Yugoslav Wars

Date: 31 March 1991 – 21 June 1999

(8 years, 2 months and 2 weeks)

Location: Yugoslavia

Result: New countries independent; change in the political status of Kosovo

Belligerents:

1991–92:

Croatia

Slovenia

(1991 only)

1991–92:

Republic of Serbian Krajina

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslav People's Army

(1991 only)

1992–94:

Croatia

Herzeg-Bosnia

(up to 1994)

1992–94:

Bosnia and Herzegovina Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovinaa

1992–94:

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia FR Yugoslavia

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska

Republic of Serbian Krajina

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslav People's Army

(1992 only)

AP Western Bosnia (1993 on)

1994–95:

Croatia

Bosnia and Herzegovina Republic of

Bosnia and Herzegovina

NATO

(bombing operations in 1995)

1994–95:

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska

Republic of Serbian Krajina

AP Western Bosnia

1998–99:

KLA

NATO

(bombing operations in 1999)

1998–99:

FR Yugoslavia

Commanders and leaders:

Croatia: Franjo Tuđman

Croatia Janko Bobetko

Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia Mate Boban

Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia Milivoj Petković

Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia Dario Kordić

Slovenia Milan Kučan

Slovenia Janez Janša

Agim Çeku

Ramush Haradinaj

Hashim Thaçi

Flag of NATO.svg Leighton W. Smith

Flag of NATO.svg Wesley Clark ...and others

Bosnia and Herzegovina Alija Izetbegović

Bosnia and Herzegovina Sefer Halilović

Bosnia and Herzegovina Rasim Delić

...and others

Federal Republic of YugoslaviaSerbia Slobodan Milošević

Federal Republic of YugoslaviaMontenegro Momir Bulatović

Federal Republic of YugoslaviaMontenegro Branko Kostić

Federal Republic of YugoslaviaSerbia Vojislav Šešelj

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Momčilo Perišić

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Veljko Kadijević

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Blagoje Adžić

Republika Srpska Radovan Karadžić

Republika Srpska Ratko Mladić

Republic of Serbian Krajina Milan Martić

Republic of Serbian Krajina Milan Babić

Fikret Abdić

...and others

Casualties and losses

1991–95:

Croatia 13,583 killed (Croatia)[1

Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia 7,788 killed (Bosnia)

Slovenia 18 killed

1998–99:

10,533 killed (Kosovo)

650 others

1991–95:

Bosnia and Herzegovina 97,207 killed (Bosnia)

478 others

1991–95: 37 killed (Slovenia)[4]

Republic of Serbian Krajina 7,501 killed (Croatia)

Republika Srpska 24,905 killed (Bosnia)

1998–1999

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 2,238 killed (Kosovo)

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1,031 killed soldiers (outside Kosovo)

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 488–527 killed civilians (outside Kosovo)

Total deaths: ~130,000+

Displaced: ~4,000,000[7]

a From 1992–1994 the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was at the time representative
mainly of the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina itself. From
1994–1995, after the Washington Agreement, the state was also representative of the Bosnian
Croat ethnic group.

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars fought in Yugoslavia in the 1990s between the republics
that sought sovereignty on one side and the government in Belgrade on the other side that
wanted to either prevent their independence or keep large parts of that territory under its
control. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of
the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on one side and Croats and Bosniaks in Bosnia on
the other, but also between Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia, between Croats and Serbs in Croatia,
between Serbs and Slovenes in Slovenia, between Serbs and Albanians in Serbia, between Serbs
and Kosovo Albanians in Kosovo and between Albanians and Macedonians in Macedonia. The
wars ended in various stages and mostly resulted in full international recognition of new
sovereign territories, but with massive economic disruption to the successor states.

Initially the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) sought to preserve the unity of the whole of Yugoslavia
by crushing the secessionist governments; however the JNA increasingly came under the
influence of the Serbian government of Slobodan Milošević that evoked Serbian nationalist
rhetoric and was willing to support the Yugoslav state insofar as using it to preserve the unity of
Serbs in one state; as a result the JNA began to lose Slovenes, Croats, Kosovar Albanians,
Bosniaks, and ethnic Macedonians, and effectively became a Serb army. According to the 1994
United Nations report, the Serb side did not aim to restore Yugoslavia, but to create a “Greater
Serbia” from parts of Croatia and Bosnia.

