Timeline Serbia thru 1997
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Dusan was medieval king who extended Serbian
boundaries to its farthest limits.
(SFC, 9/4/98, p.D5)
Serbia and much smaller Montenegro form the Yugoslav federation. The
province of Kosovo has been under NATO and UN control since 1999.
Serbs, of Slavic origin, comprise 90 percent of the country's
people, while ethnic Hungarians, Muslims and other minorities
account for about 10 percent.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.66)
6,000BC The site of Lepenski
Vir on the Danube River at the Iron Gates gorges was occupied
by people living in huts. Sculpted boulders at the site represent
the first monumental art from central and eastern Europe.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.24)
33-34AD Road builders linking Roman legionary
camps during the reign of Tiberius left inscriptions in the rock in
the Lepenski Vir region on the Danube near the Iron Gates gorges.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.25)
103-105AD Apolodorus of Damascus built a bridge
over the Danube for Emperor Trajan. It connected the Roman provinces
of Moesia Superior and Dacia (the Yugoslavian and Romanian banks
respectively).
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.26)
1300-1400 Krusevac was the capital of an empire
that included Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.A28)
1300-1400 The monastery at Grancanica was built
near Pristina.
(WSJ, 6/24/99, p.A1)
1315 The Church of the Holy
Virgin was built in Musutiste, Kosovo. In 1999 returning Albanians
blew up the church in retaliation for the Serb destruction of their
mosque.
(SFC, 9/7/99, p.A12)
1346 Apr 16, King Stefanus IX
of Serbia proclaimed himself czar of Greece.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1355 Dec 20, Stephen Urosh IV
of Serbia died while marching to attack Constantinople.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1380 Jul 24, Giovanni da
Capistrano, Italian monk, was born. He liberated Belgrade from the
Turks and was later canonized a saint as San Juan de Capistrano. His
name was applied to the southern California mission, best known for
its annual convocation of swallows.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1389 Jun 15, The Serbs were
defeated by Ottoman Turks in the Battle of Kosovo at the Field of
the Blackbirds. In the battle, the Serb prince Lazar was captured by
the Turks and beheaded. Lazar's bones were placed in the monastery
at Grancanica in Kosovo. Sultan Murad, the Ottoman leader was killed
in the battlefield by the wounded son-in-law of King Lazar. Serbs
say that Albanians aided the Turkish invaders. Historical evidence
shows that both forces were multinational and that Serbs and
Albanian fought on both sides. In 1999 Ismail Kadare, Albanian
author, wrote "Elegy for Kosovo," in which he retells the story of
the battle. Bosnian King Tvrtko and other Balkan princes along with
Albanians fought under the command of Serbian Prince Lazar.
(SFC, 12/29/96, BR p.7)(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A8)(WSJ,
5/5/98, p.A20)(HN, 6/15/98)(WSJ, 3/25/99, p.A17)(WSJ, 5/7/99,
p.A1,18)(SFEC, 7/23/00, BR p.7)
1389 Serbs, defeated by the
Ottoman Turks, moved from Kosovo to the Krajina region of Croatia.
(WSJ, 4/22/99, A12)
1448 Oct 19, The Ottoman Sultan
Murat II defeated Hungarian General Janos Hunyadi at Kosovo, Serbia.
(HN, 10/19/98)
1456 Jul 14, Hungarians
defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Belgrade, in present-day
Yugoslavia. The 1456 Siege of Belgrade decided the fate of
Christendom.
(HN, 7/14/98)
1456 Jul 22, At the Battle at
Nandorfehervar (Belgrade), the Hungarian army under prince Janos
Hunyadi beat sultan Murad II. The siege of Belgrade had fallen into
stalemate when a spontaneous fight broke out between a rabble of
Crusaders, led by the Benedictine monk John of Capistrano, and the
city's Ottoman besiegers. The melee soon escalated into a major
battle, during which the Hungarian commander, Janos Hunyadi, led a
sudden assault that overran the Turkish camp, ultimately compelling
the wounded Sultan Mehmet II to lift the siege and retreat.
(MC, 7/22/02)(PC, 1992, p.150)(HNPD, 7/23/98)
1459 The Serbs fell under
Turkish rule and all of Serbia became the property of the sultan and
all Serbs became bond-slaves to the land. Serbian national identity
survived with the restoration in 1557 of the Serbian patriarchate at
Pec.
(HNQ, 3/25/99)
1459-1912 The Ottoman Empire ruled over the Kosova
region of Serbia.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A8)
1463 The Ottomans conquered
Bosnia.
(www.bartleby.com/67/314.html)
1471 In Pec the Qarshise Mosque
was built. It was destroyed by Serbs in 1999.
(SFC, 9/7/99, p.A12)
1521 Sep 28, Turkish sultan
Suleiman I's troops occupied Belgrade.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1521 Suleiman I, the Ottoman
Sultan, conquered Belgrade and invaded Hungary.
(TL-MB, p.12)
1529 Oct 15, Ottoman armies
under Suleiman ended their siege of Vienna and head back to
Belgrade. The Ottomans siege of Vienna was a key battle of world
history. The Ottoman Empire reached its peak with the Turks settled
in Buda on the left bank of the Danube after failing in their siege
of Vienna.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)(HN,
10/15/98)
1594 The baths at Novi Pazar
were built in Serbia’s Sandzak region.
(Econ, 6/7/08, p.65)
1683 Dec 25, Kara Mustapha
(b.~1634), chief of the Ottoman janissaries, appeared before the
grand vizier in Belgrade. He was sentenced to death and executed for
the military loss at Vienna.
(WSJ, 12/5/06,
p.D12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Mustafa)
1687 The Austrian Army captured
Petrovaradin (Serbia) after 150 years of Turkish control during the
Great Turkish War. The Austrians began to tear down the old fortress
and build new fortifications according to contemporary standards.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Eug%C3%A8ne_de_Cro%C3%BF)
1688 Sep 6, Imperial troops
defeated the Turks and took Belgrade, Serbia.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1690 Oct 8, Belgrade was
retaken by the Turks.
(HN, 10/8/98)
1692 Oct 18, Charles Eugene de
Croy, a field marshal fighting for Austrian forces, laid the
cornerstone for a new great fortress at Petrovaradin (later Serbia),
built to guard against the Ottoman Turks.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Eug%C3%A8ne_de_Cro%C3%BF)
1697 Sep 11, Prince Eugene of
Savoy led the Austrians to victory over the Ottoman Turks at Senta
(Serbia). This resulted in creating the conditions for the 1699
conclusion of the peace at Karlowitz.
{Austria, Turkey, Serbia}
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Eug%C3%A8ne_de_Cro%C3%BF)
1717 Aug 22, The Austrian army
forced the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival
in the Balkans.
(HN, 8/22/98)
1739 Sep 18, Turkey and Austria
signed peace treaty-Austria ceding Belgrade to Turks. [see Sep 23]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1739 Sep 23, The Austrians
signed the Treaty of Belgrade after having lost the city to the
Turks.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1791 Aug 4, The chief item in
the Peace of Sistova agreement between the Austrian Empire and
Turkey was the return of Belgrade to Turkey. The peace initiative
resulted from the terms of the Convention of Reichenbach between
Prussia and Austria. Belgrade had been taken in 1789 by the Holy
Roman emperor Joseph II.
(HNQ, 6/25/99)
1804-1999 In 2000 Misha Glenny authored "The
Balkans: nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-1899."
(WSJ, 5/1/00, p.A32)(SFEC, 5/7/00, BR p.5)
1809 Jul 5-1809 Jul 6, Napoleon
beat Austria’s archduke Charles at the Battle of Wagram. He annexed
the Illyrian Provinces (now part of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro), and abolished the Papal
States.
(http://tinyurl.com/vx8dk)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wagram)
1831 Serbia establishing a
military brass band.
(Reuters, 8/12/17)
1859 The Zastava manufacturing
plant in Kragujevac began operations.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A12)
1860 The Serb King Knez Mihaljo
was assassinated.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A1,15)
1876 Sep 1, The Ottomans
inflicted a decisive defeat on the Serbs at Aleksinac.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1877 Dec 14, Serbia joined
Russia in war on Turkey.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1878 Mar 3, Russia and the
Ottomans signed the Treaty of San Stefano, granting independence to
Serbia. With the Treaty of San Stefano (and subsequent negotiations
in Berlin) in the wake of the last Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman
Empire lost its possession of numerous territories including
Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia. The Russo-Turkish wars
dated to the 17th century, the Russians generally gaining territory
and influence over the declining Ottoman Empire. In the last war,
Russia and Serbia supported rebellions in the Balkans. In concluding
the Treaty of San Stefano, the Ottomans released control of
Montenegro, Romania and Serbia, granted autonomy to Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and allowed an autonomous state of Bulgaria to be
placed under Russian control.
(HN, 3/3/99)(HNQ, 2/23/01)
1878 Mar 3, The Treaty of San
Stefano was signed after Russo-Turkish War. It assigned
Albanian-populated lands to Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia; but
Austria-Hungary and Britain blocked the treaty's implementation.
Albanian leaders meet in Prizren, Kosova, to form the League of
Prizren. The League initially advocated autonomy for Albania. At the
Congress of Berlin, the Great Powers overturned the Treaty of San
Stefano and divided Albanian lands among several states. The League
of Prizren began to organize resistance to the Treaty of Berlin's
provisions that affected Albanians.
