Why did many Bosnian Serbs oppose Bosnia and Herzegovina’s independence from Yugoslavia?

Many Bosnian Serbs opposed the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Yugoslavia primarily due to a desire to remain part of a unified Yugoslav state and to protect the interests of the Serb population within the region.123

As Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in the early 1990s, political tensions rose among the country's three main ethnic groups. The Serb Democratic Party, led by Radovan Karadžić, actively obstructed moves toward independence. Following the declaration of independence by other republics, Bosnian Serbs sought to retain control over areas with large Serb populations, eventually declaring "Serb Autonomous Regions" and consolidating them into the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.123

This resistance was supported by the Slobodan Milošević regime in Serbia, which aimed to defend the wider Serb diaspora and maintain influence over these territories. Consequently, when a referendum on independence was held in 1992, the Serb Democratic Party obstructed voting in most Serb-populated areas, leading to a boycott by the vast majority of Bosnian Serbs.231