against the more powerful Serbs, but their alliance dissolved amidst bitter turf battles between Croats and Muslims in the second half of 1993. Much of the attention in the barbaric war centered on Sarajevo, the long-suffering Bosnian capital under siege by the Serbs. But life in other communities was even harder. AU.N. observer described Maglaj, a north Bosnian town of 35,000 that was besieged in June by Croats, as "a shattered town of battered people" forced to live underground. "People in Mala] are subterranean people," he said. "They spend most of their time in the basements. They look dirty, tired and haggard." 34