Discover

The 'Yugoslav Wars' were a series of violent conflicts in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) that took place between 1991 and 2001. They comprised two sets of successive wars affecting all of the six former Yugoslav republics. Alternative terms in use include the "War in the Balkans", or "War in (the former) Yugoslavia", "Wars of Yugoslav Secession", and the "Third Balkan War" (a short-lived term coined by British journalist Misha Glenny, alluding to the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913).
They were characterised by bitter ethnic conflicts between the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats, Bosniaks or Albanians on the other; but also between Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia and Macedonians and Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia. The conflict had its roots in various underlying political, economic and cultural problems, as well as long-standing ethnic and religious tensions.
The civil wars ended with much of the former Yugoslavia reduced to poverty, massive economic disruption and persistent instability across the territories where the worst fighting occurred. The wars were the bloodiest conflicts on European soil since the end of World War II. They were also the first conflicts since World War II to have been 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 United Nations to prosecute these crimes.
The Yugoslav civil wars can be split in two groups of several distinct conflicts:

★ Wars during the breakup of SFRY:

★ # War in Slovenia (1991)

★ # Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995)

★ # Bosnian War (1992-1995)

★ Wars in Albanian-populated areas:

★ # Kosovo War (1997-1999)

★ # Southern Serbia conflict (2000-2001)

★ # Macedonia conflict (2001)

Contents

Background

The Early Conflicts (1991-1995)

Conflicts in Albanian-populated areas (1996-2001)

A brief timeline of the Yugoslav Wars

External links

Background

Before WW2, major tensions arose from the first, monarchist Yugoslavia's multi-ethnic makeup and relative political and demographic domination of the Serbs. Fundamental to the tensions was the different conceptions of the new state, for the Croats envisaged a federal model where they would enjoy greater autonomy than they had as a separate crown land under Austria-Hungary; the Serbs tended to view the territories as a just reward for their support of the allies in WW1 and the new state as an extension of the Serbian Kingdom. These tensions often erupted into open conflict resulting in a dictatorship exercising repression through the Serb dominated security structure and the assassination in federal parliament of Croat political leaders, including Stjepan Radic, who opposed the Serbian monarch's absolutism. The assassination and human rights abuses were subject of concern for the League of Nations and precipitated voices of protest from intellectuals including Albert Einstein. It was in this environment of repression that the insurgent group (later fascist dictatorship) ''Ustashe'' were formed.
The country's tensions were exploited by the occupying Axis forces in World War II, which established a puppet-state spanning much of present day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The axis powers installed in charge of this "Independent State of Croatia" the Ustashe, which having resolved that the Serbian minority were a trojan horse of Serbian expansionism, pursued a genocidal policy against them. Both Croats and Muslims were recruited as soldiers by the ''SS'' (primarily in the 13th ''Waffen'' Mountain Division). At the same time, former Royalist General Milan Nedic was installed by the axis as head of the Serb puppet state pursued an ethnic cleansing program against Croats and Muslims, particularly in Eastern Bosnia, with a view to creating a Greater Serbia (see Stevan Moljević). Both were confronted and eventually defeated by the communist-led anti-fascist Partisan movement composed of members of all ethnic groups in the area, leading to the formation of a Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Despite the federal structure of the new Yugoslavia, there was still the 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 Spring) and subsequent repression. The 1974 constitution was an attempt to short-circuit this pattern by entrenching the federal model and formalising national rights.

The Early Conflicts (1991-1995)

