The
Yugoslav Wars were a series of violent conflicts fought in former
Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the second half of World War II until it was formally dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,...
during the 1990s and 2001. The wars were characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts between the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between
SerbsSerbs are a South Slavic people living in the Central Europe and the Balkans , between the Balkan- and Carpathian mountains in the east and the Adriatic sea in the west. They are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia...
on the one side and
CroatsCroats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 5 million Croats living in the southern Central Europe region, along the east bank of the Adriatic Sea and an estimated 9 million throughout the world...
,
BosniaksThe Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller autochthonous population also present in the Sandžak, Croatia, and the Republic of Macedonia. Bosniaks are typically characterized by their tie to the Bosnian historical region,...
and
AlbaniansAlbanians are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. About half of them live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro...
on the other; but also between
BosniaksThe Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller autochthonous population also present in the Sandžak, Croatia, and the Republic of Macedonia. Bosniaks are typically characterized by their tie to the Bosnian historical region,...
and
CroatsCroats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 5 million Croats living in the southern Central Europe region, along the east bank of the Adriatic Sea and an estimated 9 million throughout the world...
in
BosniaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
and
MacedoniansThe Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs are a South Slavic people who are primarily associated with the Republic of Macedonia. They speak the Macedonian language, a South Slavic language...
and
AlbaniansAlbanians are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. About half of them live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro...
in Macedonia. The wars ended with massive economic disruption to Yugoslavia.
Often described as Europe's deadliest conflicts since
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, they were characterized by mass war crimes and
ethnic cleansingEthnic cleansing is a term that has come to be used broadly to describe all forms of ethnically inspired violence, ranging from murder, rape, and torture to the forcible removal of populations...
. They were the first conflicts since World War II to be formally judged
genocidalGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
in character and many key individual participants were subsequently charged with war crimes. The
International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaThe International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
(ICTY) was established by the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
to prosecute these crimes.
Although tensions in Yugoslavia had been mounting since the early 1980s, it was 1990 that proved the decisive year in which war became more likely. In the midst of economic hardship, the country was facing rising nationalism amongst its various ethnic groups. At the last 14th Communist Party conference in January 1990, the Serbian-dominated congress voted down
SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
n proposals for an end to the one-party system and for economic reform. This prompted the Slovenian and Croatian delegations to walk out and thus the break-up of the party, a symbolic event representing the end of "
brotherhood and unityBrotherhood and unity was a popular slogan of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia that was coined during the Yugoslav People's Liberation War , and which evolved into both a guiding principle of Yugoslavia's post-war inter-ethnic policy....
".
The Yugoslav wars may be considered to comprise of two sets of successive wars affecting all of the six former Yugoslav republics, including Kosovo:
- Wars during the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the second half of World War II until it was formally dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,...
:
-
- 1. War in Slovenia
The Ten-Day War , sometimes called the Slovenian Independence War , was a brief military conflict between Slovenian TO and the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991 following Slovenia's declaration of independence....
(1991)
- 2. Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was a war fought in Croatia from 1991 to 1995. It was fought between the Croatian government, having declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and both the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb forces, who established the self-proclaimed...
(1991-1995)
- 3. Bosnian War
The Bosnian War, also known as the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was an international armed conflict that took place between March 1992 and November 1995. The war involved several sides...
(1992-1995)
-
- NATO bombing in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995)
- Wars in Albanian
Albanians are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. About half of them live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro...
-populated areas:
- 1. Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts in Kosovo:#Early 1998–1999: War between Yugoslav police forces, Yugoslav paramilitaries, and the Kosovo Albanian insurgents....
(1998-1999)
-
- NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia (1999)
- 2. Southern Serbia conflict (2000-2001)
- 3. Macedonia conflict (2001)
Terminology
The war(s) have alternatively been called:
- "War in the Balkans": largely inappropriate, partly because the war affected only the Western Balkans but also because certain areas which saw fighting (eg. most of Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
, the Croatian land of SlavoniaSlavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
) are within Central EuropeCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
(not in the Balkans).
- "War in (the former) Yugoslavia"
- "Wars of Yugoslav Secession/Succession"
- "Third Balkan War": a short-lived term coined by British journalist Misha Glenny
Misha Glenny is a British journalist who specializes in southeastern Europe and global organized crime.-Biography:Glenny is the son of the late Russian studies academic Michael Glenny...
, alluding to the two previous Balkan WarsThe Balkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913. The First Balkan War broke out on 8 October 1912 when Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia , having large parts of their ethnic populations under Ottoman sovereignty, attacked the Ottoman Empire, terminating its five-century...
fought 1912–1913
- "Ten Years War": a term coined by the Italian scholar Alessandro Marzo Magno to encompass the whole 1991-2001 period.