(www, Albania,
1998)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_San_Stefano)
1878 Jul 13, The Treaty of
Berlin was the final act of the Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13
July 1878), by which the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, France,
Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Abdul
Hamid II revised the Treaty of San Stefano signed on 3 March the
same year. The Treaty of San Stefano had ended the Russo-Turkish War
of 1877-78. The Congress of Berlin divided the Balkans among
European powers. The Slavic converts to Islam in the Sandzak region
of southwestern Serbia were separated from their ethnic cousins in
Bosnia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Berlin_(1878))
(AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A20)
1878 Mar 3, Russia and the
Ottomans signed the treaty of San Stefano, granting independence to
Serbia.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1878 Jul 13, The Treaty of
Berlin was the final act of the Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13
July 1878), by which the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, France,
Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Abdul
Hamid II revised the Treaty of San Stefano signed on 3 March the
same year. The Treaty of San Stefano had ended the Russo-Turkish War
of 1877-78. The Congress of Berlin divided the Balkans among
European powers. The Slavic converts to Islam in the Sandzak region
of southwestern Serbia were separated from their ethnic cousins in
Bosnia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Berlin_(1878))
(AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A20)
1878-1918 Bosnia came under the rule of the
Austrian-Hungarian Empire. A representative from Vienna governed the
area.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.65)
1885 Sep 18, A coup d’etat in
Eastern Rumelia led directly to a war between Serbia and Bulgaria.
The Balkan peace settlement established by the 1878 Treaty of Berlin
was undone when a coup d’etat in the disputed province of Eastern
Rumelia resulted in Eastern Rumelia (separated from Bulgaria in
1878) announcing its re-unification with Bulgaria. Serbian prince
Milan responded by demanding Bulgaria cede some of its territory to
Serbia. An international conference convened and became deadlocked
in November and Serbia declared war.
(HNQ, 4/2/99)
1885 Nov 17, The Serbian Army,
with Russian support, invaded Bulgaria.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1885 Nov 19, Bulgarians, led by
Stefan Stambolov, repulsed a larger Serbian invasion force at
Slivinitza.
(HN, 11/19/98)
1885 Nov 26, Bulgaria moved
into Serbia.
(HNQ, 4/2/99)
1886 Mar 3, The Treaty of
Bucharest concluded the Serb-Bulgarian war, reestablishing prewar
Serbo-Bulgarian borders but leaving Eastern Rumelia and Bulgaria
united.
(HNQ, 4/2/99)
1892 Public transportation
began in Belgrade.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C3)
1902 Sep 1, The
Austro-Hungarian army was called into the city of Agram to restore
the peace as Serbs and Croats clashed.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1903 Jun 11, King Alexander and
Queen Draga of Belgrade were assassinated by 28 members of the
Serbian army. The remains of their corpses were thrown out of a
palace window. Peter Karageorgevic was later elected to replace him.
(AP, 6/11/03)(Econ, 3/29/14, p.90)
1906 Apr, In Serbia General
Gruuios, the Premier and Minister of War, resigned because King
Peter refused to adopt his suggestion and dismiss the regicide
officials.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1909 Feb 16, Serbia mobilized
against Austria and Hungary.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1909 Mar 2, Great Britain,
France, Germany and Italy asked Serbia to set no territorial
demands.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1911 The Black Hand was the
nickname for a secret society, Unity or Death, formed in 1911 by
Serbian army officers seeking liberation of Bosnia from Austrian
domination. These nationalist leaders sought the creation of a
Greater Serbia.
(HNQ, 5/29/99)
1912 Oct 17, Bulgaria, Greece
and Serbia declared war on Turkey. [see Oct 18]
(MC, 10/17/01)
1912 Oct 18, The First Balkan
War broke out between the members of the Balkan League-- Serbia,
Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro--and the Ottoman Empire. A small
Balkan War broke out and was quelled by the major powers. Albanian
nationalism spurred repeated revolts against Turkish dominion and
resulted in the First Balkan War in which the Turks were driven out
of much of the Balkan Peninsula. Austria-Hungary’s 1908 annexation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina spurred Serbian efforts to form the Balkan
alliance with its neighbors. As a result of the war on Turkey,
Serbia doubled its territory with the award of Northern Macedonia.
Albanian leaders affirmed Albania as an independent state. [see Oct
8]
(V.D.-H.K.p.290)(CO, Grolier’s/ Albania)(HN,
10/18/98)(HNQ, 3/27/99)(www, Albania, 1998)
1912 Nov 24, Austria denounced
Serbian gains in the Balkans; Russia and France backed Serbia while
Italy and Germany backed Austria.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1912 Dec 3, Turkey, Serbia,
Montenegro, Greece & Bulgaria signed a weapons pact.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1912 Dec 4, An armistice was
signed to end the First Balkan War. Following several victories over
the Ottoman army, coalition forces occupied Macedonia and forced the
Ottoman Empire to seek an armistice.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1912 European powers awarded
Kosovo to Serbia rather than the new Republic of Albania. [see Nov,
1913]
(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A12)
1913 May 30, Conclusion of the
First Balkan War.
(HN, 5/30/98)
1913 Jun 1, Serbia and Greece
concluded a secret treaty for joint action against Bulgaria; joined
by Romania. Dissatisfied with their share of the spoils, Serbia,
denied its proposed outlet to the Adriatic Sea, sought compensation
in Macedonia along the Vardar River which the Bulgarians rejected
while Greece asked for control of Thessaloniki and "a certain part"
of the eastern Macedonian territories, which Bulgaria rejected as
well.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Jun 24, Greece and Serbia
annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over
Macedonia and Thrace.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1913 Jun 29, Anticipating
assistance from Austro-Hungary the Bulgarian army attacked its
former allies. This Second Balkan War was at first waged entirely on
Macedonian soil. Bulgaria defeated Greek and Serbian troops.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Jul 1, Serbia and Greece
declared war on Bulgaria.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1913 Jul 10, Rumania entered
the Second Balkan War war and four days later the Ottoman Empire
joined the general assault on Bulgaria. Faced with four fronts,
Bulgarian armies were defeated piecemeal and the government at Sofia
was forced to seek peace. Atrocities were widespread. For example,
in pursuing the Bulgarian army Greek forces systematically burnt to
the ground all Macedonian villages they encountered, mass-murdering
their entire populations. Likewise, when the Greek army entered
Kukush (Kilkis) and occupied surrounding villages, about 400 old
people and children were imprisoned and killed. Nor did the Serbian
"liberators" lag behind in destruction and wanton slaughter
throughout Macedonia. In Bitola, Skopje, Shtip and Gevgelija, the
Serbian army, police and chetniks (guerrillas) committed their own
atrocities.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Aug 10, The Treaty of
Bucharest ended the Second Balkan War. It was concluded by the
delegates of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. The
entire "disputed zone" was taken by Serbia, Greece secured its
position in Thessaloniki and southeastern Macedonia, the Ottomans
regained all the territories lost in the First Balkan War to
Bulgaria with the exception of eastern (Pirin) Macedonia, and the
Romanians seized Southern Dobruja.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Aug 10, The Great Powers
recognized an independent Albanian state. Demographics were ignored,
however, and half of the territories inhabited by Albanians (such as
Kosova and Chameria) were divided among Montenegro, Serbia and
Greece.
(www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/boshtml/bos149.htm)
1913 Sep 23, Serbian troops
marched into Albania.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1913 Oct 18, Austrian-Hungary
demanded that Serbia and Albania leave.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1913 Nov, Treaty of Bucharest
ended the Second Balkan War. The Great Powers recognized an
independent Albanian state. Demographics were ignored, however, and
half of the territories inhabited by Albanians (such as Kosova and
Chameria) were divided among Montenegro, Serbia and Greece.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1913 The Roman Catholic
archbishop of Skopje wrote about Prizren following the collapse of
the Ottoman Empire as Serbs massacred Albanians: "They knock on the
doors of Albanian houses, take away the men and shoot them
immediately… As for plunder looting and rape, all that goes without
saying. Henceforth the order of the day is: Everything is permitted
against the Albanians - not merely permitted but willed and
commended.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.A16)
1914 Jun 28, Austrian Archduke
Francis Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary, and his wife, Sofia,
were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by a Serb nationalist. As the
royal couple rode through the streets of Sarajevo in an open touring
car, seven young radicals from an obscure Serbian-Bosnian
nationalist group, called the Black Hand, lay in wait. An initial
assassination attempt failed, but a wrong turn brought the car near
Gavrilo Princip, who fired two shots at point-blank range into the
couple's bodies. Within minutes, both the Archduke and Sophia were
dead. Princip was arrested, but political tensions were so high
between Austria-Hungary and Serbia that war broke out as a result.
Like falling dominoes, international alliances brought one country
after another into the conflict. The event triggered World War I. In
2011 Adam Hochschild authored “To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty
and Rebellion.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.252, 284-285,290)(AP, 6/28/97)(HNPD,
6/28/98)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.93)
1914 Jul 23, Austria and
Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia after the assassination of
Archduke Ferdinand; the dispute led to World War I.
(AP, 7/23/98)
1914 Jul 25, Russia declared
that it would act to protect Serbian sovereignty.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1914 Jul 26, Austrian-Hungary
condemned a Serbian ultimatum.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1914 Jul 28, Austria-Hungary
declared war on Serbia, beginning World War I. The New York Stock
Exchange closed for 4 1/2 months.
(CFA, '96, p.50)(HN, 7/28/98)
1914 Aug 6, Austria-Hungary
declared war against Russia and Serbia declared war against Germany.
(AP, 8/6/00)
1914 Dec 2, Austrian troops
occupied Belgrade, Serbia.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1915 Sep 24, Bulgaria mobilized
troops on the Serbian border.
