Start | Thomas Hoepker | Daniel Biskup
Soviet Union | Yugoslavia | Kosovo
The multinational state of Yugoslavia had been breaking up in the course of bloody civil wars since 1991. Nationalistic endeavours in various parts of the country led to military clashes that summer. Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence, which Serbian President Slobodan Milošević refused to accept. As a result, Serbian military and paramilitary units bombarded Croatian cities and expelled thousands of Croatians and Muslims. At the same time Serbia proclaimed the “Serbian Republic of Krajina” in Croatia, and it came to further expulsions and massacres of the Croatian population. Under international pressure, Milošević ended the war in January 1992. However, already in the spring of that year fighting began in Bosnia & Herzegovina, after Croatians and Muslims voted for independence. With the support of Bosnian Serbs the Yugoslavian army attacked the non-Serbian population and laid siege to the capital city Sarajevo. Since the summer of 1992 the army of the Bosnian Serbs controlled more than two-thirds of Bosnia & Herzegovina. In the early summer of 1995 the Croatian army conquered the “Serbian Republic of Krajina”, whereby it came to reprisals and acts of revenge. Ten thousands of Serbs had to flee in the direction of Bosnia and Serbia. At the same time NATO forces attacked Serbian positions in Bosnia & Herzegovina. In October 1995 a truce was arranged; in November 1995 the conflicting parties signed the Dayton Peace Agreement.