Often described as Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, the conflicts have become
infamous for the war crimes involved, including mass murder and genocide. These were the first
conflicts since World War II to be formally judged genocidal in character and many key individual
participants were subsequently charged with war crimes. The International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the UN to prosecute these crimes.

According to the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Yugoslav Wars resulted in the
deaths of 140,000 people. The Humanitarian Law Center writes that in the conflicts in former
Yugoslav republics at least 130,000 people lost their lives.

The wars are generally considered to be a series of largely separate but related military conflicts
occurring during the breakup of Yugoslavia and affecting most of the former Yugoslav republics:

War in Slovenia (1991)

Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995)

Bosnian War (1992–1995)

Kosovo War (1998–1999), including the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Insurgency in the Preševo Valley (1999–2001)

Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia (2001)

Contents   

1 Terminology

2 Background

3 The wars
3.1 Ten-Day War (1991)

3.2 Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995)

3.3 Bosnian War (1992–1995)

3.4 Kosovo War (1998–1999)

3.5 Insurgency in the Preševo Valley (1999-2001)

3.6 Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia (2001)

3.7 Arms embargo

4 War crimes

4.1 War rape

5 Analysis

6 Timeline of the Yugoslav wars

6.1 Tito-era

6.2 Fall of communism

6.3 Armed fighting 1991-1993

6.4 Armed fighting 1993-1995

6.5 Post-1995 era and Kosovo

6.6 Aftermath

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 (e.g., most of Slovenia) are often seen
as belonging to Central Europe and not the Balkans.

"Wars/conflicts in the former Yugoslavia".

"Wars of Yugoslav Secession/Succession".

"Third Balkan War": a term suggested by British journalist Misha Glenny in the title of his book,
alluding to the two previous Balkan Wars fought 1912–1913. In fact, the term has already been
applied by contemporary historians to World War I as an allusion that it was a direct sequel of
the 1912–1913 Balkan wars.

"Yugoslavia Civil War"/"Yugoslav Civil War"/"Yugoslavian Civil War"/"Civil War in Yugoslavia".

Background

The nation of Yugoslavia was created in the aftermath of World War I, and was composed mostly
of South Slavic Christians, but the nation also had a substantial Muslim minority. This nation
lasted from 1918 to 1941, when it was invaded by Axis powers during World War II. In 1943, a
new government called the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was established under
Josip Broz Tito, who maintained a strongly authoritarian leadership that was non-aligned with
either the United States or the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

In the 1980s, relations among the six republics of the SFRY deteriorated. Slovenia and Croatia
desired greater autonomy within the 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.

Although tensions in Yugoslavia had been mounting since the early 1980s, it was 1990 that
proved decisive. In the midst of economic hardship, Yugoslavia was facing rising nationalism
amongst its various ethnic groups.

By the early 1990s there was no effective authority at the federal level. The Federal Presidency
consisted of the representatives of the six republics, two provinces and the Yugoslav People's
Army (JNA). The communist leadership was divided along national lines.

The representatives of Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro were replaced with people loyal to
Slobodan Milošević, who was at that time President of Serbia, by 1990. This way, Serbia secured
four out of eight federal presidency votes and was able to heavily influence decision-making at
the federal level, since all the other Yugoslav republics only had one vote. While Slovenia and
Croatia wanted to allow a multi-party system, Serbia, led by Milošević, demanded an even more
centralized federation and Serbia's dominant role in it. At the 14th Extraordinary Congress of the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia in January 1990, the Serbian-dominated assembly agreed to
abolish the single-party system; however, Slobodan Milošević, the head of the Serbian Party
branch (League of Communists of Serbia) used his influence to block and vote-down all other
proposals from the Croatian and Slovene party delegates. This prompted the Croatian and
Slovene delegations to walk out and thus the break-up of the party, a symbolic event
representing the end of "brotherhood and unity".

Upon Croatia and Slovenia declaring independence in 1991, the Yugoslav federal government
attempted to forcibly halt the impending breakup of the country, with Yugoslav Prime Minister
Ante Marković declaring the secessions of Slovenia and Croatia to be illegal and contrary to the
constitution of Yugoslavia, and declared support for the Yugoslav People's Army to secure the
integral unity of Yugoslavia.

