The methods used during the Bosnian ethnic cleansing campaigns included "killing of civilians, rape, torture, destruction of civilian, public, and cultural property, looting and pillaging, and the forcible relocation of civilian populations". , near Banja Luka, 1992 The initial
Constitution of Republika Srpska in Article I.1 declared that it was "the state of the Serb people", without any mention of other ethnic groups living there. Numerous discriminatory measures were introduced against Bosniaks on VRS-held territory. In the town of
Prijedor, starting from 30 April 1992, non-Serbs were dismissed from their jobs and banned from entering the court building, and were replaced by Serbs. Bosniak intellectuals and others were deported to the
Omarska camp. Bosniak and Croat homes were searched for weapons and were sometimes looted. On 31 May 1992, an order stipulated that non-Serbs have to mark their houses with white flags or sheets, or to wear white armbands outside their homes. Serb forces accompanied non-Serbs wearing white armbands to buses that transported them to camps at Omarska,
Trnopolje and
Keraterm camp. Movement was restricted through a
curfew and checkpoints. Radio broadcasts appealed to Serbs to "lynch" Bosniaks and Croats. Torture and mistreatment in these detention centres were established as to leave inmates with no other choice then to accept the offer of their release under the condition they sign a document that compelled them to leave the area. In
Banja Luka, Bosniaks and Croats were evicted from their homes, and incoming displaced Serbs took their accommodation.
Forced labour imposed by the authorities hastened the flight of non-Serbs. Those leaving Banja Luka had to sign documents of abandonment of their properties without compensation. Paramilitaries frequently broke into the homes of non-Serbs at night to rob and assault the occupants. In some instances, paramilitaries would shoot at the houses. The local Serb police did not prevent these sustained assaults.
UNHCR representatives were reluctant to help Bosniaks leave war-affected areas, fearing they would become unwilling accomplices to the ethnic cleansing. Foča was renamed
Srbinje (The Place of the Serbs). One Bosniak woman, who was raped, said her rapist told her his aim was to baptise and convert all of them to Serbs. In
Kozluk in June 1992, Bosniaks were rounded up and placed in trucks and trains to remove them from the area. In
Bijeljina, non-Serbs were also evicted from their homes and dismissed from their jobs. Arrested non-Serbs were sent to the
Batković camp, where they performed forced labor on the front lines. Serb paramilitary singled out Bosniaks and used violence against them. In the
Višegrad massacres of 1992, hundreds of Bosniaks were rounded up on a bridge, shot and thrown into the river or locked in houses and burnt alive; Bosniak women were raped and a Bosniak man was tied to a car and dragged around the town. 70% of all expulsions occurred between April and August 1992, when the Serb forces attacked 37 municipalities across Bosnia, reducing the non-Serb population from 726,960 (54%) in 1991 to 235,015 (36%) in 1997. 850 Bosniak and Croat villages were razed to the ground. The VRS placed Bosniak enclaves under siege. After the VRS
takeover of Srebrenica on 11 July 1995, 7,475 Bosniaks
were massacred while a further 23,000 people were bused out of the area by 13 July. Overall, the Serb forces killed approximately 50,000 non-Serbs across Bosnia in order to force many others into leaving.
Croat forces in April 1993 In early 1992, as VRS forces were advancing towards
Odžak and
Bosanska Posavina, Croat forces routed Serb civilians living in the area and transported them to Croatia. They also expelled Serbs from
Herzegovina and burned their houses in May 1992. In 1993, the Bosnian Croat authorities used ethnic cleansing in conjunction with the attack on
Mostar, where Bosniaks were placed in Croat-run detention camps. Croat forces evicted Bosniaks from the western part of Mostar and from other towns and villages, including
Stolac and
Čapljina. To assume power in communities in Central Bosnia and Western Herzegovina that were coveted by the HR BH, its president Mate Boban ordered the
Croatian Defence Council (HVO) to start persecuting Bosniaks living in these territories. Croat forces used "artillery, eviction, violence, rape, robbery and extortion" to expel or kill the Bosniak population, some of whom were detained in the
Heliodrom and
Dretelj camps. The
Ahmići and
Stupni Do massacres had the aim of removing Bosniaks from these areas. Croat soldiers blew up Bosniak businesses and shops in some towns. They arrested thousands of Bosniak civilians and tried to remove them from Herzegovina by deporting them to third countries. HR HB forces purged Serbs and Bosniaks from government offices and the police. The Bosniaks of HR HB-designated areas were increasingly harassed. In
Vitez and
Zenica in April 1993, Croat soldiers warned Bosniaks they would be killed in three hours unless they left their homes. 5,000 Bosniaks were expelled from the Vitez region and 20,000–25,000 from the Croat-controlled part of Mostar. Similar events occurred in
Prozor, where Bosniaks left after Croat forces took over the city, looting and burning Bosniak shops. In October 1995, Croatian forces led by
Damir Krstičević massacred up to 480 Serb civilians and soldiers in
Mrkonjić Grad, while also burning numerous villages around the municipalities of
Mrkonjić Grad,
Šipovo,
Bosansko Grahovo, and
Drvar as a part of
Operation Southern Move. The
mass grave was recovered in April 1996 by Serbian forensics.
Bosniak forces According to the
UN Security Council's "Final Report (1994)", Bosniaks engaged in "grave breaches of the
Geneva Conventions and other violations of
international humanitarian law" but they did not engage in "systematic ethnic cleansing". During the 1993
siege of Goražde, Bosniak forces expelled some Serbs from the town and placed others under
house arrest. Similar incidents occurred in March 1993 when Bosniak authorities initiated a campaign to expel Croats from Konjic. During the
siege of Sarajevo, Bosniak paramilitary leader
Mušan Topalović and his forces
abducted and killed mostly Serbs living in and around the Sarajevo suburb
Bistrik before Bosnian police killed Topalović in October 1993. The departure of Croats from Sarajevo,
Tuzla and
Zenica had different motives, which were not always the direct consequence of pressure by Bosniaks. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the
ECMM monitors in central Bosnia generally favored the Muslims, even to the extent of minimizing Croat charges of "ethnic cleansing" by the Muslims. ==Demographic changes==