| The Balkan States | The countries in the Balkan Peninsula: Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, and the European part of Turkey form the Balkans. |
| Background on Yugoslavia | During the Cold War, Yugoslavia was a federation of six republics held
together under communist rule. Beginning in 1991, after communism collapsed
four of those republics split off and became independent. In Croatia and
Bosnia, the breakup of the original Yugoslavia set off wars among ethnic
Serbs, Croats and Muslims that ended in 1995. Today, Yugoslavia is a federation
made up of two republics - equivalent to states - dominant Serbia and the
much smaller Montenegro. Kosovo is a province within Serbia.
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| The War in Croatia | Croatia The fall of communism brought much uncertainty to Yugoslavia
in 1990, encouraging nationalist sentiments in several of its republics.
In Croatia, the first, free post-World War II elections produced a landslide
victory for Franjo Tudjman's nationalist-oriented Croatian Democratic Union
party - a group that very early proclaimed its distaste for both the ethnic
Serbs living in Croatia and their cousins in Serbia, where Yugoslavia's
federal capital was located.
The nationalist fervor in Croatia led to great tension among Croats and Serb ethnic groups, who still held centuries-old prejudices against each other despite living together under communism. Ethnic Croatian Serbs, in particular, feared the reincarnation of a pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia - one that during World War II killed thousands of Serbs in concentration camps. Similarly, Tudjman and other Croats believed that the Serbs held designs on incorporating Croatian territory, particularly the region of Krajina, into a "Greater Serbia." The mistrust and tensions eventually gave way to scattered fighting in Croatia and bickering between the two republics. In 1991, Serbian separatists in Croatia began a series of attacks on Croatian police units, killing more than 20 by the spring. That May, Serbia added to the hostilities by blocking the installation of Stipe Mesic, a Croat scheduled to be the chairman of a rotating presidency in Yugoslavia - a move that technically left the country without a leader. In June 1991, Croatia struck back declaring their independence from Yugoslavia. (Croatia's independence was later recognized by the European Community, the United States, and the United Nations in 1992.) Full-scale fighting between Croats and Serbs developed almost immediately, with Yugoslavia's military backing the Serbian separatists in their fight in Krajina. The Dayton agreement reached in November 1995 brought a general peace to the region, with mass violence by Croats against Serbs generally halting by the end of 1995. Occasional violence against Serbs in Croatia continued into 1997 and 1998, but far from the coordinated attacks conducted during the 1991-95 war. With peace generally in place, Croatia began the process of rebuilding its shattered economy - an area with which the country continues to face uphill challenges after years of communist mismanagement and war damage to bridges, power lines, and roads. |
| Fighting in Kosovo | Yugoslav government forces - army and special police - are fighting against ethnic Albanian rebels who want to create a new, independent country in Kosovo. The rebels, called the Kosovo Liberation Army, are supported by many of Kosovo's 2 million people, 90 percent of whom are ethnic Albanians. The Yugoslav government forces are mostly ethnic Serbs. They don't want Kosovo to become independent because it is the site of history and religious monuments that many Serbs hold dear. |
Special
Report on the Balkans
The Balkans Since
1815 <~~~This is an excellent time line
The
Dayton Peace Agreement