View source for Yugoslav Wars

{{Short description|1991–2001 series of wars in the Balkans}}
{{redirect|Yugoslav wars||List of wars involving Yugoslavia}}
{{pp-pc|small=yes}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Yugoslav Wars
| partof            = the [[Cold War]] (until 1991), the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]], the [[Revolutions of 1989]], and the [[post–Cold War era]] (from 1991)
| image             = Collage Yugoslav wars.jpg
| image_size        = 290
| caption           = '''Clockwise from top-left:'''<br/>Officers of the [[Slovenian National Police Force]] escort captured soldiers of the [[Yugoslav People's Army]] back to their unit during the [[Ten-Day War|Slovenian War of Independence]]; a destroyed [[M-84]] tank during the [[Battle of Vukovar]]; anti-tank missile installations of the [[Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)|Serbia]]-controlled Yugoslav People's Army during the [[siege of Dubrovnik]]; reburial of victims of the [[Srebrenica massacre|1995 Srebrenica massacre]] in 2010; an armoured vehicle of the [[United Nations Protection Force]] near [[Greece–Bosnia and Herzegovina Friendship Building|the Assembly building]] during the [[siege of Sarajevo]].
| date              = 1 March 1991 – 13 August 2001<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=3|day1=1|year1=1991|month2=08|day2=13|year2=2001}})<br>
----
'''[[Ten-Day War]]:'''<br>27 June – 7 July 1991<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=6|day1=27|year1=1991|month2=7|day2=7|year2=1991}})<br>'''[[Croatian War of Independence]]:'''<br>1 March 1991&nbsp;– 12 November 1995{{refn|There was no formal declaration of war. The first armed clash of the war was the [[Pakrac clash]] on 1 March 1991,<ref name="NYTimes-Pakrac-3Mar1991">{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/03/world/belgrade-sends-troops-to-croatia-town.html?ref=croatia|author=Stephen Engelberg|title=Belgrade Sends Troops to Croatia Town|date=3 March 1991|access-date=11 December 2010|archive-date=18 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518185319/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/03/world/belgrade-sends-troops-to-croatia-town.html?ref=croatia|url-status=live}}</ref> followed by the [[Plitvice Lakes incident]] on 31 March 1991, when the first fatalities occurred.<ref name="NYTimes-Plitvice-31Mar1991">{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/01/world/deadly-clash-in-a-yugoslav-republic.html?ref=croatia|title=Deadly Clash in a Yugoslav Republic|author=Chuck Sudetic|author-link=Chuck Sudetic|date=1 April 1991|access-date=11 December 2010|archive-date=18 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518202811/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/01/world/deadly-clash-in-a-yugoslav-republic.html?ref=croatia|url-status=live}}</ref> The last major combat operation was [[Operation Storm]], from 16-18 August 1995.<ref name="LATimes-Storm-Complete">{{cite news|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-08-08-mn-32662-story.html|title=Croats Declare Victory, End Blitz|author=Dean E. Murphy|date=8 August 1995|access-date=18 December 2010|archive-date=12 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012140454/http://articles.latimes.com/1995-08-08/news/mn-32662_1_serb-refugees|url-status=live}}</ref> Formally, hostilities ceased when the [[Erdut Agreement]] was signed on 12 November 1995.<ref name="NYTimes-ErdutAgr-12Nov95">{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/13/world/serbs-in-croatia-resolve-key-issue-by-giving-up-land.html?ref=croatia|title=Serbs in Croatia Resolve Key Issue by Giving up Land|author=Chris Hedges|author-link=Chris Hedges|date=12 November 1995|access-date=18 December 2010|archive-date=18 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518200823/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/13/world/serbs-in-croatia-resolve-key-issue-by-giving-up-land.html?ref=croatia|url-status=live}}</ref>|group="A"}}<br>({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=03|day1=31|year=1991|month2=11|day2=12|year2=1995}})<br>'''[[Bosnian War]]:'''<br>6 April 1992 – 14 December 1995<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=04|day=1|year1=1992|month2=12|day2=14|year2=1995}})<br>'''[[Insurgency in Kosovo (1995–1998)|Insurgency in Kosovo]]:'''<br>27 May 1995 – 27 February 1998<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=05|day1=27|year1=1995|month2=02|day2=27|year2=1998}})<br>'''[[Kosovo War]]:'''<br>28 February 1998 – 11 June 1999<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=02|day1=28|year1=1998|month2=06|day2=11|year2=1999}})<br>'''[[Insurgency in the Preševo Valley]]:'''<br>12 June 1999 – 1 June 2001<ref name="Mine kills Serb police">{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/971343.stm |work = [[BBC News]] |title = Mine kills Serb police |date = 14 October 2000 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140810015542/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/971343.stm |archive-date = 10 August 2014 }}</ref><br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=06|day1=12|year1=1999|month2=06|day2=01|year2=2001}})<br>'''[[2001 insurgency in Macedonia|Insurgency in Macedonia]]:'''<br>22 January – 13 August 2001<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=01|day1=22|year1=2001|month2=08|day2=13|year2=2001}})
| place             = [[Serbia]], [[Croatia]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Slovenia]], 
[[Montenegro]], [[Kosovo]] and [[North Macedonia]]
| result            = [[Breakup of Yugoslavia]] and the formation of independent successor states
| notes             = {{center|'''Total deaths:''' {{circa}} 130,000–140,000+<ref name="ictj"/><ref name="HLC"/> }}{{center|'''Displaced''': {{circa}} 4,000,000+<ref>{{cite web |url = http://ictj.org/publication/transitional-justice-former-yugoslavia |title = Transitional Justice in the Former Yugoslavia |website = ICJT.org |publisher = [[International Center for Transitional Justice]] |date = 1 January 2009 |access-date = 21 June 2011 |archive-date = 26 January 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210126214707/https://www.ictj.org/publication/transitional-justice-former-yugoslavia |url-status = live }}</ref>}}
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Yugoslav Wars}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=August 2022}}

The '''Yugoslav Wars''' were a series of separate but related<ref name="Judah-BBC-2011">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/yugoslavia_01.shtml |first=Tim |last=Judah |author-link=Tim Judah |title=Yugoslavia: 1918–2003 |date=17 February 2011 |publisher=BBC |access-date=1 April 2012 |archive-date=31 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531122337/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/yugoslavia_01.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[[#Finlan|Finlan (2004)]], p.&nbsp; 8.</ref><ref name="Naimark-Case-2003">[[#Naimark|Naimark (2003)]], p. xvii.</ref> [[ethnic conflict]]s, wars of independence and [[Insurgency|insurgencies]] that took place from 1991 to 2001{{refn|Some historians only narrow the conflicts to [[Slovenia]], [[Croatia]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], and [[Kosovo]] in the 1990s.{{sfnp|Shaw|2013|p=132}} Others also include the [[Insurgency in the Preševo Valley|Preševo Valley insurgency]] and [[2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia|2001 Macedonian insurgency]].|group="A"}} in what had been the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] (SFR Yugoslavia). The conflicts both led up to and resulted from the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]], which began in mid-1991, into six independent countries matching the six [[Republics of Yugoslavia|entities known as republics]] that had previously constituted Yugoslavia: [[Slovenia]], [[Croatia]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Montenegro]], [[Serbia]], and [[North Macedonia|Macedonia]] (now [[Macedonia naming dispute|called North Macedonia]]). SFR Yugoslavia's constituent republics declared independence due to rising nationalism. Unresolved tensions between ethnic minorities in the new countries led to the wars. While most of the conflicts ended through peace accords that involved full international recognition of new states, they resulted in a massive number of deaths as well as severe economic damage to the region.

During the initial stages of the breakup of Yugoslavia, the [[Yugoslav People's Army]] (JNA) sought to preserve the unity of the Yugoslav nation by eradicating all nationalists in the governments of the republics. However, it increasingly came under the influence of [[Slobodan Milošević]], whose government invoked [[Serbian nationalism]] as an ideological replacement for the weakening [[Communist state|communist system]]. As a result, the JNA began to lose [[Slovenes]], [[Croats]], [[Kosovo Albanians|Kosovar Albanians]], [[Bosniaks]], and [[Macedonians (ethnic group)|Macedonians]], and effectively became a fighting force of only [[Serbs]] and [[Montenegrins]].<ref>{{Citation|first=Judith|last=Armatta|title=Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosević|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2010|page=121}}</ref> According to a 1994 report by the [[United Nations]] (UN), the Serb side did not aim to restore Yugoslavia; instead, it aimed to create a "[[Greater Serbia]]" from parts of [[Croatia]] and [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]].<ref>[[#Bassiouni|Annex IV – II. The politics of creating a Greater Serbia: nationalism, fear and repression]]</ref> Other [[irredentist]] movements have also been brought into connection with the Yugoslav Wars, such as "[[Greater Albania]]" (from [[Kosovo]], idea abandoned following international diplomacy)<ref>{{cite book|title=State-building in Kosovo. A plural policing perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YS15BgAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|first=Jelle|last=Janssens|isbn=978-90-466-0749-7|publisher=Maklu|date=2015|page=53|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124118/https://books.google.com/books?id=YS15BgAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Dictionary of Genocide | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rgGA91skoP4C&q=greater%20albania%20kla&pg=PA249 | first1 = Samuel | last1 = Totten | first2 = Paul R. | last2 = Bartrop | others = with contributions by Steven Leonard Jacobs |isbn=978-0-313-32967-8 | publisher = [[Greenwood Publishing Group]] | date = 2008 | page = 249 | access-date = 8 February 2023 | archive-date = 8 February 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124119/https://books.google.com/books?id=rgGA91skoP4C&q=greater%20albania%20kla&pg=PA249 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) |url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/Kosovo-Liberation-Army |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |date=14 September 2014 |first=Colleen |last=Sullivan |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906171517/http://www.britannica.com/topic/Kosovo-Liberation-Army |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=Albanian Insurgents Keep NATO Forces Busy|url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,101938,00.html|first=Tony|last=Karon|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]|date=9 March 2001|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=26 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226173544/http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,101938,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X5sa90AEvi0C&q=greater%20albania%20kla&pg=PR7|first1=David L.|last1=Phillips|others=in cooperation with the Future of Diplomacy Project, [[Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs]]|publisher=The MIT Press|date=2012|page=69|isbn=978-0-262-30512-9|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124122/https://books.google.com/books?id=X5sa90AEvi0C&q=greater%20albania%20kla&pg=PR7|url-status=live}}</ref> and "[[Greater Croatia]]" (from parts of [[Herzegovina]], abandoned in 1994 with the [[Washington Agreement (1994)|Washington Agreement]]).<ref>{{cite web|title=Prlic et al. judgement vol. 6 2013|url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/prlic/tjug/en/130529-6.pdf|author=International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia|publisher=United Nations|date=29 May 2013|page=383|author-link=International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=4 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004115611/http://www.icty.org/x/cases/prlic/tjug/en/130529-6.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Serbian Project and Its Adversaries: A Strategy of War Crimes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yPwlqnIBLQkC|first=James|last=Gow|isbn=978-1-85065-499-5|publisher=C. Hurst & Co|date=2003|page=229|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124135/https://books.google.com/books?id=yPwlqnIBLQkC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Prospects and Risks Beyond EU Enlargement: Southeastern Europe: Weak States and Strong International Support|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vrV9CAAAQBAJ|editor-first=Wim|editor-last=van Meurs|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|date= 2013|page=168|isbn=978-3-663-11183-2|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124138/https://books.google.com/books?id=vrV9CAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Yugoslavia Unraveled: Sovereignty, Self-Determination, Intervention|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9L6ZayN27PAC|editor-first=Raju G. C.|editor-last=Thomas|publisher=Lexington Books|date=2003|page=10|isbn=978-0-7391-0757-7|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124139/https://books.google.com/books?id=9L6ZayN27PAC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Sarajevo Essays: Politics, Ideology, and Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BJWpgXVqi-4C|first=Rusmir|last=Mahmutćehajić|publisher=State University of New York Press|date=2012|page=120|isbn=978-0-7914-8730-3|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124208/https://books.google.com/books?id=BJWpgXVqi-4C|url-status=live}}</ref>

Often described as one of [[List of conflicts in Europe|Europe's deadliest armed conflicts]] since [[World War II]], the Yugoslav Wars were marked by many [[war crime]]s, including [[genocide]], [[crimes against humanity]], [[ethnic cleansing]], [[massacre]]s, and [[Wartime sexual violence|mass wartime rape]]. The [[Bosnian genocide]] was the first European wartime event to be formally classified as genocidal in character since the military campaigns of [[Nazi Germany]], and many of the key individuals who perpetrated it were subsequently charged with war crimes;<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Genocide/bosnia_genocide.htm | title = Bosnia Genocide | publisher = United Human Rights Council | access-date = 13 April 2015 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090422161123/http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Genocide/bosnia_genocide.htm | archive-date = 22 April 2009 }}</ref> the [[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]] (ICTY) was established by the UN in [[The Hague]], Netherlands, to prosecute all individuals who had committed war crimes during the conflicts.<ref>{{UN document|docid=S-RES-827(1993)| type=Resolution| body =Security Council|year=1993|resolution_number=827|date=25 May 1993}}</ref> According to the [[International Center for Transitional Justice]], the Yugoslav Wars resulted in the deaths of 140,000 people,<ref name="ictj">{{cite news |title = Transitional Justice in the Former Yugoslavia |url = http://ictj.org/publication/transitional-justice-former-yugoslavia |publisher = [[International Center for Transitional Justice]] |date = 1 January 2009 |access-date = 8 September 2009 |archive-date = 26 January 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210126214707/https://www.ictj.org/publication/transitional-justice-former-yugoslavia |url-status = live }}</ref> while the [[Humanitarian Law Center]] estimates at least 130,000 casualties.<ref name="HLC">{{cite web |title = About us |url = http://www.hlc-rdc.org/stranice/Linkovi-modula/About-us.en.html |publisher=Humanitarian Law Center |access-date=17 November 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110522141442/http://www.hlc-rdc.org/stranice/Linkovi-modula/About-us.en.html |archive-date=22 May 2011 }}</ref> Over their decade-long duration, the conflicts resulted in major refugee and humanitarian crises.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/balkans/bosnia-and-herzegovina/balkan-refugee-crisis |title=The Balkan Refugee Crisis |publisher=Crisis Group |date=June 1999 |access-date=2022-03-14 |archive-date=1 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201005428/https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/balkans/bosnia-and-herzegovina/balkan-refugee-crisis |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://chomsky.info/199905__/ |title=Crisis in the Balkans |publisher=Chomsky.info |date= |access-date=2022-03-14 |archive-date=29 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929150216/https://chomsky.info/199905__/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/1995/10/15/fall-srebrenica-and-failure-un-peacekeeping/bosnia-and-herzegovina |title=Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Fall of Srebrenica and the Failure of UN Peacekeeping |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |date=1995-10-15 |access-date=2022-03-14 |archive-date=8 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308124052/https://www.hrw.org/report/1995/10/15/fall-srebrenica-and-failure-un-peacekeeping/bosnia-and-herzegovina |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Naming ==
The Yugoslav Wars have alternatively been referred to as:
*"Wars in the [[Balkans]]"
*"Wars/conflicts in the former Yugoslavia"<ref name=ictj /><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.helsinki.org.rs/doc/testimonies33.pdf| title=Casualties of the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia (1991–1999)| first=Ewa|last=Tabeau| publisher=Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia| date=15 January 2009| access-date=8 February 2023| archive-date=28 September 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928192554/http://www.helsinki.org.rs/doc/testimonies33.pdf| url-status=live}}</ref>
*"Wars of Yugoslav Secession/Succession"
*"Third Balkan War": a term which is contained in the title of a book by the British journalist [[Misha Glenny]], the term alludes to the two previous [[Balkan Wars]] which were waged from 1912 to 1913.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Glenny |first=Misha |title=The Fall of Yugoslavia: The Third Balkan War |date=September 1, 1996 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=9780140257717 |edition=3rd |publication-date=250 |language=English}}</ref> However, some contemporary historians have previously applied this term to [[World War I]], because they believe it to be a direct sequel to the 1912–13 wars.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bideleux |first1=Robert |title=A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change |last2=Jefferies |first2=Ian |date=September 24, 2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9780415366274 |edition=2nd |pages=114 |language=English}}</ref>
*"Yugoslav/Yugoslavia/Yugoslavian Civil War", "Civil War in Yugoslavia"

==Background==
{{Main|Creation of Yugoslavia|Breakup of Yugoslavia|History of the Balkans}}
[[File:Yugoslav republics.png|thumb|The flag map of the six Yugoslav republics (without the two autonomous provinces) between 1945 and 1992<ref>{{cite news|title=Serbia and Kosovo reach EU-brokered landmark accord|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22222624|access-date=13 December 2014|agency=BBC|date=19 April 2013|archive-date=8 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008021737/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22222624|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
The state of [[Yugoslavia]] was created in the [[aftermath of World War I]], and its population was mostly composed of [[South Slavs|South Slavic]] [[Christianity|Christians]], though the nation also had a substantial [[Islam|Muslim]] minority. Clear ethnic conflict between the Yugoslav peoples only became prominent in the 20th century, beginning with tensions over the constitution of the [[Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes]] in the early 1920s and escalating into violence between Serbs and Croats in the late 1920s after the assassination of Croatian politician [[Stjepan Radić]]. This nation lasted from 1918 to 1941, when it was [[Invasion of Yugoslavia|invaded by the Axis powers]] during World War II, which provided support to the Croatian [[Fascism|fascist]] [[Ustaše]] (founded in 1929), whose [[Independent State of Croatia|regime]] carried out the [[Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|genocide of Serbs]], [[The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia|Jews]] and [[Genocide of Romani people in the Independent State of Croatia|Roma]] by [[Concentration camps in the Independent State of Croatia|executing people in concentration camps]] and committing other systematic and mass crimes inside its territory.<ref name="Judah-BBC-2011" />

The predominantly Serb [[Chetniks]], a Yugoslav Royalist and Serbian nationalist movement and [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla force]], committed [[Chetnik war crimes in World War II|mass crimes]] against Muslims and Croats that are considered a genocide by several authors, and they also supported the instatement of a Serbian monarchy and the establishment of a Yugoslav federation.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tomasevich|first=Jozo |title=War and Revolution in Yugoslavia: 1941–1945|year=2001|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=0-8047-7924-4|pages=747, 152}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Redžić|first=Enver|author-link=Enver Redžić|title=Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War|year=2005|publisher=Frank Cass|location=London; New York|isbn=978-0-7146-5625-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pVCx3jerQmYC|pages=155, 402|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124148/https://books.google.com/books?id=pVCx3jerQmYC|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Communist Party of Yugoslavia|Communist]]-led [[Yugoslav Partisans]] were able to appeal to all groups, including Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, and also engaged in mass killings.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml|publisher=BBC History|title=Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941–1945|first=Stephen A.|last=Hart|date=17 February 2011|access-date=11 July 2012|archive-date=28 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128065207/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1945, the [[Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia]] (FPRY) was established under [[Josip Broz Tito]],<ref name="Judah-BBC-2011"/> who maintained a strongly authoritarian leadership that suppressed [[nationalism]].<ref>[[#Bassiouni|Annex III – The Balkan wars and the world wars]]</ref>