Background
Before World War II, major tensions arose from the first,
monarchist YugoslaviaThe Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a kingdom stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
's multi-ethnic makeup and relative political and demographic domination of the Serbs. Fundamental to the tensions were the different concepts of the new state; the Croats envisaged a federal model where they would enjoy greater autonomy than they had as a separate crown land under
Austria-HungaryAustria–Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, or Dual State, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe...
. Under Austria-Hungary, Croats enjoyed autonomy with free hands only in education, law, religion and 45% of taxes. The Serbs tended to view the territories as a just reward for their support of the allies in
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
and the new state as an extension of the Serbian Kingdom. The Serbs sacrificed their own state (which was in that time a little bit larger than today's Serbia, including much of Kosovo and Macedonia) in order to realize the ideal of a "South Slav state". Tensions between the two ethnic groups often erupted into open conflict, with the Serb dominated security structure exercising oppression during elections and the assassination in federal parliament of Croat political leaders, including
Stjepan RadićStjepan Radić was a Croatian politician and the founder of the Croatian Peasant Party in 1905. Radić is credited with galvanizing the peasantry of Croatia into a viable political force...
, who opposed the Serbian monarch's
absolutismThe term Absolutism may refer to:* Absolute idealism, an ontologically monistic philosophy attributed to G.W.F. Hegel. It is Hegel's account of how being is ultimately comprehensible as an all-inclusive whole...
. The assassination and human rights abuses were subject of concern for the
Human Rights LeagueThe Ligue des droits de l'homme is a French NGO founded on 4 June 1898 by the republican Ludovic Trarieux to defend captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew wrongly convicted for treason - this would be known as the Dreyfus Affair...
and precipitated voices of protest from intellectuals, including
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
. It was in this environment of oppression that the radical insurgent group (later fascist dictatorship), the
UstašeThe Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement , members known collectively as Ustaše, but sometimes anglicised as Ustashe, Ustashas or Ustashi) was a Croatian anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was blend of fascism, nazism, Croatian ultranationalism, and Roman Catholic...
were formed.
The country's tensions were exploited by the occupying Axis forces in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, which established a puppet-state spanning much of present day
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
and
Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
. The Axis powers installed the Ustasha in charge of this "
Independent State of CroatiaThe Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany. The NDH was established on April 10, 1941 after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers...
", which having resolved that the Serbian minority were a
fifth columnA fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group, such as a nation, from within, to the aid of an external enemy.- Origin :...
of Serbian expansionism, pursued a
genocidalGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
policy against them. One third were to be killed, one third expelled, and one third converted to
CatholicismThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
and assimilated as Croats. The same policy was applied in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both Croats and Muslims were recruited as soldiers by the
SSThe , abbreviated SS- or - was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The SS grew from a small paramilitary unit to a powerful force that served as the Führer's "Praetorian Guard," the Nazi Party's "Shield Squadron" and a force that, fielding almost a million men ,...
(primarily in the
13th Waffen Mountain DivisionThe 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar was one of the thirty-eight divisions fielded as part of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The majority of its recruits were Bosniaks and Croats . Handschar was the local word for the Turkish scimitar a historical symbol of Bosnia and Islam...
). At the same time, former Royalist General
Milan NedićMilan Nedić was a Serbian general and politician, he was the chief of the general staff of the Yugoslav Army, minister of war in the Royal Yugoslav Government and the prime minister of a led a Nazi-backed puppet government in Serbia during World War II...
was installed by the Axis as head of the
Serb puppet stateSerbia or Military Administration in Serbia was established by Germany in 1941, after several months of occupation in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis Powers in World War II...
. Both
quislingQuisling, after Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling, who assisted Nazi Germany to conquer his own country and ruled the collaborationist Norwegian government, is a term used to describe traitors and collaborators...
s were confronted and eventually defeated by the
communistCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
-led anti-fascist
PartisanThe Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II resistance movement engaged in the fight against Axis forces and their collaborators in Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav People's Liberation War from 1941 to 1945...
movement composed of members of all ethnic groups in the area, leading to the formation of the
Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the second half of World War II until it was formally dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,...
. The official Yugoslav post-war estimate of
victimsWorld War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. Over 60 million people were killed. The tables below give a detailed country-by-country count of human losses.-Total dead:...
in Yugoslavia during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
is 1,704,000. Subsequent data gathering in the 1980s by historians
Vladimir ŽerjavićVladimir Žerjavić was a Croatian economist and a United Nations expert. He published a series of historical articles and books during the 1980s and 1990s in which he argued that the scope of the Holocaust in World War II-era territory of Yugoslavia was intentionally exaggerated...
and
Bogoljub KočovićBogoljub Kočović is a Bosnian jurist and statistician, Yugoslave by ethnic affiliation.Kočović was born in Sarajevo; his father was a Serb and mother French by origin. He obtained a MA in economy at the Roosevelt University in Chicago, and a Ph. D. in law in Paris...
showed that the actual number of dead was about 1 million. Of that number, the
UstašeThe Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement , members known collectively as Ustaše, but sometimes anglicised as Ustashe, Ustashas or Ustashi) was a Croatian anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was blend of fascism, nazism, Croatian ultranationalism, and Roman Catholic...
killed 330,000–390,000 ethnic Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.