(HN, 9/24/98)
1915 Oct 9, Belgrade,
Serbia, surrendered to Central leaders.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1915 Oct 11, A Bulgarian anti
Serbian offensive began.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1917 Jul 20, The Pact of
Corfu was signed between the Serbs, Croats & Slovenes to form
Yugoslavia. [see Dec 1, 1918]
(www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1917yugoslavia1.html)
1918 Oct 29-1918 Oct 31, The
Kingdom of Greater Serbia was proclaimed at Sarajevo in Bosnia
bringing that state into what was later called Yugoslavia. [see Dec
1]
(BWH, 1988)
1918 Nov 7, The Yugoslav
National Conference at Geneva decided on the union of Croatia and
Slovenia with Serbia and Montenegro. [see Dec 1]
(BWH, 1988)
1918 Nov 24, Another
proclamation took place of the United Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats
and Slovenes. [see Dec 1]
(BWH, 1988)
1918 Nov 26, Montenegro deposed
its king who opposed union and voted to join the new Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. [see Dec 1]
(BWH, 1988)
1918 Dec 1, The Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes [later in 1929 to be called Yugoslavia]
was proclaimed by Alexander Karadjordjevic, the son of King Peter of
Serbia. It included the previously independent kingdoms of Serbia
and Macedonia, the Hungarian-controlled regions of Croatia and
Slovenia, the Austrian province of Dalmatia, Carniola and parts of
Styria, Carinthia and Istria. King Alexander I renamed the Balkan
state called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes to
Yugoslavia in 1929.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/map/yugoslavia/1900/)(AP,
10/3/97)(HNQ, 3/26/99)
1918 Kosovo became part of the
newly created Yugoslavia and was dominated by a Serbian monarchy
until WW II.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A8)
1919 Oct 3, The Serbian,
Croatian & Slavic (Yugoslavia) parliament agreed on an 8 hr work
day.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1919 Serbs attacked Albanian
cities; Albanians adopted guerilla warfare. Albania was denied
official representation at the Paris Peace Conference; British,
French and Greek negotiators decided to divide Albania among Greece,
Italy and Yugoslavia. This decision was vetoed by American president
Wilson.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1920 Jun 4, The Treaty of
Trianon, signed at Versailles, was forced upon Hungary by the
victorious Allies after WWII and resulted in Hungary giving up
nearly three-fourths of its territory to Romania, Czechoslovakia and
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croat and Slovenes. Hungary lost more than
half its population, including some 3 million Hungarians. Hungary
ceded the hills of Transylvania to Romania.
(HNQ, 7/5/98)(WSJ, 1/2/97,
p.1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon)
1920 Oct 10, The Carinthian
Plebiscite determined the border between Austria and the newly
formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carinthian_Plebiscite)
1923 Jun 27, Yugoslav Premier
Nikola Pachitch was wounded by Serb attackers in Belgrade.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1926 Dec 10, Nikola Pasic
(b.1845), a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat,
died. He served several times PM of the Kingdom of Serbia (1891–92,
1904–05, 1906–08, 1909–11, 1912–18) and PM of the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia (1918, 1921–24, 1924–26).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Pa%C5%A1i%C4%87)
1929 Oct 3, The Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes formally changed its name to the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia. King Alexander I renamed the Balkan state called the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Yugoslavia. The Kingdom had
been formed on December 1, 1918 and was ruled by the Serbian
Karageorgevic dynasty. It included the previously independent
kingdoms of Serbia and Macedonia, the Hungarian-controlled regions
of Croatia and Slovenia, the Austrian province of Dalmatia, Carniola
and parts of Styria, Carinthia and Istria.
(AP, 10/3/97)(HN, 10/3/98)(HNQ, 3/26/99)
1932 A new dome-topped
parliament building was completed in Belgrade.
(SFC, 10/6/00, p.A16)
1941 Mar 4, Serbian Prince Paul
visited Hitler.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1941 Apr 6, German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop gave orders for the attack on
Yugoslavia to roll forward. Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb
Belgrade prior to the final drive into the capital. From August 6 to
10, more than 500 bombing sorties were flown against Belgrade,
inflicting more than 17,500 fatalities. Most of the government
officials fled, and the Yugoslav army began to collapse. German
Luftwaffe Marshall Alexander Lohr commanded a surprise air attack on
Belgrade and 17,000 died. Lohr was later tried and executed for the
bombings.
(www.thehistorynet.com/wwii/blbelgradebybluff/)(SFC, 4/8/99,
p.A10)(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A21)
1941 Apr 6, German troops
invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. Italian and Albanian forces attacked
and jointly occupied Yugoslavia. Germany, with support of Italy and
other allies defeated Greece and Yugoslavia.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A20)(www,
Albania, 1998)
1941 Apr 13, German troops
captured Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The invasion took 12 days and Hitler
soon installed Gen. Milan Nedic as a quisling leader. Nedic
proceeded to wipe out the Jewish community of Serbia. In 1997 Philip
Cohen wrote "Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of
History."
(HN, 4/13/99)(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A18)
1941 May 30, Serbia enacted
anti-Semitic measures.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1941 Aug 20, Slobodan
Milosevic, premier of Serbia, was born.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1941 Sep 19, 1st meeting of
partizans Tito and Draza Mihailovic in Yugoslavia.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1941 Oct 20, Nazi occupiers
murdered 500 inhabitants of Kragujevac, Serbia.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1941 Oct 27, Nazis directed the
evacuation of the gypsy ghetto in Belgrade.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1941 Dec 15-1941 Dec 23,
Catholic Sisters Jula Ivanisevic, Berchmana Leidenix, Krizina
Bojanc, Antonija Fabjan and Bernadeta Banja, who helped the poor
regardless of religion in the majority Serb village of Pale, Bosnia,
were killed in Gorazde and thrown into the River Drina. The sisters
were beatified in 2011.
(AP,
9/24/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drina_Martyrs)
1941 Nazi documents from this
year showed that the Einsatzgruppe, a Nazi-run Serbian police unit,
executed 11,164 people, mostly Serbian Jewish men, suspected
communists and Gypsies [see 1942]. The unit was allegedly run by
Peter Egner, who emigrated to the US in 1960, and received
citizenship in 1966. In 2009 Serbian authorities sought his
extradition. In 2010 Serbia issued an international warrant for the
arrest of Egner (88), who has denied the accusations.
(AP, 4/14/09)(AP, 4/2/10)(AP, 11/26/10)
1942 Jan 23, At Novi Sad,
Serbia, some 1200 people (predominantly Jewish), rounded up over a
period of three days, were shot along the shores of the Danube.
Their bodies were dumped into the frozen waters. Sandor Kepiro
(1914-2011), a Hungarian gendarmerie officer, participated in the
mass murder. In 1944 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his
part in the atrocities, but conviction was later annulled. Kepiro,
who was at the top of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's most-wanted war
criminals list, returned to Hungary in 1996 after living for decades
in Argentina. In 2011 Kepiro (96) was charged with war crimes in the
slaughter, but was cleared by a court on July 18, 2011.
(http://tinyurl.com/o5n5j3)(AP, 9/15/09)(AP,
2/14/11)(AP, 7/18/11)(AP, 9/3/11)
1942 Nazi documents of this
year showed that the Einsatzgruppe, a Nazi-run Serbian police unit,
killed 6,280 Serbian Jewish women and children who were held as
prisoners at Semlin Camp. In two months, those women and children
allegedly were taken from a camp and forced into a specially
designed van, in which they were gassed with carbon monoxide. The
unit was allegedly run by Peter Egner, who emigrated to the US in
1960, and received citizenship in 1966 [see 1941]. In 2010 Serbia
issued an international warrant for the arrest of Egner (88), who
has denied the accusations.
(AP, 4/14/09)(AP, 4/2/10)(AP, 11/26/10)
1942 The Sava River Bridge was
built to replace an earlier span blown up in 1941 by the retreating
Yugoslav army to impede the Nazi advance.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.A12)
1943 Fitzroy Maclean parachuted
into German-occupied Yugoslavia as Brigadier commanding the British
Military Mission to the Tito partisans. He later wrote his memoir:
"Eastern Approaches" that described his 2-years there.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A20)
1944 Apr 3, On Orthodox Easter
the Allied bombing of Nazi occupied Serbia resulted in the deaths of
some 4,000 Serbian civilians. An account of the raids, requested by
US Gen'l. Carl Spaatz, found that most of the bombs struck at least
600 yards from their targets.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.A12)
1944 Apr 16, The Belgrade Zemun
airdrome was bombed by Allied forces for the 3rd day in a row. The
bombing was carried out by the 414th Bomb Squadron stationed at
Amendola, Italy.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.A12)
1944 Aug 9, The Halyard Mission
began rescuing over 500 bomber fliers shot down over Serbia. This
mission was a combined project of the American Strategic Services
(OSS - precursor of the CIA) under the command of General William J.
Donovan, Lt. George (Guv) S. Musulin, of the OSS and an American of
Serbian descent, and General Draza Mihailovich and his Serbian
chetnik freedom fighters in the former Yugoslavia. In 2007 Gregory A
Freeman authored “The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who
risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II.”
(www.generalmihailovich.com/2006/09/halyard-mission-rescue-operation.html)(SFC,
10/18/10, p.A5)
1944 Oct 20, The Yugoslav
cities of Belgrade and Dubrovnik were liberated during World War II.
Russian and Yugoslavian troops were freed.
(AP, 10/20/97)(MC, 10/20/01)
1944 Oct 27, Tito reached free
Belgrade.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1944 In Hungary Sandor Kepiro
(b.1914) was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the
Jan, 1942, atrocities at Novi Sad, Serbia, in which 1,200 Serb and
Jewish civilians were killed by Hungarian forces, who raided Serbia
in the wake of the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia. He was freed by
Hungary's fascist regime shortly after his trial and fled to
Argentina after the war. In 1946, the Communist government of
Hungary tried him again and sentenced him to 14 years in absentia.
He returned to Budapest in 1996.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/world/europe/28iht-hungary.2970014.html?_r=1)(AP,
9/15/09)
1945 After WW II the Sandzak
region of Serbia was divided between Serbia and Montenegro. The
region contained some 300,000 Sandzak Muslims.