After [[Death and state funeral of Josip Broz Tito|Tito's death]] in 1980, relations between the six republics of the federation deteriorated. [[Socialist Republic of Slovenia|Slovenia]], [[Socialist Republic of Croatia|Croatia]] and [[Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo|Kosovo]] desired greater autonomy within the Yugoslav confederation, while Serbia sought to strengthen federal authority. As it became clear that there was no solution that was agreeable to all parties, Slovenia and Croatia moved towards [[independence]]. Although tensions in Yugoslavia had been mounting since the early 1980s, events in 1990 proved to be decisive. In the midst of economic hardship and the [[fall of communism]] in eastern Europe in 1989, Yugoslavia was facing rising nationalism among its various ethnic groups. By the early 1990s, there was no effective authority at the federal level. The Federal Presidency consisted of the representatives of the six republics, two provinces and the Yugoslav People's Army, and the communist leadership was divided along national lines.<ref name="Prelude"/>
[[File:Serbs.png|thumb|The distribution of ethnic Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia in 1981 (delineated with the [[Flag of Serbia|Serbian tricolor]])]]
The representatives of [[Vojvodina]], Kosovo and [[Montenegro]] were replaced with loyalists of the president of Serbia, [[Slobodan Milošević]]. Serbia secured four out of eight federal presidency votes<ref name="Brown116">[[#Brown & Karim|Brown & Karim (1995)]], p. 116</ref> and was able to heavily influence decision-making at the federal level, since all the other Yugoslav republics only had one vote. While Slovenia and Croatia wanted to allow a multi-party system, Serbia, led by Milošević, demanded an even more centralized federation and Serbia's dominant role in it.<ref name="Prelude">[[#Bassiouni|Annex IV – Prelude to the breakup]]</ref>

At the [[14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia|14th Extraordinary Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia]] in January 1990, the [[SR Serbia|Serbian]]-dominated assembly agreed to abolish the single-party system. However, Slobodan Milošević, the head of the Serbian Party branch ([[League of Communists of Serbia]]) used his influence to block and vote down all other proposals from the [[SR Croatia|Croatian]] and [[SR Slovenia|Slovene]] party delegates. This prompted the Croatian and Slovene delegations to walk out and thus the [[Breakup of Yugoslavia|break-up]] of the party,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/europe/2000/milosevic_yugoslavia/communism.stm |title=Milosevic's Yugoslavia: Communism Crumbles |publisher=BBC News |work=Milosevic's Yugoslavia |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225032014/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/europe/2000/milosevic_yugoslavia/communism.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> a symbolic event representing the end of "[[brotherhood and unity]]".

The survey of Yugoslav citizens that was conducted in 1990 showed that ethnic animosity existed on a small scale.<ref name="Perunovic 2015">{{harvp|Perunovic|2015}}</ref> Compared to the results from 25 years before, there was a significant increase in ethnic distance among [[Serbs]] and [[Montenegrins]] toward [[Croats]] and [[Slovenes]] and vice versa.<ref name="Perunovic 2015"/>

Upon Croatia and Slovenia's declarations of independence in 1991, the Yugoslav federal government attempted to forcibly halt the impending [[Breakup of Yugoslavia|breakup of the country]], with Yugoslav Prime Minister [[Ante Marković]] declaring that the secessions of Slovenia and Croatia were both illegal and contrary to the constitution of Yugoslavia, and he also expressed his support for the Yugoslav People's Army in order to secure the integral unity of Yugoslavia.<ref>[[#Cohen-Dragović-Saso|Cohen & Dragović-Saso (2008)]], p. 323</ref> The Slovenes (represented by [[Milan Kučan]] and [[Lojze Peterle]])<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.rtvslo.si/slovenija/milan-kucan-ocitajo-mi-da-sem-bil-proti-odcepitvi-se-zdaj-sem/381830 |title=Milan Kučan: "Očitajo mi, da sem bil proti odcepitvi. Še zdaj sem." |date=23 December 2015 |language=sl |trans-title=Milan Kučan: "They Accuse Me that I Was Against Secession. I Still Am." |website=MMC |publisher=RTV Slovenia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.rtvslo.si/slovenija/30-let/koscki-sestavljanke/27-let-slovenije-od-grozenj-do-rajanja-kurjenja-kresov-in-sajenja-lip/458952 |last=Kosmač |first=Gorazd |title=27 let Slovenije: Od groženj do rajanja, kurjenja kresov in sajenja lip |language=sl |trans-title=27 Years of Slovenia: from Threats to Revelry, Bonfires and Linden Planting |date=25 October 2018 |website=MMC |publisher=RTV Slovenia}}</ref> and Croats{{which|date=October 2023}} argued that the act was not secession but disassociation ({{langx|sl|razdruževanje}}, {{langx|hr|razdruživanje}}) from Yugoslavia as the federation was originally established as a [[voluntary association|voluntary union]] of peoples.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12133.7 |title=War in the Balkans, 1991–2002 |year=2003 |page=105 |chapter=Chapter 3: The State of War: Slovenia and Croatia, 1991–92 |last1=Nation |first1=R. Craig |publisher=Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College }}</ref> The [[Badinter Commission]] ruled in November 1991 that the act was not secession but a separation as provided for by the constitution of the second Yugoslavia.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://ojs.inz.si/pnz/article/view/196/298 |first=Zdenko |last=Čepič |title=Arbitration Commission of the Conference on Yugoslavia |journal=Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino |year=2016 |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=147–158|doi=10.51663/pnz.56.3.10 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

According to Stephen A. Hart, author of ''Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941–1945'', the ethnically mixed region of [[Dalmatia]] held close and amicable relations between the Croats and Serbs who lived there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many early proponents of a united Yugoslavia came from this region, such as [[Ante Trumbić]], a Croat from Dalmatia. However, by the time of the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars, any hospitable relations between Croats and Serbs in Dalmatia had broken down, with Dalmatian Serbs fighting on the side of the self-declared [[proto-state]] [[Republic of Serbian Krajina]].

Even though the policies throughout the entire socialist period of Yugoslavia seemed to have been the same (namely that all Serbs should live in one state), political scientist Dejan Guzina argues that "different contexts in each of the subperiods of socialist Serbia and Yugoslavia yielded entirely different results (e.g., in favour of Yugoslavia, or in favour of a [[Greater Serbia]])". He assumes that the Serbian policy changed from conservative–socialist at the beginning to [[xenophobic]] nationalist in the late 1980s and 1990s.{{sfnp|Guzina|2003|p=91}}

The rise of nationalism also saw rise of "ethnoclericalism", with the [[Serbian Orthodox Church]] involved in the politics and support of [[Slobodan Milošević]]'s regime's attack in Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well [[Catholic Church in Croatia]] and [[Islamic Community of Yugoslavia]] involvement for respective political causes of Croats and Bosniaks.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Moe |first=Christian |date=2006 |title=Religion in the Yugoslav conflicts: post-war perspectives |journal=Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis |volume=16 |pages=256–275 |doi=10.30674/scripta.67312 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Ramet2019">{{cite book |last=Ramet |first=Sabrina P. |author-link=Sabrina P. Ramet |date=2019 |orig-year=1995 |title=Beyond Yugoslavia: Politics, Economics, And Culture In A Shattered Community |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=diuNDwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |pages=111–113 |isbn=9780429722325 |access-date=13 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Saggau |first=Emil Hilton |date=2024 |title=Outline of a Serbian Orthodox Doctrine of Righteous War |journal=Religions |volume=15 |issue=12 |page=1473 |publisher=[[MDPI]] |doi=10.3390/rel15121473 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

In Serbia and Serb-dominated territories, violent confrontations occurred, particularly between nationalists and non-nationalists who criticized the Serbian government and the Serb political entities in Bosnia and Croatia.<ref name="Gagnon-2004">[[#Gagnon|Gagnon (2004)]], p. 5</ref> Serbs who publicly opposed the nationalist political climate during the Yugoslav wars were reportedly harassed, threatened, or killed.<ref name="Gagnon-2004"/> However, following Milošević's rise to power and the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars, numerous [[anti-war movement]]s developed in Serbia.<ref>{{harvp|Udovicki|Ridgeway|2000|pp=255–266}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Fridman|2010}}</ref> [[1991–1992 anti-war protests in Belgrade|Protests]] were held against the actions of the Yugoslav People's Army, while protesters demanded the [[referendum]] on a declaration of war and disruption of [[Conscription|military conscription]], resulting in numerous [[desertion]]s and emigrations.<ref name=Vreme>{{cite web|url=https://www.vreme.com/cms/view.php?id=592022|title=Spomenik neznanom dezerteru|year=2008|work=[[Vreme]]|access-date=4 May 2020|archive-date=5 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005010352/https://www.vreme.com/cms/view.php?id=592022|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Udovicki|Ridgeway|2000|pp=255–258}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Powers|1997|p=467}}</ref>

With the escalation of the Yugoslav crisis, the [[Yugoslav People's Army|JNA]] became
heavily dominated by Serbs. According to the former commander of the fifth army in Zagreb [[Martin Špegelj]], 50% of the command positions were previously held by Croats, while a few years later at the beginning of the war all key positions were held by Serbs.<ref>Lenard J. Cohen, Jasna Dragovic-Soso; (2007) ''State Collapse in South-Eastern Europe: New Perspectives on Yugoslavia's Disintegration'' p. 309; Purdue University Press, {{ISBN|1-55753-460-8}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Conflicts ===
==== Slovenian War of Independence (1991) ====
{{Main|Ten-Day War}}
[[File:Teritorialci so z armbrustom zadeli tank v križišču pred MMP Rožna Dolina..jpg|alt=damaged JNA tanks on the road|thumb|Ambushed JNA tanks near [[Nova Gorica]], on the border with Italy]]

The first of the conflicts, known as the Ten-Day War, was initiated by the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) on 26 June 1991 after the separation of Slovenia from the federation on 25 June 1991.<ref name="Race">{{cite book|url=http://dk.fdv.uni-lj.si/dela/Race-Helena.PDF|title="Dan prej" – 26. junij 1991: diplomsko delo|language=sl|trans-title="A Day Before" – 26 June 1991 (diploma thesis)|first=Helena|last=Race|publisher=Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana|year=2005|access-date=3 February 2011|archive-date=21 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221195508/http://dk.fdv.uni-lj.si/dela/Race-Helena.PDF|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Prunk">{{cite web|url=http://www.slovenija2001.gov.si/10years/path|title=Path to Slovene State|first=Janko|last=Prunk|year=2001|access-date=3 February 2011|publisher=Public Relations and Media Office, Government of the Republic of Slovenia|archive-date=28 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101228204705/http://www.slovenija2001.gov.si/10years/path/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Initially, the federal government ordered the Yugoslav People's Army to secure border crossings in Slovenia. Slovenian police and [[Slovenian Territorial Defence]] blockaded barracks and roads, leading to stand-offs and limited skirmishes around the republic. After several dozen casualties, the limited conflict was stopped through negotiation at [[Brijuni|Brioni]] on 7 July 1991, when Slovenia and Croatia [[Brioni Agreement|agreed]] to a three-month moratorium on separation. The Federal Army completely withdrew from Slovenia by 26 October 1991.
{{clear left}}

==== Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) ====
{{Main|Croatian War of Independence}}
[[File:Balkans War 1991, Dubrovnik - Flickr - Peter Denton 丕特 . 天登 (1).jpg|thumb|Damage after the bombing of [[Dubrovnik]]]]
Fighting in Croatia had begun weeks prior to the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. The Croatian War of Independence began when [[Serbs of Croatia|Serbs in Croatia]], who were opposed to [[Independence of Croatia|Croatian independence]], announced their secession from Croatia.

In the [[1990 Croatian parliamentary election|1990 parliamentary elections]] in Croatia, [[Franjo Tuđman]] became the first [[President of Croatia]]. He promoted nationalist policies and had a primary goal of the establishment of an independent Croatia. The new government proposed [[Constitution of Croatia|constitutional changes]], reinstated the traditional [[Flag of Croatia|Croatian flag]] and [[Coat of arms of Croatia|coat of arms]], and removed the term "Socialist" from the title of the republic.{{sfnp|Tanner|2001|p=229}} The new Croatian government implemented policies that were openly nationalistic and anti-Serbian in nature, such as the removal of the [[Serbian Cyrillic script]] from correspondence in public offices.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guskova |first=Elena |title=History of the Yugoslavian crisis (1990–2000) |year=2001 |isbn=5-94191-003-7 |location=Moscow |publisher=Izdatelʹ A. Solovʹev |pages=147}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Yugoslavia in the 20th Century: Sketches of Political History |year=2011 |isbn=978-5-91674-121-6 |pages=780–781 |last1=в Никифоров |first1=К. |publisher=Индрик }}</ref> In an attempt to counter changes made to the constitution, local Serb politicians organized a referendum on "sovereignty and autonomy of Serbian people in Croatia" on 17 August 1990. Their boycott escalated into an insurrection in areas populated by ethnic Serbs, mostly around Knin, known as the [[Log Revolution]].{{sfnp|Tanner|2001|p=233}}

Local police in Knin sided with the growing Serbian insurgency, while many government employees, mostly police where commanding positions were mainly held by Serbs, lost their jobs.{{sfnp|Ramet|2010|p=262}} The new Croatian constitution was ratified in December 1990, and the Serb National Council formed [[SAO Krajina]], a self-proclaimed Serbian autonomous region.{{sfnp|Goldstein|1999|p=222}}

Ethnic tensions rose, fueled by [[Propaganda during the Yugoslav Wars|propaganda]] in both Croatia and Serbia. On 2 May 1991, one of the first armed clashes between Serb paramilitaries and Croatian police occurred in the [[Battle of Borovo Selo]].{{sfnp|Ramet|2010|p=119}} On 19 May an [[1991 Croatian independence referendum|independence referendum]] was held, which was largely boycotted by [[Croatian Serbs]], and the majority voted in favour of the independence of Croatia.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/20/world/croatia-votes-for-sovereignty-and-confederation.html?ref=croatia|title=Croatia Votes for Sovereignty and Confederation|first=Chuck|last=Sudetic|author-link=Chuck Sudetic|date=20 May 1991|access-date=12 December 2010|archive-date=11 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111080212/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/20/world/croatia-votes-for-sovereignty-and-confederation.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Goldstein|1999|p=222}} Croatia declared independence and dissolved its association with Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. Due to the [[Brioni Agreement]], a three-month moratorium was placed on the implementation of the decision that ended on 8 October.{{sfnp|Goldstein|1999|p=226}}

The armed incidents of early 1991 escalated into an all-out war during the summer, with fronts being formed around the areas of the breakaway SAO Krajina. The JNA had disarmed the Territorial Units of Slovenia and Croatia prior to the declaration of independence, at the behest of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević.<ref>{{cite book|last=Glaurdić|first=Josip|title=The Hour of Europe: Western Powers and the Breakup of Yugoslavia|year=2011|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-16645-3|page=57}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">[[#BassiouniIII|Annex III – The Conflict in Slovenia]]</ref> This was greatly aggravated by an arms embargo, imposed by the UN on Yugoslavia. The JNA was ostensibly ideologically unitarian, but its officer corps was predominantly staffed by Serbs or Montenegrins (70 percent).<ref>[[#BassiouniIII|Annex III – General structure of the Yugoslav armed forces]]</ref>

As a result, the JNA opposed Croatian independence and sided with the Croatian Serb rebels. The Croatian Serb rebels were unaffected by the embargo because they were supported and supplied by the JNA. By mid-July 1991, the JNA moved an estimated 70,000 troops to Croatia. The fighting rapidly escalated, eventually spanning hundreds of square kilometers from western Slavonia through [[Banija]] to Dalmatia.<ref>[[#BassiouniIII|Annex III – Forces operating in Croatia]]</ref>

Border regions faced direct attacks from forces within Serbia and Montenegro. In August 1991, the [[Battle of Vukovar]] began, where fierce fighting took place with around 1,800 Croat fighters blocking the JNA's advance into Slavonia. By the end of October, the town was almost completely devastated as a result of land shelling and air bombardment.{{sfnp|Tanner|2001|p=256}} The [[Siege of Dubrovnik]] started in October with the shelling of [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]] [[Dubrovnik]], where the international press was criticised for focusing on the city's architectural heritage, instead of reporting the destruction of Vukovar in which many civilians were killed.{{sfnp|Pearson|2010}}

On 18 November 1991, the battle of Vukovar ended after the city ran out of ammunition. The [[Vukovar massacre|Ovčara massacre]] occurred shortly after Vukovar's capture by the JNA.{{sfnp|Ramet|2010|p=263}} Meanwhile, control over central Croatia was seized by Croatian Serb forces in conjunction with the JNA Corps from Bosnia and Herzegovina, under the leadership of [[Ratko Mladić]].<ref name=BBCProfile>{{cite web|title=Profile: Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb army chief|work=BBC News|date=31 July 2012|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13559597|access-date=11 July 2012|archive-date=12 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712201126/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13559597|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Sunja (Croatia).JPG|thumb|A destroyed [[Serbs in Croatia|Serbian]] house in [[Sunja, Sisak-Moslavina County|Sunja]], Croatia. Most Serbs fled during [[Operation Storm]] in 1995.]]
In January 1992, the [[Vance plan|Vance Plan]] established UN controlled (UNPA) zones for [[Serbs]] in the territory which was claimed by the Serbian rebels as the self-proclaimed [[proto-state]] [[Republic of Serbian Krajina]] (RSK) and brought an end to major military operations, but sporadic artillery attacks on Croatian cities and occasional intrusions into UNPA zones by Croatian forces continued until 1995. The majority of Croatian population in RSK suffered heavily, fleeing or evicted with numerous killings, leading to [[ethnic cleansing]].<ref name="ICTY evidence">[http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2004/Jan/29-319268.html ICTY evidence; Babic pleads guilty to crimes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109115648/https://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2004/Jan/29-319268.html |date=9 November 2006 }}</ref>

The fighting in Croatia ended in mid-1995, after [[Operation Flash]] and [[Operation Storm]]. At the end of these operations, Croatia had reclaimed all of its territory except the UNPA Sector East portion of Slavonia, bordering Serbia.