Despite the federal structure of the new Yugoslavia, there was still tension between the federalists, primarily Croats and Slovenes who argued for greater autonomy, and unitarists, primarily Serbs. The to and fro of the struggle would occur in cycles of protests for greater individual and national rights (such as the
Croatian SpringThe Croatian Spring was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia which was then part of Yugoslavia as well as democratic and economic reforms....
) and subsequent repression. The 1974 constitution was an attempt to short-circuit this pattern by entrenching the federal model and formalizing national rights.
SFR Yugoslav dissolution wars (1991-1995)
In the years leading up to the Yugoslav wars, relations among the republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had been deteriorating. Slovenia and Croatia desired greater autonomy within a Yugoslav confederation, while Serbia sought to strengthen federal authority. As it became clearer that there was no solution agreeable to all parties, Slovenia and Croatia moved toward secession. By that time there was no effective authority at the federal level. Federal Presidency consisted of the representatives of all 6 republics and 2 provinces and JNA (Yugoslav People's Army). Communist leadership was divided along national lines. The final breakdown occurred at the 14th Congress of the Communist Party when Croat and Slovenian delegates left in protest because the pro-integration majority in the Congress rejected their proposed amendments.
Ten-Day War
The first of these conflicts, known as the
Ten-Day WarThe Ten-Day War , sometimes called the Slovenian Independence War , was a brief military conflict between Slovenian TO and the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991 following Slovenia's declaration of independence....
, was initiated by the secession of Slovenia from the federation on 25 June 1991. The federal government ordered the federal
Yugoslav People's ArmyThe Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, YPA) The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, YPA) (Serbo-Croatian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, or Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA,
[Two alternative name variants in Latin script. Latin script was used in...]
to secure border crossings in Slovenia. Slovenian police and
Slovenian Territorial DefenceThe Territorial Defense of the Republic of Slovenia was the predecessor of the Slovenian Armed Forces.- History :...
blockaded barracks and roads, leading to standoffs and limited skirmishes around the republic. After several dozen deaths, the limited conflict was stopped through negotiation at
BrioniThe Brijuni are a group of fourteen small islands in the Croatian part of the northern Adriatic Sea, separated from the west coast of the Istrian peninsula by the narrow Fažana Strait. The largest island, Veli Brijun , lies 2 km off the coast...
on 9 July 1991, when Slovenia and Croatia agreed to a three-month moratorium on secession. The Federal army completely withdrew from Slovenia by 26 October 1991.
Croatian War of Independence
The second in this series of conflicts, the
Croatian War of IndependenceThe Croatian War of Independence was a war fought in Croatia from 1991 to 1995. It was fought between the Croatian government, having declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and both the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb forces, who established the self-proclaimed...
, began when
Serbs in CroatiaSerbs of Croatia are the largest single national minority in the Republic of Croatia. Majority of Serbs trace their roots in the territory of present day Croatia for over 400 years...
who were opposed to Croatian independence announced their secession from
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
. Fighting in this region had actually begun weeks prior to the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. The move was in part triggered by a provision in the new Croatian Constitution that replaced the explicit reference to Serbs in Croatia as a "constituent nation" with a generic reference to all other nations, and was interpreted by Serbs as being reclassified as a "national minority". This was coupled with a history of distrust between the two ethnic groups dating back to at least both World Wars and the
inter-war periodThe Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a kingdom stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
. The federally-controlled
Yugoslav People's ArmyThe Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, YPA) The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, YPA) (Serbo-Croatian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, or Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA,
[Two alternative name variants in Latin script. Latin script was used in...]
(JNA) was ideologically Unitarian, and predominantly staffed by Serbs in its officer corp, thus it also opposed Croatian independence and sided with the Croatian Serb rebels. Since the
JNAThe Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, YPA) The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, YPA) (Serbo-Croatian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, or Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA,
[Two alternative name variants in Latin script. Latin script was used in...]
had disarmed the Territorial Units of the two northernmost republics, the fledgling
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
n state had to form its military from scratch and was further hindered by an arms embargo imposed by the U.N. on the whole of Yugoslavia. The Croatian Serb rebels were unaffected by said embargo as they had the support of and access to supplies of the JNA. The border regions faced direct attacks from forces within Serbia and Montenegro, and saw the destruction of
VukovarVukovar is a city and municipality in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Srijem county...
and the shelling of
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
world heritage siteA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that is on the list that is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 state parties which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-year term.A World Heritage Site is a...
Dubrovnik||-||-||-||-||-||-||}Dubrovnik , is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast in the extreme south of Dalmatia, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county...
. One western author criticised Croatia's move to independence as an "irresponsible and unnecessary secession of Croatia and Slovenia from Yugoslavia, which broke up a magnificent country, set off a vicious war in Croatia, and revived many of the Ustase-Cetnik horrors of World War II".
