Yugoslav wars

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The Yugoslav wars were a series of violent conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia that went on in the 1990s. They comprised two series of successive wars affecting all of the six former Yugoslav republics.

Table of contents

1 Conflicts in the west 2 Conflicts in the east and south 3 See also

Conflicts in the west

• Slovenian War (1991) — a short 10-day war.
• Croatian War (1991–1995)
• Bosnian War (1992–1995)

The wars in Slovenia and Croatia were initially fought in the name of forcibly keeping Yugoslavia united. They soon became overtly nationalist in character, with a clash between the Serbian and Croatian nationalist ideologies personified by Presidents Slobodan Milošević and Franjo Tuđman of Serbia and Croatia respectively. The Serb-Croat conflict was greatly complicated in Bosnia by the presence of the large Muslim (Bosniak) population, which caused it to develop into a three-way conflict that was by far the bloodiest of the Yugoslav wars.

The Yugoslav wars in the west were ended by the military defeat of Serbia/Yugoslavia in Slovenia and Croatia, and the signing of the Dayton Agreement for Bosnia.

Conflicts in the east and south

• Kosovo War (1996-1999)
• Macedonian NLA's rebellion (2001)
• UCPMB's disturbances in southern Serbia (2001)

In Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia proper, the conflicts were typified by racial and political tension between Slav governments and Albanian national minorities which sought autonomy or independence.

The war in Kosovo ended with NATO intervention, but further conflicts happened in 2004 and a new unrest in Kosovo. Internationally-overseen negotiations settled issues in Macedonia and southern Serbia.

See also

• History of Yugoslavia