During and after theses offensives, around 150,000–200,000 Serbs of the area formerly held by the ARSK were ethnically cleansed and a variety of crimes were committed against some of the remaining civilians by Croatian forces.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Croatia |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/Croatia.htm |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=www.hrw.org}}</ref> The Croatian Serbs became the largest refugee population in Europe prior to the 2022 Ukraine war.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Adams |title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-000-95870-6 |pages=64}}</ref>

The areas of "Sector East", unaffected by the Croatian military operations, came under UN administration ([[UNTAES]]), and were reintegrated to Croatia in 1998 under the terms of the [[Erdut Agreement]].<ref name="USIP-Erdut-Agreement">{{cite web|publisher=[[United States Institute of Peace]]|url=http://www.usip.org/files/file/resources/collections/peace_agreements/croatia_erdut_11121995.pdf|title=The Erdut Agreement|date=12 November 1995|access-date=17 January 2011|archive-date=1 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201185656/http://www.usip.org/files/file/resources/collections/peace_agreements/croatia_erdut_11121995.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

====Bosnian War (1992–1995)====
{{Main|Bosnian War}}
On 2 April 1992, a conflict engulfed [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] as it also declared independence from [[Rump state|rump]] Yugoslavia. The war was predominantly a territorial conflict between the [[Bosniaks]], who wanted to preserve the territorial integrity of the newly independent [[Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina]], and the self-proclaimed [[Bosnian Serb]] [[proto-state]] [[Republika Srpska (1992–1995)|Republika Srpska]] and the self-proclaimed Croat [[Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia|Herzeg-Bosnia]], which were led and supplied by Serbia and Croatia respectively, reportedly with a goal of the [[partition of Bosnia]], which would leave only a small part of land for the Bosniaks.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hayden|first=Robert M.|title=The Partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1990–1993|url=https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/pre1998/1993-807-20-3-Hayden.pdf|publisher=National Council for Eurasian and East European Research|date=12 March 1993|page=ii|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=9 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309104656/https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/pre1998/1993-807-20-3-Hayden.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> On 18 December 1992, the [[United Nations General Assembly]] issued resolution 47/121 in which it condemned Serbian and Montenegrin forces for trying to acquire more territories by force.<ref name="Resolution"/>

[[File:Evstafiev-bosnia-sarajevo-water-line.jpg|thumb|People queueing to gather water during the [[Siege of Sarajevo]], 1992]]

The Yugoslav armed forces had disintegrated into a largely Serb-dominated military force. The JNA opposed the Bosnian-majority led government's agenda for independence, and along with other armed nationalist Serb militant forces attempted to prevent Bosnian citizens from voting in the 1992 referendum on independence.<ref name="Meštrović 1996 p. 36">[[#Meštrović|Meštrović (1996)]], p. 36.</ref> They failed to persuade people not to vote, and instead the intimidating atmosphere combined with a Serb boycott of the vote resulted in a resounding 99% vote in support for independence.<ref name="Meštrović 1996 p. 36"/>

On 19 June 1992, the war in Bosnia broke out, though the [[Siege of Sarajevo]] had already begun in April after Bosnia and Herzegovina had declared independence. The conflict, typified by the years-long Sarajevo siege and the [[Srebrenica genocide]], was by far the bloodiest and most widely covered of the Yugoslav wars. The Bosnian Serb faction led by ultra-nationalist [[Radovan Karadžić]] promised independence for all Serb areas of Bosnia from the majority-Bosniak government of Bosnia. To link the disjointed parts of territories populated by Serbs and areas claimed by Serbs, Karadžić pursued an agenda of systematic ethnic cleansing primarily against Bosnians through massacre and forced removal of Bosniak populations.<ref>[[#Meštrović|Meštrović (1996)]], p. 7.</ref> [[Prijedor ethnic cleansing]], [[Višegrad massacres]], [[Foča ethnic cleansing]], [[Doboj massacre]], [[Zvornik massacre]], [[siege of Goražde]] and others were reported.
[[File:Former Yugoslavia during war front lines in 1992.png|thumb|Former Yugoslavia during war front lines in 1992 - Flag map of yugoslav wars]]
At the end of 1992, tensions between [[Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnian Croats]] and Bosniaks rose and their collaboration fell apart. In January 1993, the two former allies engaged in open conflict, resulting in the [[Croat–Bosniak War]].<ref>{{cite web|ref={{harvid|Delic judgement|2008}}|url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/delic/tjug/en/080915.pdf|title=Prosecutor v. Rasim Delić Judgement|publisher=International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia|date=15 September 2008|page=24|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=25 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325034056/https://www.icty.org/x/cases/delic/tjug/en/080915.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1994 the US brokered peace between Croatian forces and the Bosnian [[Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina]] with the [[Washington Agreement]]. After the successful Flash and Storm operations, the Croatian Army and the combined Bosnian and Croat forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina conducted an operation codenamed [[Operation Mistral 2|Operation Mistral]] in September 1995 to push back Bosnian Serb military gains.{{sfnp|CIA|2002|p=379}}

The advances on the ground along with [[Operation Deliberate Force|NATO air strikes]] put pressure on the Bosnian Serbs to come to the negotiating table. Pressure was put on all sides to stick to the cease-fire and [[Peace plans offered before and during the Bosnian War|negotiate an end]] to the war in Bosnia. The war ended with the signing of the [[Dayton Agreement]] on 14 December 1995, with the formation of [[Republika Srpska]] as an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dayton Peace Agreement|work=Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe|date=14 December 1995|url=https://www.osce.org/bih/126173|access-date=7 January 2019|archive-date=25 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225062013/https://www.osce.org/bih/126173|url-status=live}}</ref> Along with ending the war, the Dayton Agreement also established the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The constitution is consociational in nature and describes Bosniacs, Croats and Serbs as "constituent peoples," giving each ethnic group far reaching veto powers in government.<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 December 2009 |title=Case of Sejdić and Finci v. Bodnia and Herzegovina |url=https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre#{%22itemid%22:[%22001-96491%22]} |website=HUDOC – European Convention on Human Rights}}</ref> In 2000, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina required the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska to recognize all "constituent peoples" as entitled to full equality throughout the nation.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 April 2002 |title=Implementing Equality : The 'Constituent Peoples' Decision in Bosnia & Herzegovina |url=https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/balkans/bosnia-and-herzegovina/implementing-equality-constituent-peoples-decision-bosnia-herzegovina |website=Crisis Group}}</ref> Similarly, Article X of the constitution declares that the rights and freedoms defined in Article II may not be altered.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina |url=https://www.ohr.int/ohr-dept/legal/laws-of-bih/pdf/001%20-%20Constitutions/BH/BH%20CONSTITUTION%20.pdf |website=OHR}}</ref> Features like these are common throughout the constitution in order to assuage feelings of mistrust between the different ethnic groups and maintain lasting stability.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morrison |first=Fred |date=1996 |title=The Constitution of Bosnia-Herzegovina. |url=https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1361&context=concomm#:~:text=It%20was%20created%20as%20part,the%20internationally%20recognized%20Repub%2D%20lic. |website=University of Minnesota Law School}}</ref>

The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) in the United States reported in April 1995 (three months before [[Srebrenica massacre]]) that nearly 90 percent of all the atrocities in the Yugoslav wars up to that point had been perpetrated by Serb militants.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cohen |first=Roger |date=1995-03-09 |title=C.I.A. Report on Bosnia Blames Serbs for 90% of the War Crimes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/09/world/cia-report-on-bosnia-blames-serbs-for-90-of-the-war-crimes.html |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Most of these atrocities occurred in [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]].

==== Insurgency in Kosovo (1995–1998) ====
{{Main|Insurgency in Kosovo (1995–1998)}}
After September 1990 when the [[1974 Yugoslav Constitution]] had been unilaterally repealed by the [[Socialist Republic of Serbia]], Kosovo's autonomy suffered and so the region was faced with state-organized oppression: from the early 1990s, Albanian language radio and television were restricted and newspapers shut down. Kosovar Albanians were fired in large numbers from public enterprises and institutions, including banks, hospitals, the post office and schools.<ref name=milutnovic88 /> In June 1991, the [[University of Priština]] assembly and several faculty councils were dissolved and replaced by Serbs. Kosovar Albanian teachers were prevented from entering school premises for the new school year beginning in September 1991, forcing students to study at home.<ref name=milutnovic88>[[#Milutinovic et al.|''The Prosecutor vs Milan Milutinović et al. – Judgement'', 26 February 2009]], pp. 88–89</ref>

This crackdown on ethnic Albanians led to heightened tensions, riots and violence known as the [[Prewar period (Kosovo)|prewar period]], and it was during this time that the [[Kosovo Liberation Army]] (KLA) was formed. Throughout the early 1990s, there were attacks on Serbian security forces and secret-service officials in retaliation for the abuse and murder of ethnic Albanian civilians, and Serbian civilians were also killed.<ref name="Perritt2010">{{cite book |first=Henry H. |last=Perritt |title=Kosovo Liberation Army: The Inside Story of an Insurgency |date=2010 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-09213-8 |page=62}}</ref> The KLA sought to destabilize the region, hoping the United States and NATO would intervene.{{sfnp|Marsden|2000}} By 1995, Serbian patrols were ambushed and policemen were killed,{{sfnp|Marsden|2000}} with one death allegedly carried out by the KLA.<ref name="RadanPavkovic2013">{{cite book |author1=Professor Peter Radan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k-ahAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA178 |title=The Ashgate Research Companion to Secession |author2=Aleksandar Pavkovic |year=2013 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-1-4094-7652-8 |pages=178–}}</ref> It was only in the next year that the organization took responsibility for these attacks.<ref name="RadanPavkovic2013"/>

The KLA, originally composed of a few hundred Albanian militants, attacked several police stations and wounded many police officers in 1996–1997.{{sfnp|Kushner|2002|p=206}} In February 1996 the KLA undertook a series of attacks against police stations and Yugoslav government employees, claiming that the Yugoslav authorities had killed Albanian civilians as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign.<ref>{{cite news |date=17 February 1996 |title=Unknown Albanian 'liberation army' claims attacks |publisher=Agence France Presse}}</ref> On 22 April 1996, four attacks on Serbian security personnel were carried out almost simultaneously in several parts of Kosovo.

In January 1997, Serbian security forces assassinated KLA commander [[Zahir Pajaziti]] and two other leaders in a highway attack between Pristina and Mitrovica, and arrested more than 100 Albanian militants.{{sfnp|Perritt|2008|pp=44, 56}} Adem Jashari, as one of the founders and leaders of the KLA, was convicted of [[terrorism]] ''[[Trial in absentia|in absentia]]'' by a Yugoslav court on 11 July 1997. [[Human Rights Watch]] subsequently described the trial, in which fourteen other Kosovo Albanians were also convicted, as "[failing] to conform to international standards".{{sfnp|Human Rights Watch|1998|p=27}}

The NATO [[North Atlantic Council]] claimed the KLA was "the main initiator of the violence" and that it had "launched what appears to be a deliberate campaign of provocation".<ref name="allan">{{cite book |author1=Allan, Stuart |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=skdoYDs1e8AC&pg=PA178 |title=Reporting war: journalism in wartime |author2=Zelizer, Barbie |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-415-33998-8 |page=178}}</ref> Pursuing Jashari for the murder of a Serb policeman, the Serbian forces again attempted to [[First Attack on Prekaz|assault the Jashari compound in Prekaz]] on 22 January 1998.{{sfnp|Elsie|2011|p=142}} Between 1991 and 1997, mostly in 1996–97, 39 persons were killed by the KLA.<ref name="Ron2003">{{cite book |author=James Ron |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZiNkMAOp3QC&pg=PA98 |title=Frontiers and Ghettos: State Violence in Serbia and Israel |year=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-93690-4 |pages=98–}}</ref> Attacks between 1996 and February 1998 led to the deaths of 10 policemen and 24 civilians.<ref name="RadanPavkovic2013"/>

====Kosovo War (1998–1999)====
{{Main|Kosovo War}}<!-- Below section transcluded on NATO bombing of Yugoslavia -->
<section begin=KosovoWar />
[[File:Tomahawk-launch.jpg|thumb|A [[Tomahawk (missile family)|Tomahawk cruise missile]] launches from the aft missile deck of the US warship [[USS Gonzalez (DDG-66)|USS ''Gonzalez'']] on March 31, 1999]]
[[File:Нато бомбе изазивале еколошку катастрофу у Новом Саду.jpeg|thumb|Smoke rising in [[Novi Sad]], Serbia after NATO bombardment in 1999]]
A [[NATO]]-facilitated ceasefire between the KLA and Yugoslav forces was signed on 15 October 1998, but both sides broke it two months later and fighting resumed. When the killing of 45 Kosovar Albanians in the [[Račak massacre]] was reported in January 1999, NATO decided that the conflict could only be settled by introducing a military peacekeeping force to forcibly restrain the two sides.<ref name="Milutinovic p. 416">[[#Milutinovic et al.|''The Prosecutor vs Milan Milutinović et al. – Judgement'', 26 February 2009]], p. 416.</ref> Yugoslavia refused to sign the [[Rambouillet Accords]], which among other things called for 30,000 NATO peacekeeping troops in Kosovo; an unhindered right of passage for NATO troops on Yugoslav territory; immunity for NATO and its agents to Yugoslav law; and the right to use local roads, ports, railways, and airports without payment and requisition public facilities for its use free of cost.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |date=28 April 1999 |title=The Rambouillet text – Appendix B |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/apr/28/balkans12 |work=The Guardian |access-date=5 October 2021 |archive-date=5 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005140404/https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/apr/28/balkans12 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="LeidenSuy">{{cite journal | last = Suy | first = Eric | title = NATO's Intervention in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia | journal = Leiden Journal of International Law | publisher = Cambridge University Press | pages = 193–205 | date = 2000 | volume = 13 | doi = 10.1017/S0922156500000133 | s2cid = 145232986 | url = https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/leiden-journal-of-international-law/article/abs/natos-intervention-in-the-federal-republic-of-yugoslavia/0ABB9520FBC5FD26A849699480A48D09 | access-date = | archive-date = 12 April 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220412203311/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/leiden-journal-of-international-law/article/abs/natos-intervention-in-the-federal-republic-of-yugoslavia/0ABB9520FBC5FD26A849699480A48D09 | url-status = live| url-access = subscription }}</ref> NATO then prepared to install the peacekeepers by force, using this refusal to justify the bombings.<section end=KosovoWar />

The [[NATO bombing of Yugoslavia]] followed, an intervention against Serbian forces with a mainly bombing campaign, under the command of [[Wesley Clark|General Wesley Clark]]. Hostilities ended {{frac|2|1|2}} months later with the [[Kumanovo Agreement]]. Kosovo was placed under the governmental control of the [[United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo]] and the military protection of the [[Kosovo Force]] (KFOR). The 15-month war had left thousands of civilians killed on both sides and over a million displaced.<ref name="Milutinovic p. 416"/>

====Insurgency in the Preševo Valley (1999–2001)====
{{Main|Insurgency in the Preševo Valley}}
The Insurgency in the Preševo Valley was an armed conflict between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and ethnic-Albanian insurgents<ref>{{cite book | title = Kosovo Liberation Army: The Inside Story of an Insurgency | first = Henry H. Jr. | last = Perritt | year=2008 | publisher = University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-03342-1}}{{page needed|date=July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Reflections on the Balkan Wars: Ten Years After the Break-up of Yugoslavia | editor1-first = Jeffrey S. | editor1-last = Morton | editor2-first = Stefano | editor2-last = Bianchini | editor3-first = Craig | editor3-last = Nation | editor4-first = Paul | editor4-last = Forage | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | year= 2004 |isbn=978-1-4039-6332-1}}{{page needed|date=July 2023}}</ref> of the [[Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac]] (UÇPMB), beginning in June 1999.<ref>{{cite book | last = Morton | first = Jeffrey S. | year = 2004 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=img4ZbJeT-8C&pg=PA57 | title = Reflections on the Balkan Wars | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | page = 57 |isbn=978-1-4039-6332-1 | access-date = 8 February 2023 | archive-date = 8 February 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124141/https://books.google.com/books?id=img4ZbJeT-8C&pg=PA57 | url-status = live }}</ref> There were instances during the conflict in which the Yugoslav government requested KFOR support in suppressing UÇPMB attacks, since the government could only use lightly armed military forces as part of the Kumanovo Agreement, which created a buffer zone so the bulk of the Yugoslav armed forces could not enter.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1141961.stm|work=BBC News|title=Renewed clashes near Kosovo border|date=28 January 2001|access-date=23 April 2015|archive-date=22 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022110531/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1141961.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Yugoslav president [[Vojislav Koštunica]] warned that fresh fighting would erupt if KFOR units did not act to prevent the attacks that were coming from the UÇPMB.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1142478.stm|work=BBC News|title=Kostunica warns of fresh fighting|date=January 29, 2001|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=13 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113163249/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1142478.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia (2001)====
{{Main|2001 insurgency in Macedonia}}
The insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia was an armed conflict in the northwestern part of the country which began when the ethnic [[Albanians|Albanian]] [[National Liberation Army (Macedonia)|National Liberation Army]] (NLA) militant group began attacking the [[Army of North Macedonia|security forces]] of the [[North Macedonia|Republic of Macedonia]] at the end of January 2001, and ended with the [[Ohrid Agreement (2001)|Ohrid Agreement]] in August.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Vasiliki P. Neofotistos |title="The Balkans' Other within": Imaginings of the West in the Republic of Macedonia |journal=History and Anthropology |date=2008 |volume=19 |issue=1 |page=18 |doi=10.1080/02757200802150836}}</ref> The goal of the NLA was to give greater rights and autonomy to the country's Albanian minority, who made up 25.2% of the population of the Republic of Macedonia (54.7% in Tetovo).<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">{{cite news |last=Wood |first=Paul |date=20 March 2001a |title=Who are the rebels? |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1231596.stm |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306111202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1231596.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="stat.gov.mk">{{cite web |title=Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of Macedonia, 2002 – Book XIII |location=Skopje |date=May 2005 |publisher=State Statistical Office of the Republic of Macedonia |url=http://www.stat.gov.mk/pdf/kniga_13.pdf |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070708073549/http://www.stat.gov.mk/pdf/kniga_13.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> There were also claims that the group ultimately wished to see Albanian-majority areas secede from the country,<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://worldpress.org/0901feature13.htm |title=Macedonia's 'Liberation' Army: A Learner's Lexicon |date=September 2001 |journal=World Press Review |volume=48 |issue=9 |access-date=18 April 2012 |archive-date=13 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120413091920/http://worldpress.org/0901feature13.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> although high-ranking NLA members have denied this.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk" />