The wars

Ten-Day War (1991)

The first of these conflicts, known as the Ten-Day War, was initiated by the JNA on 26 June 1991
after the secession of Slovenia from the federation on 25 June 1991.

Initially, the federal government ordered the Yugoslav People's Army to secure border crossings
in Slovenia. Slovenian police and Slovenian Territorial Defence blockaded barracks and roads,
leading to stand-offs and limited skirmishes around the republic. After several dozen casualties,
the limited conflict was stopped through negotiation at Brioni on 7 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 (1991–1995)

Fighting in this region had begun weeks prior to the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. The Croatian War
of Independence began when Serbs in Croatia, who were opposed to Croatian independence,
announced their secession from Croatia. This was triggered by a provision in the new Croatian
Constitution that replaced an 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".

The JNA had disarmed the Territorial Units of Slovenia and Croatia prior to the declaration of
independence.This was aggravated further by an arms embargo, imposed by the UN on
Yugoslavia.

The JNA was ostensibly ideologically unitarian, but its officer corps was predominantly staffed by
Serbs or Montenegrins (70 percent). As a result the JNA opposed Croatian independence and
sided with the Croatian Serb rebels. The Croatian Serb rebels were unaffected by the embargo as
they had the support of and access to supplies of the JNA. By mid-July 1991, the JNA moved an
estimated 70,000 troops to Croatia. The fighting rapidly escalated, eventually spanning hundreds
of square kilometres from western Slavonia through Banija to Dalmatia.

The border regions faced direct attacks from forces within Serbia and Montenegro, and saw the
shelling of UNESCO world heritage site Dubrovnik, where the international press was criticised
for focusing on the city's architectural heritage, instead of reporting the destruction of Vukovar, a
pivotal battle involving many civilian deaths.

Bosnian War (1992–1995)

In March 1991 the Karađorđevo meeting took place between Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan
Milošević. The two presidents tried to reach an agreement on the disintegration process of
Yugoslavia, but reportedly their main concern was the partition of Bosnia.

Meanwhile, control over central Croatia was seized by Croatian Serb forces in conjunction with
the JNA Corps from Bosnia and Herzegovina, under the leadership of Ratko Mladić.

These attacks were marked by the killings of captured soldiers and heavy civilian casualties
(Ovčara; Škabrnja), and were the subject of war crimes indictments by the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for elements of the Serb political and military
leadership.

In January 1992, the Vance-Owen peace plan proclaimed UN controlled (UNPA) zones for Serbs
in territory claimed by Serbian rebels as the Republic of Serbian Krajina 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, conflict engulfed Bosnia and Herzegovina. The war was predominantly a territorial
conflict between local Bosniaks and Croats backed by Zagreb, and Serbs backed by the JNA and
Serbia.

The Yugoslav armed forces had disintegrated into a largely Serb-dominated military force.
Opposed to the Bosnian-majority led government's agenda for independence, and along with
other armed nationalist Serb militant forces, the JNA attempted to prevent Bosnian citizens from
voting in the 1992 referendum on independence. 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.

On 19 June 1992, the war in Bosnia broke out, though the siege of Sarajevo had already begun in
April after Bosnia and Herzegovina had declared independence. The conflict, typified by the
years-long Sarajevo siege and Srebrenica, was by far the bloodiest and most widely covered of
the Yugoslav wars. Bosnia's Serb faction led by ultra-nationalist Radovan Karadžić 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 Bosnians through massacre
and forced removal of Bosniak populations.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States 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.

In 1994 the US brokered peace between Croatian forces and the Bosnian Army of the Republic of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the successful Flash and Storm operations, the Croatian Army and
the combined Bosnian and Croat forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, conducted 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. The fighting in Croatia ended in mid-1995, after
Operation Flash and Operation Storm. At the end of these operations, Croatia had managed to
reclaim all of its territory except the UNPA Sector East bordering Serbia, however most of the
Serbian population in these areas had become refugees, and these operations have led to war
crimes indictments by the ICTY against elements of the Croat military leadership. The areas
uncaptured by the Croatian forces in "Sector East" came under UN administration (UNTAES), and
were reintegrated to Croatia in 1998.