(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A20)
1945 Kosovo became part of the
post-war Communist Yugoslavia under Tito.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A8)
1945 An uprising in Kosovo was
put down by Tito’s Communists.
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A8)
1946 Jul 17, Royalist Yugoslav
Serb General Draza Mihailovich (b.1893) was executed by firing squad
in Belgrade. He had led Serbian guerrilla fighters known as
Chetniks. He was executed after a brief trial after being convicted
of high treason and war crimes by the authorities of the Federal
People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Mihailovic’s fighters had rescued
some 500 US Army airmen shot down over the Balkans. In 2010
proceedings to exonerate Mihailovic were launched at the request of
his followers and relatives who claimed the trial against him had
been staged and politically motivated. On May 14, 2015, Mihailović
was rehabilitated after ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation,
the highest appellate court in Serbia.
(AP, 10/30/10)(Reuters, 5/14/15)(Econ, 7/11/15,
p.48)
1950s Tito’s security chief,
Alexander Rankovic, a Serb, repressed Kosovo separatism.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A8)
1955 May 26, Khrushchev arrived
in Belgrade.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1964 Slobodan Milosevic joined
the Communist Party after graduating from Belgrade Law School.
(SFC, 10/6/00, p.A19)
1965 Mira and Slobodan
Milosevic were married.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B3)
1961 In Serbia the city of Guca
launched the Guca Brass Band Festival with just four bands and only
2,500 visitors. By 2017 Guca had received more than 15 million
people as it hosted its 57th Dragacevo Trumpeters Assembly.
(Reuters, 8/12/17)
1961 The Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM) was founded in Belgrade by Third World leaders such as India's
Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser and Indonesia's Achmad
Sukarno, under the aegis of Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito, to try to
avoid alignment with either the United States or the Soviet Union.
(Reuters, 9/10/06)
1968 Tito purged Serbian
novelist Dobrica Cosic for nationalism. Cosic developed a complex
and paradoxical theory of Serbian national persecution that later
evolved into the Greater Serbian program of Slobodan Milosevic.
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A18)
1968 In Kosovo ethnic Albanians
staged their first pro-independence demonstrations.
(USAT, 3/24/99, p.4A)
1970 Nov 3, King Peter II
Karadjordjevic of Yugoslavia died in a hospital in Denver, Colorado.
He had been forced into exile three weeks after his country was
invaded by Nazi Germany. He was buried in the Liberty Easter Serbian
Orthodox Monastery in Liberty, Illinois. He was the 1st European
king or queen to die and be buried in the US. In 2013 his remains,
and those of his wife, mother and brother, were interred in the
family tomb at St. George church in Oplenac, central Serbia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Yugoslavia)(AP, 5/26/13)
1972 The jellyfish population
in the Black Sea exploded following the completion of a dam in a
section of the Danube that runs between Serbia and Romania.
(WSJ, 11/27/07, p.A14)
1974 Aug 30, In Yugoslavia an
express train, traveling from Belgrade to Germany, ran full speed
into a Zagreb, Croatia, rail yard killing 152.
(www.cmj.hr/2001/42/6/12.htm)(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)
1974 In Yugoslavia under Tito a
decentralized federal system allowed the Kosovo region to develop
its own security, judiciary, defense, foreign relations and social
control. Mahmut Bakalli drafted a constitution that gave the region
a status equivalent in most respects to the other republics of
Yugoslavia. The province of Vojvodina also gained extensive
autonomy. Autonomy for Kosovo and Vojvodina was scrapped by Slobodan
Milosevic in 1989.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A8)(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A16)(SFC,
3/27/99, p.A13)(Econ, 1/2/10, p.39)
1979 Jun 20, Nikola Kavaja
(d.2008 at 77) hijacked a US passenger jet with the intention of
crashing it into Yugoslav Communist Party headquarters in Belgrade.
He abandoned his hijack mission in Ireland, saying at the time he
was not sure of the exact location of the downtown party office and
did not want innocent civilians to die if the jet missed the target.
(AP,
11/12/08)(www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/world/europe/12kavaja.html)
1980 May 4,
Marshal Josip Broz Tito (b.1892), Communist dictator of Yugoslavia
(1943-1980), died three days before his 88th birthday. He was a
Croat and tried to spread the Serbs out over the six Yugoslav
republics so that they would not dominate the country. His policy
was considered a major cause of the Bosnian war in the '90s. His
funeral four days later was attended by presidents, prime ministers
and kings from 128 countries, and about 700,000 people.
(AP,
5/4/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito)(WSJ, 8/8/95,
p. A-10)(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
1981 Mar 26, Police and
Albanian demonstrators battled in Kosovo.
(www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8454/8454.ch01.html)
1981 Mar, Kosovar Albanian
students organized protests seeking that Kosovo become a Republic
within Yugoslavia. The protests were harshly contained by the
centralist Yugoslav and Serbian governments.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbs_in_Kosovo)
1985-1989 Jack Scanlon served as the US ambassador
in Belgrade.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A14)
1987 Dec, Slobodan Milosevic,
head of a nationalist faction, staged a palace coup and purged Pres.
Ivan Stambolic over his moderate treatment of ethnic Albanians.
Milosevic had risen to power as head of Serbia’s Communist Party
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B3)(SFC,
7/24/97, p.C3)
1988 Mar, The first McDonald's
behind the Iron Curtain opened in Belgrade.
(WSJ, 2/6/96, p.A-11)
1988 Oct 31, Journalists
demanded greater press freedom in Yugoslavia.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1989 May 8, Slobodan Milosevic
was elected president of Serbia.
(www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/mil-ii990524e.htm)
1989 Jun 28, In a speech at
Kosovo Polje Slobodan Milosevic stated that "Yugoslavia is a
multinational community and it can survive only under the conditions
of full equality for all nations that live in it."
(www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10258)
1989 Bujar Bukoshi was elected
the prime minister of the Kosovo Regional Government.
(WSJ, 4/28/99, p.A14)
1989 The Milosevic regime in
Yugoslavia made constitutional changes to consolidate power over the
provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Kosovo, whose 1.9 million people
are 90% Albanian, lost its autonomy and was placed under Serbian
rule. The constitution passed without the approval of the parliament
of Kosova. The Serbs fired most Albanians and closed many
enterprises. Muslim unrest followed and Kosovo was occupied. 90% of
the population of Kosovo was made up of some 2.2 million ethnic
Albanians.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 5/11/96, p.A-10)(WSJ,
8/5/96, p.A13) (SFC,12/10/97, p.C2) (www, Albania, 1998)
1989 Wealthy émigrés lent the
Milosevic regime some $87 million as a "Loan for the Regeneration of
Serbia." Lenders never got back their investment.
(WSJ, 8/9/99, p.A14)
1989 Radio B-92 was founded by
a Youth Council that vanished in the dissolution of Yugoslavia. It
got a legal license for 15 days but has not had legal status since.
It continued to operate and was the only independent station
broadcasting in 1996.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A12)
1989 The Zastava car plant in
Kragujevac, Serbia, produced 180,950 cars. In 1999 NATO bombed parts
of the plant which also made arms.
(Econ, 10/1/05, p.47)
1989 Iraq sent 19 Soviet-built
MiG-21s and MiG-23s for maintenance to a plant in Zagreb, Croatia,
which was part Yugoslavia. They were moved to Serbia in 1991 and got
stuck there because of an embargo. Over the following years most
were cannibalized, abandoned and rendered useless.
(AP, 8/31/09)
1990 Feb 25, Enver Hadri, a
human rights leader, was allegedly shot in the head by Veselin
Vukotic and two other men while he was stopped at a traffic light in
Brussels, Belgium. Hadri had papers on him incriminating former
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in assassinations. All three
gunmen were believed to be hitmen working for the Yugoslav secret
service. Veselin was arrested in Spain in 2006.
(AP, 2/27/06)
1990 Jul, In Albania young
people demonstrated against the regime in Tirana, 5,000 citizens
sought refuge in foreign embassies. Delegates of the parliament of
Kosova declared the independence of Kosova from Serbia. Subsequently
Serbia abolished the parliament and government of Kosova, closed
down the only Albanian daily, and took over the state-owned
television and radio. The Albanians of Kosovo voted for sovereignty
and elected a shadow government that was banned by Milosevic. In
1992 Ibrahim Rugova (1944-2006) was elected president and Fehmi
Agani was the vice-president.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.C2)(www, Albania, 1998)(Econ,
1/28/06, p.84)
1990 Jul, The Milosevic regime
ordered the mass firing of ethnic Albanians from all civil service
posts.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.A6)
1990 Sep 30, Serbs in Croatia
proclaimed autonomy.
(http://tinyurl.com/q8lrk)
1990 Dec 28, The Milosevic
controlled Serbian Parliament secretly ordered the Serbian National
Bank to issue some $1.4 billion in credits to friends of Mr.
Milosevic.
(WSJ, 4/28/99, p.A18)
1990 Dec, In the 1st
multi-party elections Slobodan Milosevic won the presidency and his
Socialist (formerly Communist) Party captured 194 of 250
parliamentary seats.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 10/6/00, p.A19)
1990 The Orthodox Church
elected Bishop Pavle Ras-Prizren (75) as its new Patriarch.
(WSJ, 6/24/99, p.A8)
1990s In 2001 David Halberstam
authored "War in a Time of Peace: Bush Clinton and the Generals." It
covered the ethnic violence in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
(SSFC, 9/23/01, DB p.60)
1991 Jan 7, The government of
Ante Markovic discovered the Dec 28, 1990 issue of secret credits by
the Milosevic controlled Parliament.
