In the spring of 1992, the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina held a referendum on independence. The result of the referendum (which the Bosnian Serbs decided to boycott) was a majority in favor of independence. Alarmed at the prospect of formal separation from Serbia and hostile to an independent State headed by Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Serbs, supported and encouraged by Serbia itself, embarked on a civil war aimed at fragmenting the country and joining the regions of Bosnia where Serbs were in control to Serbia. Despite international recognition of the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina in April 1992, the Bosnian Serbs seized control of 70% of the country and embarked on a program of murder, terror and expulsion of Bosnian Muslims.
As the civil strife gathered momentum King Fahd recognized sooner than most the plight of the Bosnian Muslims and the dreadful seriousness with which the Serbs intended to pursue their program of ethnic cleansing. He immediately condemned Serbian aggression, alerting the international community to the scale of Serbian atrocities and called for international action to end the suffering of the Bosnian Muslims. He met with the Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and, in December 1992, hosted an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to focus on the plight of the Muslims in Bosnia. At an OIC meeting in July 1993, seven OIC Member States committed themselves to provide 17,000 troops to serve in the United Nations Protection Force in the former Yugoslavia. These meetings marked the start of a concerted effort by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to use every diplomatic channel available to resolve the conflict in Bosnia. As part of this process, King Fahd held regular meetings with President Izetbegovic to coordinate both diplomatic and aid efforts.