Pressure was put on all sides to stick to the cease-fire and negotiate an end to the war in Bosnia.

The war ended with the signing of the Dayton Agreement on the 14 December 1995, with the
formation of Republika Srpska as an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina being the resolution
for Bosnian Serb demands.

Kosovo War (1998–1999)

After its autonomy was quashed, Kosovo was faced with state organized oppression: since the
early 1990s, Albanian language radio and television were restricted and newspapers shut down,
whereas Kosovar Albanians were fired in large numbers from public enterprises and institutions,
including banks, hospitals, the post office and schools. In June 1991 the University of Priština
assembly and several faculty councils were dissolved and replaced by Serbs, and Kosovar
Albanian teachers were prevented from entering school premises for the new school year
beginning in September 1991, forcing students to study at home.

With time, Kosovar Albanians started an insurgency against Belgrade when the Kosovo
Liberation Army was founded in 1996. Armed clashes between two sides broke out in early 1998.
A NATO-facilitated ceasefire was signed on 15 October, but both sides broke it two months later
and fighting resumed. When the killing of 45 Kosovar Albanians in the Račak massacre was
reported in January 1999, NATO decided that the conflict could only be settled by introducing a
military peacekeeping force to forcibly restrain the two sides. After the Rambouillet Accords
broke down on 23 March with Yugoslav rejection of an external peacekeeping force, NATO
prepared to install the peacekeepers by force. The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia followed, an
intervention against Serbian forces with a mainly bombing but partly ground-based campaign,
under the command of General Wesley Clark. Hostilities ended 2½ months later with the
Kumanovo Agreement. Kosovo was placed under the governmental control of the United
Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo and the military protection of Kosovo Force
(KFOR). The 15-month war had left thousands of civilians killed on both sides and over a million
displaced.

Insurgency in the Preševo Valley (1999-2001)

The Insurgency in the Preševo Valley was an armed conflict between the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia and the ethnic-Albanian insurgents of the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and
Bujanovac (UÇPMB).There were instances during the conflict in which the Yugoslav government
requested KFOR support in suppressing UÇPMB attacks since they could only use lightly-armed
military forces as part of the Kumanovo Treaty that ended the Kosovo War, which created a
buffer zone so that the bulk of Yugoslav armed forces could not enter.

The Yugoslav president, Vojislav Koštunica, often warned that fresh fighting would erupt if KFOR
units did not act to prevent the attacks coming from the UÇPMB.

Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia (2001)

The insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia was an armed conflict which began when the
ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) militant group began attacking the security
forces of the Republic of Macedonia at the beginning of February 2001, and ended with the
Ohrid Agreement. The goal of the NLA was to give greater rights and autonomy to the country's
Albanian minority, who make up 25.2% of the population.There were also claims that the group
ultimately wished to see Albanian-majority areas secede from the country, though high-ranking
NLA members have denied this.The conflict lasted throughout most of the year, although overall
casualties remained limited to several dozen for either side, according to the sources from both
of the sides in the conflict.

Arms embargo

The United Nations Security Council had imposed an arms embargo. Nevertheless, various states
had been engaged in, or facilitated, arms sales to the warring factions: Bulgaria, North Korea,
Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Russia were all export countries for weapons to the conflict; the
headquarters for a huge logistics operation was in Vienna; financial transactions were executed
by a Hungarian bank; arms smugglers used companies registered in the off-shore haven of
Panama; and the United Kingdom sent military equipment and provided loans for arms
purchases, as did Germany. In 2012, Chile convicted nine people, including two retired generals,
for their part in arms sales.

War crimes

War rape

War rape occurred as a matter of official orders as part of ethnic cleansing, to displace the
targeted ethnic group.

During the Bosnian War, so-called "rape camps", aimed at the birth of a new generation of Serb
children, were reportedly used. The purpose of these camps was to impregnate the Bosnian and
Croatian women. Because of the patrilineal make-up of their society, in which children inherit
their father's ethnicity, this was used as a method of ethnic cleansing. In the camps, women
were kept in confinement until the late stages of their pregnancies.
According to the Tresnjevka Women's Group, more than 35,000 women and children were held
in such Serb-run "rape camps". Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovač, and Zoran Vuković were
convicted of crimes against humanity for rape, torture, and enslavement committed during the
Foča massacres.

