Ethnic Relations. The entire Balkan region has historically been called the powder keg of Europe because of volatile relations both among local groups and with outside forces. Bosnia, however, has a long history of relatively peaceful coexistence among its three main ethnic groups. Before the 1990s, intermarriage was common, as were mixed communities. When Milosevic rose to power in Yugoslavia in 1989, his extremist politics stirred latent distrust among the ethnic groups. When Bosnia declared independence in 1992, his government began a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" that has left millions dead, wounded, or homeless. While it is the Serbs, with the backing of Milosevic, who have been responsible for most of the atrocities, Croats also have persecuted Bosnian Muslims