Chronology: 1990-1995

Chronology: 1990-1995
1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995
By The Associated Press

Following is a chronology of key events in the former Yugoslavia leading up to war, during the war, and after the end of hostilities:
1990
First multiparty elections in six republics of former Yugoslavia. Serbian Communist Party leader Slobodan Milosevic elected Serbian President in December 1990.
1991
June 25 - Following months of talks among six republics, Slovenia and Croatia declare independence.
June 27 - Yugoslav army attacks Slovenia.
July 18 - Yugoslav army announces withdrawal from Slovenia.
July - Serb-Croat skirmishes going on since early 1991 escalate into war between Croats and rebel Serbs, backed by the Yugoslav army, in Croatia.
September - United Nations imposes arms embargo on all of former Yugoslavia.
December - European Community, under pressure from Germany, says it will recognize Croatia and Slovenia.
1992
Jan. 2 - U.N. mediator Cyrus Vance negotiates cease-fire for Croatia; U.N. peacekeepers will patrol it, with headquarters in Sarajevo, in attempt to stave off conflict in Bosnia.
Feb. 21 - The U.N. Security Council sends 14,000 peacekeeping troops to Croatia.
Feb. 29 - Bosnia-Herzegovina declares independence. Bosnian Serbs proclaim separate state. Fighting spreads.
April - Bosnian Serb gunners begin their siege of Sarajevo.
April 6 - European Community recognizes Bosnia. Washington follows April 7. Intense fighting in Bosnia.
May 3 - Bosnia's Muslim president, Alija Izetbegovic, taken hostage by Yugoslav troops on return from peace talks in Lisbon. Freed following day.
May 5 - Yugoslav army relinquishes command of its estimated 100,000 troops in Bosnia, effectively creating a Bosnian Serb army.
May 27: A mortar attack on a bread line in Sarajevo kills 16. More die later.
May 30 - United Nations imposes sanctions on a new, smaller Yugoslavia made up of Serbia and Montenegro, for fomenting war in Bosnia and Croatia.
June 29 - Peacekeepers hoist U.N. flag at Sarajevo airport after Serbs leave.
July 3 - International airlift begins to Sarajevo.
August - Major international conference on Yugoslavia in London. Agreements on aid, cease-fire, never implemented.
Sept. 19 - U.N. Security Council drops Yugoslavia from General Assembly.
Nov. 16 - U.N. Security Council authorizes naval blockade of Serbia and Montenegro.
1993
Jan. 2 - International mediators Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen unveil plan to divide Bosnia into 10 provinces, mostly along ethnic lines.
Jan. 8 - Bosnian Deputy Prime Minister Hakija Turajlic killed by Serb soldier in U.N. armored vehicle near Sarajevo airport.
Feb. 22 - Security Council sets up a war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
March 25 - Izetbegovic signs Vance-Owen peace plan in New York.
March - Bosnian Croats and Muslims begin fighting over the 30 percent of Bosnia not seized by Bosnian Serbs.
April 12 - NATO jets begin to enforce U.N. no-fly zone over Bosnia.
April 26 - Tighter U.N. trade sanctions against Yugoslavia.
April and May - Following Serb assault on Srebrenica and dramatic crisis of refugees arriving in Tuzla, Security Council declares six ''safe areas'' for Bosnian Muslims: Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihac, Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde.
May 2 - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic signs Vance-Owen plan in Greece, but his assembly rejects it.
May 15-16 - In a referendum, Bosnian Serbs overwhelmingly reject Vance-Owen plan in favor of an independent Bosnian Serb state.
May 31 - Yugoslav federal Parliament ousts Dobrica Cosic, seen as too peaceable by Milosevic, as Yugoslav federal president. Thousands demonstrate, clash with police in Belgrade.
June 16 - Mediators meet with Milosevic, Izetbegovic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian leaders in Geneva. Plan emerges to split Bosnia three ways. Izetbegovic walks out.
June 23 - First U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, Victor Jackovich, goes to Sarajevo, presents credentials, leaves for his Vienna base.
July 30: Warring sides reach preliminary agreement in Geneva on Union of Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina with three states and three peoples. Izetbegovic walks out Aug. 2 after Serbs violate cease-fire.
Sept. 1 - Geneva peace talks finally collapse.
Nov. 9 - Croat shelling destroys centuries-old bridge at Mostar, symbol of past of ethnic unity.
Dec. 19 - Early parliamentary elections in Serbia called by Milosevic leave his Socialists as largest party.
1994
Feb. 5 - More than 60 people killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell slams into downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.
Feb. 9 - NATO gives Bosnian Serbs 10 days to withdraw heavy guns from Sarajevo region or face air strikes.
Feb. 17 - Karadzic agrees to remove guns from around Sarajevo if soldiers from Russia, a historical Serb ally, join peacekeeping mission.
Feb. 20 - Russian peacekeepers arrive. NATO deadline expires; U.N. says it is satisfied heavy guns are being removed.
Feb. 28 - U.S. F-16 fighters, flying for NATO, down four Bosnian Serb warplanes violating ''no-fly'' zone. The shots were the first fired by NATO.