==Arms embargo==
The [[United Nations Security Council]] had imposed an arms embargo in September 1991.<ref>{{cite web|title=UN arms embargo on Yugoslavia (FRY)|url=http://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes/un_arms_embargoes/yugoslavia/yugoslavia-1991|website=Stockholm International Peace Research Institute|date=16 October 2012 |access-date=28 December 2015|archive-date=21 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121080459/http://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes/un_arms_embargoes/yugoslavia/yugoslavia-1991|url-status=live}}</ref> Nevertheless, various states had been engaged in, or facilitated, arms sales to the warring factions.<ref name="ZgagaSurc_2011">{{cite web|url=http://euobserver.com/24/114482|title=Yugoslavia and the profits of doom|author=Blaz Zgaga|author2=Matej Surc|date=2 December 2011|work=EUobserver|access-date=4 December 2011|archive-date=10 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210225225/http://euobserver.com/24/114482|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2012, Chile convicted nine people, including two retired generals, for their part in arms sales.<ref name="BBC 20.01.2012">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16660221|title=Chile generals convicted over 1991 Croatia arms deal|date=20 January 2012|newspaper=BBC News|access-date=21 January 2012|archive-date=24 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120124223958/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16660221|url-status=live}}</ref>

==War crimes==
{{Further|Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars|Croatian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars|War crimes in the Kosovo War}}

=== Genocide ===
{{Main|Bosnian genocide|Bosnian genocide case}}
[[File:Srebrenica Massacre - Massacre Victim 2 - Potocari 2007.jpg|thumb|The skull of a victim of the July 1995 [[Srebrenica massacre]] in an exhumed mass grave outside [[Donji Potočari|Potočari]], 2007]]
It is widely believed that [[mass murders]] against Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina escalated into genocide. On 18 December 1992, the [[United Nations General Assembly]] issued resolution 47/121 condemning "aggressive acts by the Serbian and Montenegrin forces to acquire more territories by force" and called such ethnic cleansing "a form of [[genocide]]".<ref name="Resolution">{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/47/a47r121.htm|title=Resolution 47/121, 91st plenary meeting, The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina|date=18 December 1992|publisher=[[United Nations General Assembly]]|access-date=23 April 2011|archive-date=4 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180904015326/http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/47/a47r121.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In its report published on 1 January 1993, [[Helsinki Watch]] was one of the first [[Civil rights organization|civil rights organisations]] that warned that "the extent of the violence and its selective nature along ethnic and religious lines suggest crimes of genocidal character against Muslim and, to a lesser extent, Croatian populations in Bosnia-Herzegovina".<ref name="Helsinki Watch Report">{{cite web | title=Human Rights Watch World Report 1993 – The former Yugoslav Republics | date=1 January 1993 | url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/467fca72a.html | publisher=Helsinki Watch | access-date=10 July 2017 | archive-date=1 August 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801221211/http://www.refworld.org/docid/467fca72a.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

A telegram sent to the [[White House]] on 8 February 1994 by U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, [[Peter W. Galbraith]], stated that genocide was occurring. The telegram cited "constant and indiscriminate shelling and gunfire" of Sarajevo by Karadzic's Yugoslav People Army; the harassment of minority groups in Northern Bosnia "in an attempt to force them to leave"; and the use of detainees "to do dangerous work on the front lines" as evidence that genocide was being committed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/IMG/20091106-friday.pdf|title=Galbraith telegram|author=Peter W. Galbraith|publisher=[[United States Department of State]]|access-date=2022-02-19|archive-date=2021-02-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225030658/https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//IMG/20091106-friday.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2005, the [[United States Congress]] passed a resolution declaring that "the Serbian policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing meet the terms defining genocide".<ref name="thomas.loc.gov">[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.res.00134: A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107031723/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.res.00134: |date=2016-01-07 }}, thomas.loc.gov; accessed 25 April 2015.</ref>

A trial took place before the [[International Court of Justice]], following a [[Bosnian Genocide Case|1993 suit]] by Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia and Montenegro alleging [[genocide]]. The ICJ ruling of 26 February 2007 indirectly determined the war's nature to be international, though clearing Serbia of direct responsibility for the genocide committed by the forces of [[History of Republika Srpska#1991–1995|Republika Srpska]] in [[Srebrenica massacre|Srebrenica]]. The ICJ concluded, however, that Serbia failed to prevent genocide committed by Serb forces in Srebrenica and failed to punish those responsible, and bring them to justice.<ref name="Court Declares Bosnia Killings Were Genocide"/>

War crimes were conducted simultaneously by different Serb forces in different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in [[Bijeljina massacre|Bijeljina]], [[Siege of Sarajevo|Sarajevo]], [[Prijedor massacre|Prijedor]], [[Zvornik massacre|Zvornik]], [[Višegrad massacres|Višegrad]] and [[Foča massacre|Foča]]. The judges however ruled that the criteria for genocide with the specific intent (''[[dolus specialis]]'') to destroy Bosnian Muslims were met only in Srebrenica in 1995.<ref name="Court Declares Bosnia Killings Were Genocide">{{cite news| author=Marlise Simons| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/world/europe/27hague.html| title=Court Declares Bosnia Killings Were Genocide| work=The New York Times| date=27 February 2007| access-date=10 July 2017| author-link=Marlise Simons| archive-date=5 August 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805203307/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/world/europe/27hague.html| url-status=live}}</ref> The court concluded that other crimes, outside Srebrenica, committed during the 1992–1995 war, may amount to [[crimes against humanity]] according to the international law, but that these acts did not, in themselves, constitute genocide per se.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sense-agency.com/international_court_of_justice/serbia-found-guilty-of-failure-to-prevent-and-punish-genocide.47.html?cat_id=2&news_id=10130 |title= Tribunal: Serbia Found Guilty of Failure to Prevent and Punish Genocide |access-date=25 April 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090730091312/http://www.sense-agency.com/en/stream.php?sta=3&pid=9273&kat=3 |archive-date=30 July 2009 }}</ref>

The crime of genocide in the Srebrenica enclave was confirmed in several guilty verdicts handed down by the ICTY, most notably in the conviction of the Bosnian Serb leader [[Radovan Karadžić]].<ref name="Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide over Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia">{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/radovan-karadzic-guilty-of-genocide-over-srebrenica-massacre-in-bosnia-a6950251.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/radovan-karadzic-guilty-of-genocide-over-srebrenica-massacre-in-bosnia-a6950251.html |archive-date=2022-05-07 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | title=Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide over Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia| author=Alexandra Sims | work=The Independent| date=24 March 2016| access-date=10 July 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== Ethnic cleansing ===
{{Main|Ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian War}}
[[File:Map of percentage of refugees and IDs during Yugoslav Wars.png|thumb|Map of refugees and IDs as percentage of total population per republic during the Yugoslav Wars]]
[[File:Manjača Camp.jpg|thumb|Detainees in the [[Manjača camp]], near Banja Luka, 1992]]
[[Ethnic cleansing]] was a common phenomenon in the wars in Croatia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This entailed intimidation, [[forced expulsion]], or [[Murder|killing]] of the unwanted ethnic group as well as the destruction of the places of worship, cemeteries and cultural and historical buildings of that ethnic group in order to alter the population composition of an area in the favour of another ethnic group which would become the majority. These examples of [[territorial nationalism]] and [[Irredentism|territorial aspirations]] are part of the goal of an [[Ethnic nationalism|ethno-state]].{{sfnp|Wood|2001|pp=57–75}} Detention camps such as [[Omarska camp|Omarska]] and [[Trnopolje camp|Trnopolje]] were also designated as an integral part of the overall ethnic cleansing strategy of the authorities.{{sfnp|Campbell|2002|p=1}}

According to numerous ICTY verdicts and indictments, Serb<ref name="Prosecutor v. Vujadin Popovic, Ljubisa Beara, Drago Nikolic, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Radivoje Miletic, Milan Gvero, and Vinko Pandurevic">{{cite web|url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/060926.pdf|title=Prosecutor v. Vujadin Popovic, Ljubisa Beara, Drago Nikolic, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Radivoje Miletic, Milan Gvero, and Vinko Pandurevic|quote=In the Motion, the Prosecution submits that both the existence and implementation of the plan to create an ethnically pure Bosnian Serb state by Bosnian Serb political and military leaders are facts of common knowledge and have been held to be historical and accurate in a wide range of sources.|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=11 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211211023111/https://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/060926.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ICTY: Radoslav Brđanin judgement">{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/icty/brdjanin/trialc/judgement/index.htm |title=ICTY: Radoslav Brđanin judgement |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414072922/http://www.un.org/icty/brdjanin/trialc/judgement/index.htm |archive-date=14 April 2009 }}</ref><ref name="Tadic Case: The Verdict">{{cite web|url=http://www.icty.org/sid/7537|title=Tadic Case: The Verdict|quote=Importantly, the objectives remained the same: to create an ethnically pure Serb State by uniting Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and extending that State from the FRY [...] to the Croatian Krajina along the important logistics and supply line that went through opstina Prijedor, thereby necessitating the expulsion of the non-Serb population of the opstina.|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=14 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014175448/https://www.icty.org/sid/7537|url-status=live}}</ref> and Croat<ref name="Prosecuter v. Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic and Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic">{{cite web|url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/prlic/acdec/en/080311.pdf|title=Prosecutor v. Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic|quote=Significantly, the Trial Chamber held that a reasonable Trial Chamber, could make a finding beyond any reasonable doubt that all of these acts were committed to carry out a plan aimed at changing the ethnic balance of the areas that formed Herceg-Bosna and mainly to deport the Muslim population and other non-Croat population out of Herceg-Bosna to create an ethnically pure Croatian territory within Herceg-Bosna.|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=5 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905185823/https://www.icty.org/x/cases/prlic/acdec/en/080311.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> forces performed [[ethnic cleansing]] of their territories planned by their political leadership to create ethnically pure states ([[History of Republika Srpska#1991–1995|Republika Srpska]] and [[Republic of Serbian Krajina]] by the Serbs; and [[Herzeg-Bosnia]] by the Croats).

According to the ICTY, Serb forces from the SAO Krajina deported at least 80,000–100,000 Croats and other non-Serb civilians in 1991–92.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/stanisic_simatovic/tjug/en/130530_summary.pdf | title=Judgement Summary for Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović | date=30 May 2013 | publisher=ICTY | page=2 | access-date=10 July 2017 | archive-date=25 December 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161225002557/http://www.icty.org/x/cases/stanisic_simatovic/tjug/en/130530_summary.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref> The total number of exiled Croats and other non-Serbs range from 170,000 ([[ICTY]]),<ref>
{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/10/world/milosevic-indicted-again-is-charged-with-crimes-in-croatia.html?scp=1&sq=milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87%20170000&st=cse|title=Milosevic, Indicted Again, Is Charged With Crimes in Croatia|author=Marlise Simons|access-date=26 December 2010|date=10 October 2001|newspaper=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520112601/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/10/world/milosevic-indicted-again-is-charged-with-crimes-in-croatia.html?scp=1&sq=milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87%20170000&st=cse|archive-date=20 May 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> to a quarter of a million people ([[Human Rights Watch]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/10/28/milosevic-important-new-charges-croatia|title=Milosevic: Important New Charges on Croatia|access-date=29 October 2010|date=21 October 2001|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225134329/http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/10/28/milosevic-important-new-charges-croatia|archive-date=25 December 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> The number of Croats in Serb-occupied [[Republic of Serbian Krajina]] dropped from 203,656 (37% of population) in 1991<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Miljenko|last1=Brekalo|first2=Stjepan |last2=Adanić|url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/411939|page=54 |year=2022| title=The State-Legal Personality of the Republic of Serbian Krajina| doi=10.47960/2831-0322.2022.1.26.45| journal=The Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar|volume=26 }}</ref> to 4,000 by early 1995.<ref>{{cite book| title=Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Report Submitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives and Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate by the Department of State in Accordance with Sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as Amended, Volumes 8-15| publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office| year=1995| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9S0ItK3dG58C&pg=PA778 |page=778| isbn=9780160468360}}</ref> Also, at least 700,000 to as many as 863,000 Albanians were forcibly expelled from Kosovo in 1999.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.icty.org/en/press/five-senior-serb-officials-convicted-kosovo-crimes-one-acquitted | title=Five Senior Serb Officials Convicted of Kosovo Crimes, One Acquitted | date=26 February 2009 | publisher=ICTY | access-date=10 July 2017 | archive-date=3 August 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803161906/http://www.icty.org/en/press/five-senior-serb-officials-convicted-kosovo-crimes-one-acquitted | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tomuschat |first1=Christian |title=Kosovo and the International Community: A Legal Assessment |date=2021 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004478817 |pages=26–27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O_VNEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA26}}</ref> More than 80% of the total population of Kosovo was displaced by June 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/undword-03.htm |title=Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo| work=Human Rights Watch| date=2001| access-date=17 September 2023}}</ref> Further hundreds of thousands of Muslims were forced out of their homes by the Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina.{{sfnp|Campbell|2001|p=58}} By one estimate, the Serb forces drove at least 700,000 Bosnian Muslims from the area of Bosnia under their control.{{sfnp|Geldenhuys|2004|p=34}} According to a 1994 U.N. report, Croatian forces also engaged in ethnic cleansing against Serbs in [[SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia|eastern]] and western Slavonia and parts of the [[Krajina]] region, though on a more restricted scale and in lesser numbers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bassiouni |first1=Mahmoud Cherif |last2=Manikas |first2=Peter |title=The Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia |date=1996 |publisher=Transnational Publishers |isbn=978-1-57105-004-5 |page=86}}</ref>

Survivors of the ethnic cleansing were left severely traumatized as a consequence of this campaign.{{sfnp|Weine|Becker|Vojvoda|Hodzic|1998|p=147}}

===Wartime sexual violence and rape===
{{Main|Rape in the Bosnian War|Wartime sexual violence#Former Yugoslavia}}
[[War rape]] occurred as a matter of official orders as part of [[ethnic cleansing]], to displace the targeted ethnic group.<ref name="de Brouwer 2005 10">[[#Brouwer|de Brouwer (2005)]], p. 10</ref> According to the Trešnjevka Women's Group, more than 35,000 women and children were held in such Serb-run "rape camps".<ref name=debrouwer9>[[#Brouwer|de Brouwer (2005)]], pp. 9–10</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url = http://www.newint.org/issue244/rape.htm | journal = New Internationalist | issue = 244 | date = June 1993 | title = Rape: Weapon of War | first = Angela | last = Robson | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100817134853/http://www.newint.org/issue244/rape.htm | archive-date = 2010-08-17 }}</ref><ref>[http://srebrenica.brightside.nl/srebrenica/ Netherlands Institute for War Documentation] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929214505/http://srebrenica.brightside.nl/srebrenica/ |date=September 29, 2007 }} Part 1 Chapter 9</ref> [[Dragoljub Kunarac]], [[Radomir Kovač]], and [[Zoran Vuković]] were convicted of [[crimes against humanity]] for rape, torture, and enslavement committed during the [[Foča massacres]].<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/02/22/bosnia-landmark-verdicts-rape-torture-and-sexual-enslavement | work = Human Rights Watch | title = Bosnia: Landmark Verdicts for Rape, Torture, and Sexual Enslavement – Criminal Tribunal Convicts Bosnian Serbs for Crimes Against Humanity | date = 22 February 2001 | access-date = 8 February 2023 | archive-date = 15 April 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140415191448/http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/02/22/bosnia-landmark-verdicts-rape-torture-and-sexual-enslavement | url-status = live }}</ref>

The evidence of the magnitude of rape in Bosnia and Herzegovina prompted the ICTY to openly deal with these abuses.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/specials/bosnia/context/0628warcrimes-tribunal.html|last=Simons|first=Marlise|title=For first time, Court Defines Rape as War Crime|work=The New York Times|date=June 1996|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=7 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161007013411/http://www.nytimes.com/specials/bosnia/context/0628warcrimes-tribunal.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Reports of sexual violence during the [[Bosnian War]] (1992–1995) and Kosovo War (1998–1999) perpetrated by the Serbian regular and irregular forces have been described as "especially alarming".<ref name=debrouwer9/> The NATO-led Kosovo Force documented rapes of Albanian, Roma and Serbian women by both Serbs and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.<ref>[[#Brouwer|de Brouwer (2005)]], p. 11</ref>

Others have estimated that during the Bosnian War, between 20,000 and 50,000 women, mostly Bosniak, were raped.{{sfnp|Salzman|1998|pp=348–378}}<ref name=independent2006>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/film-award-forces-serbs-to-face-spectre-of-bosnias-rape-babies-526028.html |title=Film award forces Serbs to face spectre of Bosnia's rape babies |date=20 February 2006 | author = Vesna Peric Zimonjic | newspaper=The Independent |location= Belgrade |access-date=26 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924011648/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/film-award-forces-serbs-to-face-spectre-of-bosnias-rape-babies-526028.html |archive-date=September 24, 2009 }}</ref> There are few reports of rape and sexual assault between members of the same ethnic group.<ref name="Bassiouni">{{citation | url = http://www.earlham.edu/~pols/ps17971/terneel/bassiouni.html | url-status=dead | title = United Nations Commission on Breaches of Geneva Law in Former Yugoslavia | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090808030659/http://www.earlham.edu/~pols/ps17971/terneel/bassiouni.html |archive-date=8 August 2009 | date = 1997 | work = The International Fight Against Gender Inequality | access-date = 14 April 2014}}</ref>

War rape in the Yugoslav Wars has often been characterized as a [[crime against humanity]]. Rapes which were perpetrated by Serb forces served to destroy the cultural and social ties which existed between the victims and their communities.{{sfnp|Card|1996|pp=5–18}} Serbian policies allegedly urged soldiers to rape Bosniak women until they became pregnant as an attempt towards ethnic cleansing. Serbian soldiers hoped to force Bosniak women to carry Serbian children through repeated rape.<ref>[[#Allen|Allen (1996)]], p. 77</ref> Often Bosniak women were held in captivity for an extended period of time and only released slightly before the birth of a child conceived of rape. The systematic rape of Bosniak women may have carried further-reaching repercussions than the initial displacement of rape victims. Stress, caused by the trauma of rape, coupled with the lack of access to reproductive health care often experienced by displaced peoples, led to serious health risks for victimized women.{{sfnp|McGinn|2000|pp=174–180}}