The evidence of the magnitude of rape in Bosnia and Herzegovina prompted the ICTY to deal
openly with these abuses. Reports of sexual violence during the Bosnian War (1992–1995) and
Kosovo War (1998–1999) perpetrated by the Serbian regular and irregular forces have been
described as "especially alarming".The NATO-led Kosovo Force documented rapes of Albanian,
Roma and Serbian women by Serbs and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Others have estimated that during the Bosnian War between 20,000 and 50,000 women, mainly
Muslim, were raped.A Commission of Experts appointed in October 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.

War rape in the Yugoslav Wars has often been characterized as genocide. Rape perpetrated by
Serb forces served to destroy cultural and social ties of the victims and their communities.
Serbian policies urged soldiers to rape Bosnian women until they became pregnant as an
attempt towards ethnic cleansing. Serbian soldiers hoped to force Bosnian women to carry
Serbian children through repeated rape.Often Bosnian women were held in captivity for an
extended period of time and only released slightly before the birth of a child conceived of rape.

The systematic rape of Bosnian women may have carried further-reaching repercussions than
the initial displacement of rape victims. Stress, caused by the trauma of rape, coupled with the
lack of access to reproductive health care often experienced by displaced peoples, lead to
serious health risks for victimized women.

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
cleansing; 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 Watch 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.

Analysis

The War Crimes Tribunal accused Slobodan Milošević of "attempting to create a Greater Serbia"',
a Serbian state encompassing the Serb-populated areas of Croatia and Bosnia, and achieved by
forcibly removing non-Serbs from large geographical areas through the commission of the
crimes.

One of the common misconceptions about the Yugoslav Wars is that they were the result of
centuries of ethnic conflict. In fact, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ethnically mixed
region of Dalmatia held close and amicable relations between the Croats and Serbs who lived
there, and many early proponents of a united Yugoslavia came from this region, such as
Dalmatian Croat Ante Trumbić. However by the time of the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars the
historical hospitable relations between Croats and Serbs in Dalmatia had broken down, with
Dalmatian Serbs fighting on the side of the Republic of Serbian Krajina. Clear ethnic conflict
between the Yugoslav peoples only became prominent in the 20th century, beginning with
tensions over the constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in the early 1920s
and escalating into violence between Serbs and Croats in the late 1920s after the assassination
of the most popular Croatian politician at the time Stjepan Radić. Severe ethnic conflict occurred
during World War II during which the Croatian Ustase movement committed genocide against
Serbs, while the Serbian Chetnik movement responded with reprisals against Croats as well as
murdering Bosniaks. However the Yugoslav Partisan movement was able to appeal to all national
groups, including Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks.Josip Broz Tito was half-Croat half-Slovene.

In Serbia and Serb territories, violent confrontations occurred particularly between nationalist
Serbs towards non-nationalist Serbs who had criticized the Serbian government and the Serb
political entities in Bosnia and Croatia.Serbs who publicly opposed the nationalist political
climate during the Yugoslav wars were reported to have been harassed, threatened, or killed.

Timeline of the Yugoslav wars

Tito-era

1945

Victorious resistance army, Yugoslav Partisans form Socialist Yugoslavia.

1949-1952
Tito–Stalin split leads to Yugoslavia breaking away from Moscow influence.

1966

Josip Broz Tito sacked Aleksandar Ranković, an intelligence officer and main Serbian cadre, after
which a purge of Serbian cadres from the establishment followed.

1968

Protests in 1968 are echoed in Yugoslavia too. There are student demonstrations, while in
Kosovo demonstrators demand greater rights for Albanian people. Ailing Tito, in his late 70s,
allows some liberalisation, but despite old age, refuses to retire.

Croatian terrorists plant bombs at cinemas, several people die.

1971

Nationalist demonstrations in Croatia, known as Croatian Spring or MASPOK. Tito and

communist government condemn the demonstrations. Many hardline-nationalists were later
convicted for hate-speech, including Stipe Mesić and Franjo Tudjman. Government crisis follows.

