In a campaign they chillingly described as "ethnic cleansing", heavily equipped Serbian militias (often supported by the Yugoslav Army) drove poorly armed Muslims from towns they had inhabited for centuries, while an undermanned and underfunded United Nations force made feeble attempts both to keep the peace and ensure that relief supplies reach the country's increasingly imperilled civilian population.

By late 1992 the Muslims controlled less than a third of the former federal republic, and even the capital Sarajevo was disputed territory under constant shellfire. The Muslim-Croat alliance was disintegrating, refugees approached the million mark, and the Bosnian leadership was likening its people's plight to that of the stateless Palestinians and Kurds.

After countless ceasefires during the following years, it seemed that the uneasy truce would hold once the Dayton agreement was signed in 1995 by the main protagonists.

The situation is still delicate to date, but it seems that significant improvements may become a reality, particularly as major changes have taken place in politics of both Croatia and Serbia, the countries directly involved in partitioning Bosnia-Herzegovina.