During the Kosovo War, thousands of Kosovo Albanian women and girls became victims of sexual violence. War rape was used as a weapon of war and it was also used as an instrument of systematic [[ethnic cleansing]]; rape was used to terrorize the civilian population, extort money from families, and force people to flee their homes. According to a report by the [[Human Rights Watch]] group in 2000, rape in the Kosovo War can generally be subdivided into three categories: rapes in women's homes, rapes during flight, and rapes in detention.<ref name="HRW">{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/en/news/2000/03/20/serb-gang-rapes-kosovo-exposed|title=Serb Gang-Rapes in Kosovo Exposed|date=March 20, 2000|work=Human Rights Watch|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=15 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715013429/http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2000/03/20/serb-gang-rapes-kosovo-exposed|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="HRW2">{{citation | url = https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/fry/index.htm | title = Kosovo: Rape as a Weapon of 'Ethnic Cleansing' | publisher = Human Rights Watch | access-date = 14 April 2015 | archive-date = 24 September 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924134354/http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/fry/index.htm | url-status = live }}</ref> The majority of the perpetrators were Serbian paramilitaries, but also included Serbian special police or Yugoslav army soldiers. Virtually all of the sexual assaults Human Rights Watch documented were gang rapes involving at least two perpetrators.<ref name="HRW"/><ref name="HRW2"/> Since the end of the war, rapes of Serbian, Albanian, and Roma women by ethnic Albanians – sometimes by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) – have been documented, but they have not occurred on a similar scale.<ref name="HRW"/><ref name="HRW2"/> Rapes frequently occurred in the presence, and with the acquiescence, of military officers. Soldiers, police, and paramilitaries often raped their victims in the full view of numerous witnesses.<ref name="de Brouwer 2005 10"/>

A 2013 report by the [[United Nations Development Programme]] (UNDP) in Croatia entitled 'Assessment of the Number of Sexual Violence Victims during the Homeland War on the Territory of the Republic of Croatia and Optimal Forms of Compensation and Support of Victims', determined the estimated victims (male and female) of [[rape]] and other forms of [[sexual assault]] on both sides to number between approximately 1,470 and 2,205 or 1,501 and 2,437 victims.<ref name="UNDP Sexual Violence">{{cite web|url=https://www.undp.org/content/dam/croatia/docs/Research%20and%20publications/socialinclusion/UNDP-HR-SEXUAL%20-VIOLENCE%20-IN%20-CONFLICT-RESEARCH-ENG-2014.pdf|title=Assessment of the Number of Sexual Violence Victims during the Homeland War of the Republic of Croatia and Optimal Forms of Compensation and Support to Victims|publisher=UNDP|access-date=January 22, 2020|archive-date=20 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120174134/https://www1.undp.org/content/dam/croatia/docs/Research%20and%20publications/socialinclusion/UNDP-HR-SEXUAL%20-VIOLENCE%20-IN%20-CONFLICT-RESEARCH-ENG-2014.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Most victims were non-Serbs assaulted by Serbs.<ref name="UNDP Sexual Violence" /> By region, the largest number of rapes and acts of sexual violence occurred in Eastern Slavonia, with an estimated 380–570 victims.<ref name="UNDP Sexual Violence" /> According to the UNDP report, between 300 and 600 men (4.4–6.6% of those imprisoned) and between 279 and 466 women (or 30–50% of those imprisoned) suffered from various forms of sexual abuse while being held in Serbian detention camps and prisons (including those in Serbia proper).<ref name="UNDP Sexual Violence" /> Between 412 and 611 Croat women were raped in the Serb-occupied territories, outside of detention camps, from 1991 to 1995.<ref name="UNDP Sexual Violence" /> Croat forces were also known to have committed rapes and acts of sexual violence against Serb women during Operations [[Operation Flash|Flash]] and [[Operation Storm|Storm]], with an estimated 94–140 victims.<ref name="UNDP Sexual Violence" /> Sexual abuse of Serb prisoners also occurred in the Croat-run [[Lora prison camp|Lora]] and [[Kerestinec camp|Kerestinec]] camps.<ref name="UNDP Sexual Violence" />

== Humanitarian consequences and material damage ==
===Casualties===
[[File:Ahmici massacre.jpg|thumb|UN peacekeepers collecting corpses after the [[Ahmići massacre]]]]
Some estimates put the number of killed in the Yugoslav Wars at 140,000.<ref name=ictj/> The [[Humanitarian Law Center]] estimates that in the conflicts in former Yugoslav republics at least 130,000 people lost their lives.<ref name=HLC/> The civilian death rate is between 52% and 56%, meaning 72,716 civilians.<ref name="mortality">{{cite journal| title=Estimating the Number of Civilian Casualties in Modern Armed Conflicts–A Systematic Review |first1=Amir |last1=Khorram-Manesh| first2=Frederick M. |last2=Burkle |first3=Krzysztof |last3=Goniewicz| first4=Yohan |last4=Robinson| journal=[[Frontiers in Public Health]]| volume=9 |year=2021| issue=1|article-number=765261 | doi=10.3389/fpubh.2021.765261|doi-access=free | pmc=8581199 | pmid=34778192|bibcode=2021FrPH....965261K }}</ref> Slovenia's involvement in the conflicts was brief, thus avoiding higher casualties, and around 70 people were killed in its ten-day conflict. The War in Croatia left an estimated 22,000 people dead, of which 15,000 were Croats and 7,000 Serbs.{{sfnp|Bjelajac|Žunec|2009|p=265}}

Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered the heaviest burden of the fighting: between 97,207 and 102,622 people were killed in the war, including 64,036 Bosniaks, 24,905 Serbs, and 7,788 Croats.{{sfnp|Toal|Dahlman|2011|p=136}} By share, 65% of the killed were Bosniaks, 25% Serbs, and 8% Croats.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bosnia war dead figure announced|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6228152.stm|work=BBC News|date=21 June 2007|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=9 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409155521/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6228152.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> In the Kosovo conflict, 13,535 people were killed, including 10,812 Albanians (80%) and 2,197 Serbs (16%).{{sfnp|Visoka|2020|p=385}} The highest death toll was in [[Sarajevo]]: with around 14,000 killed during the siege,<ref>{{cite news|title=General jailed for Sarajevo siege|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7139957.stm|work=BBC News|date=12 December 2007|access-date=12 March 2020|archive-date=25 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125144950/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7139957.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> the city lost almost as many people as the entire war in Kosovo.

In relative and absolute numbers, Bosniaks suffered the heaviest losses: 64,036 of their people were killed in Bosnia, which represents a death toll of over 3% of their entire ethnic group.{{sfnp|Toal|Dahlman|2011|p=136}} Of that number, 33,070 Bosniaks were civilians (52%) and 30,966 were soldiers (48%).{{sfnp|Kostic|2012|p=663}} They experienced the worst plight in the [[Srebrenica massacre]], where the [[mortality rate]] of the Bosniak men (irrespective of their age or civilian status) reached 33% in July 1995.{{sfnp|Brunborg|Lyngstad|Urdal|2003|pp=229–248}} 
The share of Bosniaks among all the civilian fatalities during the Bosnian War was around 83%, rising to almost 95% in Eastern Bosnia.{{sfnp|Smajić|2013|p=124}}

During the War in Croatia, 43.4% of the killed on the Croatian side were civilians.{{sfnp|Fink|2010|p=469}}

===Internally displaced persons and refugees===
[[File:Evstafiev-bosnia-travnik-girl-doll-refugee.jpg|thumb|Bosnian refugees in 1993]]
[[File:Eksodi 99 Kukes.JPG|thumb|Kosovo Albanian refugees in 1999]]
[[File:Kosovo-metohija-koreni-duse004.jpg|thumb|Kosovo Serb refugees in 1999]]
The Yugoslav Wars caused [[List of largest refugee crises|one of the largest refugee crises]] in European history. It is estimated that the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo produced about 2.4&nbsp;million [[refugees]] and an additional 2&nbsp;million [[internally displaced]] persons.{{sfnp|Watkins|2003|p=10}}

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina caused 2.2&nbsp;million refugees or displaced, of which over half were Bosniaks.{{sfnp|UNHCR|2003}} Up until 2001, there were still 650,000 displaced Bosniaks, while 200,000 left the country permanently.{{sfnp|UNHCR|2003}}

The Kosovo War caused 862,979 Albanian refugees who were either expelled from the Serb forces or fled from the battle front.<ref>{{cite web |last=Human Rights Watch |year=2001 |title=Kosovo: Under Orders |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/undword.htm |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=13 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013010444/https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/undword.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition, 500,000 to 600,000 were [[internally displaced]],{{sfnp|Iacopino|Frank|Bauer|Keller|2001|pp=2013–2018}} which means that, according to the [[OSCE]], almost 90% of all Albanians were displaced from their homes in Kosovo by June 1999.{{sfnp|OSCE|1999|p=13}} After the end of the war, Albanians returned, but over 200,000 Serbs, Romani and other non-Albanians fled Kosovo. By the end of 2000, Serbia thus became the host of 700,000 Serb refugees or internally displaced from Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia.<ref name="Bleak outlook for Serb refugees"/>

From the perspective of [[Right of asylum|asylum]] for internally displaced or refugees, Croatia took the brunt of the crisis. According to some sources, in 1992 Croatia was the host to almost 750,000 refugees or internally displaced, which represents a quota of almost 16% of its population of 4.7&nbsp;million inhabitants: these figures included 420 to 450,000 Bosnian refugees, 35,000 refugees from Serbia (mostly from Vojvodina and Kosovo) while a further 265,000 persons from other parts of Croatia itself were internally displaced. This would be equivalent of Germany being a host to 10&nbsp;million displaced people or France to 8&nbsp;million people.{{sfnp|Council of Europe|1993|p=9}}

Official [[UNHCR]] data indicate that Croatia was the host to 287,000 refugees and 344,000 internally displaced in 1993. This is a ratio of 64.7 refugees per 1000 inhabitants.<ref>[[#UNHCRHR|UNHCR 2002]], p. 1</ref> In its 1992 report, UNHCR placed Croatia #7 on its list of 50 most refugee burdened countries: it registered 316,000 refugees, which is a ratio of 15:1 relative to its total population.{{sfnp|UNHCR|1993|p=11}} Together with those internally displaced, Croatia was the host to at least 648,000 people in need of an accommodation in 1992.{{sfnp|UNHCR|1993|p=8}} In comparison, [[Republic of Macedonia|Macedonia]] had 10.5 refugees per 1000 inhabitants in 1999.<ref>[[#UNHCRMK|UNHCR 2000]], p 319</ref>

Slovenia was the host to 45,000 refugees in 1993, which is 22.7 refugees per 1000 inhabitants.<ref>[[#UNHCRSL|UNHCR 2002]], p. 1</ref> [[Serbia and Montenegro]] were the host to 479,111 refugees in 1993, which is a ratio of 45.5 refugees per 1000 inhabitants. By 1998 this grew to 502,037 refugees (or 47.7 refugees per 1000 inhabitants). By 2000 the number of refugees fell to 484,391 persons, but the number of internally displaced grew to 267,500, or a combined total of 751,891 persons who were displaced and in need of an accommodation.<ref>[[#UNHCRSR|UNHCR 2002]], p. 1</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none; width: 300px"
|+ Number of refugees or internally displaced in 1991–2000
! scope="col" | Country, region
! scope="col" | [[Albanians]]
! scope="col" | [[Bosniaks]]
! scope="col" | [[Croats]]
! scope="col" | [[Serbs]]
! scope="col" | Others <sup>([[Hungarians]], [[Gorani people|Gorani]], [[Romani people|Romani]])</sup>
|-
| '''Croatia''' || —|| — || '''247,000'''<ref>{{cite web | last=US Department of State | year=1994 | title=Croatia Human Rights Practices, 1993 | url=http://www.hri.org/docs/USSD-Rights/93/Croatia93.html | access-date=8 February 2023 | archive-date=5 November 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105051829/http://www.hri.org/docs/USSD-Rights/93/Croatia93.html | url-status=live }}</ref> || '''300,000'''{{sfnp|UNHCR|1997}} || —
|-
| '''Bosnia and Herzegovina''' || — || '''1,270,000'''{{sfnp|Friedman|2013|p=80}} || '''490,000'''{{sfnp|Friedman|2013|p=80}} || '''540,000'''{{sfnp|Friedman|2013|p=80}} || —
|-
| '''Kosovo''' || '''1,200,000'''{{sfnp|Krieger|2001|p=90}}–'''1,450,000'''{{sfnp|OSCE|1999|p=13}} || — || rowspan="2"| '''35,000'''{{sfnp|Council of Europe|1993|p=9}}–'''40,000'''{{sfnp|Human Rights Watch|1994|p=7}} || '''143,000'''<ref name="Under Orders War Crimes in Kosovo"/> || '''67,000'''<ref name="Under Orders War Crimes in Kosovo">{{cite web | last=Human Rights Watch | year=2001 | url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/undword2c.html | title=Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo | access-date=8 February 2023 | archive-date=31 December 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231002232/https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/undword2c.html | url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| '''Vojvodina, Sandžak''' || — || '''30,000'''–'''40,000'''{{sfnp|Siblesz|1998|p=10}} || – || '''60,000'''{{sfnp|Human Rights Watch|1994|p=7}}
|-
|'''Total''' || '''~1,200,000'''–'''1,450,000''' || '''~1,300,000'''–'''1,310,000''' || '''~772,000'''–'''777,000''' || '''~983,000''' || '''~127,000'''
|}

===Material damage===
[[File:Siege-Shattered Facade - Sarajevo - Bosnia and Herzegovina.jpg|thumb|War damage on a Sarajevo building]]
Material and economic damages brought by the conflicts were catastrophic. Bosnia and Herzegovina had a [[GDP]] of between $8–9&nbsp;billion before the war. The government estimated the overall war damages at $50–$70&nbsp;billion. It also registered a GDP decline of 75% after the war.{{sfnp|World Bank|1996|p=10}} 60% of the housing in the country had been either damaged or destroyed, which proved a problem when trying to bring all the refugees back home.{{sfnp|Meyers|2004|p=136}} Bosnia also became the most [[landmine]] contaminated country of Europe: 1820&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> of its territory were contaminated with these explosives, which represent 3.6% of its land surface. Between 3 and 6&nbsp;million landmines were scattered throughout Bosnia. Five thousand people died from them, of which 1,520 were killed after the war.{{sfnp|Jha|2014|p=68}}

In 1999, the [[Croatian Parliament]] passed a bill estimating war damages of the country at $37&nbsp;billion.{{sfnp|Bicanic|2008|pp=158–173}} The government alleges that between 1991 and April 1993 an estimated total of 210,000 buildings in Croatia (including schools, hospitals and [[refugee camp]]s) were either damaged or destroyed from shelling by the [[Republic of Serbian Krajina]] and the JNA forces. Cities affected by the shelling were [[Karlovac]], [[Gospić]], [[Ogulin]], [[Zadar]], [[Biograd]] and others.{{sfnp|OHCHR|1993|p=23}} The Croatian government also acknowledged that 7,489 buildings belonging to Croatian Serbs were damaged or destroyed by explosives, arson or other deliberate means by the end of 1992. From January to March 1993 another 220 buildings were also damaged or destroyed. Criminal charges were brought against 126 Croats for such acts.{{sfnp|OHCHR|1993|p=19}}

[[Sanctions against Yugoslavia|Sanctions against FR Yugoslavia]] created a [[hyperinflation]] of 300&nbsp;million percent of the [[Yugoslav dinar]]. By 1995, almost 1&nbsp;million workers lost their jobs while the gross domestic product had fallen 55 percent since 1989.<ref name="YUGOSLAV ECONOMY FORECAST TO GROW ONCE EMBARGO ENDS INFLATION WHIPPED">{{cite web | title=Yugoslav Economy Forecast to Grow once Embargo Ends Inflation Whipped, Central Banker Says | author=Erik Kirschbaum | url=http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/yugoslav-economy-forecast-grow-once-embargo-ends-inflation-whipped-central-banker-says_19950713.html | date=July 13, 1995 | work=[[JOC Group]] | access-date=7 August 2017 | archive-date=25 September 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925122945/https://www.joc.com/maritime-news/yugoslav-economy-forecast-grow-once-embargo-ends-inflation-whipped-central-banker-says_19950713.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[NATO bombing of Yugoslavia|1999 NATO bombing of Serbia]] resulted in additional damages. One of the most severe was the bombing of the [[Pančevo]] petrochemical factory, which caused the release of 80,000 tonnes of burning fuel into the environment.{{sfnp|Jha|2014|p=69}} Approximately 31,000 rounds of [[depleted Uranium]] ammunition were used during this bombing.{{sfnp|Jha|2014|p=72}}

==International war crimes trials: ICTY/IRMCT==
{{main|International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia|International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals}}
{{multiple image
 | background color = #BBDD99
 | width1 = 90
 | image1 = RadovanKaradzic.jpg
 | alt1 = 
 | width2 = 115
 | image2 = Mladić Trial Judgement (crop).jpg
 | alt2 = 
 | width3 = 125
 | image3 = Accused Milan Lukić.jpg
 | alt3 = 
 | width4 = 82
 | image4=Slobodan Praljak.jpg
 | alt4=
 | footer_background = #BBDD99
 | footer_align = center
 | footer = Several people were convicted by the ICTY for crimes during the Yugoslav wars, including (from left) [[Radovan Karadžić]], [[Ratko Mladić]], [[Milan Lukić]] and [[Slobodan Praljak]]
}}
The [[International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia]] (ICTY) was a body of the [[United Nations]] established to prosecute serious crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars, and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal was an [[ad hoc]] court located in [[The Hague]], [[Netherlands]]. One of the most prominent [[Trial of Slobodan Milošević|trials involved ex-Serbian President Slobodan Milošević]], who was in 2002 indicted on 66 counts of [[crimes against humanity]], [[war crimes]] and [[genocide]] allegedly committed in wars in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia.{{sfnp|Magliveras|2002|pp=661–677}} His trial remained incomplete since he died in 2006, before a verdict was reached.<ref>{{cite web|title=UN tribunal investigating death of accused genocide mastermind Slobodan Milosevic|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/03/171822-un-tribunal-investigating-death-accused-genocide-mastermind-slobodan-milosevic|date=12 March 2006|publisher=UN News|access-date=4 May 2018|archive-date=4 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504225313/https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/03/171822-un-tribunal-investigating-death-accused-genocide-mastermind-slobodan-milosevic|url-status=live}}</ref> Nonetheless, ICTY's trial "helped to delegitimize Milosevic's leadership", as one scholar put it.{{sfnp|Akhavan|2001|pp=7–31}}