Bosnian War
In March 1991, the
Karađorđevo agreementIn 1991, Croatian president Franjo Tuđman and Serbian president Slobodan Milošević had a series of discussions which became known as the Karađorđevo agreement or Karađorđevo meeting. These discussions commenced as early as March, 1991...
took place between Franjo Tudjman and Slobodan Milosevic. The two presidents tried to reach an agreement on the disintegration process of Yugoslavia, but their main concern was Bosnia, or more precisely its partition.
Meanwhile, control over central Croatia was seized by Croatian Serb forces in conjunction with the JNA Corpus from Bosnia & Herzegovina, under the leadership of
Ratko Mladic. These attacks were marked by the killings of captured soldiers and heavy civilian casualties (
OvcaraThe Vukovar massacre was a war crime that took place between November 18 and November 21 1991 near the city of Vukovar, a mixed Croat/Serb community in northeastern Croatia...
;
ŠkabrnjaŠkabrnja massacre was a war crime, atrocities committed by Serb Army forces during the Croatian War of Independence. On November 18, 1991, Serb paramilitaries, supported by the JNA, captured the village of Škabrnja and killed 25 Prisoners of war and 61 civilians over the next several days.-Before...
), and were the subject of war crimes indictments by the ICTY for elements of the Serb political & military leadership. In January 1992, the Vance-Owen peace plan proclaimed UN controlled (UNPA) zones for
SerbsSerbs are a South Slavic people living in the Central Europe and the Balkans , between the Balkan- and Carpathian mountains in the east and the Adriatic sea in the west. They are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia...
in territory claimed by the rebel Serbs as the
Republic of Serbian KrajinaThe Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serbian-dominated entity within Croatia during the 1990s. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally...
and brought an end to major military operations, though sporadic artillery attacks on Croatian cities and occasional intrusions of Croatian forces into UNPA zones continued until 1995.
In 1992, the conflict engulfed
Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
. It was predominantly a territorial conflict between local
BosniaksThe Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller autochthonous population also present in the Sandžak, Croatia, and the Republic of Macedonia. Bosniaks are typically characterized by their tie to the Bosnian historical region,...
and Croats backed by
ZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. Zagreb is the cultural, scientific, economic and governmental center of Croatia, and a global city. According to the city government, the population of Zagreb in 2008 was 804,200...
on one side, and
SerbsSerbs are a South Slavic people living in the Central Europe and the Balkans , between the Balkan- and Carpathian mountains in the east and the Adriatic sea in the west. They are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia...
backed by the
Yugoslav People's ArmyThe Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, YPA) The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, YPA) (Serbo-Croatian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, or Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija – JNA,
[Two alternative name variants in Latin script. Latin script was used in...]
and Serbia on the other. The Yugoslav armed forces which had disintegrated into a largely Serb-dominated military force opposed the Bosniak-majority led government's agenda for independence and along with other armed nationalist Serb militant forces, attempted to prevent Bosnian citizens from voting in the 1992 referendum on independence to prevent Bosnia from legally being able to secede. This did not succeed in persuading people not to vote and instead the intimidating atmosphere combined with a Serb boycott of the vote resulted in a resounding 99% vote in support for independence. In June 19, 1992
Croat-Bosniak warThe Croat-Bosniak War was a conflict between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia supported by the Republic of Croatia, that lasted from June 19 1992 – February 23, 1994...
broke out. The Bosnia conflict, typified by the
siege of SarajevoThe Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996 during the...
&
SrebrenicaThe Srebrenica Massacre, also known as the Srebrenica Genocide, refers to the July 1995 killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the ethnic cleansing of 25,000-30,000 refugees in the area of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under the...
, was by far the bloodiest and most widely covered of the Yugoslav wars. Bosnia's Serb faction led by ultra-nationalist
Radovan KaradzicRadovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician, poet and psychiatrist. He is currently on trial in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and other non-Serbs during the Siege of Sarajevo...
promised independence for all Serb areas of Bosnia from the majority-Bosniak government of Bosnia. To link the disjointed parts of territories populated by Serbs and areas claimed by Serbs, Karadzic pursued an agenda of systematic ethnic cleansing primarily against Bosniaks through genocide and forced removal of Bosniak populations. The
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government.It is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers....
(CIA) in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
reported in April 1995 that 90 percent of all the atrocities in the Yugoslav wars up to that point had been committed by Serb militants. Most of these atrocities occurred in Bosnia.
The fighting in Croatia ended sometime in the summer of 1995, after the Croatian Army launched two rapid military operations, codenamed
Operation FlashOperation Flash was a brief offensive conducted in the beginning of May 1995 by the Croatian Army, which removed Serb forces from the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina region of SAO Western Slavonia...
and
Operation StormOperation Storm is the code name given to a large-scale military operation carried out by Croatian Armed Forces, in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to retake the parts of Croatia which had been controlled by separatist ethnic Serbs since early 1991.The...
