Yugoslavia was a country in Europe that existed ever since the end of World War I, formed as a single state born out of a desire to unite all South Slavs located in the region of the Balkans. It boasted several different languages, ethnicities, cultures, and more and built upon the notion of South Slavic unity, making it a very diverse country. What kept the country together was undeniably its feared leader, Josip Broz Tito, his iron fist over Yugoslavia made him gain respect in Europe. But when his death came in 1980, Yugoslavia fell into stagnation, decline, and eventually all-out conflict, known as the Yugoslav Wars. The conflict that had embroiled only recently in Europe were full of heinous war crimes, untolerable amounts of destruction, and a staggeringly high loss of life. It was considered as Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II. As part of this month's entry, I would be discussing the history, the causes, and the timeline of the Yugoslav Wars.
PRE-HISTORY
In Europe, there lies a region in its southern parts known as the Balkans, or the Balkan Peninsula. And throughout Europe's existence, many nations and empires have had their eyes set upon conquering this region. The reason was due to its important strategic location; it served as a quick bridge connecting Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. As such, those who conquer the Balkans may be able to gain an incredible amount of influence. Many great empires have step foot onto this land; the Romans have conquered it, then the Byzantines conquered it, and finally the Ottomans grabbed a good chunk of it, alongside Austria-Hungary. Due to constant foreign occupation, many in the Balkans express their dissatisfaction with getting conquered by these foreign invaders and given no moment to live free lives. The Balkans had very diverse people, and one of these peoples were the Slavs, or in particular the South Slavs. Starting from the 17th century, notions and ideas of Slavic independence from foreign occupations and meddlings was born. And with it, the idea of Yugoslavia was also born. Yugoslavia itself had its roots from the Slavic words "jug", meaning south, and "Slaveni", meaning Slavs, so Yugoslavia was literally "south Slav." In the 19th century, the Illyrian Movement gained traction, and the idea of Yugoslavia was carried around more frequently.
The Balkans in the late 19th century
During that time period, the dominator of the Balkans was the Ottoman Empire, and they were experiencing a slow decline. This weakened their grip over their European holdings, and in 1878, the Principality of Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire, causing a two-year conflict where Serbia and another Slavic ally, Montenegro, fought for their freedom from the Ottomans. In the end of the war, Serbia and Montenegro officially became independent states, which was a big leap for the Slavs. But there were still many Slavic regions under the control of foreign powers. For example, Croatia, Bosnia, and Slovenia were all still under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Following the Balkan Wars of 1912 - 1913, the Balkans became a region that was relatively unstable. Although the Ottomans were almost completely kicked out from Europe, there was a growing sense of animosity between the new Balkan states. In the Second Balkan War, another Slavic nation, Bulgaria, fought off its previous allies, Greece and Serbia. In short, everybody seemed to hate each other in the Balkans, and as such many European great powers believed another war the scale of the Napoleonic Wars may erupt from there. Thus, the Balkans gained the nickname of the "Powder Keg of Europe."
The aftermath of the Balkan Wars
1914
And that name would be fitting. On June 28th 1914, the archduke of Austria-Hungary and heir to its throne, Franz Ferdinand, was shot dead by a Bosnian Serb by the name of Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Young Bosnia organization seeking to free Bosnia from Austrian rule by violence and extreme nationalism. Serbian nationalists like Princip believed that killing the archduke would make Bosnia independent, and they also viewed the archduke as a threat to greater Serbian independence. But instead of freeing a fellow Slavic nation, what the death of the archduke brought was World War I. The war would engulf much of Europe into a conflict never before seen in terms of scale and destruction. Serbia itself would almost be completely devastated. Despite initial successes against the forces of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria's entry into the war in 1915 caused Serbia and its fledgling ally Montenegro to collapse. By the end of the war, Serbia would lose around 25% of its entire mobilized army, the highest proportion of military losses amongst all participant nations. Nonetheless, Serbia would be one of the victorious Allied nations in the aftermath of the war in 1918. And despite all the horrors of the Great War, the period after that actually gave the South Slavs a chance to finally form Yugoslavia. In the very same year, Austria-Hungary was dissolved and with it, came its southern provinces like Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Soon after, a political entity was formed out of these former Austro-Hungarian provinces, creating what was known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
A DREAM COME TRUE?
The new Slavic state would focus on claiming whatever was left from the geopolitcal vacuum left behind by the collapse of Austria-Hungary and rebuilding the nation from the ashes of war. But like all nations in Europe after the war, the Kingdom would not start off well. In fact, its early history was rather turbulent. On June 20th 1928, a Montenegrin Serb deputy by the name of Punisa Racic shot at five members of the Croatian Peasant Party during a session in the Yugoslav parliament, killing two people and also its leader Stjepan Radic. The attack took the country by surprise, and it would hold extreme repercussions for Yugoslavia's future: the death of Stjepan Radic caused a flurry of extremist nationalism to rise in Croatia, and also resulted in the growth of the fascist Croatian organization known as the Ustasha. Months later on January 6th 1929, the current king, Alexander I, established a royal dictatorship by banning opposition political parties and abolishing the constitution. He renamed the country to the much shorter Yugoslavia. The period of royal dictatorship in the country lasted until 1931, when order was restored to the country and Alexander I relinquished his authority. During his reign, he attempted to create a more unified and centralized Yugoslavia by destroying historical regions so as to not create a sense of regional individualism. His popularity was waning though, and in 1934, he was assassinated in France.
