On 19 June 1992 , the war in Bosnia broke out , though the Siege of Sarajevo had already begun in April after Bosnia and Herzegovina had declared independence . The conflict , typified by the years-long Sarajevo siege and the Srebrenica massacre , was by far the bloodiest and most widely covered of the Yugoslav wars . The Bosnian Serb faction led by ultra-nationalist Radovan Karadžić promised independence for all Serb areas of Bosnia from the majority-Bosniak government of Bosnia . To link the disjointed parts of territories populated by Serbs and areas claimed by Serbs , Karadžić pursued an agenda of systematic ethnic cleansing primarily against Bosnians through massacre and forced removal of Bosniak populations . Prijedor ethnic cleansing , Višegrad massacres , Foča ethnic cleansing , Doboj massacre , Zvornik massacre , siege of Goražde and others were reported
Srebrenica massacre
Srebrenica massacre
Yugoslav Wars