, in which it managed to reclaim all of its territory except the UNPA Sector East bordering
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
. Most of the Serbian population in these areas became refugees, and has been the subject of war crimes indictments by the ICTY for elements of the Croat military leadership. The remaining Sector East came under UN administration (UNTAES), and was reintegrated to Croatia in 1998.
In 1994 the
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
brokered peace between
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
n forces and the Bosniak
Army of the Republic of Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the military force of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina established by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 following the outbreak of the Bosnian War...
. After the successful
FlashOperation Flash was a brief offensive conducted in the beginning of May 1995 by the Croatian Army, which removed Serb forces from the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina region of SAO Western Slavonia...
and
StormOperation Storm is the code name given to a large-scale military operation carried out by Croatian Armed Forces, in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to retake the parts of Croatia which had been controlled by separatist ethnic Serbs since early 1991.The...
operations, the Croatian Army and the combined Bosniak & Croat forces of Bosnian & Herzegovina, worked together in an operation codenamed Operation Maestral to push back Bosnian Serb military gains. Together with NATO air strikes on the Bosnian Serbs, the successes on the ground put pressure on the Serbs to come to the negotiating table. Pressure was put on all sides to stick to the cease-fire and
finally negotiateFour major peace plans were offered before and during the Bosnian-Herzegovina War, commonly known as the Bosnian War, by European Community and United Nations diplomats before the conflict was settled by the Dayton Agreement in 1995....
an end to the war in Bosnia. The war ended with the signing of the
Dayton AgreementThe General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on...
on the 14 December 1995, with the formation of
Republika SrpskaRepublika Srpska is one of two main political-territorial divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
as an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina being the resolution for Bosnian Serb demands.
Conflicts in Albanian-populated areas (1996-2002)
In
KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
,
MacedoniaMacedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country in the central Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, and southern
Central SerbiaCentral Serbia , also referred to as Serbia proper or Narrower Serbia , is the region of Serbia that lies outside the autonomous province of Vojvodina and the disputed region of Kosovo.-Political status:...
, the conflicts were typified by ethnic and political tension between the Serbian and Macedonian governments and
AlbanianAlbanians are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. About half of them live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro...
national minorities which sought autonomy, as was the case in the Republic of Macedonia, or independence, as was the case in Kosovo.
Kosovo War
The
conflict in KosovoThe term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts in Kosovo:#Early 1998–1999: War between Yugoslav police forces, Yugoslav paramilitaries, and the Kosovo Albanian insurgents....
(1996-1999) became a full-scale war in 1999, while the
Macedonia conflictThe insurgency in Macedonia was an armed conflict which began when the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army militant group attacked the security forces of the Republic of Macedonia at the beginning of January 2001...
(2001-2002) and Southern Serbia conflict (2001) were characterized by armed clashes between state security forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
The war in Kosovo ended with NATO intervention against Serbian forces in 1999, with a mainly bombing but partly ground-based campaign under the command of Gen. Wesley Clark. The NATO intervention is often counted as yet another separate war.
The military conflicts in southern Serbia and in Republic of Macedonia ended with internationally-overseen peace agreements between the insurgents and the government. Kosovo was placed under the governmental control of the
United Nations Interim Administration Mission in KosovoThe United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo or UNMIK is the interim civilian administration in Kosovo, under the authority of the United Nations. The mission was established on 10 June 1999 by Security Council Resolution 1244...
and the military protection of KFOR.
Rioting and
unrest in KosovoViolent unrest in Kosovo, a Serbian province under United Nations administration, broke out on 17 March 2004. The Albanians' actions during the mass unrest were compared to ethnic cleansing, leading to the largest violent incident in the province since the Kosovo War of 1999.-Events in...
broke out in 2004, with minor unrest in 2008 upon Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.
War rape
Evidence of the magnitude of rape in
Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
prompted the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaThe International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
(ICTY) to deal openly with these abuses. Reports of sexual violence during the
Bosnian WarThe Bosnian War, also known as the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was an international armed conflict that took place between March 1992 and November 1995. The war involved several sides...
(1992-1995) and
Kosovo WarThe term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts in Kosovo:#Early 1998–1999: War between Yugoslav police forces, Yugoslav paramilitaries, and the Kosovo Albanian insurgents....
(1996-1999) perpetrated by the Serbian regular and irregular forces have been described as "especially alarming". Since the entry of the NATO-led Kosovo Force, rapes of Albanian, Roma and Serbian women by Serbs and sometimes members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, have been documented.
It has been estimated that during the Bosnian War between 20,000 and 50,000 women were raped. A Commission of Experts appointed in October of 1992 by the United Nations concluded that "
Rape has been reported to have been committed by all sides to the conflict. However, the largest number of reported victims have been Bosnian Muslims, and the largest number of alleged perpetrators have been Bosnian Serbs. There are few reports of rape and sexual assault between members of the same ethnic group." Although men also became victim of sexual violence, war rape was disproportionately directed against women who were (gang) raped in the streets, in their homes and/or in front of family members. Sexual violence occurred in a multiple ways, including rape with objects, such as broken glass bottles, guns and truncheons. War rape occurred as a matter of official orders as part of ethnic cleansing, to displace the targeted ethnic group out of the region.