Yugoslavia and the Balkans
SECOND WORLD WAR
Alexander's death led to the crowning of his son, Peter II, who was still eleven years old or so at the time of his father's death. Still extremely young and actually unfit for the throne, a regent held temporary power in his place. The regent was to be Prince Paul, the deceased king's cousin. And Paul had a lot to do in his country; from 1934 to 1941, Yugoslavia's future seemed chaotic and uncertain. The world around Yugoslavia itself was rapidly changing. Fascist countries like Nazi Germany and Italy reared their heads, while the communist Soviet Union wanted to establish hegemony over Eastern Europe. All in all, it seemed everybody was ready for a Second Great War. Yugoslavia was slightly fractured in 1939 following the recognition of Croatian autonomy within the country. On the very same year the Second World War would begin, and Europe was once again plunged into total chaos. By 1941, Germany had expanded their borders from northern France to western Poland, definitely more successful than its predecessor during the first war. Paul was aware of the German eagle at their doorstep, and on March 25th 1941, he decided that if you can't beat them, join them. So he signed the Tripartite Pact, joining the Axis Powers.
In hindsight, this seemed like a good move. The Yugoslav Army was poor at best, its economy being just above average yet not enough to sustain the nation. But the people of Yugoslavia did not appreciate Paul's decision. Riots broke out in Belgrade and other major cities across the country, with citizens expressing their desire to fight the Germans than being enslaved by them. Members of the Yugoslav military themselves felt angered by Paul's decision.
So just two days after the signing of the Tripartite Pact, high-ranking officers of the Air Force and the royal guard seized control of important government buildings and overthrew Paul. The usurpers announced that Peter II, despite still being aged 17 at the time and still not mature for the full responsibilities of the throne, as the new leader of the country. The young Peter was rather reluctant to becoming king, but he ultimately accepted, and was crowned on March 28th. The people of Yugoslavia cheered in celebration for Peter's inauguration, and the new government now withdrew their two-day membership from the Axis Powers. The Allies supported and respected Yugoslavia's decision, but despite such immense support, it would not be enough to hold off the coming storm. On April 6th 1941, combined forces of Germany, Italy, Hungary, and its other Axis allies launched an invasion into Yugoslavia, as part of a greater campaign to invade Greece. Almost immediately, the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade was subject to bombing runs by the Luftwaffe. The Axis Powers managed to overrun Yugoslavia, and after twelve days of resistance, the Yugoslav government signed an armistice with Germany.
Partition of Yugoslavia between the Axis
The resulting peace settlement was horrible. Yugoslavia was to be dismantled and carved up between the Axis Powers, with satellite states being formed out of local groups sympathetic to the Axis cause. One of these satellite states, and also the largest of them all, was the Independent State of Croatia, and its ruling group was the previously mentioned Ustasha. The radical nationalist group suddenly held immense power, a great leap forward from their position back in the late 1920s. And the Ustasha regime brought upon a horrifying period; the Ustasha would persecute and murder Serbs, Jews, Roma, Muslim Bosniaks, and even "anti-fascist" Croats. Likewise, the Serbian puppet regime also carried out genocide against Croats and Muslims. This was a bit of a foreshadow for what is to come during the Yugoslav Wars.
YUGOSLAV RESISTANCE
Despite the horrors of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia, it did not discourage the growth of resistance movements within the country. Yugoslav resistance during World War 2 was one of the most effective of all Allied resistance movements, and by the end of the war, Yugoslavia practically liberated itself from the shackles of Germany.
When Yugoslavia surrendered to the Axis Powers, loyalists of the Yugoslav Army fled from major cities and hid in the mountains of the country, and formed a guerilla resistance force known as the Chetniks. The Chetniks focused on restoring the Yugoslav monarchy back into power. But the Chetniks had another, darker side to them. The Chetniks were more Serbian-oriented in their goals, and they were prioritizing the wellbeing of Serbia rather than the entirety of Yugoslavia. The Chetniks carried out heinous war crimes against the non-Serb populations, particularly against the Croats, and because of that, their popularity rolled downhill pretty fast. The Chetniks were only recognized by the Allies in 1943 during the Tehran Conference.
Meanwhile, another resistance group was born, one that held conflicting ideas with the Chetniks. This group was simply known as the Yugoslav Partisans, or the National Liberation Army. The partisans were led by Josip Broz Tito, the leader of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Tito believed that the current circumstances of his country would allow the growth of socialism, and he hoped that the partisans liberating his country from the Axis would allow for Yugoslavia to adopt said socialism as its state ideology. In order to garner support, Tito pursued for more pan-Yugoslav post-war goals.
Josip Broz Tito
His partisans fought bravely, and since 1941, the partisans began liberating several towns from German occupation. The German occupying forces became aware of the danger of these Yugoslav resistance groups, both Chetnik and Partisan, and as such decreed that they would kill more civillians if anymore German soldier was killed. The Chetniks slowed down their operations, but the partisans continued. In fact, the partisans took advantage of the decree. Now, if they liberated a town or a village from the Germans, the remaining civllians there would either stay and be killed by German soldiers, or take up arms and join the partisans. Training amongst the partisans was also incredibly effective. Veterans of the Spanish Civil War constantly taught new recruits the ways of combat, and as a result a majority of the partisans were well-trained and tactical. When German and partisan forces clashed, most of the time the former would lose more men. As the movement grew and gained traction, Allied leaders during the Tehran Conference recognized Tito's efforts in liberating the country, and declared that it was an important part to the war effort; they recognized Tito as Yugoslavia's new leader. The former king, Peter II, exiled from his country since the invasion of Yugoslavia, also recognized Tito and his partisans as the legitimate government of the country, calling on all Yugoslavs to fight under Tito's banner. Meanwhile, the Chetniks lost support due to their massacres against the non-Serb populations, and their Serbian nationalistic views. By 1944, the Chetniks have almost become partners with the Axis occupying forces.