Several convictions were handed over by the ICTY and its successor, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT). The first notable verdict confirming genocide in Srebrenica was the case against Serb General [[Radislav Krstić]]: he was sentenced in 2001, while the Appeals Chamber confirmed the verdict in 2004.<ref name="Krstic">{{cite web|title=Srebrenica massacre was genocide, UN tribunal for former Yugoslavia confirms|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2004/04/100662-srebrenica-massacre-was-genocide-un-tribunal-former-yugoslavia-confirms|date=14 April 2004|publisher=UN News|access-date=7 January 2019|archive-date=7 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107181205/https://news.un.org/en/story/2004/04/100662-srebrenica-massacre-was-genocide-un-tribunal-former-yugoslavia-confirms|url-status=live}}</ref> Another verdict was against ex-Bosnian Serb leader, [[Radovan Karadžić]], who was also convicted for genocide.<ref name="Karadzic">{{cite web|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/03/525262-un-welcomes-historic-guilty-verdict-against-radovan-karadzic|date=24 March 2016|title=UN welcomes 'historic' guilty verdict against Radovan Karadžić|publisher=UN News|access-date=15 April 2018|archive-date=15 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115023115/https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/03/525262-un-welcomes-historic-guilty-verdict-against-radovan-karadzic|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 22 November 2017, general [[Ratko Mladić]] was sentenced to a [[life in prison]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=58143#.WhadpdLiXIU|title=UN hails conviction of Mladic, the 'epitome of evil,' a momentous victory for justice|date=22 November 2017|publisher=UN News|access-date=23 November 2017|archive-date=31 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731100924/https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/11/636942-un-hails-conviction-mladic-epitome-evil-momentous-victory-justice#.WhadpdLiXIU|url-status=live}}</ref>

Other important convictions included those of ultranationalist [[Vojislav Šešelj]],<ref name="Seselj">{{cite web| url=http://www.unmict.org/en/news/appeals-chamber-reverses-%C5%A1e%C5%A1elj%E2%80%99s-acquittal-part-and-convicts-him-crimes-against-humanity| title=Appeals Chamber Reverses Šešelj's Acquittal, in Part, and Convicts Him of Crimes Against | date=11 April 2018| publisher=United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals| access-date=11 April 2018| archive-date=12 April 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412083601/http://www.unmict.org/en/news/appeals-chamber-reverses-%C5%A1e%C5%A1elj%E2%80%99s-acquittal-part-and-convicts-him-crimes-against-humanity| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/04/serbia-conviction-of-war-criminal-delivers-long-overdue-justice-to-victims/|title=Serbia: Conviction of war criminal delivers long overdue justice to victims|date=11 April 2018|publisher=Amnesty International|access-date=11 April 2018|archive-date=12 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412082203/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/04/serbia-conviction-of-war-criminal-delivers-long-overdue-justice-to-victims/|url-status=live}}</ref> paramilitary leader [[Milan Lukić]],<ref>{{cite web|title=UN genocide tribunal affirms life sentence of Serb paramilitary leader|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2012/12/427422-un-genocide-tribunal-affirms-life-sentence-serb-paramilitary-leader|date=4 December 2012|publisher=UN News|access-date=15 April 2018|archive-date=16 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416200642/https://news.un.org/en/story/2012/12/427422-un-genocide-tribunal-affirms-life-sentence-serb-paramilitary-leader|url-status=live}}</ref> Bosnian Serb politician [[Momčilo Krajišnik]],<ref>{{cite web|title=UN tribunal transfers former Bosnian Serb leader to UK prison|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2009/09/311692-un-tribunal-transfers-former-bosnian-serb-leader-uk-prison|date=8 September 2009|publisher=UN News|access-date=15 April 2018|archive-date=16 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416200653/https://news.un.org/en/story/2009/09/311692-un-tribunal-transfers-former-bosnian-serb-leader-uk-prison|url-status=live}}</ref> Bosnian Serb general [[Stanislav Galić]], who was convicted for the [[siege of Sarajevo]],<ref name="Galic">{{cite web|title=UN war crimes tribunal sentences Bosnian Serb general to life in jail|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/11/201412-un-war-crimes-tribunal-sentences-bosnian-serb-general-life-jail|date=30 November 2006|publisher=UN News|access-date=4 May 2018|archive-date=4 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504225425/https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/11/201412-un-war-crimes-tribunal-sentences-bosnian-serb-general-life-jail|url-status=live}}</ref> the former Assistant Minister of the [[Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs]] and Chief of its Public Security Department, [[Vlastimir Đorđević]], who was convicted for crimes in Kosovo,<ref>{{cite web|title=UN tribunal convicts former Serbian police official for crimes in Kosovo|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/02/367392-un-tribunal-convicts-former-serbian-police-official-crimes-kosovo|date=23 February 2011|publisher=UN News|access-date=4 May 2018|archive-date=4 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504225234/https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/02/367392-un-tribunal-convicts-former-serbian-police-official-crimes-kosovo|url-status=live}}</ref> ex-JNA commander [[Mile Mrkšić]]<ref>{{cite news|title=Mile Mrksic, a Serb Army Officer Convicted of War Crimes, Dies at 68|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=17 August 2015|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/world/europe/mile-mrksic-a-serb-army-officer-convicted-of-war-crimes-dies-at-68.html|access-date=15 April 2018|archive-date=16 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416203649/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/world/europe/mile-mrksic-a-serb-army-officer-convicted-of-war-crimes-dies-at-68.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=UN war crimes tribunal sentences two former senior Yugoslav officers|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2007/09/233322-un-war-crimes-tribunal-sentences-two-former-senior-yugoslav-officers|date=27 September 2007|publisher=UN News|access-date=4 May 2018|archive-date=4 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504225411/https://news.un.org/en/story/2007/09/233322-un-war-crimes-tribunal-sentences-two-former-senior-yugoslav-officers|url-status=live}}</ref> as well as both of [[Republic of Serbian Krajina]] ex-Presidents [[Milan Martić]]<ref>{{cite web|title=UN tribunal upholds 35-year jail term for leader of breakaway Croatian Serb state|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2008/10/277112-un-tribunal-upholds-35-year-jail-term-leader-breakaway-croatian-serb-state|date=8 October 2008|publisher=UN News|access-date=15 April 2018|archive-date=17 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417022756/https://news.un.org/en/story/2008/10/277112-un-tribunal-upholds-35-year-jail-term-leader-breakaway-croatian-serb-state|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Milan Babić]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Convicted Croatian Serb ex-leader commits suicide before he was to testify at UN court|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/03/171232-convicted-croatian-serb-ex-leader-commits-suicide-he-was-testify-un-court|date=6 March 2006|publisher=UN News|access-date=7 January 2019|archive-date=7 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107181217/https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/03/171232-convicted-croatian-serb-ex-leader-commits-suicide-he-was-testify-un-court|url-status=live}}</ref> The follow-up [[International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals]] convicted [[Jovica Stanišić]] and [[Franko Simatović]], [[State Security Service (FR Yugoslavia)|State Security Service]] officers within the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Serbia)|Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia]], and concluded:

{{blockquote|The Trial Chamber emphasized that the crimes were not committed in a random or disorganized manner, but rather during the course of well-planned and coordinated operations, demonstrating the existence of a common criminal purpose. In this respect, it emphasized the systematic pattern of crimes committed against non-Serb civilians in all regions covered by the Indictment. In this context, the Trial Chamber concluded that these crimes formed part of the [[Joint criminal enterprise|common criminal purpose]] to forcibly and permanently remove non-Serbs from large areas of [[Croatia]] and [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] through the crimes of [[persecution]], murder, deportation, and inhumane acts ([[Forced displacement|forcible transfer]]) charged in the Indictment. It further found that this common purpose was shared by senior political and military officials, including [[Slobodan Milošević]], [[Radmilo Bogdanović]], [[Radovan Stojičić]] (Badža), [[Mihalj Kertes]], Milan Martić, Milan Babić, [[Goran Hadžić]], Radovan Karadžić, Ratko Mladić, Momčilo Krajišnik, [[Biljana Plavšić]], and [[Arkan|Željko Ražnatović (Arkan)]].<ref>{{cite web| title=The Prosecutor vs. Jovica Stanišić & Franko Simatović – Judgement In the Appeals Chamber| url=https://www.irmct.org/sites/default/files/case_documents/IRMCT-Appeal-Judgement-Stanisic-Simatovic-ENG.pdf |page=209| publisher=International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals| location=The Hague| date=31 May 2023| access-date=17 August 2023}}</ref>}}

The ICTY also declared about the political goals of the war:
{{blockquote|The political goals of the Serbian authorities in Belgrade appear to have been to carve a new set of territories for the Serbs out of both Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to be added to Serbia and Montenegro. These coincided with the attempts of the JNA forces to prevent each of the Republics from achieving effective independence.<ref>[[#ICTY-Delalic|''Prosecutor v. Delalić et al. – Judgement'', 16 November 1998]], p. 46</ref>}}

Several Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians were convicted for crimes, as well, including ex-Herzegovina Croat leader [[Jadranko Prlić]] and commander [[Slobodan Praljak]],<ref name="Prlic">{{cite web| title=Prlić et al., Case Information Sheet| publisher=International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia| url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/prlic/cis/en/cis_prlic_al_en.pdf| access-date=14 January 2019| archive-date=15 September 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110915160300/http://www.icty.org/x/cases/prlic/cis/en/cis_prlic_al_en.pdf| url-status=live}}</ref> Bosnian Croat military commander [[Mladen Naletilić]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Bosnian Croat commander convicted by UN tribunal to serve jail term in Italy|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2008/04/257282-bosnian-croat-commander-convicted-un-tribunal-serve-jail-term-italy|date=25 April 2008|publisher=UN News|access-date=4 May 2018|archive-date=28 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928194440/https://news.un.org/en/story/2008/04/257282-bosnian-croat-commander-convicted-un-tribunal-serve-jail-term-italy|url-status=live}}</ref> ex-Bosnian Army commander [[Enver Hadžihasanović]]<ref>{{cite web|title=UN tribunal partially overturns convictions of two Bosnian Muslim commanders|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2008/04/256912-un-tribunal-partially-overturns-convictions-two-bosnian-muslim-commanders|date=22 April 2008|publisher=UN News|access-date=4 May 2018|archive-date=4 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504225245/https://news.un.org/en/story/2008/04/256912-un-tribunal-partially-overturns-convictions-two-bosnian-muslim-commanders|url-status=live}}</ref> and ex-Kosovo commander [[Haradin Bala]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Kosovo prison guard convicted by UN tribunal to serve rest of jail term in France|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2008/05/259432-kosovo-prison-guard-convicted-un-tribunal-serve-rest-jail-term-france|publisher=UN News|access-date=15 April 2018|date=2008-05-15|archive-date=16 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416200630/https://news.un.org/en/story/2008/05/259432-kosovo-prison-guard-convicted-un-tribunal-serve-rest-jail-term-france|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the [[Trial of Gotovina et al.|Trial of Gotovina et al]], Croatian Generals [[Ante Gotovina]] and [[Mladen Markač]] were ultimately acquitted on appeal in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/gotovina/acjug/en/121116_summary.pdf|publisher=[[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]]|title=Appeals Judgement Summary for Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač|date=16 November 2012|access-date=12 January 2013|archive-date=18 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218133450/https://www.icty.org/x/cases/gotovina/acjug/en/121116_summary.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

By 2019, based on its statute,<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.icty.org/x/file/Legal%20Library/Statute/statute_sept09_en.pdf| publisher=International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia| title=Updated Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia| date=September 2009| access-date=14 January 2019| archive-date=21 March 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321175735/http://www.icty.org/x/file/Legal%20Library/Statute/statute_sept09_en.pdf| url-status=live}}</ref> the ICTY concluded that the Serb officials were found guilty of [[persecutions]], [[deportation]] and/or [[forcible transfer]] ([[crimes against humanity]], Article 5) in Croatia,<ref name="Martic">{{cite web|title=Leader of breakaway Croatian Serb state convicted and jailed by UN tribunal|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2007/06/222002-leader-breakaway-croatian-serb-state-convicted-and-jailed-un-tribunal|date=12 June 2007|publisher=UN News|access-date=15 April 2018|archive-date=20 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420073822/https://news.un.org/en/story/2007/06/222002-leader-breakaway-croatian-serb-state-convicted-and-jailed-un-tribunal|url-status=live}}</ref> Bosnia and Herzegovina,<ref name="Karadzic"/> Kosovo<ref name="Sainovic">{{cite web| title=Šainović et al., Case Information Sheet| url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/milutinovic/cis/en/cis_sainovic_al_en.pdf| publisher=International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia| date=2014| access-date=11 January 2019| archive-date=22 January 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200122070440/https://www.icty.org/x/cases/milutinovic/cis/en/cis_sainovic_al_en.pdf| url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Vojvodina]].<ref name="Seselj"/> They were also found guilty of [[murder]] (crimes against humanity, Article 5) in Croatia,<ref name="Martic"/> Bosnia and Herzegovina<ref name="Karadzic"/> and Kosovo;<ref name="Sainovic"/> as well as [[Terror (politics)|terror]] (violations of [[Law of war|the laws or customs of war]], Article 3)<ref name="Galic"/> and genocide (Article 4)<ref name="Krstic"/><ref name="Karadzic"/> in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Croat forces were not found guilty of anything in Croatia, but were found guilty of deportation, other inhumane acts (forcible transfer), murder and persecutions (crimes against humanity, Article 5) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.<ref name="Prlic"/> The Bosniak forces were found guilty of inhuman treatment (grave breaches of the [[Geneva Conventions]], Article 2), murder; cruel treatment (violations of the laws or customs of war, Article 3) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/mucic/cis/en/cis_mucic_al_en.pdf|publisher=International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia|title=Mucić et al., Case Information Sheet|access-date=14 January 2019|archive-date=26 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126033456/https://www.icty.org/x/cases/mucic/cis/en/cis_mucic_al_en.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> One Albanian official was found guilty of torture, cruel treatment, murder (violations of the laws or customs of war, Article 3) in Kosovo.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/limaj/cis/en/cis_limaj_al_en.pdf|publisher=International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia|title=Limaj et al., Case Information Sheet|access-date=14 January 2019|archive-date=27 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100827083654/http://www.icty.org/x/cases/limaj/cis/en/cis_limaj_al_en.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
=== Gunrunning ===
After the fighting ended, millions of weapons were left with civilians who held on to them in case violence should resurface. These weapons later turned up on the arms black market of Europe.<ref name="ti_23Nov2015">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-terror-attack-why-getting-hold-of-a-kalashnikov-is-so-easy-a6746026.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-terror-attack-why-getting-hold-of-a-kalashnikov-is-so-easy-a6746026.html |archive-date=2022-05-07 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Paris terror attack: Why getting hold of a Kalashnikov is so easy|date=23 November 2015|work=[[The Independent]]|access-date=28 November 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 2018, there were no exact official figures on how many firearms are missing; in Serbia, authorities have given estimates which range from 250,000 to 900,000, different kinds of firearms are in circulation. In Bosnia, public reports contain a figure of 750,000. At the end of 2017, a man entered a bus in Banja Luka carrying two bags with 36 hand grenades, three assault rifles, seven handguns, a mine and hundreds of cartridges with Gothenburg as the destination. He was stopped in the neighbouring country of Slovenia. A 26-year-old woman was stopped at the border to Croatia with three antitank weapons and a hand grenade. Police found four machine guns, three battle rifles, three assault rifles and a large quantity of explosives at the home of a 79-year-old man. According to a UNDP official, getting civilians to give up their arms to state authorities is complicated as people are then forced to trust that authorities will protect them. Instead, criminals collect the weapons.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.gp.se/1.11576453|title=GP granskar: Vapnens väg till Göteborg|website=gp.se|date=7 December 2018|language=sv|access-date=2018-12-10|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124120/https://www.gp.se/nyheter/g%C3%B6teborg/gp-granskar-vapnens-v%C3%A4g-till-g%C3%B6teborg-1.11576453|url-status=live}}</ref> Some of the missing weapons were used in the [[November 2015 Paris attacks]] during which 130 people were killed by [[Jihadism|jihadists]]. Other arms were assault rifles which were used in the [[2015 Gothenburg pub shooting]].<ref name=":0" />

Successor-state governments' efforts to reduce the prevalence of illegally held arms are co-ordinated through a Regional Approach to Stockpile Reduction (RASR) focused on reducing stockpiles, arms diversion and unexplained explosions in South-east Europe. Partners include the European Union, the US Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and NATO's Support and Procurement Agency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rasrinitiative.org/partners.php|title=Regional Approach to Stockpile Reduction – RASR – Partners|website=www.rasrinitiative.org|access-date=2019-02-16|archive-date=1 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221201083242/https://www.rasrinitiative.org/partners.php|url-status=live}}</ref> Funded by the US Government, activities include annual workshops attended by US government officials from the Departments of State and Defense and defense ministry representatives from the Yugoslav successor states.<ref name=":02">{{cite book|title=Small arms survey 2015: weapons and the world |isbn=978-1-107-32363-6 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |oclc=913568550 |author=Small Arms Survey |author-link=Small Arms Survey |date=July 2015 |page=128}}</ref>

=== Drug trafficking ===
Since the beginning of hostilities between warring factions in the former [[Yugoslavia]], the [[Kosovo Liberation Army]] as well as the [[Serbian mafia]] have been involved in the [[illegal drug trade]], particularly with [[heroin|West Asian heroin]] entering Central and [[Western Europe]]. In the early 1990s, 2,000 Albanians from [[Kosovo]] were held in Swiss jails on charges of arms and drug smuggling. Over the course of the war, a total of several tons of heroin were confiscated by [[Interpol]] and local law enforcement. Illegal drug smuggling operations also led to additional crimes all across Western Europe, which included bank robberies and extortion committed by criminal gangs operating out of [[Eastern Europe]]. The intensification of heroin consumption in Western Europe led to the expansion of open air drug markets, particularly in [[Switzerland]]. Bosnian criminal gangs continue to have a significant impact on global drug trafficking, through entering the lucrative [[cocaine trade]].<ref>Drozdiak, William (November 6, 1993). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/11/06/balkan-war-victor-heroin/ae8f3ea1-1fd2-4bf5-90c1-48f7ecd803c3/ "Balkan War Victor: Heroin"]. ''The Washington Post''. Retrieved 3 May 2021.</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/14/kosovo-prime-minister-llike-mafia-boss "Kosovo PM is head of human organ and arms ring, Council of Europe reports"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221219104403/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/14/kosovo-prime-minister-llike-mafia-boss |date=19 December 2022 }}. ''theguardian.com''. Retrieved 3 May 2021.</ref><ref>[https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/balkan-cartel-trafficking-cocaine-around-globe-in-private-planes-busted "Balkan Cartel Trafficking Cocaine Around the Globe in Private Planes Busted"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024054906/https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/balkan-cartel-trafficking-cocaine-around-globe-in-private-planes-busted |date=24 October 2021 }}. ''Europol''. Retrieved 3 May 2021.</ref>

=== Free trade ===
In 2006 the Central European Free Trade Agreement ([[Central European Free Trade Agreement|CEFTA]]) was expanded to include many of the previous Yugoslav republics, in order to show that despite the political conflicts economic cooperation was still possible. CEFTA went into full effect by the end of 2007.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MEI - The agreement on free trade in the Balkans (cefta) |url=https://www.mei.gov.rs/eng/documents/agreements-with-the-eu/the-agreement-on-free-trade-in-the-balkans-cefta/ |access-date=2024-10-14 |website=www.mei.gov.rs |language=en}}</ref>

==Timeline==
{{Main|Timeline of the Yugoslav Wars}}

'''1990'''
*[[Log Revolution]]. [[SAO Krajina]] is proclaimed over an indefinite area of Croatia.