(WSJ, 4/28/99, p.A18)
1991 Mar 9, Milosevic ordered a
crackdown on protests and 2 men were killed in the Belgrade Square.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A15)
1991 Jun 21, Secretary of State
James Baker visited Yugoslavia, where he pleaded for a peaceful
solution to multi-ethnic conflicts that were threatening to erupt
into civil war.
(AP, 6/21/01)
1991 Jun 25, The civil war in
Yugoslavia began when Croatia and Slovenia proclaimed independence
from Yugoslavia. Following months of unsuccessful talks among
Yugoslavia’s six republics about the future of the federation, the
western republics of Croatia and Slovenia declared their
independence. Entities of Yugoslavia began to split off leaving
Serbia and Montenegro.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(SFC, 10/18/96,
A16)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(AP, 6/25/01)
1991 Jun 27, Yugoslav army
tanks and helicopters attacked Slovenia. Fighting broke out between
Serbian and Croatian militias. The Slovene militia trapped an
armored column and captured 2,000 soldiers. The prisoners were
released and an agreement was reached for Slovenia to control its
own borders after a 90 day period of int’l. observation.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1991 Jul 2, A European
Community-brokered truce between Yugoslavia and the breakaway
republic of Slovenia was shattered as the federal army battled
Slovene militias.
(AP, 7/2/01)
1991 Aug, Serbian tanks and
aircraft drove refugees from 3 Croatian towns.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1991 Sep 1, Yugoslavia's
presidency and the country's feuding republics accepted a European
Community plan designed to stop months of fierce fighting among
Croats, Serbs and the army.
(AP, 9/1/01)
1991 Sep 21, Yugoslav army
tanks and artillery began an invasion of eastern Croatia. The Croats
said that some 600 soldiers and 1200 civilians perished in the
3-month bombardment of Vukovar by rebel Serbs.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)
1991 Sep 25, The U.N. Security
Council unanimously passed Resolution 713 that imposed a worldwide
arms embargo against Yugoslavia and all its warring factions.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(AP, 9/20/01)
1991 Sep, The Croat militia
unit Autumn Rains arrived in Gospic. When front-line fighting ended
early this month, the unit turned its attention to the 9,000 Serbs
who lived in the area. Miro Bajramovic in 1997 admitted that the
unit tortured prisoners and he killed 72 people. He said that he
acted on the orders of interior minister Ivan Vekic.
(SFC, 9/9/97, p.A10,12)
1991 Oct 18, In Croatia 22
civilians died after being forced by Serbian soldiers into a mined
clover field in the village of Lovas.
(AFP,
6/26/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovas_massacre)
1991 Oct, Early this month
Serbs opened bombardment of the Croatian port of Dubrovnik. At least
43 civilians were killed in the attack.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 10/22/01, p.B1)
1991 Oct, During the siege of
Vukovar the Yugoslavian army and Serbian paramilitary troops killed
and buried as many as 1000 Croatian soldiers and civilians. The
bodies began to be uncovered in Apr 1998. Some 250 men were taken
from a hospital in Vukovar and massacred under the direction of
Zeljko Raznatovic, aka Arkan.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 1/16/00, p.A16)
1991 Nov 8, The European
Community and Canada imposed economic sanctions on Yugoslavia in an
attempt to stop the Balkan civil war.
(AP, 11/8/01)
1991 Nov 20, Mile Mrksic,
Miroslav Radic, and Veselin Sljivan-Canin, officers in the Yugoslav
National Army, ordered the Serb army and military police to withdraw
from the hospital at Vukovar. The paramilitary forces then took 194
Croat men in small groups to an area nearby and shot them. Radic
surrendered to Serbian authorities in 2003. Mrksic and Sljivancanin
were convicted by a UN tribunal in 2007. Radic was acquitted.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)(SFC, 4/22/03, A7)(AP,
9/27/07)(WSJ, 9/28/07, p.A1)
1991 Nov 23, Yugoslavia's rival
leaders agreed to a new cease-fire, the 14th of the Balkan civil
war.
(AP, 11/23/01)
1991 Dec 6, Gen. Pavle Strugar
led the Yugoslav attack on Dubrovnik. At least 43 civilians were
killed in the attack. Serbs had opened bombardment of the Croatian
port of Dubrovnik in early October. In 2001 Strugar (68) turned
himself into the war crimes tribunal at the Hague. In 2005 Strugar
was convicted of two counts of willful destruction of Dubrovnik and
attacking civilians. In 2008 appeals judges added two more
convictions for unjustified devastation of the town and attacking
civilian sites. They also cut his original sentence from eight years
to seven and a half years because of his deteriorating health.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 10/22/01, p.B1)(AP,
7/17/08)
1991 Dec 19, Rebel Serbs
declared independence in the Krajina region, which was almost a
third of Croatia. The Republic of Serbian Krajina lasted 4 years
with the hilltop fortress of Knin as the capital.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A15)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(WSJ,
4/22/99, A12)
1991 Dec 21, In
Bosnia-Herzegovina a Serb minority held an unofficial referendum
opposing separation from Yugoslavia. Local Serb leaders proclaimed a
new republic separate from Bosnia.
(SFC,10/16/97,
p.A12)(www.vdiest.nl/Europa/boznia.htm)
1991 Dec, Germany gave
diplomatic recognition to Slovenia and Croatia. The EU said it would
recognize Croatia and Slovenia as independent states.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 10/6/00, p.A19)
1991 Steve H. Hanke published
"Monetary Reform and the Development of a Yugoslav Market Economy."
(WSJ, 4/28/99, p.A18)
1991 Vuk Draskovic led protests
against state control of the media that was crushed with tanks
ordered by Slobodan Milosevic.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C2)
1991 In Kosovo the ethnic
Albanian faculty and students of Pristina Univ. were forced out and
Serbs took over.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A9)
1991 The Adriatic port of Zadar
was bombed by Yugoslav army troops under Gen’l. Momcilo Perisic.
Some 30 civilians were killed and 120 buildings damaged. He and 18
fellow officers went on trial in absentia in Zagreb for war crimes
in 1996.
(SFC, 10/18/96, A16)
1991 ICN Pharmaceuticals
purchased the state pharmacy from the government and held a 75%
stake.
(WSJ, 2/8/99, p.A19)
1992 Jan 3, The UN, led by US
Sec. of State Cyrus Vance, brokered a cease-fire between the
Croatian government and rebel Serbs. Following subsequent breaches
the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) put 14,000 peacekeeping troops
into Croatia. The EC recognized the independence of Croatia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1992 Jan 7, Serb forces shot
down a European Community helicopter in Croatia, killing five truce
observers.
(AP, 1/7/02)
1992 Feb 29, Bosnia-Herzegovina
voted overwhelmingly for independence. The Muslim-led Bosnian
government declared independence.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 6/19/96, p.A10)
1992 Mar 3, Bosnia’s Muslims
and Croats voted for independence in a referendum boycotted by
Serbs.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1992 Mar, In Belgrade 30,000
people turned out in protest over Milosevic’s war policy.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1992 Mar, Elections were held
in Kosova; the Democratic League of Kosova won the majority of
votes; the elections were called illegal by the Serbian regime.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1992 Apr 6, War broke out in
northern Bosnia between the Bosnian government and local Serbs who
began to lay siege to the capital Serajevo. Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic, a psychiatrist, began the war in Bosnia with the
help of Serbian Pres. Slobodan Milosevic, who ruled Yugoslavia and
the old Yugoslav People’s Army.
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.A-11) (WP. 6/29/96,
p.A20)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1992 Apr 18, Serbia issued a
protest to the United States, accusing Washington of siding with
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia in the Yugoslav crisis.
(AP, 4/18/97)
1992 Apr 27, The Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of
Serbia and its lone ally, Montenegro.
(AP, 4/27/97)
1992 May 1, Serbian forces
began to shell Serajevo.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1992 May 2, Ejup Ganic took
over as Bosnia's acting president. Serbian prosecutors later alleged
that Ganic personally commanded a series of attacks on illegal
targets across Sarajevo, including an officers' club, a military
hospital and what the Serbs describe as a medical convoy making its
way out of town.
(AP, 3/4/11)
1992 May 3, Yugoslav Army
seized Bosnian Pres. Alija Izetbegovic on his return from peace
talks in Lisbon. He was released the next day.
(www.nytimes.com/specials/bosnia/context/apchrono.html)
1992 May 11, Leaders of 12
European countries recalled their ambassadors from Serb-dominated
Yugoslavia to protest Serb involvement in Bosnia's ethnic war.
(AP, 5/11/97)
1992 May 14, A US press
briefing on Serajevo by State Department spokeswoman Margaret
Tutweiler indicated concerns of ethnic cleansing by Serb forces.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1992 May 24, Kosovo Albanians
held unofficial elections for an assembly and president. Ibrahim
Rugova won an overwhelming majority and was elected President of
Kosovo.
(www.hrw.org/reports/1992/yugoslavia/)
1992 May 27, The 12-nation
European Community imposed trade sanctions on Serbia to stop its
interference in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(AP, 5/27/97)
1992 May 30, President Bush
ordered the seizure of Yugoslav government assets in the United
States after the United Nations imposed sanctions in an effort to
force Yugoslavia to observe a cease-fire in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(AP, 5/30/97)
1992 May, Ilija Jurisic, a
Bosnian security officer, ordered an attack on a Yugoslav army
convoy that killed at least 50 soldiers. In 2009 Jurisic was found
guilty of ordering the attack against the Serb-led army convoy
consisting of dozens of army trucks carrying some 100 soldiers
withdrawing from the predominantly Muslim Bosnian town of Tuzla. The
Serbian court sentenced him to 12 years in prison. On Oct 11, 2010,
an appeals court overturned the conviction and 12-year prison
sentence.
