Clinton in the Balkans

last updated 8 January 2015

Srebrenica, Bosnia

Former president Bill Clinton got a mixed reception this week when he helped inaugurate a memorial near Srebrenica for Muslims massacred during the Bosnian war. Many thanked Clinton for helping to stop the war after four years of ethnic cleansing. “Our people would have suffered more death if it hadn’t been for Clinton,” said a woman whose husband was among 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed in 1995 when Bosnian Serbs rampaged through Srebrenica. But another woman told The New York Times that she was still bitter that no one had stepped in sooner to end the atrocities. “Clinton could have helped this not to happen,” said Ahmija Delic, as she stood by her son’s grave.