A group of Croatian neo-Ustashas from Australia infiltrates Yugoslavia planning terrorist attacks,
but their actions are prevented and the group is destroyed.

1972

Yugoslavian Airways (JAT) Flight 364 is destroyed by foreign Ustaše 23 of the 24 on board are
killed.

1974

New constitution of SFRY proclaimed, granting more power to federal units, and more power to
autonomous provinces Kosovo and Vojvodina of Serbia, giving them a vote in all relevant
decisions in the federal government. It was aimed to address grievances of non-Serb nations
within Yugoslavia, under what later became known as weak Serbia, strong Yugoslavia concept.
Bosnian Muslims (after 1993 the name was changed to Muslim-Bosniacs, and finally to Bosniaks)
were recognized as a sixth "nation" of Yugoslavia (note: "nations" or officially: "narodi" were
Slavic majority peoples, while "nationalities" of officially "narodnosti" were all other national
minorities) and one of the three constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

May 1980

Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito dies.

1981

Economic crisis in Yugoslavia has begun. Albanian nationalist demonstrations in Kosovo,

demanding status of a republic and more rights (the slogan "Kosovo republika"). Demonstrations
are suppressed and condemned by all Yugoslav communists, including Albanian communists
from Kosovo, as contrarevolutionary. Arrests follow.

1983

A group of Bosnian Muslim nationalists were convicted under SFRY law that prohibited spreading
international hatred. In the group was Alija Izetbegović who was among other things tried for his
Islamic Declaration.

1986-1989

Controversial Memorandum of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts protests position of Serbia
in Yugoslavia.

Serb chetnik "archduke" Momčilo Đujić (in emigration), promotes Vojislav Šešelj to Chetnik duke
by declaration in the USA on Vidovdan, 28 June 1989. In his instructions to Šešelj, Đujić orders
him to "expel all Croats, Albanians and other foreign elements from the holy Serb ground".

Perceived prosecution of Serbs by Kosovo Albanians fuels growing Serbian nationalist sentiment.
Additional police forces were sent to Kosovo to calm down things.

Slobodan Milošević, a high government official at the time, gives a speech to a small group of
Kosovo Serbs where he promises that "no one will beat them", which is aired in the main
television news programme. Milosevic instantly becomes very popular in Serbia.

Milošević rises to power in Serbia.

Antibureaucratic revolution demonstrations bring pro-Milošević governments to Vojvodina,

Kosovo and Montenegro.

Kosovo Albanian miners strike in the Stari Trg mine. Slovenian government holds a big rally in the
Cankar Congress centre, supporting the Kosovo Albanians. Albanians outside Serbia (mostly in
Slovenia and Croatia) pledge for help from Croatia and Slovenia.

Relations between Slovenia and Serbia deteriorate. Unofficial embargo on Slovenian products
introduced in Serbian stores (see Radmila Anđelković) . Slovenia is increasingly talking about
independence.

600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo is celebrated by Serbs across Yugoslavia. Slobodan
Milošević gives speech at Kosovo, described by his opponents as nationalist.
1990

Communist Party dissolves on republic (and partially on national) lines at the 14th Congress of
Yugoslav Communist Party (SKJ, Savez komunista Jugoslavije), with Slovenian and Croatian
communists leaving the Congress protesting Milošević's actions.

Constitutional changes in Serbia revoke some of the powers granted to Kosovo and Vojvodina by
the constitution of 1974, including a power to cast a vote in the federal council completely
independently from Serbia, which in fact stripped off their nigh-to-republic status. This
effectively gave Serbia 3 out of 8 votes in the federal council (4 with support from Montenegro).

Serb nationalist meetings were held in some Serb-populated areas of Croatia, with iconography
that was considered provocative by many Croats.

Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) subjects formerly republic territorial defence system to a central
command, effectively disarming Croatia and Slovenia.

First democratic elections in 45 years are held in Yugoslavia in an attempt to bring the Yugoslav
socialist model into the new, post–Cold War world. Nationalist options won majority in almost all
republics.

Croatian winning party, HDZ offers a vice-presidential position to Serb Radical Party, which
refuses.