(AP, 9/28/09)(AP, 10/11/10)
1992 May, The UN security
council approved new commercial sanctions against Yugoslavia, i.e.
Serbia, for backing rebel Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1992 Jun 1, The US Treasury
Department, responding to UN sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia, froze
an estimated $200 million in assets of the Serb-led Yugoslav
government.
(AP, 6/1/97)
1992 Jun 29, The Serbs yielded
Serajevo airport to the UN.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1992 Jul 7, Group of Seven
leaders meeting in Munich, Germany, condemned the carnage in former
Yugoslavia and warned Serb-led troops that U.N. military force would
be used if needed to keep relief operations going.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1992 Jul 24, In Bosnia Serb
prison guards at the former ceramics factory of Keraterm fired
machine guns through metal doors of "Room 3" where over 200
prisoners were trapped. The carnage continued for hours. In 2001
Dusko Sikirica (camp commander), Dragan Kolundzija and Damir Dosen
were tried at the Hague for their roles in the slaughter. Sikirica
was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Dosen and Kolundzija received 5
and 3 year sentences.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A11)(SFC, 11/14/01, p.A19)
1992 Jul 29, Newsday published
reports of death camps for Muslims and Croats run by the Serbian
Army in northern Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1992 July Yugoslavia was
suspended from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) for fomenting war in Bosnia.
(SFC, 3/28/98,
p.A8)(www.hrw.org/wr2k1/europe/yugoslavia3.html)
1992 Aug 21, Serbian soldiers
separated over 200 men, mostly Croats and Muslims, from a convoy of
civilians from the Trnopolje detention camp in Bosnia. The captives
were taken to a wooded ravine at Mount Vlasic and shot dead. In 2003
Darko Mrdja, commander of a special police unit, admitted to a court
in the Hague of playing a role in the slaughter. In 2009 Bosnian
forensic experts found the remains of at least 60 Muslims and Croats
in the ravine.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A8)(AP,
8/26/09)
1992 Aug, The UN Security
Council unanimously condemned Serb ethnic cleansing and with 3
abstentions voted to authorize military force to protect
humanitarian aid.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1992 Aug, Viewers worldwide
were shocked by TV pictures of emaciated Muslim captives in Serb-run
prison camps in Bosnia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1992 Aug, The Serb-run Omarska
camp closed. Bosnian Serb Dusan Tadic, former cafe owner and karate
instructor, was later accused of beating, mutilating, and killing
Bosnian Muslims at the concentration camps run by the Serbians at
Omarska and Keraterm. On May 7, 1997, he became the first war
criminal convicted of war crimes in the Bosnian War between the
Bosnian Muslims and the former Yugoslavia.
(WSJ, 5/9/96,
p.A-18)(www.bookrags.com/biography-dusan-tadic-cri/)
1992 Sep 22, The U.N. General
Assembly voted to expel Yugoslavia. A resolution was passed that
required the Belgrade government to apply as a new member. A new
application was submitted in 2000.
(AP, 9/22/97)(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A14)
1992 Oct, Four members of the
Avengers, a Serbian paramilitary force, abducted 16 Muslims from a
bus in Serbia and took them to Bosnia where they were tortured and
executed. In 2005 a Serbian court 4 convicted former Avengers for
the murders. 2 men in custody, Djordje Sevic and Dragutin Dragicevic
were sentenced to 15 and 20 years respectively. Two others, Milan
Lukic and Oliver Krsmanovic, were tried in absentia and received
20-year jail terms.
(AP, 7/16/05)
1992 Nov 5, Bobby Fischer beat
Boris Spassky to win the Chess title in Belgrade. Fischer received
$3.5 million for his win, but violated UN sanctions and an embargo
on doing business in Yugoslavia. In 2004 he was arrested in Japan
for traveling on a revoked USD passport.
(www.ishipress.com/bobby-in.htm)(SFC, 7/17/04,
p.A2)
1992 Dec 16, US Secretary of
State Lawrence S. Eagleburger said Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic had to answer for
atrocities committed in former Yugoslavia. In 2000 a US federal jury
ordered Radovan Karadzic to pay $745 million to a group of women,
who accused him of atrocities.
(AP, 12/16/97)(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A14)
1992 Dec 16, Yugoslavia was
kicked out of the IMF.
(WSJ, 4/28/99, p.A18)
1992 Dec 20, Serbia held
elections. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic won re-election. He
defeated the American entrepreneur Milan Panic in elections that
were "decidedly unfair."
(http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_democracy/election_watch/v004/)
1992 Dec 24, Pres. Bush had the
US Embassy in Belgrade read to Pres. Milosevic the "Christmas
Warning" cable: "In the event of conflict in Kosovo caused by
Serbian action, the US will be prepared to employ military force
against Serbians in Kosovo and in Serbia proper.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A19)
1992 Dec 26, Milan Panic
conceded defeat to Slobodan Milosevic almost a week after
Yugoslavia's presidential election.
(AP, 12/26/97)
1992 Vojislav Kostunica founded
the Democratic Party of Serbia.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A12)
1992 Yugoslavia under Milosevic
began stashing funds in front companies. Some $658 million was put
into 8 front companies in Cyprus alone.
(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A6)
1992-1995 The war between Bosnia's Croats, Muslims
and Serbs claimed some 100,000 lives. Government officials estimated
that at least 20,000 mostly Muslim women were raped during the
conflict.
(AFP, 11/29/10)
1993 Jan 7, A preliminary
report prepared for the European Community said Serb fighters may
have raped about 20,000 women in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(AP, 1/7/98)
1993 Jan, Heavy fighting and
the bitter Serb siege of Serajevo continued. The UN and European
Union peace efforts failed and war broke out between Muslims and
Croats in Bosnia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1993 Apr 17, The U.N. Security
Council voted to tighten sanctions against Yugoslavia for its role
in the Bosnian war.
(AP, 4/17/98)
1993 Apr 26, President Clinton
signed an executive order imposing new economic sanctions against
Yugoslavia after the Serbian leadership in Bosnia voted against
accepting a U.N.-sponsored plan to end the war.
(AP, 4/26/98)
1993 May, The International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established by
Resolution 827 of the UN Security Council.
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.A-11)
1993 Nov 9, Serbian army fired
on a school in Sarajevo and 9 children died.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1993 Vuk Draskovich was branded
as a traitor by Bosnian Serbs when he rejected the war and was
jailed and badly beaten by Milosevic’s security forces.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A14)
1993 Gen. Zivota Panic (d.2003
at 70), Serbian Army chief of staff, was removed from his post and
retired following corruption reports.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A22)
1994 Jan 6, The dinar collapsed
and the German mark was declared legal tender for all transactions
including taxes.
(WSJ, 4/28/99, p.A18)
1994 Jan 24, In a major
currency reform the superdinar was introduced and pegged to the
deutsche mark at a rate of one to one. It made the superdinar worth
13 million old dinars.
(WSJ, 4/28/99, p.A18)
1994 Feb 6, A day after a
mortar shell killed 68 people in a Sarajevo marketplace, President
Clinton called for a United Nations probe. [see Feb 9]
(AP, 2/6/99)
1994 Feb 9, NATO delivered an
ultimatum to Bosnian Serbs to remove heavy guns encircling Sarajevo,
or face air strikes. Hours before the ultimatum was issued, the
Bosnian Serbs agreed to withdraw their artillery and mortars from
around Sarajevo.
(AP,
2/9/99)(www.fas.org/man/gao/nsiad-95-148.htm)
1994 Feb 28, Two U.S. F-16
fighter jets downed four Serb warplanes that U.N. officials said had
bombed an arms plant run by Bosnia's Muslim-led government. This was
the first NATO use of force in the troubled area.
(AP, Internet, 2/28/99)(HN, 2/28/99)
1994 Mar 26, U.N. peacekeepers
in Bosnia-Herzegovina destroyed a Serb bunker following a seven-hour
exchange of fire.
(AP, Internet, 3/26/99)
1994 Mar 30, Serbs and Croats
signed a cease-fire to end their war in Croatia while Bosnian
Muslims and Serbs continued to battle each other.
(AP, Internet, 3/30/99)
1994 Apr 9, The Bosnian Serbs
had mounted an aggressive assault on Gorazde and pounded its 65,000
citizens with heavy artillery.
(SFC, 7/15/96, p.A10)
1994 Apr 9, Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali ordered U.N. troops to use "all available
means" to roll back Serb military gains in the Muslim enclave of
Gorazde, Bosnia.
(AP, 4/9/99)
1994 Apr 10, NATO launched its
first air strike against Serbs around the eastern enclave of
Gorazde, which was under heavy attack.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1994 Apr 20, The Serbian army
bombed Gorazde, Bosnia, and the local hospital was hit.
(www.snd-us.com/history/dolecek/dolecek_accuse.htm)
1994 Aug 2, Serbia threatened
to cut all aid to the Bosnian Serbs if they didn't approve an
international peace plan.
(AP, 8/2/99)
1994 Aug 4, Serb-dominated
Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs, sealing the
300-mile border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia.
(AP, 8/4/99)
1994 Sep 23, The U.N. Security
Council rewarded Yugoslavia for sealing its border with Bosnia by
easing sanctions in sports, cultural exchanges and air traffic.
(AP, 9/23/99)
1994 Nov 19, The U.N. Security
Council, anxious to stop Serb attacks on the "safe area" of Bihac in
northwest Bosnia, authorized NATO to bomb rebel Serb forces striking
from neighboring Croatia.
(AP, 11/19/99)
1994 Nov 21, NATO retaliated
for repeated Serb attacks on a U.N. safe haven by bombing an
airfield in a Serb-controlled section of Croatia.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1994 Nov 22, Serb fighters in
northwest Bosnia set villages ablaze in response to a retaliatory
air strike by NATO.
