Well, it's more complex than that... Definitely, the government of Serbia supported (or at the very least, ignored) Serb paramilitaries, which were infamous fo

Well, it's more complex than that... Definitely, the government of Serbia supported (or at the very least, ignored) Serb paramilitaries, which were infamous for carrying out "ethnic cleansing". On the Croatian side, right-wing paramilitaries were quicker to organize national defense, and were far more effective, than government forces. This led to a rather uncomfortable situation for the government, which was resolved by assassinating the paramilitary leaders (note: I have no citation for this, it's just a strong suspicion), and absorbing their soldiers into the official armed forces. Bosnia's muslim population had a confused notion of nationalism, which was fully taken advantage of by the Serbs, and to some extent the Croats, to further their ambitions. I believe that is a more accurate summary of the situation in 1990s Balkans.