In the years leading up to the Yugoslav wars, relations among the republics of the Socialist Federal 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.
The first of these conflicts, known as the Ten-Day War or "The War" in Slovenia, was initiated by the secession of Slovenia from the federation on 25 June 1991. The federal government ordered the federal Yugoslav People's Army to secure border crossings in Slovenia. Slovenian police and Territorial Defense blockaded barracks and roads, leading to standoffs and limited skirmishes around the republic. After several dozen deaths, the war was stopped through negotiation at Brioni 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.
The second in this series of conflicts, the Croatian War of Independence, began when Serbs in Croatia who were opposed to Croatian independence announced their secession from Croatia. 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 interepreted 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 period . The federally-controlled Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) was ideologically unitarist, and predominantly staffed by Serbs in its officer corp, thus it also opposed Croatian independence and sided with the Croatian Serb rebels. Since the JNA had disarmed the Territorial Units of the two northernmost republics, the fledgling Croatian 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 Vukovar and the shelling of UNESCO world heritage site Dubrovnik. 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 (Ovcara; Škabrnja), and were the subject of war crimes indictments by the ICTY for elements of the Serb political & military leadership. In January 1992, the Vance peace plan proclaimed UN controlled (UNPA) zones for Serbs in territory claimed by the rebel Serbs 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, the conflict engulfed Bosnia. It was predominantly a territorial conflict between local Muslims and Croats backed by Zagreb on one side, and Serbs backed by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbia on the other. For a short-lived period, the erstwhile Muslim & Croat allies would turn on each other in a battle for the scraps of territory left, until they reformed their alliance under US tutelage, that was formalised as the Muslim-Croat federation. The Bosnia conflict, typified by the siege of Sarajevo & Srebrenica, was by far the bloodiest and most widely covered of the Yugoslav wars.
The fighting in Croatia ended sometime in the Summer of 1995, after Croatian Army launched two rapid military operations, codenamed Operation Flash and Operation Storm, in which it managed to reclaim all of its territory except the UNPA Sector East bordering Serbia. 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 US brokered peace between Croatian forces and the Bosniak Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the successful Flash and Storm operations, the Croatian Army and the combined Bosnjiak & Croat forces of Bosnian & Herzegovina, worked together in an operation codenamed Operation Maestral to push back Bosnian Serb military gains. Together with U.S. 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 negotiate an end to the war in Bosnia. The war ended with the signing of the Dayton Agreement on the 14th of December 1995, with the formation of Republika Srpska as an entity within Bosnia and Hercegovina being the resolution for Bosnian Serb demands.

Conflicts in Albanian-populated areas (1996-2001)

In Kosovo, Macedonia, and southern Central Serbia, the conflicts were typified by ethnic and political tension between the Serbian and Macedonian governments and Albanian national minorities which sought autonomy, as was the case in the Republic of Macedonia, or independence, as was the case in Kosovo.
The conflict in Kosovo (1996-1999) became a full-scale war in 1999, while the Macedonia conflict (2001-2002) and Southern Serbia conflict (2001) were characterised 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. Even so, further widespread unrest in Kosovo broke out in 2004. The NATO intervention is often counted as yet another separate war. The conflicts in southern Serbia and in Republic of Macedonia ended with internationally-overseen peace agreements between the insurgents and the government, but the situation in both regions remains fragile.
:''See also: Serbian-Albanian conflict''