(AP, 11/22/99)
1994 Nov 23, NATO warplanes
blasted Serb missile batteries in two air raids while Bosnian Serb
fighters, for the first time, broke into the U.N.-designated safe
haven of Bihac.
(AP, 11/23/99)
1994 Nov 27, US Defense
Secretary William Perry, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press,"
suggested the Bosnian government had lost the war in the Balkans,
and acknowledged NATO was powerless to stop the Serbs.
(AP, 11/27/04)
1994 Central Bank governor
Dragoslav Avramovic was the architect of monetary reforms that ended
hyperinflation.
(SFC, 5/14/96, A-8)
1994 Zoran Djindjic became
president of the Democratic Party.
(SSFC, 4/1/01, p.C1)
1994 The Dardania Bank, owned
and controlled by ethnic Albanians, was founded in Pristina. It
moved to Tirana during the NATO bombing of 1999.
(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A1)
1994 Mirjana Markovic the wife
of Pres. Slobodan Milosevic, founded the Yugoslav Left Party (JUL).
The party pulled economic strings and financed members campaigns.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.A23)
1995 Jan 1, In Bosnia a four
month truce between the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian government was
brokered by former Pres. Jimmy Carter.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Mar 20, The Bosnian army,
having gained strength despite an arms embargo, launched a major
offensive in the northeast against Serb positions.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 May 1, The Croatian army
captured the Serb enclave of Western Slavonia in its first major bid
to retake territories occupied in 1991. In reply the Krajina Serbs
launched a rocket attack on Zagreb, the Croatian capital. Milan
Martic, Croatian Serb leader of rebel Serb forces, ordered the
shelling of Zagreb. Martic surrendered to the UN war crimes tribunal
in 2002.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)(SFC,
5/8/02, p.A17)
1995 May 2, Serb missiles
exploded in the heart of Zagreb, killing six.
(www.hri.org/news/usa/std/1995/95-05-02.std.html)
1995 May 25, NATO warplanes
struck Bosnian Serb headquarters. Serbs answered with swift
defiance, storming UN weapons depots, attacking safe areas and
taking peacekeepers as hostages.
(AP, 5/25/00)
1995 May 26, Serbs bombarded
Serajevo. On Jun 6 NATO launched 2 air raids against an ammunition
dump in Serb-held central Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A10)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Jun 6, NATO launched 2 air
raids against an ammunition dump in Serb-held central Bosnia.
The air strikes touched off a crises in which [270] 350 UN
peacekeepers were taken hostage by Bosnian Serbs. Serb forces seized
270 UN peacekeepers, shackled them to potential targets, and ordered
them to plead on camera for the NATO air attacks to stop. Serbia
improved its relations with the West by helping to arrange the
release of the hostages.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A10)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Jul 6, At 3:15AM The UN
safe area at Srebrenica came under attack by the Bosnian Serb army’s
Drina corps under Genl. Radislav Krstic, and some 7,500 Muslim men
and boys were killed. The acquisition and delivery of arms was
organized by Yugoslav army officer Mirko Krajisnik, brother to
Momcilo Krajisnik, president of the Bosnian Serb assembly. In 1998
Chuck Sudetic published "Blood and Vengeance: One Family’s Story of
the War in Bosnia." The book focused on the Srebrenica killings. 300
Dutch troops were later accused of not preventing the Serbs from
overrunning the town. Bosnian Serb Gen’l. Radislav Krstic was
arrested in 1998 for genocide in the 1995 takeover of Srebrenica. In
1999 the UN issued a 155-page report that admitted its failure to
block the massacre. Krstic was convicted in 2001. In 2003 Bosnian
Serb officers Momir Nikolic and Dragan Obrenovic described the
massacre as a well-planned and deliberate killing operation. In 2003
An Int'l. Court sentenced Col. Dragan Obrenovic (40) to 17 years in
prison for his role in the slaughter of more than 7,000 men and boys
in Srebrenica.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)(SFC, 8/12/98, p.A14)(SFC,
12/3/98, p.A16)(SFC, 11/16/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A10)(SFC,
8/3/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.A14)(AP, 12/11/03)
1995 Jul 11, Srebrenica, a UN
declared "safe area," fell to the Bosnian Serbs. 7,000 Muslim men
supposedly escaped but were never heard from again. Drazen Erdemovic
(24) later admitted that he participated in killing 70 men at
Srebrenica. Victims were shot in the back in groups of 10 by himself
and fellow soldiers in the Bosnian Serb Army’s 10th Sabotage
Detachment. He was told that he would be killed if he refused to
follow orders.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12) (SFC, 7/7/96, A10) (SFC,
6/1/96, p.A10)
1995 Jul 11-1995 Jul 16,
In the Srebrenica Massacre buses arrived to take women and children
to Muslim territory, while the Serbs began separating out all men
from age 12 to 77 for "interrogation for suspected war crimes". It
is estimated that 23,000 women and children were deported in the
next 30 hours while hundreds of men were held in trucks and
warehouses. On 13 July killings of unarmed Muslims took place in one
such warehouse in the nearby village of Kravica. By July 16 Early
reports of massacres emerged as the first survivors of the long
march from Srebrenica began to arrive in Muslim-held territory.
Between July 11 and July 16 more than 7,000 unarmed Muslim men are
thought to have been killed by Serbian forces.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/675945.stm)
1995 Jul 16, Early reports of
massacres in Bosnia emerged as the first survivors of the long march
from Srebrenica began to arrive in Muslim-held territory. Following
negotiations between the UN and the Bosnian Serbs, the Dutch were at
last permitted to leave Srebrenica, leaving behind weapons, food and
medical supplies.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/675945.stm)
1995 Jul 23, The United Nations
ordered the first combat unit from its rapid reaction force to
Sarajevo to take out any rebel Serb guns that fire at U.N.
peacekeepers.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1995 cJul 25, Two weeks after
overrunning Srebrenica, Bosnian Serbs took over Zepa.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Aug 1, NATO threatened
major air strikes if any more "safe areas" were attacked in Bosnia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Aug 4, Croatia launched an
offensive against Krajina and captured in days a region that Serb
rebels had held for 4 years. Most of its province of Krajina,
including the Serb stronghold Knin, was taken in a 3-day offensive.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Aug 28, Serb shells hit
Serajevo near the main market and killed 37 people and wounded 85
others.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Aug 30, Bosnian Serbs gave
Serbian Pres. Slobodan Milosevic authority to negotiate for them.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Aug 30-31, NATO planes and
UN artillery blasted Serb targets in Bosnia in response to the
market attack in Serajevo.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Aug, The extremist radical
party of Serbia under Vojislav Seselj published a manifesto titled:
"How To Solve the Problem of Kosovo." It advocated firing Albanian
workers, encouraging Serbian colonization, military occupation and
buffer zones along the Albanian and Macedonian borders.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.A7)
1995 Aug, Some 200,000 Serbs
were moved from the Krajina region. The blitz attack, dubbed Storm,
sent 200,000 minority Serbs fleeing the country in miles-long
columns of tractors, cars and horse-driven carts. More than 4,500
were killed and some 3,000 are still listed as missing in an
operation that was directed by retired American generals through
MPRI of Alexandria, Va. About 14,000 Krajina Serbs ended up in
Kosovo until 1998, when they left as violence spread.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A15)(SFC, 7/6/99, p.B1)(AP,
8/5/18)
1995 Sep 14, Bosnian Serbs
agreed to move heavy weapons and tanks away from Serajevo. NATO
halted bombing in response.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Sep 15, A Muslim-Croat
offensive won 1,500 square miles of land. More than 150,000 Serbs
fled, many to Eastern Slovonia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Oct 5, Pres. Clinton
announced that a cease-fire was agreed on in Bosnia to start on Oct
10, and that combatants would attend talks in the US.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Oct 12, After a 2-day
delay, a cease-fire in Bosnia went into effect a minute after
midnight. Fighting continued over contested towns in northwest
Bosnia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Oct 16-18, Richard
Holbrooke and other international mediators met in Moscow and
traveled to the main capitals of the former Yugoslavia. The US named
the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, as the site for
the peace talks.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Nov 1, Peace talks for the
countries of the former Yugoslavia were launched in Dayton, Ohio.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Nov 21, The Dayton Peace
Accord, was initialed by the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.
US Sec. of State, Warren Christopher and chief mediator Richard
Holbrooke manage to keep the parties talking for over 3 weeks to
reach this agreement to end three and a-half years of ethnic
fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina. One year deployment of 20,000 US
troops as one-third of a NATO peace keeping force was estimated to
cost about $1.5 bil. The US also planned to contribute $600 mil over
three years to help rebuild Bosnia.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A1,3)(SFC, 10/6/00, p.A19)(AP,
11/21/00)
1995 Nov 26, The dinar was
devalued 62.6%.
(WSJ, 4/28/99, p.A18)
1995 Dec 14, An agreement for
peace in Bosnia, reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in
Dayton, Ohio, was formally signed. Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of
Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia
signed the Bosnian peace treaty in Paris. The agreement divided
Bosnia into 2 autonomous territories and granted 51% of Bosnia to
the Muslim-Croat federation and 49% to the Serbs (Republika Srpska).
Elections were scheduled and a force of 60,000 Western troops was
planned for deployment. A 3-member presidency and a national
parliament was also part of the plan. The office of High
Representative was created to oversee the implementation of the
civilian aspects of the Peace Agreement.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A8)(SFC, 9/22/98, p.A8)(AP,
12/14/00)(www.ohr.int/)
1995 Annual inflation was
running 120%. The dinar was being devalued by 69%.
(WSJ, 11/27/95, p.A-12)
1996 Apr 9, Yugoslavia and
Macedonia established diplomatic relations.