Between 1944 and 1945, as the Germans lost ground to the Western Allies in France and Italy and to the Soviets in the East, the Yugoslav partisans took advantage and launched a large-scale offensive across all of Yugoslavia. Large cities were successfully retaken from retreating German forces, the Germans having to deal with hundreds of thousands of resistance fighters and partisans along the way. By the time the Soviets conquered Eastern Europe from the Axis, Yugoslavia had practically been liberated by Tito and his partisans.
POST-WAR YUGOSLAVIA
In the immediate aftermath of the war, the monarchy was quietly abolished, and Peter II would spend the rest of his life in exile. By November 1945, the coalition of political parties known as the People's Front, which supported the partisan cause during the war, soon began to rise to power. The coalition was headed by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, or the KPJ, led by Tito himself. While the People's Front was rising in popularity due to how much the partisans and Tito had done to liberate the country, there still remained opposition parties left over from the previous Yugoslav government. Nevertheless, the Communist Party won in a landslide during the country's first postwar elections on November 11th, and Tito now assumed power.
The country was renamed into the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPR Yugoslavia), and followed the growing ideology of communism. Soon after its establishment, the country was turned into a one-party state, and Tito was declared as "president for life." Yugoslavia's administrative structure was also changed under the Tito regime. The country was a federation of six republics, those being Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia, with two additional autonomus republics located in Serbia, that being Kosovo and Vojvodina.
Initially, Yugoslavia allied with the Soviet Union early on in the Cold War, for obvious ideological reasons. To put their loyalty to the Eastern Bloc in display, the Yugoslavs shot down two American airplanes flying over Yugoslav airspace in August 1946. The Yugoslav economy was modelled after the Stalinist economy in the Soviet Union, and also aided the Soviets by intervening in the Greek Civil War. The country's foreign policies also took an aggressive stance against the Western powers, but that all changed when disagreements between Tito and Stalin began to show. Eventually Yugoslavia broke relations with the Soviets, and moved away from its fellow communist nations in Eastern Europe. Yugoslavia would then declare itself as a neutral nation, but it would soon find it hard for it to move away from Soviet influence. There were some Yugoslavs that were pro-Soviet, and it seemed like conflict was about to erupt again. But Tito managed to get everything in control and stray the country away from Soviet influence. Yugoslavia would later become a leading member of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War, which is an organization of nations that decided not to join the Western and Communist blocs and remain neutral. Yugoslavia would later grow to become a regional power in the Balkans. It had received lots of foreign aid that was enough to kickstart the country's economy and industry.
As far as dictatorships go, Yugoslavia was one of the more tame ones. Sure, Tito was your average 20th century dictator. If anybody didn't agree with him, they would end up dead from mysterious circumstances or disappear entirely. But the country itself was not bleak or depresding. All the six constituent republics that formed Yugoslavia all had their own leaders, constitution, law, and many others. And Tito's dictatorial stance had a reason: his country was full of ethnicities that had a mutual hatred and distrust for one another, especially after the intense ethnic cleansing that occured during WWII. The six republics lived in harmony, but always teethered towards conflict. And to maintain order in such a vastly diverse country, you have to establish yourself as a ruler that deserved to be feared and respected. You need to have an iron grip. And that was what Tito was doing. He promoted the idea of "Slavic brotherhood", which, oversimplified, was essentially a way of saying "We may be from different cultures, ethnicities, and religions, but we are all Slavs and we are all one as a part of this country, just like the founders of this country intended it to be." Tito was essentially the thing that kept together Yugoslavia...
...untl he died that is.
DECLINE
Tito's final resting place in the House of Flowers, located in
Belgrade, Serbia
Tito died in 1980, and he was ceremoniously buried. But the mourning would not last. Soon after his death, the country experienced a slow decline. As the Cold War died down, foreign aid from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to die down as well. Yugoslavia had relied on foreign aid to rebuild its country, but now the grim truth was starting to settle: it had lots and lots of debts to pay because of it. Relations between the six republics disappeared, and ethnic tensions begin to rise again. The republics of Slovenia, Croatia, and Kosovo wanted greater autonomy within the country, with the former two blaming the economic downturn to the southern republics like Serbia and the likes. Nationalism became prevalent as each republic cared more for its own people and for its own gains rather than Yugoslavia as a whole. Seperatism was also a problem, as the aforementioned Slovenia and Croatia seemed eager to break away. The 1990s would prove devastating for the Yugoslav situation. As the Cold War ended with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia simply experienced harsher economic downturn.
With Tito as president gone and nobody to succeed him, the presidency was transformed into a "collective presidency". This body of government would include representatives from the six republics and the two autonomous Serbian provinces, each one representing one-eighth of the presidency. As such, decisions were decided via voting, and naturally the one with the majority would win. But with this type of government, came conflicting regional ambitions. Serbia wanted to establish federal authority over the rest of Yugoslavia; Kosovo wanted greater autonomy; Slovenia and Croatia, being the most economically stable republics, wanted to control their own economies and not waste their money on the less stable southern republics; Bosnia wanted to break away from the country; and many, many more problems caused disarray in the new government.
The constituent republics within Yugoslavia
Meanwhile, over in Kosovo, violence has already erupted. Fighting had broken out between Kosovar Serbs and Kosovar Albanians, with the former accusing the Albanians for wanting to control and annex Kosovo for themselves. To restore order, a Serbian politician by the name of Slobodan Milošević, was sent to quell the protests. However, that was not what he did. Instead, Milošević declared his support for the Kosovar Serbs. His speech helped him gain a loyal following of Serbs all over Yugoslavia, and together with his followers, replaced the leaders of Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Montenegro with loyalists of Milošević. With his influence, he was able to bypass the collective presidency gain a majority in the government; 4 votes out of the total 8. With loyalists installed in power, Milošević assumed power as Yugoslavia's new president. It was clear for basically everybody that Milošević had an ulterior motive. He did not want to restabilize Yugoslavia but, based on a 1994 report by the CIA, wanted to establish a "Greater Serbia" by annexing most of the Yugoslav republics. The other republics, especially Slovenia and Croatia, expressed their concerns for Milošević's reign. Media in these two republics called the new president as a Serbian nationalist and a fascist that did not care for Yugoslavia's interests as a whole. Milošević found the comments of the two republics merely annoying and irritating. He planned to replace the representatives of Slovenia and Croatia with his loyalists, preferrably Serbs as well. But it was soon not just confined to those two republics; Bosnia and Macedonia held similar views on Milošević, and have lost faith and trust over the new government.
