Today I will carefully try to open a new topic, hoping for a constructive exchange of information and ideas. These wounds these wars caused still did not heal and still many people of the affected regions feel pain about it, so I try to present this as neutral as possible, in order that a normal conversation might be possible.
The Yugoslav Wars of the 1990-ies were actually 4 wars, some of which were directly connected, some actually rather seperate. These were the 10-Days War (1991) in which Slovenia gained it’s independence, the Croatian War (1991-1995), in which Croatia got it’s independence, the Bosnian War (1992-1996, with the Croat-Bosniak-Conflict 1992-1994 as a subconflict), which left Bosnia independent but seperated into two entities and the Kosovo War (1998-1999), which left Kosovo under the supervision of the UN before it declared it’s independence in 2008.
In these wars, (apart from the 10-Days War - at least I could not find any information for a foreign participation) were also foreign volunteers present. They were partially grouped in units consisting entirely of volunteers, partially they blended in with the local fighers.
People found many reasons to join one of the fighting parties: affinity to one of the involved parties (for example out of religious reasons), the own descent (for example expatriates in other countries), personal perception of a “just cause” or simply money (mercenaries).
The parties and their foreign fighters in alphabetical order:
The Albanians in Kosovo did not employ many foreigners, often they had actually an Albanian background themselves. I have not been able to find very much information about them.
On the Bosniak (Muslims of Bosnia) side, most often the foreign fighers came from predominantly muslim countries. While some joined the regular forces as regular soldiers, some participated as mujahideen. The mujahideen were used as a hate-propaganda object by both the Serbian and the Croatian forces, with their numbers being bloated.
On the Croat side, fighters originated from many different places of the Earth, be it Europe, the Americas or even Africa; though it is said that most often the foreign soldiers on the Croatian side had a Catholic background. They primarily fought in the Croatian War up to 1992, when they were to be officially expelled (only a very little number continued to serve in Croatia). With the war in Bosnia starting, they often went over to join the forces of the Bosnian Croats and fought there.
On the Serbian side, the foreign fighters most often had an Orthodox background. While I have not found any information of foreign fighters in the war in Croatia nor the Kosovo War, there were 2 Russian volunteer units, 1 Cossack unit and the Greek Volunteer Guard fighting mostly in the eastern part of Bosnia. There seem to have been plans to create another unit in eastern Hercegovina composing of Russian and Greek volunteers.
The performance of these foreign fighters was mixed. While some excelled (often former professional soldiers), some performed horribly. While some served “with gallantry” (if this is a word which can be used regarding such wars), some were convicted of war crimes (among them murder, mistreatment of prisoners, rape, looting, etc.).
A few links on the topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_fighters_in_the_Bosnian_War
From the perspectives of all warring parties in Bosnia, seems to be written quite neutral.
http://www.usddr.org/index.html
Has interesting pictures, but deals only with the Croatian side.
http://www.cfiva.org/cfiva/home/index.cfm
Deals with volunteers on the Bosniak, Croatian and Kosovo-Albanian sides. Has interesting information about fallen foreign soldiers. More neutral than the second link.
As said before, I try to start this thread about a still sensitive topic neutrally and hope for a constructive exchange of informations.
Regards,
ELK