March 18 - Bosnia's Muslim-led government and Bosnian Croats sign a U.S.-brokered accord, ending a yearlong war.
April 22 - After two airstrikes against Serbs advancing on Gorazde, NATO delivers fresh ultimatum to Serbs to stop firing and pull back or face air strikes.
April 27 - U.N. says the Serbs have mostly complied with NATO ultimatum.
May 13 - The five-nation Contact Group announce new peace plan, including a four-month cease-fire and eventual partition of Bosnia.
July 20 - Serbs refuse the Contact Group plan.
Aug. 4 - Milosevic cuts ties with Bosnian Serbs for rejecting plan.
Oct. 29 - Bosnian government forces score their biggest victory of the war around Bihac, northwest Bosnia. Fierce Serb counterattack a week later.
Nov. 21 - NATO launches its largest action ever, about 50 jets and support planes attacking Serb airfield, but fail to take out Serb jets attacking Bihac.
Nov. 25 - Serbs detain 55 Canadian peacekeepers against further air strikes. Eventually more than 400 peacekeepers held. NATO attempts air strike on Serbs near Bihac. Mission called off after U.N. fails to pinpoint targets.
Dec. 20 - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter ends mediating mission with announcement of Bosnian cease-fire.
1995:
Jan. 1 - Four-month, nationwide truce takes effect. Bihac is never quiet; elsewhere, fighting dies down or stops.
April 8 - U.S. aid plane hit by gunfire, all U.N. aid flights to Sarajevo canceled.
May 1 - U.N. efforts to extend the truce fail, and cease-fire expires. Croatia launches blitz offensive to recapture chunk of land from rebel Serbs. Serbs retaliate by rocketing Zagreb; six killed, nearly 200 wounded.
May 24 - U.N. orders Serbs to return heavy weapons to U.N. control and remove all heavy weapons around Sarajevo.
May 25 - Serbs ignore U.N. order. NATO attacks Serb ammunition depot. Serbs respond by shelling ``safe areas,'' including Tuzla, where 71 people are killed and over 150 injured.
May 26 - NATO warplanes attack more ammunition depots. Serbs take U.N. peacekeepers hostage. Eventually more than 370 seized.
May 28 - Bosnian Foreign Minister Irfan Ljubijankic shot down by rebel Serbs near Bihac.
France, Britain and United States send thousands more troops toward Bosnia.
June 2 - Serbs shoot down U.S. F-16 over northern Bosnia, release 121 U.N. hostages.
June 3 - NATO defense chiefs, meeting in Paris, agree on rapid reaction force to bolster U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia.
June 6 - U.S. envoy Robert Frasure fails to agree after weeks of talks with Milosevic on Serbia recognizing Bosnia.
June 7 - Serbs release 111 more U.N. hostages.
June 8 - U.S. Marines rescue downed pilot of U.S. F-16.
NATO approves new rapid reaction force, but also says peacekeepers will leave Bosnia by fall if rebel Serbs don't accept new force. Complex evacuation plan approved.
June 14 - All but last 26 U.N. hostages released.
June 15 - Government launches offensive to break siege of Sarajevo. Offensive gradually stalls; Serbs step up shelling of Sarajevo and other ``safe areas.''
June 18 - Last 26 U.N. hostages released.
June 28 - Serb rocket hits TV building in Sarajevo, adjacent apartment block. Five die, dozens wounded.
June 30 - Bosnian government, increasingly bitter, demands review of U.N. mission
German parliament approves deployment of fighter jets for rapid reaction force.
July 2 - French peacekeepers start to use 120 mm mortar - biggest caliber against Serbs all war - on lone road into Sarajevo.
July 11 - Serbs overrun Srebrenica ''safe area'' after last-minute NATO airstrikes fail to stop advance.
July 12-13 - Some 20,000 Muslim women, children and elderly expelled to Tuzla, bringing tales of atrocities.
July 16-17 - Some 4,000 Muslim men who marched through Serb-held land reach government-held Tuzla; another 11,000 thought missing.
July 21 - Western allies, meeting in London, promise ``decisive and substantial'' air strikes to protect Gorazde; early use of Rapid Reaction Force.
July 23 - Serbs kill two French peacekeepers; U.N. threatens punishment from Rapid Reaction Force.
July 25 - Serb troops take Zepa, sending thousands of civilians fleeing.
War crimes tribunal indicts Karadzic, Mladic for genocide, crimes against humanity. Martic charged with war crimes for bombing Zagreb.
July 28 - Croat army cuts key supply route to rebel Serbs along>Bosnia's western border, take towns of Grahovo and Glamoc.
July 31 - Croats shell outskirts of Knin.
Aug. 1 - NATO threatens airstrikes to protect all safe areas.
Aug. 3 - Offer by rebel Serbs to bow to some Croatian authority rejected by government. Serbs shell Dubrovnik area.
Aug. 4 - Croatia launches its massive assault on rebel Serbs in Knin, shelling U.N. peacekeepers and civilians. Recaptures most of Serb-held lands in four days.