Over the following weeks, the republics would choose to hold their first multi-party elections. Owing to the fact that communism was a failing ideology in Eastern Europe, communist parties began to lose popularity in favor of nationalist parties. The people were growing more and more concerned of Serbia's rising power, and as such, were easily swayed by nationalist parties that sought to protect them from Milošević and the Serbs. In Croatia, the independence movement was especially strong. The new Croatian president Franjo Tuđman, actively pushed for his republic's independence. To symbolize this, the flag of Croatia was changed to the checkered pattern it has today.
Slobodan Milošević
While it did symbolize Croatian independence, it did also trigger horrifying memories for Serbs and other people in Yugoslavia, because the Ustasha party also adopted the checkered flag for their own. This caused the Serbs living in Croatia to fear what would happen to them if Croatia was ever allowed to be independent. And so, the Croatian Serbs declared that if Croatia became independent, Serb-majority areas of the new country would break away as well. As a result, local Serbian militias began to occupy roads and weapons depots, as well as taking control over large swathes of the countryside. Violence and gunfights soon broke out between Croatian Serb militias and the Croatian military. Tuđman attempted to quell the rebellion by dispatching a unit of helicopters, but their journey was short-lived after a visit by Yugoslav fighter jets. Under pressure from the Yugoslav military, or the JNA, the Croats backed down. It was clear that Yugoslavia was actively supporting the Serbian militias. Yet that did not mean Croatia now ignored the issue. Instead, the Croatian government would smuggle weapons from Hungary, in order to continue the fight. Meanwhile in Slovenia, a nationwide referendum was enacted, regarding the topic of Slovenian independence. 95% of voters agreed on Slovenian independence, and so the decision was final. Croatia also held an independence referendum, and an overwhelming 93% agreed for independence. Simultaneously, on June 25th, 1991, Slovenia and Croatia had declared their independence from Yugoslavia. The JNA was deployed to quell the independent countries. And under this pretext, did the Yugoslav Wars commence.
TEN-DAY WAR
Two days after Slovenian independence was declared, the JNA was ordered to secure Slovenian border crossings. However, Slovenian police and territorial defense have blockaded roads and barracks, leading into several minor skirmishes and standoffs between the Slovenian forces and the JNA. The JNA have dropped leaflets over the Slovenian capital, declaring that all resistance to their advance would be crushed. In response, Slovenian forces shot down two JNA helicopters, marking the first real casualties of what was soon known as the Ten-Day War.
Fighting near the Italian border between the Slovenes and the JNA
The Slovenian territorial defense, an armed unit prepares for defending Slovenian independence, launched several attacks against JNA barracks and managed to destroy several JNA tanks. Despite the superiority of their numbers, the JNA suffered crippling losses to the underwhelming Slovenian military. The Slovenes have been planning this for months, and fully expected the Yugoslav response. As such, strategies and tactics were thoroughly analyzed and developed prior to the war. Making use of the local geography, the Slovenes were able to destroy JNA convoys, trapping them in narrow mountainous roads that made them vulnerable to anti-tank weaponry. The Yugoslavs attempted to capture and occupy Slovenia's border territories to stop any incoming foreign aid headed towards the new country. Yet by June 27th, the Slovenes have launched a full-scale offensive near the Italian border, and captured around 100 JNA soldiers and destroyed or captured five JNA tanks.
On June 28th, the JNA began to rapidly lose ground. More and more Slovenes in their ranks deserted and joined the fighting together with their fellow Slovene brothers. Within a week, all Yugoslav military forces have begun to withdraw from Slovenia, and on July 7th, a peace agreement was signed. It was agreed that Croatia and Slovenia would host a three-month moratorium on secession. The war, as the name so obviously said, only lasted ten days and only less than 50 people were killed in total. Yugoslavia begrudgingly recognized Slovenian independence by October 26th. Macedonia would also declare independence roughly around the same time frame, and did not receive a military response from the JNA nor the Yugoslav government. Macedonia then became the only republic to secede peacefully from Yugoslavia.
CROATIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
On the other hand, Croatia was not as fortunate. Within the country, Croatian Serb militias have taken over nearly a third of the entire country's territory. A crippling arms embargo over Yugoslavia effectively limitted Croatia's response towards the Croatian Serbs, as it continued to smuggle weapons in. By summer of 1991, forces of the JNA have been deployed into Croatia to assist the Serbian seperatists, with an estimate of 70,000 JNA troops already present since mid-July the same year.