Croatian Serbs start a rebellion against the newly elected government, an event frequently
referred to as the "Balvan revolution" (tree-log revolution).

Constitutional changes in Croatia deny the status of a constituent nation to Serbs in Croatia,
equalizing them with all other minorities.

Slovenia holds a referendum on independence from Yugoslavia which passes with 88.5% of the
electorate in favour of independence.

January 1991

Evidence of illegal arming of Croatia and preparations for the war aired on TV. Despite the claims
that the tapes were heavily tampered with, Croatian government dismisses Martin Špegelj.

Unsuccessful negotiations between heads of the republics were held in several rounds.

March 1991

Opposition demonstrations in Belgrade against Milosevic rule, ending in two deaths. Army puts
tanks on the streets.

Plitvice Lakes incident results in first Croatian fatality when Croatian policemen are ambushed.
Armed fighting 1991-1993

May - June 1991

Rising ethnic violence in Croatia. Slovenia and Croatia declare independence.

JNA intervenes in Slovenia by deploying troops to take border areas. Following the Ten-Day War,
JNA is defeated. The ethnic homogeneity of Slovenia allows the country to avoid much fighting.
The Yugoslav army agrees to leave Slovenia, but supports rebel Serb forces in Croatia.

July 1991

A three month cease fire agreed on Brioni. Yugoslav forces would retreat from Slovenia, and
Croatia and Slovenia put a hold on their independence for three months.

September 1991

JNA forces openly attack Croat areas (primarily Dalmatia and Slavonia), starting the Croatian War
of Independence. Battle of Vukovar begins.

Battle of the Barracks begins over JNA garrisons throughout Croatia.

EU propose Carrington-Cutileiro plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina. All sides agree, but Izetbegovic
later withdraws his signature.

October 1991

JNA begins Siege of Dubrovnik.

The last Yugoslav National Army soldier leaves Slovenia.

October 1991-December 1991

Full scale war in Croatia. Fall of Vukovar.

December 1991

The Serb entity in Croatia proclaimed itself the Republic of Serbian Krajina, but remained
unrecognized by any country except Serbia.

January 1992

Vance peace plan signed, creating 4 UNPA zones for Serb-controlled territories, and ending large
scale military operations in Croatia. UNPROFOR forces arrive to monitor the peace treaty.

Macedonia declares independence. No wars erupted in this area. Slovenia and Croatia are
internationally recognized (European Community countries, several EFTA and Central European
countries).
February–March 1992

The Carrington–Cutileiro peace plan, resulted from the EC Peace Conference held in February
1992 in an attempt to prevent Bosnia-Herzegovina sliding into war. It proposed ethnic power-
sharing on all administrative levels and the devolution of central government to local ethnic
communities. However, all Bosnia-Herzegovina's districts would be classified as Muslim, Serb or
Croat under the plan, even where no ethnic majority was evident.

On 18 March 1992, all three sides signed the agreement; Alija Izetbegović for the Bosniaks,
Radovan Karadžić for the Serbs and Mate Boban for the Croats.

On 28 March 1992, however, Alija Izetbegović withdrew his signature and declared his
opposition to any type of partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

April 1992

Bosnia and Herzegovina declares independence. Bosnian War begins.

The siege of Sarajevo begins. Bosnian Serb forces mounted the siege of Sarajevo resulting in
10,000 killed by 1995.

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia proclaimed, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, the only two
remaining republics.

May 1992

Yugoslav army retreats from Bosnia and Herzegovina, leaving a large part of its armory to
Bosnian Serbs. Military personnel who were born in Bosnia and Herzegovina retain ranks in the
newly founded VRS.

United Nations impose sanctions against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and accepts Slovenia,
Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as members.

Summer 1992

Bosnian Serbs gain control of 70% of territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hundreds of
thousands of refugees result from the war and large portions of Bosnia and Herzegovina are
ethnically cleansed of non-Serbs.

December 1992

Serbia elects Slobodan Milošević as a president for the second time.

Armed fighting 1993-1995

January 1993

Vance–Owen peace plan offered. Under pressure from Slobodan Milošević, Karadzić signs the
plan, but after a vote in assembly of Bosnian Serbs he withdraws his signature.

