The 1990s conflict is commonly characterized as Bosnian Serbs versus Bosnian Croatians and Muslims. Although this was the case in many areas of Bosnia and Croatia, the roles changed in central Bosnia. At the beginning and again towards the end of the conflict, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims fought together against the Bosnian Serbs. But in the middle, the two groups fought each other for control of central Bosnia. The following timeline describes the causes of these altering alliances. 

1991

After states began breaking away from Yugoslavia in mid-1991, the conflict originated in areas of Croatia and Bosnia where there was a large Serb population and in areas bordering Serbia. Central Bosnia was spared from the initial outbreak of conflict, but the political groups in the area took steps that set in motion the basis for division along ethnic lines. On November 18, 1991, Bosnian Croatians established the Croatian community of Herceg-Bosna, which was based in Mostar and governed areas of central Bosnia. Herceg-Bosna was established as a political, cultural, economic, and territorial entity but was ultimately intended to be its own state. 

1992

In mid-1992, attacks from the Bosnian Serb army spread to central Bosnia. In response, Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat armies worked together in central Bosnian to defend against the Bosnian Serbs. 

At the same time, tensions began to rise between the Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croatians. By April 1992, Herceg-Bosna set up parallel government and military structures in most areas of the self-declared Bosnian-Croat entity. In May 1992, Herceg-Bosna expelled all Muslims from any body of authority. 

In mid-1992, tensions and animosity between Croats and Muslims rapidly escalated, and each group increasingly discriminated against the other. 

1993

The violence escalated in the first half of 1993, ironically, in response to the Vance-Owen peace plan proposed by an American United Nations special envoy and a representative of the European Commission. The proposed plan sought to end the conflict but ultimately did not garner enough votes. 

The Vance Owen plan proposed ending the conflict by breaking Bosnia up into ten cantons. The issue was how to draw the boundary lines for these provinces without explicitly doing so along ethnic lines.  

Croatians were given three of the ten cantons in areas of Herceg-Bosna and were in full support of the plan. Eager to exert control over its three cantons and facing opposition from the Republika Srpska and the Bosnian Federation, the Croatian Defense Council presented an ultimatum to Sarajevo to implement the Vance-Owen Plan immediately and to withdraw the Muslim troops from the cantons allotted to the Croats. If the Bosnian president did not agree to the ultimatum by April 15, the Bosnian Croat army threatened to unilaterally enforce its jurisdiction over its cantons.

The ultimatum was rejected and central Bosnia saw its worst violence of the conflict.  

1994

In March 1994, the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defense Council reached a ceasefire and established the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Federation is a political entity jointly governed by Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats. At that point, both Bosnian Muslims and Croats worked together once again to mount on offensive against the Bosnian Serb army until the Dayton Accord ended the conflict in November 1995. 

ČELEBIĆI

As quickly as you come upon Čelebići, you’ve already past it. Čelebići is a village on the banks of Lake Jablanica. If you take the E73, you’ll pass through the town on the route from Sarajevo to Mostar. On the side of the highway opposite the lake, there are several rectangular, barren hangars. Around April 1992, Bosnian Muslim and Croatian forces, who at the time were cooperating in their fight against the Bosnian Serbs, detained Bosnian Serbs in these buildings. 

The detainees were killed, tortured, beat, sexually assaulted, and deprived of basic human needs, including food, water, and toilet facilities. The last prisoners left the Čelebići camp on December 9, 1992. 

The criminal trial of individuals who operated the Čelebići camp was one of the first cases prosecuted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. In Prosecutor v. Delalić, the court was the first to find that that rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute the crime of torture. [1]

Another important question that first arose at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Čelebići criminal cases is how to hold an individual criminally responsible for crimes that he did not personally commit. The answer is in a type of criminal liability called command responsibility. This type of liability allows high-ranking individuals to be held accountable for failing to act to prevent or to punish crimes committed by their subordinates, which could occur in a military or civilian command structure. 

Three individuals were charged at Čelebići for crimes committed by subordinates based on the theory of command responsibility. Only one of the three, the camp commander, was convicted on the basis of command responsibility. 

AHMIĆI

On April 16, 1993, Ahmići, located one hour northwest of Sarajevo, suffered some of the worst atrocities in the conflict in central Bosnia. 

Based on the 1991 census, in the four villages of Ahmići-Šantići-Pirići-Nadioci, Muslims represented 32% of the population, Croats 62%, and minority groups made up 5%. A number of Muslim refugees came to the area of Ahmići in 1992 as a result of the conflict that pushed them out of their homes in northern and eastern Bosnia. [1]

The Trial Chamber found the Croatian Defense Council and the special unit called the “Jokers” attacked the Muslim civilians of Ahmići “for the purpose of ‘ethnic cleansing’” and to destroy as many Muslim houses as possible. [2] Although the exact number is not known, the Croatian Defense Council murdered more than 100 Bosnian Muslims in Ahmići.

Colonel Bryan Shaun Charles Watters testified at a trial to what he witnessed: “There was not a house that had not been destroyed. They had been systematically destroyed.. . . The thing that was shocking was that the village was totally destroyed, the animals were destroyed, the crop, the root cellars, everything was destroyed. There was just nothing for anyone in that village to come back to that village for.” [3]

There is a memorial to the people who died on April 16 located at the mosque in Ahmići at the lower end of town. This is the only Mosque in Ahmići with a minaret, which was destroyed on April 16, 1993. The mosque can be located using Google Maps under the name Donji Ahmići. Most of the victims of the Ahmići massacre were buried in a mass grave in the old town of Vitez.