Map of the Croatian War of Independence;
red territories are held by the Serb militias
The first major battle that took place during this war was the Battle of Vukovar. The city became the first under Croatian control that came under attack from thr advancing Yugoslav forces and Serbian militants. Soon after, the JNA have managed to encircle the city, trapping it on all sides and beginning a relentless siege. The civillian population unfortunate enough to be within the city at the time were subjected to an intense bombing campaign, with artillery and mortar attacks levelling the city into rubble in a daily basis. After a month of shaping the battlefield, hundreds of JNA tanks and armored vehicles begin to pour through the city's defenses. Intense fighting between the Croatian military and the Yugoslav forces occured within the streets and suburbs of the city. Land mines placed by the Croats managed to inflict significant damage to tank movements by the JNA, and air defenses of the Croats proved to be effective against the Yugoslav Air Force, with multiple fighter jets having been shot down by anti-aircraft batteries. The fighting had become so intense that the Yugoslav Navy was involved, operating out of the Danube river and helping to bombars the city. The battle dragged on for weeks, with tens of thousands of houses being destroyed, thousands of corpses litter the streets, and thousands more were forced to flee their houses and flee the city to avoid the carnage. As the battle continued, the JNA failed to make significant progress. The Croats have adopted a new offensive strategy, in which the Croats would actively launch hit-and-run attacks against the JNA. The city would be dubbed as the "tank graveyard" because of this due to the abundance of disrepaired and damaged tanks that were strewn across the street.
Damaged JNA tank during the Battle of Vukovar
By October 1991, the Yugoslav Navy became more active and engaged in the conflict. Naval bombardments over several Croatian coastal cities helped the JNA to secure Croatia's long coastlines. One coastal city that managed to defend itself from occupation was the city of Dubrovnik. The historical city was difficult to occupy because the structure of it was like that of a fortress, granting it a natural defense. Montenegrin forces played a key role during the siege of Dubrovnik, with its president declaring that the city was, historically, not Croatian, and that new borders needed to be drawn.
The siege of Dubrovnik would soon be given the spotlight of the international press, as their attention became focused on the war. However, this move was heavily criticized by the public. While the destruction of Dubrovnik was devastating, it seemed like the international press cared more for the city's architectural heritage and did not report about the deaths of civillians in Dubrovnik itself and especially in Vukovar. While the frontlines became more chaotic, both Yugoslavia and Croatia published an extensive amount of propaganda that directed hatred against one another in hopes that it could turn the tide of public support against the other side. Serbian media kept claiming that the Croats were rebuilding the fascist Ustasha movement, while the Croats made measures to limit the presence of Serbian culture portrayed in Croatian media. The Serbian Cyrillic script was banned as a viable language to be used in public offices. These measures did nothing to improve of the situation, and ethnic tensions reached a boiling point and could not be repaired. By November 1991, Vukovar would fall under Serbian control after ammunitions depleted for the defenders. Shortly after occupation of the city began, the JNA massacred Croatian prisoners of war and civillians alike.
Destruction at the siege of Dubrovnik
Ceasefires were broken as quickly as they were signed, but one ceasefire remained in order, and on January 1992, the Vance Plan was signed. It was brokered by the United Nations, which began to intervene in the war due to the scale of its destruction. In accordance with the Vance Plan, the territories that were formerly occupied by the Croatian Serb militias were to be transferred to UN control under the self-proclaimed name of the "Republic of Serbian Krajina." The European community also acknowledged Croatian independence around the same time. The signing of the ceasefire ended major military operations in the war, but that did not mean it was entirely over. While the JNA did withdraw, minor fighting continued between the Croats who wanted to reclaim territories lost to the seperatists and the Serbs who wanted to maintain their seperatist state. The Croatian population under the Serbian zones of control suffered greatly to mass evictions, killings, and overall ethnic cleansing. Over the course of the following months, Croatian forces would launch several offensives to regain its lost territory, with Operation Flash and Operation Storm managing to shatter the Serbian capability to fight by mid-1995. And on that year, did the war finally settle. Croatia had regained almost all of the Serbian territories, with the exception of Slavonia, located near the border with Serbia. The region would be placed under UN control until 1998 when it was returned.
BOSNIAN WAR
The Bosnian War was the most well-known of the Yugoslav Wars, and the one that gained the most international attention at the time.
Map of the Bosnian War; blue territories are held by
the Bosnians and the Croats, red territories are held
by the Bosnian Serbs
Entering into March 1992, the fervor of independence and secession had spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina, or Bosnia for short. This particular Yugoslav republic was the most diverse out of all the others. It had a majority Muslim Bosniak population and a significant Bosnian Serb minority. While the war in Croatia was raging, the Bosnian parliament began to consider the idea of secession, just as Slovenia and Croatia had done. To determine the future course of the country, a nationwide independence referendum was held, much to the dismay of the Bosnian Serbs. A majority of Bosnia's population voted in agreement for independence, but the results were not as expected; the Bosnian Serbs boycotted the vote and chose to hold their own referendum. The Bosnian Serbs were led by Radovan Karadžić, a known ultranationalist who hoped to create and maintain a breakaway Serbian state, like the one in Croatia. To make matters more confusing, the Bosnian Croat minority also established their own breakaway state, but for now, the Bosnian Croats cooperated with the Bosniak government, aiding in their fight against the Serbs. As soon as Bosnian independence was declared, the Bosnian Serbs took up arms and seized territories to form their desired breakaway state; a Yugoslav satellite state known as Republika Srpska. As fighting continued between the Bosniaks and the Serbs, the Bosnian War had begun.
After Bosnian independence was declared on April 1992, Yugoslavia has effectively become a rump state of itself. Only Serbia and Montenegro were the republics that remained. Shortly after independence was declared, the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo was immediately placed under siege by the JNA. The Yugoslavs and the Bosnian Serbs wanted to make sure that the siege would be as devastating as possible. Their artillery was arranged and placed at hillsides capable of damaging the interior of the city, targetting civillians and soldiers alike. Life for the people in Sarajevo was full of hardships. At any moment, at any time of the day, their houses could be destroyed by artillery, grenades, or a combination of both, and walking down the street was risky due to the presence of Serbian snipers, picking off anybody they could see. Bosnian forces attempted their best to break the siege, but the JNA had the city surrounded, and as a result, the Bosniaks were forced to go on the defensive. The siege would continue well into June, when the JNA eventually evacuated from the area, and left the Bosnian Serbs to continue to besiege the capital. The siege of Sarajevo would last for many, long years.