During the Bosnian War the existence of deliberately created "rape camps" was reported. The reported aim of these camps was to impregnate the Muslim and Croatian women held captive. It has been reported that often women were kept in confinement until the late stage of their pregnancy. This occurred in the context of a patrilineal society, in which children inherit their father's ethnicity, hence the "rape camps" aimed at the birth of a new generation of Serb children. According to the Women's Group Tresnjevka more than 35,000 women and children were held in such Serb-run "rape camps".
During the Kosovo War thousands of Kosovo Albanian women and girls became victims of sexual violence. War rape was used as a weapon of war and an instrument of systematic
ethnic cleansingEthnic cleansing is a term that has come to be used broadly to describe all forms of ethnically inspired violence, ranging from murder, rape, and torture to the forcible removal of populations...
; rape was used to terrorize the civilian population, extort money from families, and force people to flee their homes. According to a report by the
Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto,...
group in 2000, rape in the Kosovo can generally be subdivided into three categories: rapes in woman's homes, rapes during fighting, and rapes in detention. The majority of the perpetrators were Serbian paramilitaries, but they also included Serbian special police or Yugoslav army soldiers. Virtually all of the sexual assaults Human Rights Watch documented were gang rapes involving at least two perpetrators. Since the end of the war, rapes of Serbian, Albanian, and Roma women by ethnic Albanians -- sometimes by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) -- have also been documented. Rapes occurred frequently in the presence, and with the acquiescence, of military officers. Soldiers, police, and paramilitaries often raped their victims in the full view of numerous witnesses.
A brief timeline of the Yugoslav Wars
1968
- Students in Kosovo demand greater rights for the Albanian minority during the worldwide May 1968 protests.
1971
- Demonstrations in Croatia, known as the Croatian spring
The Croatian Spring was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia which was then part of Yugoslavia as well as democratic and economic reforms....
, are condemned by the communist government. Many participants were later convicted as nationalists, including Stipe Mesić and Franjo Tuđman. Government crisis follows.
1974
- A new SFRY constitution is proclaimed, granting more power to federal units, and more power to autonomous provinces Kosovo and Vojvodina
The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province in Serbia, containing about 27% of its total population according to the 2002 Census. It is located in the northern part of the country, in the Pannonian plain of Central Europe...
of Serbia, giving them all a single vote in all relevant decisions in the federal government, which is now headed by the joint Presidency with a rotating President. MuslimsMuslims by nationality was a term used in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as an official designation of nationality of Slavic Muslims. They were one of the constitutive groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
were recognized as a constituent nation of Yugoslavia, becoming the primary ethnic group of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
1980
- Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz Tito (Cyrillic script: Јосип Броз Тито, (7 or 25 May 1892 – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. He was Secretary-General (later President) of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1939–80), and went on to lead the World War II...
dies.
1981
- Economic crisis in Yugoslavia has begun. Albanian students demonstrate in Kosovo, demanding federal unit status.
1986-
1989
- The controversial Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts was a draft document produced by a committee of the Serbian Academy from 1985 to 1986. In September 1986, parts of the draft were published by Večernje novosti...
claims SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
has a weak position in YugoslaviaYugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century.The first country to be known by this...
.
- Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia...
rises to power in Serbia, promising to defend and promote the interests of Serbs across Yugoslavia and challenge politicians who were deemed to be repressing the interests of Serbs. Antibureaucratic revolution demonstrations overthrow Communist party leadership and bring pro-Milošević governments to power in Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro. The other republics' leaderships oppose Milošević's coups
1989
- Kosovar Albanians continued to demonstrate throughout 1989 after Milosevic adopted amendments to the Serbian Constitution that took away Kosovo’s control over the police force, civil defense, economic, civil and criminal courts, social and education policy. The amendments also effectively prohibited the use of Albanian as an official language in Kosovo and forbade the sale of property to Albanians. This was followed by the closure of the Albanian language newspaper, and the Kosovo Academy of Sciences. Some 80,000 Kosovo Albanians were fired from state employment.
1990
- The League of Communists of Yugoslavia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia , before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia , was a major Communist party in Yugoslavia...
dissolves on republican and ethnic lines at its 14th Congress with Slovene and Croatian delegations leaving amid claims that Milošević is usurping power.
- The first democratic elections are held in socialist Yugoslavia. Nationalist parties win the majority in almost all republics.
- Student protests in Belgrade against Milošević end with police crackdown: one student is killed.