'''1991'''
[[File:Balkans War 1991, Latest deaths - Flickr - Peter Denton 丕特 . 天登.jpg|thumb|People observing new death notifications on a wall in [[Dubrovnik]] during the siege, December 1991]]
*Slovenia and Croatia declare independence in June, North Macedonia in September. [[Ten-Day War|War in Slovenia]] lasts ten days, and results in dozens of fatalities. The Yugoslav army leaves Slovenia after intervention of the UN which insisted that Slovenia be allowed to leave, but supports rebel Serb forces in Croatia. The [[Croatian War of Independence]] begins in Croatia. Serb areas in Croatia declare independence, but are recognized only by Belgrade.
*[[Vukovar]] is devastated by bombardments and shelling, and other cities such as [[Dubrovnik]], [[Karlovac]] and [[Osijek]] sustain extensive damage.{{sfnp|Zaknic|1992|pp=115–124}} Refugees from war zones overwhelm Croatia, while Europe is slow to accept refugees.
*In Croatia, about 250,000 Croats and other non-Serbs forced from their homes or fled the violence.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/10/28/milosevic-important-new-charges-croatia|title=Milosevic: Important New Charges on Croatia|access-date=29 October 2010|date=21 October 2001|work=Human Rights Watch|location=The Hague|archive-date=25 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225134329/http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/10/28/milosevic-important-new-charges-croatia|url-status=live}}</ref>

'''1992'''
[[File:Sarajevo Siege firewood couple 1992.jpg|thumb|Besieged residents collect firewood in the bitter winter of 1992 during the [[Siege of Sarajevo]].]]
*[[Cyrus Vance|Vance Plan]] signed, creating four [[United Nations Protection Force]] zones for Serbs and ending large-scale fighting in Croatia.
*Bosnia declares independence. [[Bosnian war]] begins with the Bosnian Serb military leadership, most notably [[Ratko Mladić]], trying to create a new, separate Serb state, [[Republika Srpska]], through which they would conquer as much of Bosnia as possible for the vision of either a Greater Serbia{{sfnp|Off|2010|p=218}} or a [[rump state|rump]] Yugoslavia.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sudetic|first=Chuck|date=1991-10-24|title=Top Serb Leaders Back Proposal To Form Separate Yugoslav State|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/24/world/top-serb-leaders-back-proposal-to-form-separate-yugoslav-state.html|access-date=2020-05-28|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=22 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922022718/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/24/world/top-serb-leaders-back-proposal-to-form-separate-yugoslav-state.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Pinder|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nyq5AAAAIAAJ|title=The New Europe: Economy, Society and Environment|date=1998|publisher=Wiley|page=34|isbn=978-0-471-97123-8|language=en|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124141/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nyq5AAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Crnobrnja|first=Mihailo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZnagDP3gO4C&q=The+Yugoslav+Drama|title=The Yugoslav Drama|date=1996|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP|page=176|isbn=978-0-7735-1429-4|language=en|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124123/https://books.google.com/books?id=zZnagDP3gO4C&q=The+Yugoslav+Drama|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] proclaimed, consisting of [[Serbia]] and [[Montenegro]], the two remaining republics.
*United Nations impose [[Sanctions against Yugoslavia|sanctions against FR Yugoslavia]] for its support of the unrecognized [[Republic of Serbian Krajina]] in Croatia and [[Republika Srpska]] in Bosnia.<ref>{{cite news | title = Angry U.N. Votes Harsh Sanctions on Yugoslavia : Balkans: The Security Council, infuriated by bloody attacks in Bosnia-Herzegovina, imposes an oil embargo and other curbs. China, Zimbabwe abstain in 13–0 vote | date = 31 May 1992 | newspaper = LA Times | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-05-31-mn-1673-story.html | author = Stanley Meisler and Carol J. Williams | access-date = 7 August 2017 | archive-date = 11 August 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180811160816/http://articles.latimes.com/1992-05-31/news/mn-1673_1_security-council | url-status = live }}</ref> In May 1992, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia become UN members. FR Yugoslavia claims being sole legal heir to SFRY, which is disputed by other republics. UN envoys agree that Yugoslavia had 'dissolved into constituent republics'.
*The Yugoslav army retreats from Bosnia, but leaves its weapons to the army of Republika Srpska, which attacks poorly armed Bosnian cities of Zvornik, Kotor Varoš, Prijedor, Foča, [[Višegrad (municipality)|Višegrad]], Doboj. [[Prijedor ethnic cleansing]] and [[siege of Sarajevo]] start. Hundreds of thousands of non-Serbian refugees flee.
*[[Croat–Bosniak War|Bosniak-Croat conflict]] begins in Bosnia.

'''1993'''
[[File:HVO Army T-55 Glamoc setup.jpg|thumb|Two [[Croatian Defense Council]] (HVO) [[T-54/55|T-55]] main battle tanks pull into firing position during a three-day exercise held at the Barbara Range in [[Glamoč]], [[Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia and Herzegovina]].]]
[[File:SrebrenicaStone.jpg|thumb|[[Srebrenica Genocide Memorial]] Stone at [[Donji Potočari|Potočari]]]]
*[[Siege of Bihać (1992–95)|Fighting begins in the Bihać]] region between Bosnian Government forces loyal to [[Alija Izetbegović]], and Bosniaks loyal to [[Fikret Abdić]], also supported by the Serbs.
*Sanctions in FR Yugoslavia, now isolated, create hyperinflation of 300&nbsp;million percent of the Yugoslav dinar.<ref name="YUGOSLAV ECONOMY FORECAST TO GROW ONCE EMBARGO ENDS INFLATION WHIPPED"/> 
*[[Ahmići massacre]]: the Croat forces kill over a hundred Bosnian Muslims.
*[[Siege of Mostar|Battle of Mostar]]. [[UNESCO World Heritage Site]] [[Stari Most]] (The Old Bridge) in [[Mostar]], built in 1566, was destroyed by Croatian [[Croatian Defense Council|HVO]] forces.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/croats-destroy-mostars-historic-bridge-1503338.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/croats-destroy-mostars-historic-bridge-1503338.html |archive-date=2022-05-07 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | title = Croats destroy Mostar's historic bridge | first1 = Robert | last1 = Block | first2 = Christopher | last2 = Bellamy | date = 10 November 1993 | work = The Independent}}{{cbignore}}</ref> It was rebuilt in 2003.
*[[Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina|ARBiH]] launch [[Operation Neretva '93]] against [[Croatian Defence Council|HVO]] in [[Herzegovina]] which ended in a stalemate.

'''1994'''
*[[Markale massacres|Markale market shelling]] in Sarajevo.
*[[Washington Agreement|Peace treaty]] between Bosniaks and Croats arbitrated by the United States, [[Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina]] formed.
*FR Yugoslavia starts slowly suspending its financial and military support for Republika Srpska.<ref>{{cite news | title=Serbia Cuts Off Bosnian Rebels : Balkans: Belgrade, under international pressure, says it is denying supplies of fuel and arms to forces it has supported. Washington cautiously welcomes move | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-08-05-mn-23753-story.html | date=5 August 1994 | author=Carol J. Williams | access-date=7 July 2017 | newspaper=LA Times | archive-date=6 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306182933/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-08-05/news/mn-23753_1_bosnian-serbs | url-status=live }}</ref>

'''1995'''
*[[Srebrenica massacre]] reported. 8,000 Bosniaks killed by Serb forces.<ref name="Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide over Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia" />
*Croatia launches [[Operation Flash]], recapturing a part of its territory, but tens of thousands of Serb civilians flee from the area. The RSK responds with the [[Zagreb rocket attack]].
*Croatia launches [[Operation Storm]], reclaiming all UNPA zones except Eastern Slavonia, and resulting in exodus of 150,000–200,000 Serbs from the zones. Yugoslav forces do not intervene. War in Croatia ends.
*[[1995 NATO bombing in Bosnia and Herzegovina|NATO launches a series of air strikes]] on Bosnian Serb artillery and other military targets. Croatian and Bosnian army start a joint offensive against [[Republika Srpska]].
*[[Dayton Agreement]] signed in Paris. War in Bosnia and Herzegovina ends. Aftermath of war is over 100,000 killed and missing and two million people internally displaced or refugees.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/search?page=search&docid=414ffeb44&query=bosnia|work=UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency|publisher=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|title=Returns to Bosnia and Herzegovina reach 1 million: This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.|access-date=11 August 2012|date=21 September 2004|archive-date=22 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522181745/http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/search?page=search&docid=414ffeb44&query=bosnia|url-status=live}}</ref>

'''1996'''
*FR Yugoslavia recognizes Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
*Fighting breaks out in Kosovo between Albanians rebels and FR Yugoslav authorities.
*Following allegations of fraud in local elections, tens of thousands of Serbs demonstrate in Belgrade against the Milošević government for three months.<ref>{{cite news | title=20,000 Attend a Protest Against Serbian Leader | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/10/world/world-news-briefs-20000-attend-a-protest-against-serbian-leader.html | work=The New York Times | date=10 March 1996 | access-date=7 July 2017 | archive-date=18 January 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118010543/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/10/world/world-news-briefs-20000-attend-a-protest-against-serbian-leader.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

'''1998'''
*[[UNTAES|Eastern Slavonia]] peacefully reintegrated into Croatia, following a gradual three-year handover of power.
*Fighting in Kosovo gradually escalates between Albanians demanding independence and the state.

'''1999'''
*[[Račak massacre]], Rambouillet talks fail. NATO starts a military campaign in Kosovo and bombards FR Yugoslavia in [[1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Operation Allied Force]].<ref>{{cite news | date=24 March 1999 | publisher=CNN | url=http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9903/24/kosovo.strikes/ | title=NATO attack on Yugoslavia begins | access-date=7 July 2017 | archive-date=13 April 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170413140840/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9903/24/kosovo.strikes/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>
*Following Milošević's signing of an agreement, control of Kosovo is handed to the United Nations, but still remains a part of Yugoslavia's federation. After losing wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, numerous Serbs leave those regions to find refuge in remainder of Serbia. In 1999, Serbia was host to some 700,000 Serb refugees or internally displaced.<ref name="Bleak outlook for Serb refugees">{{cite news|date=22 March 2000|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/687441.stm|title=Bleak outlook for Serb refugees|first=Jacky|last=Rowland|location=Belgrade|access-date=4 July 2012|archive-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816074841/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/687441.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[Preševo Valley Conflict|Fresh fighting]] erupts between Albanians and Yugoslav security forces in Albanian populated areas outside of Kosovo, with the intent of joining three municipalities to Kosovo ([[Preševo]], [[Bujanovac]] and [[Medveđa]]).
*[[Franjo Tuđman]] dies. Shortly after, his party loses the elections.

[[File:NATO damage in Belgrade.jpg|thumb|right|[[General Staff Building, Belgrade|General Staff Building]] in Belgrade, damaged during the [[1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|1999 NATO bombing]]]]

'''2000'''
*[[Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević]]. [[Vojislav Koštunica]] becomes the new president of Yugoslavia. With Milošević ousted and a new government in place, FR Yugoslavia restores ties with the west. The political and economic sanctions are suspended in total, and FRY is reinstated in many political and economic organizations, as well as becoming a candidate for other collaborative efforts.

'''2001'''
*An Albanian [[2001 insurgency in Macedonia|insurgency]] begins in [[North Macedonia|Macedonia]].
*Conflict in Southern Serbia ends in defeat for Albanians.
*Conflict in Macedonia ends with the [[Ohrid Agreement (2001)|Ohrid Agreement]].

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=A}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== General and cited sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}

==== Books ====
* Allcock, John B. ''Explaining Yugoslavia'' (Columbia University Press, 2000)
* Allcock, John B. et al. eds., ''Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia: An Encyclopedia'' (1998)
* {{cite book |last=Allen |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |first=Beverly |title=Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia |year=1996 |ref=Allen |isbn=978-0-8166-2818-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/rapewarfarehidde00alle }}
* {{cite book |last=Baker |first=Catherine |title=The Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yuvLDAAAQBAJ |year=2015 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=978-1-137-39899-4 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* {{cite book |last1=Bideleux |first1=Robert |last2=Jeffries |first2=Ian |title=A history of Eastern Europe: crisis and change |edition=2nd |year=2007 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-36627-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PTB0gn_qwTcC |access-date=22 April 2012 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124124/https://books.google.com/books?id=PTB0gn_qwTcC |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book | last1= Bjelajac | first1= Mile | last2= Žunec | first2= Ozren | editor1-first= Charles W. | editor1-last= Ingrao | editor2-first= Thomas Allan | editor2-last= Emmert | title= Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: a Scholars' Initiative | year= 2009 | publisher= [[Purdue University Press]] | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IDMhDgCJCe0C&pg=PA265 |isbn=978-1-55753-617-4 | oclc= 867740664 | chapter= The War in Croatia, 1991–1995 | chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IDMhDgCJCe0C&pg=PA265 | access-date= 8 February 2023 | archive-date= 8 February 2023 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124143/https://books.google.com/books?id=IDMhDgCJCe0C&pg=PA265 | url-status= live }}
* {{cite book |last1=Brown |last2=Karim |first1=Cynthia |first2=Farhad |title=Playing the 'Communal Card': Communal Violence and Human Rights |year=1995 |location=New York|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |isbn=978-1-56432-152-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/playingcommunalc00brow }}
* {{cite book |ref=Brouwer |last=Brouwer |first=Anne-Marie de |title=Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence |year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JhY8ROsA39kC&pg=PA10 |publisher=Intersentia |isbn=978-90-5095-533-1 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124125/https://books.google.com/books?id=JhY8ROsA39kC&pg=PA10 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Kenneth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wp2IDAAAQBAJ |title=Genocide and the Global Village |publisher=Springer |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-312-29928-6 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124136/https://books.google.com/books?id=Wp2IDAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |ref = Cohen-Dragović-Saso |editor1-first = Leonard J. |editor1-last = Cohen |editor2-first = Jasna |editor2-last = Dragović-Soso |title = State Collapse in South-Eastern Europe: New Perspectives on Yugoslavia's Disintegration |publisher = Purdue University Press |year = 2008 |page = 323 |isbn=978-1-55753-460-6 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Elsie |first1=Robert |title=Historical Dictionary of Kosovo |date=2011 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7483-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pg-aeA-nUeAC&pg=PA142 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111165834/https://books.google.com/books?id=Pg-aeA-nUeAC&pg=PA142 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Fink |first=George |title=Stress of War, Conflict and Disaster |publisher=Academic Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-12-381382-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rOq4XV94wLsC&pg=PA469 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124142/https://books.google.com/books?id=rOq4XV94wLsC&pg=PA469 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |ref=Finlan |last=Finlan |first=Alastair |title=The Collapse of Yugoslavia 1991–1999 |publisher=Osprey |location=Oxford, England |series=Essential Histories |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-84176-805-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/collapseofyugosl00alas }}
* {{cite book |last=Friedman |year=2013 |title=Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Polity on the Brink |first=Francine |publisher=[[Routledge]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zbFYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT80 |isbn=978-1-134-52754-0 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124136/https://books.google.com/books?id=zbFYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT80 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |ref=Gagnon |last=Gagnon |first=Valère Philip |year=2004 |title=The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s |publisher=Cornell University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vbz_WMRiwEC |isbn=978-0-8014-7291-6 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124211/https://books.google.com/books?id=6vbz_WMRiwEC |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Geldenhuys |first=Dean |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVqIDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 |title=Deviant Conduct in World Politics |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-00071-1 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124144/https://books.google.com/books?id=lVqIDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |ref=Glenny |title = The fall of Yugoslavia: the third Balkan war |first=Misha |last=Glenny |author-link = Misha Glenny |publisher=Penguin |location=London |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-14-026101-1 }}
* {{cite book |last=Goldstein |first=Ivo |author-link = Ivo Goldstein |title = Croatia: A History |year=1999 |publisher = C. Hurst & Co. |isbn=978-1-85065-525-1 }}
* Hall, Richard C. ed. ''War in the Balkans: An Encyclopedic History from the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Breakup of Yugoslavia'' (2014)
* {{cite book | author = Human Rights Watch | author-link = Human Rights Watch | year = 1998 | title = Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo | publisher = Human Rights Watch | location = [[New York City|New York]] |isbn=978-1-56432-194-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vELQpx1U9EcC | access-date = 8 February 2023 | archive-date = 11 January 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230111165737/https://books.google.com/books?id=vELQpx1U9EcC | url-status = live }}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Ingrao |editor-first1=Charles |editor-last2=Emmert |editor-first2=Thomas A. |title=Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: A Scholars' Initiative |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IDMhDgCJCe0C |year=2003 |publisher=Purdue University Press |isbn=978-1-55753-617-4 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124131/https://books.google.com/books?id=IDMhDgCJCe0C |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Jha |first = U. C. |title = Armed Conflict and Environmental Damage |publisher = Vij Books India Pvt Ltd |year= 2014 |isbn=978-93-82652-81-6 }}
* {{cite book |last=Krieger |first=Heike |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-OhPTJn8ZWoC |page=90 |title=The Kosovo Conflict and International Law: An Analytical Documentation 1974–1999 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |editor=Heike Krieger |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-521-80071-6 }}
* {{cite book|last=Kushner|first=Harvey W.|title=Encyclopedia of Terrorism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mr51AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA206|date= 2002|publisher=Sage Publications|isbn=978-1-4522-6550-6|pages=206–| author-link = Harvey Kushner}}
* {{cite web|last=Marsden|first=Chris|date=16 March 2000|title=British documentary substantiates US-KLA collusion in provoking war with Serbia|publisher=WSWS|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/03/koso-m16.html|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=13 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913162944/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/03/koso-m16.html|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |ref=Meštrović |last=Meštrović |first=Stjepan Gabriel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xGShXjNZzEsC |title=Genocide After Emotion: The Postemotional Balkan War |year=1996 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-12294-8 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124131/https://books.google.com/books?id=xGShXjNZzEsC |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Meyers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jWjJAAAAQBAJ |title=International Immigration Policy: A Theoretical and Comparative Analysis |first=Eytan |publisher=Springer |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-4039-7837-0 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124148/https://books.google.com/books?id=jWjJAAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |ref=Naimark |first1=Norman |last1=Naimark |first2=Holly M. |last2=Case |title=Yugoslavia and Its Historians: Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8047-4594-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5tUbUyXtToC&pg=PR17 |access-date=22 April 2012 }}
* {{cite book |last=Off |first=Carol |year=2010 |page=218 |title=The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle |publisher=[[Random House of Canada]] |isbn=978-0-307-37077-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PAPc8d_NOQC&pg=PA218 }}
* {{cite book |last = Ramet |first = Sabrina P. |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oFXdiS25N78C |title = Central and Southeast European Politics Since 1989 |publisher = Cambridge University Press |year = 2010 |location = [[Cambridge]], England |isbn=978-1-139-48750-4 |access-date = 8 February 2023 |archive-date = 8 February 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124126/https://books.google.com/books?id=oFXdiS25N78C |url-status = live }}
* {{cite book |ref=Rogel |title=The Breakup of Yugoslavia and Its Aftermath |first=Carole |last=Rogel |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-313-32357-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/breakupofyugosla00roge_0 |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/breakupofyugosla00roge_0/page/91 91] |access-date=22 April 2012 }}
* {{cite book |last=Shaw |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZ2yAAAAQBAJ&q=yugoslavia+succession+croatia+kosovo+bosnia+slovenia&pg=PA132 |title=Genocide and International Relations: Changing Patterns in the Transitions of the Late Modern World |first=Martin |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-107-46910-5 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124126/https://books.google.com/books?id=AZ2yAAAAQBAJ&q=yugoslavia+succession+croatia+kosovo+bosnia+slovenia&pg=PA132 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Smajić |first=Aid |chapter=Bosnia and Herzegovina |editor-last1=Nielsen |editor-first1=Jørgen |editor-last2=Akgönül |editor-first2=Samim |editor-last3=Alibašić |editor-first3=Ahmet |editor-first4=Egdunas |editor-last4=Racius |year=2013 |title=Yearbook of Muslims in Europe |volume=5 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-25586-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ia5AAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA124 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124147/https://books.google.com/books?id=ia5AAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA124 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Tanner |first=Marcus |title=Croatia : a nation forged in war |year=2001 |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=New Haven, CT; London, England |isbn=978-0-300-09125-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/croatianationfor0000tann_f0k3 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Toal |last2=Dahlman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y2ReAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA136 |page=136 |title=Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and its Reversal |first1=Gerard |first2=Carl T. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-19-020790-8 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124152/https://books.google.com/books?id=y2ReAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA136 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Watkins |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1HQqYF2FmMoC&q=kosovo+million+albanians+displaced&pg=PA10 |title=The Balkans |first=Clem S. |publisher=Nova Publishers |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-59033-525-3 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124135/https://books.google.com/books?id=1HQqYF2FmMoC&q=kosovo+million+albanians+displaced&pg=PA10 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |editor1-first = Bosković |editor1-last = Aleksandar |editor2-last = Dević |editor2-first = Ana |editor3-last = Gavrilović |editor3-first = Darko |editor4-last = Hašimbegović |editor4-first = Elma |editor5-last = Ljubojević |editor5-first = Ana |editor6-last = Perica |editor6-first = Vjekoslav |editor7-last = Velikonja |editor7-first = Mitja |title = Political Myths in the Former Yugoslavia and Successor States: A Shared Narrative |publisher= Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation |year=2011 |isbn=978-90-8979-067-5 }}
* {{cite book |ref = {{harvid|CIA|2002}} |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=it1IAQAAIAAJ |title = Balkan Battlegrounds: A Military History of the Yugoslav Conflict, 1990–1995 |author = [[Central Intelligence Agency]], Office of Russian and European Analysis |publisher = Central Intelligence Agency |location = Washington, D.C. |year = 2002 |isbn=978-0-16-066472-4 |access-date = 8 February 2023 |archive-date = 8 February 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124148/https://books.google.com/books?id=it1IAQAAIAAJ |url-status = live }}
* {{cite book |last = Council of Europe |year = 1993 |title = Documents (working Papers) 1993 |isbn=978-92-871-2332-9 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=21PZ_tvdO74C&pg=RA1-PA63 |page = 9 |publisher = Council of Europe |access-date = 8 February 2023 |archive-date = 8 February 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124126/https://books.google.com/books?id=21PZ_tvdO74C&pg=RA1-PA63 |url-status = live }}
* {{cite book |last=Ullman |first=Richard Henry |title=The World and Yugoslavia's Wars |url=https://archive.org/details/worldyugoslavia00ullm |url-access=registration |year=1996 |publisher=Council on Foreign Relations |isbn=978-0-87609-191-3 }}
* {{cite book |last=Visoka |first=Gëzim |editor-first1=Paul R. |editor-last1=Williams |editor-first2=Milena |editor-last2=Sterio |year=2020 |title=Research Handbook on Post-Conflict State Building |chapter=Kosovo: a hybrid negative peace |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_b32DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA385 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |oclc=1149742525 |isbn=978-1-78897-164-5 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124145/https://books.google.com/books?id=_b32DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA385 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |author=World Bank |year=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FoRkMJPtaAC&pg=PA10 |title=Bosnia and Herzegovina: Toward Economic Recovery |isbn=978-0-8213-3673-1 |publisher=[[World Bank Publications]] |page=10 }}
* {{cite book |title = Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia |first1=Jasminka |last1=Udovicki |first2=James |last2=Ridgeway |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-136-76482-0 |location=Durham, North Carolina }}
* {{cite book |title = Protest, Power, and Change: An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action from ACT-UP to Women's Suffrage |first=Roger S. |last=Powers |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-136-76482-0 }}

