Didn’t need to. Most of this was on the European Union’s behalf, so they could “enlarge” into a “superstate” that resembles Napoleon’s empire on the map.
The UN was on board too. And our media pushed the term “ethnic cleansing” on us (first in the Washington Compost from August 1991, claiming it came from the Croatian leadership).
And the hollywood propaganda movie 'Behind enemy lines' stroking muslims and painting christian serbs as butchers.