The streets of Sarajevo during the siege
Outside of the capital, the Bosnian Serbs maintained a steady advance. Dozens of cities had been captured by the Bosnian Serbs, and their war aims were now no longer confined to fight for the existence of their Serbian state, but rather to occupy and control the entirety of Bosnia. The Croatian Army moved into the country and gave their support for the Bosniaks. The Bosnian Croats and the Bosniaks would form an alliance aimed at combatting the Bosnian Serbs, fighting over the control of small towns and cities, throughout 1992.
The war, though, was quickly spiralling out of control. Civillians were actively targetted and POWs were massacred by both sides, proving just how morally complicated this has become. Within the Republika Srpska, Bosniaks, Croats, and other non-Serb minorities were subjected to ethnic cleansing and massacres on an almost daily basis. Refugees began flooding into neighboring countries, their houses destroyed and their families dead. The war shifted its focus from a desire for independence and seperation of ideology, to a war of ethnic hatred where both sides would unleash hell upon the other. The Bosnian War became more complicated when relations between the Bosniaks and the Bosnian Croats broke down, and by January 1993, the two former allies engaged each other in open conflict, in what was known as the Croat-Bosniak War. Essentially, the war had become a three-way conflict between the Bosniaks, the Serbs, and the Croats, who all had their own agendas.
To support their allies, Yugoslavia launched several air strikes onto Bosnian territory to encourage the Bosnian Serbs to advance. Muslim Bosniaks, desperate of getting any help they could find, turned towards extremists for support. Meanwhile, Bosnian forces launched Operation Neretva in an attempt to reclaim territories occupied by the Croats. The offensive would take place along a 200-km front, yet it bore minimal successes, and failed to accomplish its operational objectives. The Croat-Bosniak War would drag on into a stalemate.
With the carnage of the Bosnian War raging on, more and more of the international world set their eyes upon the conflict, which was growing ever more violent. In response, the United Nations deployed more of their troops to enforce "safe areas", places where refugees from the war could reside and stay until the conflict was resolved. The UN attempted to broker a peace agreement in the Vance-Owen Peace Plan, which would have established three Bosniak provinces, three Croat provinces, and three Serb provinces, while turning Sarajevo into its seperate district.
The Serbs rejected the peace offer, but it did open up another peace. On March 1994, the Croat-Bosniak War was resolved via the Washington Agreement, and relations between the Bosniaks and the Croats slightly improved. The two now refocused their efforts on combatting the Serbs yet again. Over in Sarajevo, the city remained under siege for nearly two years at this point, and suffered a devastating bombardment on February 5th 1994, when two artillery shells hit a bustling market place located in the city's historical center. International pressure remained hot on steel against Yugoslavia, and eventually, the country was forced to suspend all economic and military support for the Bosnian Serbs, although it did little to decrease the violence of the war. The siege of Sarajevo would last for nearly four years in total, outlasting that of the siege of Leningrad during WWII.
The war received a spotlight for the international community, with the United States and the European Community holding peace talks and treaties whenever possible. The UN strengthened their "safe havens" to better shield the ethnic minorities and innocent civillians from the battlefield. However, criticism has been thrown at the UN for not helping to reinforce humanitarian law, as paramilitary groups remained rampant across the country, massacring civillians. Soon after, NATO would be directly involved in the conflict. It had established no-fly zones over certain areas, and to show they were not playing around, four Bosnian Serb jets were shot down for violating a no-fly zone. NATO also decided to send an ultimatum to the Bosnian Serbs: withdraw the usage of heavy weapons and arms, or face the full force of the alliance.
Bosnian civillians detained in the Manjača camp, a concentration camp
controlled by the Serbs
However, the Bosnian Serbs received a foreign ally that could prevent any further NATO encroachments; Russia. Russia was a Slavic country, and as a result held close ties with the Serbs. Russian president Boris Yeltsin was upset that NATO was intervening in the Bosnian War, sensing that the alliance was intervening to expand its influence and membership into the Balkans. The Russian government contacted the Bosnian Serbs, and told them to accept NATO's demands, and if they did, Russian soldiers would be deployed and be sent to enforce Bosnian Serb positions. The Bosnian Serbs agreed, and began a slow withdrawal of their heavy weapons. In Sarajevo, the city enjoyed its first casualty-free day, artillery no longer reverberating throughout the city. It seemd like the war was close to being resolved, until the Bosnian Serbs launched an artillery strike onto a refugee-filled UN safe haven. American F-16 fighter jets were immediately deployed in response to the attack, launching air strikes throughout the country. It marked one of NATO's many air strikes that would carpet all of Bosnia.
Yet the Bosnian Serbs also launched their own retaliation. On April 1994, they captured 150 UN soldiers hostage, and in a similar incident on July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces stormed one of the UN safe areas, Trebenitska, and massacred everybody inside, civillians and UN security forces alike. The surviving UN soldiers inside the safe zone were also captured as hostages, and the Bosnian Serbs planned to use them as human shields to prevent anymore NATO or UN involvement. Preventing further escalation of the conflict, NATO would launch an air campaign known as Operation Deliberate Force. Around 400 NATO aircraft were involved, with 3500 sorties launched and 1020 bombs dropped, all targetting Bosnian Serb positions. 97% of NATO air strikes hit their targets, leaving 80% of them severely damaged.