==== Scholarly journal articles ====
* {{cite journal |last=Akhavan |first=Payam |author-link=Payam Akhavan |year=2001 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/div-classtitlebeyond-impunity-can-international-criminal-justice-prevent-future-atrocitiesdiv/96FD7A3C6B0EFC76E50F71A8DDFAFAFF |volume=95 |issue=1 |pages=7–31 |title=Beyond Impunity: Can International Criminal Justice Prevent Future Atrocities? |journal=[[American Journal of International Law]] |doi=10.2307/2642034 |jstor=2642034 |s2cid=144769396 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=18 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618054519/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/div-classtitlebeyond-impunity-can-international-criminal-justice-prevent-future-atrocitiesdiv/96FD7A3C6B0EFC76E50F71A8DDFAFAFF |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal |last=Bicanic |first=Ivo |year=2008 |title = Croatia |doi=10.1080/14683850108454628 |journal = Southeast European and Black Sea Studies |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=158–173 |s2cid=219697768 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Brunborg |last2=Lyngstad |last3=Urdal |year= 2003 |pages=229–248 |journal = European Journal of Population / Revue Européenne de Démographie |volume= 19 |issue=3 |title = Accounting for Genocide: How Many Were Killed in Srebrenica? |first1=Helge |first2=Torkild Hovde |first3=Henrik |jstor=20164231 |doi=10.1023/A:1024949307841 |s2cid=150727427 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Campbell |year=2002 |title = Atrocity, memory, photography: Imaging the concentration camps of Bosnia--the case of ITN versus Living Marxism, Part 1 |first=David |pages = 1–33 |doi=10.1080/14754830110111544 |journal=Journal of Human Rights |volume = 1 |issue = 1 |s2cid = 56360692 |url=https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1574620 }}
* {{cite journal |issn=0887-5367 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=5–18 |last=Card |first=Claudia |title = Rape as a Weapon of War |journal = Hypatia |year=1996 |jstor=3810388 |doi = 10.1111/j.1527-2001.1996.tb01031.x |s2cid=144640806 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Guzina |first=Dejan |journal = International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society |year=2003 |volume = 17 |issue = 1 |pages=91–111 |title = Socialist Serbia's Narratives: From Yugoslavia to a Greater Serbia |doi= 10.1023/a:1025341010886 |s2cid=140426711 }}
* {{cite journal |first1=Vincent |last1=Iacopino |first2=Martina |last2=Frank |first3 = Heidi M. |last3=Bauer |first4 = Allen S. |last4=Keller |journal=[[Am J Public Health]] |year=2001 |volume=91 |issue=12 |doi=10.2105/ajph.91.12.2013 |pmc=1446925
|pmid=11726386 |title = A Population-Based Assessment of Human Rights Abuses Committed Against Ethnic Albanian Refugees From Kosovo |pages=2013–2018 }}
* {{cite journal| last=Kostic| first=Roland| year=2012| title=Transitional justice and reconciliation in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Whose memories, whose justice? | volume= 54| issue=4 |journal=Sociologija |pages=649–666| doi=10.2298/SOC1204649K| url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269893536| doi-access=free}}
* {{cite journal |last=Magliveras |first=Konstantinos D. |year=2002 |journal=[[European Journal of International Law]] |volume= 13 |issue= 3 |pages=661–677 |doi=10.1093/ejil/13.3.661 |title=The Interplay Between the Transfer of Slobodan Milosevic to the ICTY and Yugoslav Constitutional Law |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |issn=0190-3187 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=174–180 |last=McGinn |first=Therese |title=Reproductive Health of War-Affected Populations: What Do We Know? |journal=International Family Planning Perspectives |year=2000 |jstor=2648255 |doi=10.2307/2648255 |url=http://www.agi-usa.org/journals/ |access-date=2022-06-03 |archive-date=22 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122014642/http://www.agi-usa.org/journals/ |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite journal |last=Pearson |first=Joseph |year=2010 |title=Dubrovnik's Artistic Patrimony, and its Role in War Reporting (1991) |journal=European History Quarterly |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=197–216 |s2cid=144872875 |doi=10.1177/0265691410358937}}
* {{cite journal |last=Salzman |first = Todd A. |year=1998 |title = Rape Camps as a Means of Ethnic Cleansing: Religious, Cultural, and Ethical Responses to Rape Victims in the Former Yugoslavia |doi=10.1353/hrq.1998.0019 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=348–378 |journal=Human Rights Quarterly |s2cid=143807616 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Weine |last2=Becker |last3=Vojvoda |last4=Hodzic |title=Individual change after genocide in Bosnian survivors of "ethnic cleansing": Assessing personality dysfunction |first1 = Stevan M. |first2= Daniel F. |first3=Dolores |first4=Emir |year=1998 |doi=10.1023/A:1024469418811 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pmid=9479683 |journal=[[Journal of Traumatic Stress]] |pages=147–153 |s2cid=31419500 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Wood |first=William B. |author-link = William Braucher Wood |title = Geographic Aspects of Genocide: A Comparison of Bosnia and Rwanda |journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers |volume= 26 |issue= 1 |year=2001 |pages= 57–75 |jstor=623145 |doi=10.1111/1475-5661.00006 |bibcode=2001TrIBG..26...57W }}
* {{cite journal |last=Zaknic |first=Ivan |title=The Pain of Ruins: Croatian Architecture under Siege |journal=Journal of Architectural Education |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=115–124 |year=1992 |doi=10.1080/10464883.1992.10734547}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Fridman |first1=Orli |title = 'It was like fighting a war with our own people': anti-war activism in Serbia during the 1990s |journal = The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity |year=2010 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=507–522 |doi=10.1080/00905992.2011.579953 |s2cid=153467930 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Perunovic |first1=Sreca |title = Animosities in Yugoslavia before its demise: Revelations of an opinion poll survey |journal=Ethnicities |year=2015 |volume=16 |issue=6 |pages=819–841 |doi=10.1177/1468796815576059 |s2cid=147068505 }}

==== Other sources ====
* {{cite web |ref=BassiouniIII |first=M. Cherif |last=Bassiouni |title=Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts established pursuant to security council resolution 780 (1992), Annex III – The military structure, strategy and tactics of the warring factions |publisher=United Nations |date=28 December 1994 |url=http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/anx/iii.htm |access-date=11 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728082419/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/III.htm |archive-date=July 28, 2012 }}
* {{cite web |ref=Bassiouni |first=M. Cherif |last=Bassiouni |title=Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts established pursuant to security council resolution 780 (1992), Annex IV – The policy of ethnic cleansing |publisher=United Nations |date=28 December 1994 |url=http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/anx/IV.htm |access-date=11 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504142243/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/IV.htm |archive-date=May 4, 2012 }}
* Ferguson, Kate. An investigation into the irregular military dynamics in Yugoslavia, 1992–1995. Diss. University of East Anglia, 2015
* {{cite web|ref=ICTY-Delalic| title=Prosecutor vs. Zejnil Delalić – Judgement| publisher=International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia | date=16 November 1998| location=The Hague| url=https://www.icty.org/x/cases/mucic/tjug/en/981116_judg_en.pdf}}
* {{cite web |last=Siblesz |first=H.H. |year=1998 |page=10 |title=History of Sandzak |url=http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4670107e2.pdf |publisher=Refworld |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226204457/https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4670107e2.pdf |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |ref = Milutinovic et al |url = http://www.icty.org/x/cases/milutinovic/tjug/en/jud090226-e1of4.pdf |title = The Prosecutor vs Milan Milutinovic et al – Judgement |publisher = International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia |date = 26 February 2009 |access-date = 8 February 2023 |archive-date = 1 September 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220901072323/https://www.icty.org/x/cases/milutinovic/tjug/en/jud090226-e1of4.pdf |url-status = live }}
* {{cite web |last=Human Rights Watch |year=1994 |title=Human Rights Abuses of Non-Serbs In Kosovo, Sandñak and Vojvodina |url=https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/SERBIA945.PDF |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=29 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129111014/https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/SERBIA945.PDF |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |last=Human Rights Watch |date=October 29, 2001 |title=Milosevic: Important New Charges on Croatia |url=https://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/10/28/milosevic-important-new-charges-croatia |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=25 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225134329/http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/10/28/milosevic-important-new-charges-croatia |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |last=OHCHR |year=1993 |title=Fifth periodic report on the situation of human rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia submitted by Mr. Tadeusz Mazowiecki |url=http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=E%2FCN.4%2F1994%2F47&Lang=E |access-date=19 August 2017 |archive-date=24 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224193435/https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=E%2FCN.4%2F1994%2F47&Lang=E |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |last=[[OSCE]] |url=http://www.osce.org/odihr/17772 |title=Kosovo / Kosova: As Seen, As Told |year=1999 |page=13 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=4 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161204045051/http://www.osce.org/odihr/17772/ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |last=UNHCR |url=http://www.unhcr.org/3eeedc1e2.pdf?query=Displacement%20statistics%20croatia%201992 |title=The State of the World's Refugees 1993 |year=1993 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=29 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129103247/https://www.unhcr.org/3eeedc1e2.pdf?query=Displacement%20statistics%20croatia%201992 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite web | last=UNHCR | url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a8a334.html | title=U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1997 – Yugoslavia | year=1997 | access-date=8 February 2023 | archive-date=14 December 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214162214/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a8a334.html | url-status=live }}
* {{cite web | ref=UNHCRHR | url=http://www.unhcr.org/414ad5860.pdf | year=2002 | title=2002 UNHCR Statistical Yearbook: Croatia | publisher=[[UNHCR]] | access-date=8 February 2023 | archive-date=24 September 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924005442/https://www.unhcr.org/414ad5860.pdf | url-status=live }}
* {{cite book | ref=UNHCRMK | year=2000 | title=2002 UNHCR Statistical Yearbook: Macedonia | publisher=UNHCR | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54Oe1WTfBfAC&q=macedonia+refugees+10.5+per+1,000&pg=PA319 |isbn=978-0-19-924104-0 | access-date=8 February 2023 | archive-date=8 February 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208124149/https://books.google.com/books?id=54Oe1WTfBfAC&q=macedonia+refugees+10.5+per+1,000&pg=PA319 | url-status=live }}
* {{cite web | ref=UNHCRSL | year=2002 | title=2002 UNHCR Statistical Yearbook: Slovenia | publisher=UNHCR | url=http://www.unhcr.org/414ad5ab0.pdf | access-date=8 February 2023 | archive-date=24 September 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924002443/https://www.unhcr.org/414ad5ab0.pdf | url-status=live }}
* {{cite web | ref=UNHCRSR | year=2002 | title=2002 UNHCR Statistical Yearbook: Serbia | publisher=UNHCR | url=http://www.unhcr.org/uk/414ad5b57.pdf | access-date=8 February 2023 | archive-date=24 September 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924004028/https://www.unhcr.org/uk/414ad5b57.pdf | url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |last=UNHCR |year=2003 |title=Bosnian refugees in Australia: identity, community and labour market integration |url=http://www.unhcr.org/3fb4f8a64.pdf |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=24 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324193816/https://www.unhcr.org/3fb4f8a64.pdf |url-status=live }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Yugoslav wars}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{cite journal |title = The Missing Democratic Revolution and Serbia's Anti-European Choice 1989–2009|last = Di Lellio|first = Anna |url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/25621931 |year = 2009|issue = 3|journal = International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society|volume = 22|pages = 373–384|jstor = 25621931}}
* {{cite web |title = The War in Yugoslavia in ICTY Judgements: The Goals of the Warring Parties and Nature of the Conflict |last = Bogoeva |first = Julija |url = https://www.toaep.org/ops-pdf/5-bogoeva |year = 2017 |publisher = Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher |location = Brussels }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121215042159/http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552526 Video on the Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia] from the [https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494/browse?type=title Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives]
* [http://www.historyguy.com/balkan_war_third.htm Information and links on the Third Balkan War (1991–2001)]
* Nation, R. Craig. [http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/00117.pdf "War in the Balkans 1991–2002"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325203109/http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/00117.pdf |date=25 March 2009 }}
* {{Citation | first = Bora | last = Radović | url = http://www.ian.org.rs/publikacije/tortura/srpski/01.pdf | title = Jugoslovenski ratovi 1991–1999 i neke od njihovih društvenih posledica | language = sr | publisher = IAN | location = RS | access-date = 2016-02-08 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304220222/http://www.ian.org.rs/publikacije/tortura/srpski/01.pdf | archive-date = 2016-03-04 | url-status = dead }}
* [https://massgravesmap.balkaninsight.com/ Bitter Land], a multilingual database of mass graves in the Yugoslav Wars by [[Balkan Investigative Reporting Network]]

{{Yugoslav wars}}
{{Yugoslavia topics}}
{{Yugoslavia timeline}}
{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Post-Cold War European conflicts}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Yugoslav Wars| ]]
[[Category:Aftermath of the Cold War]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1991]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1992]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1993]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1994]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1995]]
[[Category:Proxy wars]]
[[Category:Wars involving NATO]]
[[Category:Wars involving the Balkans]]
[[Category:Wars of independence]]
[[Category:Ethnic conflicts]]
[[Category:Ethnicity-based civil wars]]
[[Category:Military history of the Mediterranean]]