Bijeljina

Bijeljina (Cyrilic: Бијељина) is a city in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Republika Srpska entity. The city is situated in the plain of Semberija, close to the borders of both Serbia and Montenegro and Croatia.

At the 1991 census, Bijeljina municipality had 96,796 inhabitants; 59% of whom were Serbs and 34% Bosniaks. The Bosniaks were actually the majority in the city while the Serbs were the majority in the surrounding villages. At present, the town has about 105,000 inhabitants (estimate), 98.75% of them Serbs. The present demographic situation was created by the ethnic cleansing practiced during the Bosnian War.

In the first days of April 1992, the city was attacked by Serb para-military groups led by Arkan. According to contemporary news reports, up to 100 civilians were killed, and the non-Serb population was driven out. This was one of the first instances of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is surmised that Bijeljina was attacked first because of its strategic location in the north-eastern corner of Bosnia near the Serbian border.^[1]

The Bosniak population fled to the areas of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Austria, United States, and other countries, while more Serb refugees settled to the region from Krajina and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Source

^ * Noel Malcolm - Bosnia - a short history (Macmillan, 1994)