March 1993

Fighting begins between Bosniaks and Croats.

July 1993

Owen-Stoltenberg peace plan offered. Refused by Izetbegović in August.

September 1993

Fighting begins in the Bihać region between Bosnian government and Bosniaks loyal to Fikret
Abdić. It lasts until August 1995.

March 1994

Peace treaty between Bosniaks and Croats is signed (Washington Agreement), arbitrated by the
United States.

February–October 1994

Contact Group (U.S., Russia, France, Britain, and Germany) made steady progress towards a
negotiated settlement of the conflict in Bosnia, but no agreement was reached.

August 1994

Serbia closes border with Bosnian Serb republic and imposes embargo, as a measure of pressure
to accept the plan of Contact Group.

May 1995

Croatia launches Operation Flash and in 2 days enters Western Slavonia UNPA zone. The exodus
of 30,000 Serbian refugees follows.

July 1995

Srebrenica genocide reported, 8,000 Bosniaks killed by units of the Army of Republika Srpska
(VRS) under the command of General Ratko Mladić.

July 21, Operation Miracle captures a number of VRS soldiers.

August 1995

Croatia launches Operation Storm and reclaims over 70% of its pre-war territory, entering all
UNPA zones except Eastern Slavonia. Often termed by critics as the "biggest ethnic cleansing
operation of the Yugoslav Wars", it resulted in the exodus of the entire Serbian population in
these areas, approximately 250,000 refugees.
NATO decides to launch a series of air strikes on Bosnian Serb artillery and other military targets
on August 30th, after many incidents with civilian deaths during the years of siege of Sarajevo
and in particular the Srebrenica and Markale massacres.

November 1995

Milosevic, Tudjman and Izetbegovic lead negotiations in Dayton, Ohio.

December 1995

Dayton Agreement signed in Paris, marking end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Post-1995 era and Kosovo

1996

FR Yugoslavia recognizes Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Winter 1996/97

Following a fraud in local elections, hundreds of thousands of Serbs demonstrate in Belgrade

against Milosevic regime for 3 months. The West quietly supports Milosevic, who is branded the
main factor of stability in the Balkans after Dayton, and Milosevic remains in power, after issuing
lex specialis and admitting victory of opposition at the local level.

March 1998

Fighting breaks out between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Milosevic sends in
troops.

March 1999

NATO starts the military campaign Operation Allied Force in Kosovo.

Ethnic cleansing of Albanians has begun and the Albanian refugees are deported by Serbian
forces into Macedonia and Albania in hundreds of thousands until the end of the bombing.

June 1999

Control of Kosovo is given to the United Nations, but still remains a part of Serbia.

An exodus of 200,000 of Serbs and other non-Albanians follows in the wake of revenge attacks
by Kosovo Albanians.

Aftermath

December 1999

Franjo Tuđman dies. HDZ loses Croatian elections in early 2000.

October 2000

Slobodan Milošević is voted out of office, and Vojislav Koštunica becomes new president of
Yugoslavia.

2001

Fighting between Albanian militants and Macedonians erupts in Macedonia, but ends later on in
2001.

Brief conflict in Southern Serbia between Albanian militants and Serbian security forces ends in
cease fire.

February 2002

Milošević is put on trial in The Hague on charges of war crimes in Kosovo, to which charges of
violating the laws or customs of war and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions in Croatia
and Bosnia and massacres in Bosnia were latter added. Defiant Milosevic did not recognize the
court and represented himself. His defence is aired in former Yugoslavia and his popularity
among Serbs greatly increased as a result.

February 2003

Yugoslavia becomes Serbia and Montenegro.

October 2003

Alija Izetbegović dies.

March 2004

Peak of anti-Serbian violence in Kosovo. Hundreds of ancient Orthodox-Christian Serbian

monasteries and churches were burned up to that point.

January 2006

Ibrahim Rugova dies.

March 2006

Slobodan Milošević dies in the Hague prison, ending the proceedings with no verdict reached on
any of the counts.

May 21, 2006

Montenegrins vote for independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in the
Montenegrin independence referendum, 2006.
February 2008

On February 17, 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia and is recognised by 106 UN
member states, including 4 of the former Yugoslav states.