Ethnic groups in Yugoslavia

(1991).Total

population:23 million

THE YUGOSLAV CIVIL WAR1981: During riots in Kosovo, 1,000 Serbs are killed

1987-88: Serb & Croat CP bosses become nationalists

June 1991: Slovenia and Croatia declare independence

September 1991: Heavy fighting breaks out in ethnic Serb regions of Croatia

March 1992: Bosnian government declares independence

July 1995: Massacre of at least 8,000 unarmed Bosnians at the UN “Safe Haven” of Srebrenica

August 1995: Collapse of the Serb Republic of Krajina

November 1995: Dayton Accord leads to NATO occupation of Bosnia

1998-99: Conflict over Kosovo

Josip Broz Tito(1892-1980)

1. He propagated a “Yugoslav” identity that never caught on.

2. He ONLY allowed pluralism in ethnic “literary societies.”

3. He promised an equalization of regional prosperity levels but could not deliver.

4. He encouraged the mostly Serb officer corps to regard itself as the “guardian of socialism.”

The Serb Communist Party boss Slobodan Milosevic

redefined himself as a militant nationalist in 1987 and

celebrated the 600th anniversary of the

Battle of Kosovo in 1989

Serbs commemorate the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo on June 28, 1389

The “Republic of Serb Krajina” (1991-95)

• After Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in June 1991, Serb forces carved out a new para-state by March 1992.• Croats and Serbs both engaged in massive ethnic cleansing.• Germany recognized Croatia in December 1991.• Bosnia declared independence in March 1992, and the fighting spread.

Burial on December 18, 1991, of 39 Croat civilians

killed in the fighting at Pdravska Slatina

Bosnian Serb forces laid siege to Sarajevo from May

2, 1992, to February 26, 1996, or 1,395 days

Some of the 3,500 Bosnian Moslems confined by Serbs in a stable in Manjaca, August 1992

The Security Council created UNPROFOR in

February 1992 to monitor the Serb-Croat cease-fire,

but its mission soon expanded (167 of 37,000

troops died in action)

Mostar, capital of Herzegovina (the 16th-century bridge was destroyed by Croatian artillery on

November 9, 1993)

AREAS OF CONTROL IN BOSNIA, SEPTEMBER 1994

Pink: Bosnian Serb Army

Yellow: Croatian Defense Council

Green: Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (plus 3 UN “Safe Havens” in east)

SREBRENICA MASSACRE,July 1995

The last of the 8,000 bodies recovered were

buried in 2010

With NATO support, Croatia destroyed the “Republic of Serb Krajina” in August 1995, and Milosovic signed the

Dayton Accord with Presidents Izetbegovic and Tudjman in November

German troops in the NATO peacekeeping force deployed to Bosnia (Sarajevo, December 1997)

Some of the 600,000 Kosovar refugees who fled after the brutal Serb offensive in March 1998

NATO bombed Serbia from March through June 1999, destroying both the

defense ministry and Chinese embassy in Belgrade

By June 1999 U.S. Marines and KFOR occupied Kosovo

U.S. State Department

Wanted Poster (2000).

Slobodan Milosevic died in his cell in

The Hague in 2006, and Radovan Karadzic and

General Ratko Mladic are now on

trial.

In 2008 the Kosovo parliament

proclaimed its independence, but only the countries

in green have recognized it