A brief timeline of the Yugoslav Wars

:''Main article: 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, are condemned by the 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 of Serbia, giving them a vote in all relevant decisions in the federal government. Muslims were recognized as a constituent "nation" of Yugoslavia and of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
'1980'
:Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito dies.
'1981'
:Economic crisis in Yugoslavia has begun. Albanian nationalist demonstrations in Kosovo, demand federal unit status.
'1986'-'1989'
:The controversial Memorandum of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts claims Serbia has a weak position in Yugoslavia.
:Slobodan Milošević rises to power in Serbia. ''Antibureaucratic revolution'' demonstrations bring pro-Milošević governments to Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro.
'1990'
:The League of Communists of Yugoslavia dissolves on republican and ethnic lines at its 14th Congress .
:The first democratic elections are held in socialist Yugoslavia. Nationalist parties win the majority in almost all republics .
: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 to stop democratic changes - their attempt fails as Bosnia's representative (an ethnic Serb) votes against in the crucial last vote.
:Croatian Serbs start a rebellion against the newly elected Croatian government led by Franjo Tuđman.
'1991'
:Slovenia and Croatia declare independence. War in Slovenia lasts ten days.
:The Yugoslav army leaves Slovenia but supports rebel Serb forces in Croatia. War begins in Croatia.
:Atrocities of Serb forces in Croatia lead to the creation of the term ethnic cleansing. Cities of Vukovar, Dubrovnik and Osijek are devastated by constant bombardments and shelling. Flood of refugees from the war zones and ethnic cleansing overwhelm Croatia.
'1992'
:Vance peace plan signed, creating 4 UNPA zones for Serbs and ending large scale fighting in Croatia.
:Macedonia and Bosnia declare independence. Bosnian war begins.
:Federal Republic of Yugoslavia proclaimed, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, the only two remaining republics.
:United Nations impose sanctions against FR Yugoslavia and accepts Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia as members.
'1993'
:Bosniak-Croat conflict in Bosnia begins.
:Fighting begins in the Bihać region between Bosnian Government and Bosniaks loyal to Fikret Abdić.
:F.R. Yugoslavia, due to sanctions and isolation, is hit with, by that time, never seen hyperinflation of 3,6 million percent a year of Yugoslav dinar. This amount of inflation exceeds the one in Great Depression 1929.
:The Stari Most (The Old Bridge) in Mostar, built in 1566, was destroyed (it is unknown by whom). It has been renovated in 2003.
'1994'
:Peace treaty between Bosniaks and Croats arbitrated by the United States.
:F.R. Yugoslavia stabilizes economy structure with Economic Implementation Framework.
'1995'
:Srebrenica massacre reported, 8,000 Bosniaks killed.
:Croatia launches Operation Flash and Operation Storm, 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 signed in Paris. 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 to its economy (trade, tourism, industrial production and exports of final products), but being allowed for its citizens to exit Yugoslavia, for a limited time.
'1996'
:FR Yugoslavia recognizes Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
:Following a fraud in local elections, hundreds of thousands of Serbs demonstrate in Belgrade against Milošević regime for three months.
'1998'
:Fighting breaks out between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
:Eastern Slavonia peacefully reintegrated into Croatia.
'1999'
:NATO starts the military campaign Operation Allied Force in Kosovo. Control of Kosovo is given to the United Nations, but still remains a part of Yugoslavia's federadion.
:Franjo Tuđman dies. Shortly after that, his party loses the elections.
'2000'
:Slobodan Milošević is voted out of office, and Vojislav Koštunica becomes new president of Yugoslavia.
:With Milošević, a major political threat eliminated, the World had no reason to keep Yugoslavia any more isolated. The political and economic sanctions are suspended in total, and F.R. Yugoslavia has been reinstated in most political and economic organizations (ironically, United Nations, which the Socialist Yugoslavia founded) as well as candidate for new ones (like EU)
'2001'
:Brief Conflict in Southern Serbia between Albanian militants and Serbian security forces.
:Conflict between Albanian militants and government in Macedonia.
'2002'
:Milošević is put on trial in The Hague on charges of war crimes in Kosovo.
'2003'
:FR Yugoslavia becomes the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
:Alija Izetbegović dies.
'2006'
:Death of Ibrahim Rugova in Priština Kosovo Republic of Serbia, State Union of Serbia and Montenegro
:Montenegrins declare independence from the state union with Serbia.
:Death of Slobodan Milošević in the Hague prison.
'2007'
:The International Court of Justice (ICJ) finds Serbia 'not guilty' of committing genocide in Bosnia, but finds that it failed to prevent the genocide in Srebrenica and hand over war criminals who are suspected to hide inside its borders.

External links

★ Bora Radović: Jugoslovenski ratovi 1991-1999 i neke od njihovih društvenih posledica.

★ Information and links on the Third Balkan War (1991-2001)

★ Wiebes, Cees. Intelligence and the War in Bosnia 1992-1995, Publisher: Lit Verlag, 2003

★ http://srebrenica.brightside.nl/srebrenica/

★ Dr. R. Craig Nation. "War in the Balkans 1991-2002."

★ Operaton Storm

★
Strategic Studies Institute, 2002, ISBN 1-58487-134-2