Page 209 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
CHAPTER 13
Bosnia and Herzegovina: “The knights in shining armour...”
December 1995: The imminent withdrawal of 24 Air Mobile Bde from Croatia necessitated an ur- gent response to guarantee security of the bridge- head and supplies at Ploce. This situation herald- ed the arrival of the RAVC dogs and handlers.
For the first time, the Sennelager based Unit – then called the Defence Animal Support Unit (DASU) – sent four RAVC dog trainers to Croatia, and so, on 5th December 1995, the first expeditionary deployment in many decades for the RAVC, began. And although no one could have known it at the time, this was a pivotal moment in the long-term certainty of the Corps. The deployment of “the four RAVC saviours” to Bosnia proved beyond doubt that the Corps had a vital expeditionary role to play within the British Army.
Overview:
Often described as one of Europe’s deadliest conflicts since World War Two, the Yugoslav wars were marked by many war crimes. Bosnian genocide was the first European crime to be formally judged as genocidal in character since World War Two. It was a vicious series of conflicts with deep roots in a confused and fractured history.
Bosnia, located in the western Balkans, borders on Croatia to the north and south-west, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the south-east. It occupies the northern areas which are roughly four-fifths of the entire country. Herzegovina occupies the rest in the southern part of the country.
It is a mostly mountainous country encom- passing the central Dinaric Alps – which run in an East-West direction and get higher towards the South. The North-Eastern parts reach into the Pannonian basin, and the Adriatic borders it in the South. The Southern and Western parts of the country have a Mediterranean climate while inland areas, and areas with high elevation, experience something quite different in short, cool summers and long, severe winters.
It was in the tenth century that Byzantine sources first mentioned the Bosnian State as one of the organised societies to emerge from Slav settlements made part of the Roman Empire. It was in the fourteenth century that the Medieval Bosnian State reached its high point of stability before being absorbed into the rapidly developing Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, Bosnia-Herze- govina remained a separate Province – occupied in 1878 and then annexed in 1908, by Austro- Hungary.
After the First World War Bosnia was included in the newly created Kingdom of Yugoslavia. And then, as the Socialist Republic of Bosnia-Her- zegovina, post-World War II, it became one of the eight constituent federal units within the Communist Yugoslavia. In 1945, the Socialist
Bosnia and Herzegovina and surrounding countries.
Population Approximately 3,871,643 (2014)
Capital City Sarajevo (Pop approx. 438,443) Other Major Cities Banja Luka (Pop approx.150,997) Tuzla (Pop approx. 120,874)
Zenica (Pop approx. 115,298)
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was established under Josip Broz Tito who maintained a strong authoritarian leadership that successfully suppressed nationalism right up until his death in 1980. But, after that, the relationship between the republics of the SFRY began to fragment: While Slovenia and Croatia wanted to increase their autonomy within the Yugoslav confederation, Serbia sought to strengthen federal authority. It soon became very clear that no single solution existed that would suit all parties, and so, Slovenia and Croatia began the move toward secession.
Tensions began to grow and gather in the early 1980s – established political tensions entwined with older religious differences began to grumble and come to the fore. The population’s religious split – 45% Muslim, 36% Serb Orthodox, 15% Roman Catholic and 4% other groups (which included the Jewish, Protestant and non-reli-
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