Thousands of Serb civilians beginning stream toward Bosnia. Eventually more than 180,000 flee their homes.
NATO warplanes fire missiles at Croatian Serb radar site after being threatened by surface-to-air missiles.
Aug. 7 - Column of Serb refugees attacked by military jet; at least five killed.
Aug. 9 - Mobs of Croats batter Serb refugees with bricks, chunks of concrete in Sisak.
Aug. 10 - U.S. ambassador to U.N. calls for war crimes tribunal investigation after spy photographs show evidence of mass graves of executed Bosnian Muslims.
Aug. 18 - U.S. diplomats shuttle between Serb and Croat leaders with peace plan. Peacekeepers begin pull out from Gorazde.
Aug. 19 - Three key diplomats for U.S. peace initiative, Robert Frasure, Joseph Kruzel and Nelson Drew, killed when armored personnel carrier slips off Mount Igman road. Three other Americans and three French injured.
Aug. 20 - Human rights investigators suspect at least four mass graves exist around Knin.
Aug. 22 - Serbs shell Sarajevo region, killing six and wounding 38, including six Egyptian peacekeepers, after government shells Serb arms factory.
Aug. 23 - Clinton names Robert Owen, Brig. Gen. Donald Kerrick, James Pardew and Christopher Hill to replace diplomats killed in Igman accident.
Aug. 28 - Bosnian Serbs fire shell into a busy Sarajevo market area, killing 37 and wounding scores.
U.N. secretly pulls out last peacekeepers of Gorazde enclave.
Aug. 30 - NATO planes, supported by ground troops of the U.N. rapid reaction force, launch massive airstrikes to silence Serb guns around Sarajevo. Serbs shell Sarajevo in response.
Sept. 1 - NATO suspends attacks: U.S. announces that hostile parties agree to a discuss permanent peace.
Sept. 5 - NATO resumes attacks to force withdrawal of Serb guns around Sarajevo
Sept. 8 - Warring factions agree to formally maintain Bosnia but sub-divide it into Serb and Muslim-Croat sections.
Sept. 13 - Croats and Muslims advance on Serbs in central and western Bosnia
Sept. 14 - NATO suspends attacks. Milosevic pledges that Bosnian Serbs will withdraw guns from around Sarajevo. Red Cross says about 8,000 Muslims from Srebrenica missing and unaccounted for.
Sept. 15 - Serbs let Sarajevo airport reopen for the first time in five months.
Sept. 26 - Bosnian factions agree on basic outlines of peace plan.
Sept. 29 - European Union accuses Croatian army of murder, mass looting, arson.
Oct. 3 - Rebel Serbs in Croatia agree to give up last swath of territory they hold there.
Oct. 5 - Warring Bosnian parties agree to a 60-day cease-fire.
Nov. 1 - Bosnian peace talks open in Dayton, Ohio.
Nov. 16 - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, his military commander, indicted for war crimes for their alleged roles in Srebrenica massacres.
Nov. 21 - Balkan leaders initial peace accord, granting 51 percent of Bosnian territory to Muslim-Croat federation; 49 percent to Serbs.
Nov. 22 - Security Council suspends sanctions against Serbia, eases arms embargo against former Yugoslavian states.
Nov. 23 - Karadzic accepts peace plan after meeting with Milosevic.
Nov. 30 - U.N. votes to end peacekeeping mission by Jan. 31.
Dec. 1 - NATO authorizes deploying 60,000 troops to Bosnia; appoints Javier Solana NATO secretary general.
Dec. 4 - British, U.S. troops land in former Yugoslavia to begin groundwork for peacekeeping mission.
Dec. 5 - Polls show majority of Americans oppose sending troops to Bosnia.
Dec. 12 - Bosnian Serbs release captured French pilots.
Dec. 13 - Senate defeats measure to cut off funds for US troops in Bosnia.
Dec. 14 - Presidents of warring parties sign peace plan, setting stage for deployment of 60,000 NATO troops.
Bosnian, Serb governments agree to formal diplomatic recognition.
Dec. 15 - U.N. Security Council transfers peacekeeping duties to NATO.
Dec. 16 - Joulwan issues order for 60,000 NATO troops to enter Bosnia.
Dec. 18 - Break in fog allows 14 U.S. flights to arrive in Tuzla.
Dec. 19 - Assistant Secretary of State Richard C. Holbrooke, chief American negotiator of the Dayton agreement, announces he'll step down next year, to be succeeded by career diplomat John Kornblum.
Dec. 20 - NATO takes over command of Bosnia peace mission.
Dec. 22 - Thousands of Serbs flee Sarajevo suburbs, many carrying coffins of relatives.
Dec. 24 - First American helicopters arrive in Tuzla, while French extend control in Sarajevo.
Dec. 27 - Government, rebel Serb troops pull back from area around Sarajevo to meet first deadline of peace accord.
Dec. 28 - Flooding, mud slows U.S. efforts to build bridge across Sava River.
Dec. 31 - First U.S. tanks roll across pontoon bridge over Sava.