The war reached a turning point when the Croatian War of Independence concluded with the recapture of all territories lost to the Croatian Serbs in Croatia by late 1995, as explained before. Fueled by years of hatred against the Serbs for killing, raping, and launching ethnic cleansings against the Croat population, the Croatian army forced thousands of ethnic Serbs from their homes, and those who did not comply or protested were often shot and killed. Free from the Serb issue, the Croats joined forces with NATO and resumed major offensives with the Bosniaks, completely encircling the Bosnian Serbs and pushing them from all sides. The devastation of NATO air strikes forced the Bosnian Serbs to end the years-long siege on Sarajevo, and the Bosnian Serbs finally agreed for peace negotiations.
The Bosnian War ended in December 14th 1995, with the signing of the Dayton Agreement. It was agreed upon that Bosnia would become an independent country, and the Republika Srpska would be integrated as an autonomous region within Bosnia. Yugoslavia would recognize Bosnia's independence in 1996, and the most devastating war of the Yugoslav Wars eventually ended.
KOSOVO WAR
While the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia were drawing to a close, another conflict was brewing in the autonomous region of Kosovo. Historically, the region was composed of mostly ethnic Albanians, with a sizeable Serb minority. Yet the Serbs seemed to gain better treatment than the Albanians. If you remember, there were protests carried out by the Kosovar Albanians and Kosovar Serbs in the late 1980s, which ultimately gave power to Milošević. The Yugoslav government under Milošević continued to carry out repressive policies towards the Albanians. Beginning from 1995, insurgencies began to spread in Kosovo in response to the growing persecution of the Albanians. Albanian newspapers and radios were shut down by the Yugoslav government. During this period of upheaval, an Albanian paramilitary group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army, or the KLA, began carrying out attacks against Serb civillians and Serbian police forces. To help carry out their operations, the KLA began smuggling weapons from Albania, and continued to loot weapons depots and kill officers of the Serbian police. The KLA ultimately wanted to destabilize Kosovo, in hopes that NATO and the UN would intervene. In response to KLA activity, Milošević deployed Serbian paramilitary forces and the JNA in order to hunt down members of the KLA. Over 2,000 Kosovar Albanians were killed during the JNA's operations, accusing them of being members of the KLA.
KLA soldiers
As peace negotiations failed, the Yugoslav government continued to carry out harsher repressive policies onto the Albanians and also launched a campaign of mass expulsions of Albanians from Kosovo. It seemed like another repeat of the Bosnian War was on the horizon, and this development provoked NATO into intervening again in 1999, escalating the Kosovo War. NATO helped to draft the Rambouillet Accorda, and presented it to Yugoslavia. It demanded that 30,000 NATO soldiers be allowed to be stationed in Kosovo as peacekeeping forces and immunity for NATO soldiers to Yugoslav law, among other things. The Yugoslav government refused, and this refusal to cooperate gave NATO a reason to begin their bombing campaign.
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia remained a controversial topic related to the Yugoslav Wars. Unlike the NATO bombings during the Bosnian War, NATO did not wait for prior UN approval to carry out their bombing campaigns during the Kosovo War. NATO's response was that its efforts would prevent another humanitarian crisis, and the faster they act, the less lives would be lost. However, in the frenzy of the war, NATO would accidentally strike multiple civillian and non-military targets. There were instances of NATO air strikes hitting an Albanian refugee camp, having mistakening it for forces of the JNA. And NATO fighter jets were not discreet on hitting innocent civillians. They were effective against military targets, but some of these air sorties and missiles would also land on civillian sectors. 500 civillians would die due to the NATO bombing campaign, and the total destruction of Serbia's infrastructure during the war, would result in differing opinions from other nations. Countries like Australia, Japan, and even Malaysia believed that the bombings were necessary to prevent more bloodshed, yet countries like India and China demand the bombings cease. China did have a good reason though, because NATO accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during one of their bombing runs.
The Serbian city of Novi Sad after a NATO bombing run
Whatever you may think of the NATO bombings, it was effective in deterring the JNA. By 1999, all Yugoslav military forces had withdrawn from Kosovo in hopes it would stop the bombings. As NATO increased its attacks via the involvement of bomber aircraft, carriers, and submarines, Milošević was forced to sign the Kumanovo Agreement. The Kosovo War then ended after fifteen months of hositilities. UN peacekeeping forces were stationed across Kosovo, while the Kosovo Force, a NATO-led peacekeeping force, controlled and ensured military protection. Kosovo retained its autonomy, but it would not become independent until 2008. Even then, its independence received limited recognition in the international world. The end of the Kosovo War also brought an end to the presidency of Milošević. After the 2000 Yugoslav elections were suspected of being rigged, mass protests occured throughout Serbia and Montenegro, which eventually caused the overthrow of Milošević in what was known as the Bulldozer Revolution.
While the Kosovo War may have been the final major war of the Yugoslav Wars, there were still multiple conflicts that occured concurrently, most of these conflicts were mainly insurgencies launched by Albanian paramilitary groups. Following the disbanding of the KLA, many of its former members joined these paramilitary groups, in an attempt to protect the ethnic Albanian minority. From 1999 to 2001, a paramilitary group called the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UÇPMB) launched an insurgency in the Preševo Valley, fighting against forces of the JNA. Due to the Kumanovo Agreement severely limitting Yugoslavia's usage of heavy military forces, the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Koštunica, requested the additional support of the Kosovo Force to combat the UÇPMB. Former KLA members also joined the Macedonian Insurgency in 2001, when the Albanian paramilitary group known as the Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) fought with security forces of the Republic of Macedonia. The conflict would engulf the country throughout the year, yet casualties remained limited to only a few dozen or so casualties. There were allegations that the NLA wanted to create a seperate state composed of the Albanian-majority regions of Macedonia, although high-ranking members of the NLA has since denied this.
