Yugoslavia: Brith to its Breakup. Domovina Net, (Accessed 15 April 1999)

Source: http://www.xs4all.nl/~frankti/Warhistory/war_hist.html
Accessed 15 April 1999

Yugoslavia's Birth to its Breakup

Yugoslavia took shape around a Serbian core during a series of wars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the Ottoman Turkish Empire gradually lost control of its Balkan territories. In 1917, the Pact of Corfu proclaimed that all Yugoslavs (meaning southern Slavs) would unite after World War I to form a kingdom under the Serbian Royal House.

The nation was occupied by Germany during World War II. Two guerrilla armies -- the Chetniks under Draza Mihajlovic supporting the monarchy and the Partisans under Marshal Tito leaning toward the U.S.S.R. -- fought the Nazis for the duration of the war.

At the end of World War II, the monarchy was abolished and Communist Party leader Tito proclaimed the country the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, with himself as prime minister. Eliminating opposition, the Tito government executed Mihajlovic in 1946.

Tito died in 1980, and the fragility of the federation he ruled quickly became apparent. Three ethnic groups fell into conflict:

Serbs
Croats
Muslims

Hostilities among these groups resurfaced as neighboring communist governments collapsed at the end of the 1980s, leading to war in the 1990s.

1991
June 25	Croatia and Slovenia proclaim independence from Yugoslavia.
June 27	Yugoslav army tanks fail to crush Slovenian independence. Fighting begins in Croatia between Croats and local Serbs.
December 19	Rebel Serbs declare independence in the Krajina region, almost a third of Croatia.
December 21	In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serb minority holds unofficial referendum opposing separation from Yugoslavia. Local Serb leaders proclaim a new republic separate from Bosnia.
1992
January 3	The United Nations broker a cease-fire between the Croatian government and rebel Serbs. After subsequent cease-fire breaches, the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) puts 14,000 peacekeeping troops in Croatia.
March 3	Bosnia's Muslims and Croats vote for independence in a referendum boycotted by the Bosnian Serbs.
April 6	War erupts between the Bosnian government forces and local Serbs who lay siege to the capital Sarajevo.
May	U.N. sanctions are slapped on Serbia for backing rebel Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.
August	Viewers worldwide are shocked by television pictures of emaciated Muslim captives in Serb-run prison camps in Bosnia.
1993
January	Heavy fighting and the bitter Serb siege of Sarajevo continue. United Nations-European Union peace efforts fail. War breaks out between Muslims and Croats in Bosnia.
April 13	NATO begins combat patrols over Bosnia to enforce a U.N. ban on flights.
June	NATO offers close air support to U.N. troops.
1994
February 6	A shell kills 68 people in a Sarajevo marketplace. NATO threatens air strikes if Serbs fail to pull weapons back from around the city. They do so, bringing a temporary respite.
March	U.S.-brokered federation agreement ends war between Muslims and Croats.
April 10	NATO launches first air strike against Serbs, around the eastern enclave of Gorazde, which is under heavy attack.
1995
January 1	Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian government sign four-month truce, mediated by former President Jimmy Carter.
March 20	The Bosnian army, gaining strength in spite of the arms embargo, launches a major offensive in the northeast.
May 1	The Croatian army captures the Serb enclave of Western Slavonia in a first major bid to retake its occupied territories. The Krajina Serbs launch a rocket attack on Zagreb, the Croatian capital, in reply.
May 26	Serbs bombard Sarajevo. NATO air strikes touch off crisis in which more than 350 U.N. peacekeepers are taken hostage by Bosnian Serbs. Serbia, improving relations with the West, helps to arrange the hostages' release.
July 11	The Bosnian Serbs overrun Srebrenica, a Muslim enclave which the United Nations have declared a "safe area". The similar enclave of Zepa falls two weeks later.
August 1	NATO threatens major air strikes if the remaining "safe areas" are attacked.
August 4	Croatia launches an offensive against Krajina, capturing in days the whole region which Serb rebels held for four years.
August 11	President Clinton vetoes a congressional move to end the arms embargo on Bosnia and sends envoy Richard Holbrooke on a new peace mission.
August 28	Serb shells hit Sarajevo near the main market, killing 37 people and wounding 85 others.
August 30/31	NATO planes and U.N. artillery blast Serb targets in Bosnia in response to the market attack.
August 30	The Bosnian Serbs give Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic authority to negotiate for them.
September 14	Bosnian Serbs agree to move heavy weapons and tanks away from Sarajevo. NATO halts bombing.
September 15	A Muslim-Croat offensive wins 1,500 square miles of land; more than 150,000 Serbs flee, many to Eastern Slovonia.
October 5	President Clinton announces a cease-fire has been agreed on and will start Oct. 10 and that combatants are to attend talks in United States.
October 12	After a two-day delay, the cease-fire goes into effect a minute after midnight; fighting continues over contested towns in northwest Bosnia.
October 16-18	Holbrooke and other international mediators meet in Moscow, travel to the main capitals of the former Yugoslavia. The US name Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, as site for peace talks.
November 1	Peace talks are launched.
November 21	A comprehensive peace agreement is reached in Dayton.
December 14	The peace accord is signed in Paris by presidents Franjo Tudman (Croatia), Alija Izetbegovic (Bosnia), and Slobodan Milosevic (Serbia, on behalf of the Bosnian Serbs). Compliance with the accord is to be assured by a 60,000-strong force under NATO command, which began arriving in the area at the end of 1995 and has maintained the peace ever since.
Based on a 'Chronicle News Services' article