- Croatian Serbs start a rebellion
The Log Revolution was an incident which started from August 17, 1990 in areas of the Socialist Republic of Croatia which were populated significantly by ethnic Serbs....
against the newly elected Croatian government led by Franjo Tuđman, severing land ties between Dalmatia and remainder of Croatia.
- Albanian miners go on strike in Kosovo, which Milošević ends with a police and army crackdown.
- Constitutional changes in Serbia revoke some of the powers granted to Kosovo and Vojvodina, effectively giving Serbia 3 out of 8 votes in the federal council. Along with allied Montenegro, this gives extreme power to the Serbian elite. With these votes, Serbian representatives attempt to institute martial law
Martial law is the system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice.Martial law is sometimes imposed during wars or occupations in the absence of any other civil government. Examples of this form of military rule include Germany and Japan...
to stop democratic changes - their attempt fails as Bosnia's representative (an ethnic Serb) votes against in the crucial last vote.
- Slovenia and Croatia declare independence in June, Macedonia in September. War in Slovenia
The Ten-Day War , sometimes called the Slovenian Independence War , was a brief military conflict between Slovenian TO and the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991 following Slovenia's declaration of independence....
lasts ten days.
- The Yugoslav army leaves Slovenia, but supports rebel Serb forces in Croatia. The Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was a war fought in Croatia from 1991 to 1995. It was fought between the Croatian government, having declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and both the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb forces, who established the self-proclaimed...
begins in Croatia. Serb areas in Croatia declare independence, but are recognized only by Belgrade.
- Cities of Vukovar
Vukovar is a city and municipality in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Srijem county...
, Dubrovnik||-||-||-||-||-||-||}Dubrovnik , is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast in the extreme south of Dalmatia, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county...
and OsijekOsijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 114,616 in 2001. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...
are devastated by bombardments and shelling. A flood of refugees from the war zones and ethnic cleansing overwhelm entire Croatia. Countries of Europe are slow in accepting refugees.
- Macedonia declares independence in September.
1992
- Vance peace plan signed, creating four UNPA zones for Serbs and ending large scale fighting in Croatia.
- Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
declares independence. Bosnian warThe Bosnian War, also known as the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was an international armed conflict that took place between March 1992 and November 1995. The war involved several sides...
begins.
- Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or FRY was a federal state consisting of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , created after the other four republics broke away from Yugoslavia amid rising ethnic tensions...
proclaimed, consisting of SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
and MontenegroMontenegro , is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south...
, the only two remaining republics.
- United Nations impose sanctions against FR Yugoslavia and accepts Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia as members. FR Yugoslavia claims being sole legal heir to SFRY, which is disputed by other republics. UN envoys agree that Yugoslavia had 'dissolved into constituent republics'.
- Approx. 600,000 non-Serbian refugees.
- Bosniak-Croat conflict begins in Bosnia.
- Fighting begins in the Bihać
Bihać is a city and municipality on the river Una in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, center of the Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-History:...
region between Bosnian Government forces loyal to Alija IzetbegovićAlija Izetbegović was a Bosniak activist, lawyer, author, philosopher and politician, who, in 1990, became the first president of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served in this role until 1996, when he became a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving until 2000...
, and Bosniaks loyal to Fikret AbdićFikret Abdić is a politician and businessman from Bosnia and Herzegovina, convicted of war crimes against Bosniaks in the region of Velika Kladuša....
who is supported by Serbs.
- Sanctions and in F.R. Yugoslavia, now isolated, create hyperinflation of 3,6 million percent a year of the Yugoslav dinar; this had never been known previously. The inflation exceeds that experienced in the Great Depression of 1929.
- The Stari Most (The Old Bridge) in Mostar, built in 1566, was destroyed by Bosnian Croat forces. It was rebuilt in 2003.
- The Republic of Macedonia is accepted by the UN, but under the provisional name "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".
1994
- Peace treaty
The Washington Agreement was a ceasefire agreement between the warring Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina , signed in Washington and Vienna in March 1994...
between Bosniaks and Croats arbitrated by the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Federation of Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two political entities that compose the sovereign country of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
formed.
- F.R. Yugoslavia stabilizes economy structure with Economic Implementation Framework.
1995
- Srebrenica massacre
The Srebrenica Massacre, also known as the Srebrenica Genocide, refers to the July 1995 killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the ethnic cleansing of 25,000-30,000 refugees in the area of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under the...
reported, 8,000 Bosniaks killed.
- Croatia launches Operation Flash
Operation Flash was a brief offensive conducted in the beginning of May 1995 by the Croatian Army, which removed Serb forces from the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina region of SAO Western Slavonia...
and Operation StormOperation Storm is the code name given to a large-scale military operation carried out by Croatian Armed Forces, in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to retake the parts of Croatia which had been controlled by separatist ethnic Serbs since early 1991.The...
, reclaiming all UNPA zones except Eastern Slavonia, and resulting in exodus of 250,000 Serbs from the zones. War in Croatia ends.
- NATO launches a series of air strikes on Bosnian Serb artillery and other military targets.