AFTERMATH
Many consider the end of the Macedonian Insurgency as the end of the Yugoslav Wars. The wars lasted for a decade, and resulted in roughly 130,000 people being killed in total. Following Yugoslavia's official dissolution in 2003, the notion of pan-Slavic brotherhood also ended with it. The very notion that kept Yugoslavia apart all those years ago, had faded into obscurity. Every former Yugoslav republic, with the exception of Slovenia and Macedonia, which suffered little to no losses compared to the others, were totally devastated from the war. Cities were entirely turned to rubble, houses were bombed and burned, and wreckages of tanks and artillery litter the streets. In Bosnia, a majority of land mines placed during the Bosnian War remained dormant and still pose a risk to everyday activities in the country. Slovenia was fortunate enough, as it only lost 70 people during their Ten-Day War. The Croatian War of Independence left 22,000 people dead, with a majority of the deaths being from the Croat forces. The Bosnian War was, as previously stated, the most devastating, with around 97,000 to 102,000 people dead, 65% of them Bosniaks. The Kosovo War resulted in roughly 13,000 deaths, 80% of them Albanians. The siege of Sarajevo costed the lives of 14,000 people, more than the casualties of the Kosovo War.
The remains of a victim of the Srebrenica massacre,
found in a mass grave
UN Peacekeepers carrying a corpse in the aftermath
of the Ahmici massacre in Bosnia
Not only that, but millions of weapons left behind in the wake of the war would be found and kept by paranoid civillians, who fear that if another conflict were to break out, they could properly defend themselves. The rest of these weapons would end up being circulated through the European black market, and some would find its way to the Middle East and North Africa to be obtained by terrorists and other militants. The 2015 Paris attacks and the Gothenburg pub shooting involved the usage of some of these missing weapons. To decrease the threat of these weapons, the governments of the former Yugoslav republics formed the Regional Approach to Stockpile Reduction, or the RASR, funded by the US government to reduce stockpiles of weaponry and reduce accidental explosions caused by dormant land mines.
Weapons were not the only things being circulated through the black market. During and after the later stages of the Yugoslav Wars, such as the Kosovo War, the KLA and Serbian mafia have involved themselves in the illegal drug trade. Mass arrests were launched during the 1990s, which arrested some 2,000 Albanians suspected of being involved in illegal drug activities. The main product of the drug trade was West Asian heroin, and local law enforcement have uncovered tons upon tons of heroin during the war. The rise of the drug trade also gave rise to an increase of criminal activity in the former Yugoslav republics and also in Eastern Europe, as extortions and bank robberies became a dangerously common occurence. Bosnian criminal organizations have also involved themselves in trading cocaine.
The most prominent aspect of the Yugoslav Wars was the extent of war crimes being committed. It was the most devastating conflict Europe had experienced since WWII, with a large refugee crisis plaguing neighboring countries and countless civillians losing their lives. A majority of these war crimes were perpetrated during the Bosnian War, when Bosniaks were actively targetted by Bosnian Serbs. The Muslim and Croat populations were also dwindling as a result of Serb militia activity. Along with mass murders, ethnic cleansing was also carried out, evicting thousands of non-Serbs from their homes. The United Nations General Assembly has declared such type of ethnic cleansing to be a form of genocide. The most apparent and infamous genocide was the Srebrenica genocide, carried out by the Serb forces during the Bosnian War, killing 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks. The international community directed some of the responsibility towards Yugoslavia as well, due to their failure to stop their Serb allies from conducting the massacre. Ethnic cleansing was also carried out by Serb forces in Croatia and Bosnia. Around 100,000 non-Serbs were deported in Croatia, 700,000 Bosniaks were deported in Bosnia, and 860,000 Albanians in Kosovo. Many that survived the ordeal were left traumatized and riddled with PTSD, while also potentially losing their homes. The most heinous crimes carried out by Serb forces also included rape and sexual violence. To promote an "ethnically clean" state, Serb soldiers were encouraged to rape non-Serb women to make as many Serb children as possible, in a twisted and sickening form of ethnic cleansing.
Goran Jelisic, a former Serbian police officer
and war criminal, shooting a Bosnian civillian
To punish the perpetrators of such war crimes, the United Nations formed the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, or the ICTY. The organization was tasked with giving well-deserved punishments for war criminals during the Yugoslav Wars, and most of the trials were held in the Hague, Netherlands. The organization convicted many military generals, officers, and politicians who had a hand in the systematic war crimes. The leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadžić, was convicted of genocide; Bosnian Serb general Stanislav Galić was charged for launching the four-years long siege of Sarajevo; Ratko Mladić, leader of the Republika Srpska, was charged for genocide and crimes against humanity; and many, many more were convicted. The most notable conviction, and the one that gained a lot of attention, was the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević himself. In 2002, he was charged for 66 counts of war crimes, genocides, crimes against humanity, in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. While he clearly did not do any direct crimes, he did order some of them and actively spread nationalistic Serb sentiment, which indirectly fueled the sadism of the Serb militias. However, Milošević's trial was unable to be completed, because he died in 2006. But the ICTY was fair, in that it also charged Bosnian, Croatian, and Albanians that committed similar war crimes.
CLOSING
The Yugoslav Wars remain a complex and tragic moment in recent history. Ethnic tensions and geopolitical shifts define the modern Yugoslav countries today. Serbia is stuck in a tug-of-war between NATO and Russia, tensions arise between Kosovo and Serbia, while the other countries try their hardest to move on. But as they reflect on this past, may lessons be learned so that peace and prosperity can be upheld. May diplomacy be prioritized to prevent the spread of further conflicts in the region, and in the world in general, so that a war of this scale would never repeat and become a relic in the distant past.
SOURCES
The rest I discovered in the Wikipedia page for the Yugoslav Wars, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, the Croatian War of Independence, the Bosnian War, and the Kosovo War.