- Dayton Agreement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on...
signed in ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. War in Bosnia and Herzegovina ends. Aftermath of war is over 100,000 killed and missing and 2,5 million people internally displaced among the former republics. Serb defeat in Croatia and West Bosnia allows Croatian and Bosniak refugees to return to their homes, but many refugees of all nationalities are still displaced today.
- After signing the Dayton Agreement, Yugoslavia is granted with looser sanctions, still affecting much of its economy (trade, tourism, industrial production and exports of final products), but allowing for its citizens to exit Yugoslavia, for a limited time.
1996
- FR Yugoslavia recognizes Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
- Fighting breaks out between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo
Kosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
.
- Following a fraud in local elections, hundreds of thousands of Serbs demonstrate in Belgrade against the Milošević regime for three months.
1998
- Eastern Slavonia peacefully reintegrated into Croatia, following a gradual three-year handover of power.
1999
- NATO starts a military campaign in Kosovo and bombards FR Yugoslavia in Operation Allied Force.
- Following Milošević signing of an agreement, control of Kosovo is handed to the United Nations, but still remains a part of Yugoslavia's federation. Fresh fighting erupts between Albanians and Yugoslav security forces in Albanian populated areas outside of Kosovo, with the intent of joining three municipalities to Kosovo.
- Franjo Tuđman dies. Shortly after that, his party loses the elections.
2000
- Slobodan Milošević is voted out of office, and Vojislav Koštunica
Vojislav Koštunica Vojislav Koštunica Vojislav Koštunica (Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Коштуница, ; born 24 March 1944, Belgrade, Yugoslavia is a Serbian politician and the President of the Democratic Party of Serbia. He was the last President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, succeeding...
becomes the new president of Yugoslavia.
- With Milošević ousted and a new democratic government in place, FR Yugoslavia comes out of isolation. The political and economic sanctions are suspended in total, and FRY is reinstated in many political and economic organizations, as well as becoming a candidate for other collaborative efforts.
2001
- The Conflict in Southern Serbia
The Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac was a terrorist group fighting for independence from Serbia for the three municipalities: Preševo, Bujanovac, and Medveđa, home to most of the Albanians of Central Serbia, adjacent to Kosovo...
ends with the Albanians surrendering their bid to attach the regions to Kosovo, and making this the only conflict into which Milošević initially led his nation where they would emerge victorious (Milošević himself having been internally ousted by the end). Relatively few casualties were reported in this war. However, as the battles in southern Serbia were being phased out, they were only to be replaced by more sinister fighting south of the border in the Republic of MacedoniaMacedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country in the central Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
where ethnic Albanians and Macedonian security forces would wage war on each other between January and November. The fighting ended following internationally sponsored peace talks which set the framework for amendments to the Macedonian constitution which would benefit its significant Albanian population.
- In June, Milošević was handed over by Yugoslav authorities to UN personnel, and subsequently transferred to the Hague to stand trial.
2002
- Milošević is put on trial in The Hague on charges of war crimes in Kosovo.
2003
- FR Yugoslavia is reorganized into the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
- Alija Izetbegović
Alija Izetbegović was a Bosniak activist, lawyer, author, philosopher and politician, who, in 1990, became the first president of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served in this role until 1996, when he became a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving until 2000...
dies.
2004
- Slovenia joins the European Union and NATO.
- Clashes take place in Kosovo between Albanians and Serbs.
2006
- Death of Ibrahim Rugova
Ibrahim Rugova was an Albanian politician who was the first President of Kosovo and of its leading political party, the Democratic League of Kosovo ....
, Kosovo Albanian leader in PristinaPristina, also spelled Prishtina or Priština is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the homonymous municipality and district....
- Montenegro
Montenegro , is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south...
holds referendum on independence and dissolves the union with Serbia.
- Death of Slobodan Milošević
The death of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević on 11 March 2006, where he was being tried for war crimes at the ICTY in The Hague, caused a stir and was a major political event, especially for Serbia and Russia. Milošević died only months before the verdict was due for his four-year...
in The Hague prison.
2007
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) finds Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
not guilty of committing genocide in Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
, but finds that it failed to prevent the genocide in SrebrenicaSrebrenica is a town and municipality in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Srebrenica is a small mountain town, its main industry being salt mining and a nearby spa...
and orders it to hand over war criminals who are suspected to hide inside its borders.
2008
- Kosovo
Kosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
declares independence on 17 February 2008. The UN is still divided over the recognition of the state.
- Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician, poet and psychiatrist. He is currently on trial in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and other non-Serbs during the Siege of Sarajevo...
captured in Belgrade, 21 July 2008.
- Majority of the UN states backed a Serbian judicial initiative on Kosovo aimed at determining whether the secession was legal.
2009
- In April, Croatia joins NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
.
See also
- Balkan ethnic conflict in the 1940s
- Breakup of Yugoslavia
- Timeline of Yugoslav breakup
External links