(WSJ, 4/9/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 7, The first
international war crimes proceeding since Nuremberg opened at The
Hague in the Netherlands, with a Serbian police officer, Dusan
Tadic, facing trial on murder-torture charges. Tadic was convicted
of crimes against humanity but acquitted of murder on May 7, 1997.
In Jul, 1997 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 5/8/97, p.C2)(SFC, 7/15/97,
p.A12)
1996 May 13, In Belgrade
thousands of workers took to the streets demanding jobs and back pay
and chanted support for the Central Bank governor, who is at odds
with the government leadership. IMF funds are on delay because
Milosevic wants the IMF to recognize Serbia as the sole successor of
the old federation.
(SFC, 5/14/96, A-8)
1996 May 15, Serb. Pres.
Slobodan Milosevic voted to sack the rump Yugoslavia’s central bank
governor, Dragoslav Avramovic.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-10)
1996 Aug 7, The presidents of
Serbia and Croatia agreed to establish diplomatic relations.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A11)
1996 Sep, 20, Thousands of
workers in Kragujevac were in their 5th week of strikes and protests
for money, jobs and political change.
(SFC, 9/20/96, p.A16)
1996 Nov 19, The Zajedno
(Together) opposition coalition claimed victory in 44 municipalities
across Serbia.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C2)
1996 Nov 24, In Serbia a court
controlled by Pres. Milosevic annulled the electoral victory of the
opposition. The opposition had one 67 of 110 seats of the Belgrade
City Council. The court annulled 52 of the opposition seats.
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.A8)
1996 Nov 25, In Belgrade,
Serbia, 100,000 demonstrators protested the nullification of
municipal election results.
(SFC, 11/26/96, p.B2)
1996 Nov 29, The opposition
coalition Zajedno (Together) continued protests in Belgrade against
Slobodan Milosevic.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A12)
1996 Nov 30, In Belgrade a
rally of 150,000 marched against Milosevic.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 3, In Belgrade
Milosevic gagged the independent radio stations, Radio B-92 and Boom
93. Protests continued.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C2)
1996 Dec 5, Milosevic allowed
the radio stations to resume broadcasting. The disputed elections
were to be reviewed by the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 12/6/96, p.B2)
1996 Dec 13, Demonstrations
spread to 10 cities in Serbia.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A10)
1996 Dec 16, Milosevic granted
opponents the original election results in Nis and a recount in
Smederovska Palanka, 2 of the 15 cities where election results had
been annulled.
(SFC, 12/17/96, p.B2)
1996 Dec 24, Street fights
erupted in Belgrade between protestors and supporters of Milosevic
as protests continued for the 35th day.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 25, Pres. Milosevic
banned street demonstrations.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 26, Riot police
cleared tens of thousands off the streets of central Belgrade but
allowed a smaller protest of 15,000 at the pedestrian Square of the
Republic. Patriarch Pavle, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, said
the street violence was caused by the authorities. Montenegro
threatened to print its own money to counter the inflated dinars of
the Milosevic regime. Pedrag Starcezic (39) died of head injuries
from the Dec 24 protests.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 27, The Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), led by former Spanish
Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, recognized the opposition victories
in the Nov 17 local elections.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 27, In Belgrade,
Yugoslavia, about 60,000 opposition supporters defied riot police
and rallied in celebration of an international report backing their
triumph over Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in recent local
elections.
(AP, 12/27/97)
1996 Mirjana Markovic published
her book: "Between East and South," based on her newspaper columns.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.A23)
1996 The International Tribunal
for War Crimes in former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague, indicted 8
Bosnian Serb men for sexual assault in eastern Bosnia, a verdict
based on testimonies collected by Nusreta Sivac and Jadranka Cigelj.
It was the first time in history that an international tribunal
charged someone solely for crimes of sexual violence.
(AP, 3/8/13)
1996 The Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) began launching attacks against police stations. The KLA was
led by Hashim Thaci and his lieutenants Azem Syla and Xhavit Halati.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.C4)(SFC, 6/25/99, p.A10)
1997 Jan 2, The Serbian
Orthodox Church issued a criticism of Pres. Milosevic and accused
his government of stealing elections and provoking bloodshed.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A16)
1997 Jan 6, On the Orthodox
Christmas Eve the Yugoslav army announced that it would not
interfere in the daily protests against Pres. Milosevic.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 16, Guerrillas of the
Kosovo Liberation Army set off a bomb that wounded Radivoje Papovic,
hard-line Serbian rector of the Univ. in Pristina.
(SFC, 2/21/96, p.A13)
1997 Jan 23, In Kragujevac,
Serbia, opposition representatives tried to take over the TV
station, but were blocked by the regime of Pres. Milosevic.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A13)
1997 Feb 2, Riot police beat
pro-democracy protestors in the biggest show of force in 75 days of
anti-government protests.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 3, Belgrade police
beat up protestors and representatives of Kosovo’s Albanian majority
said 5 people were killed in a police sweep.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Feb 4, Milosevic said that
he would recognized the opposition victories in 14 towns.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 8, It was reported
that a new book by former journalist Slavoljub Djukic: "He, She and
Us," was flying off the shelves. The book was about Slobodan
Milosevic and his wife Mirjana Markovic.
(SFC, 2/8/96)
1997 Feb 21, The opposition
coalition took control of the Belgrade City Council with Zoran
Djindjic as mayor.
(SFC, 2/22/96, p.A1)
1997 Mar 7, In Belgrade
students ended 106 days of daily protests after their rector,
Dragutin Velickovic -A Milosevic supporter, resigned.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A12)
1997 Mar 20, The state
telecommunications authority cut independent BK TV’s transmission
lines from Belgrade. Hours later a Belgrade court ordered the
authority and state-run TV to carry BK.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A10)
1997 Apr 5, It was reported the
Pres. Milosevic might step down from Serbian presidency at the end
of his 2 terms and try to assume the ceremonial post of president of
all of Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A8)
1997 Apr 11, Minister Radovan
Stojicic (aka Badza or "Big Man" in Serbian) was shot and killed by
a masked assailant at a Belgrade restaurant. He was the commander of
Milosevic’s security police and was expected to take over the
Interior Ministry.
(SFC, 4/12/97, p.A10)
1997 May 30, A Serbian court
convicted 20 ethnic Albanians of terrorism for a wave of attacks in
Kosovo. They belonged to the National Movement for the Liberation of
Kosovo.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A13)
1997 Jul 15, Slobodan Milosevic
was elected president of the Yugoslav federation in a vote that
opposition parties said was illegal. He moved into Tito’s White
Palace, which had been empty since Tito’s death in 1980.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.C12)(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 23, Milosevic was
sworn in as president of Yugoslavia and crowds reacted by throwing
shoes at his motorcade, symbolizing the young people who have left
Serbia due to his regime.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 22, The Socialist
Party of Slobodan Milosevic claimed victory in the elections. Many
of his opponents boycotted the elections which they said were
rigged. Zoran Lilic was expected to take the presidency. A majority
was not won and a runoff election was scheduled for Oct 5.
(SFC, 9/22/97, p.A8)(SFC, 9/23/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 30, Zoran Djindjic,
mayor of Belgrade, was ousted in a coup by nationalist extremists
and some former allies. The city assembly voted to oust Djindjic and
the TV editors. Some 20,000 demonstrators protested in downtown
Belgrade. Senior editors of Studio B television, the only opposition
to Milosevic’s state television, were also ousted.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A10)(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 1, In Serbia It was
reported that Albanian students in Kosovo planned to demonstrate in
the streets for equal access to the university on par with the Serb
students at Pristina. Some 20,000 students protested and were
attacked by Serb police. At least 30 students were injured. 500
students were attacked by Serbian police.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A10)(SFC, 10/2/97,
p.A12)(SFC,12/10/97, p.C2)
1997 Oct 5, In Serbia a runoff
election was held with Zoran Lilic of the Socialist Party facing
Vojislav Seselj of the Radical Party for control of the 25-seat
parliament. Seselj defeated Lilic but the turnout was less than 50%
and a new election was scheduled in 2 months.
(SFC, 9/23/97, p.A10)(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A15)
1997 Oct 19, In Montenegro Milo
Djukanovic beat pro-Milosevic incumbent Momir Bulatovic for the
presidency.
(SFC,10/21/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 24, Zoran Todorovic
(aka "Rifle Butt"), top manager of Beopetrol and general secretary
of the Yugoslav United Left party (JUL), was shot dead. He was a
close confidante of Mirjana Markovic.
(SFC,10/25/97, p.A10)(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.A23)
1997 Nov 6, In Belgrade former
Serb soldier and convict, Slobodan Misic, was arrested after he told
reporters that he had killed up to 80 Croats and Muslims near
Vukovar in eastern Croatia and in the Bratunac-Srebrenica area of
eastern Bosnia in 1991.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.D3)
1997 Nov 28, The KLA emerged in
Kosovo with expensive Swiss manufactured uniforms and purloined
Albanian Kalashnikovs.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A13)
1997 Nov, An Interpol report
said that Kosovo Albanians hold the largest share of the heroin
market in Europe.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A1)
1997 Dec 7, Elections failed to
elect a president with a 50% majority. Milan Milutinovic, an ally of
Slobodan Milosevic received 42% and Vojislav Seselj, a former
paramilitary leader, had 33%. Vuk Draskovic received 16% and
threatened to call a boycott in a Dec 21 runoff.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A13)(SFC,12/10/97, p.A13)
1997 Dec 18, A group of 12
doctors and medical technicians marched for 3 days from Nis to
Belgrade to protest the lack of medical resources. In Belgrade
health minister Leposava Milicevic said she was too busy to see
them.
(SFC,12/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Dec 21, Milan Milutinovic
of the ruling Socialists claimed victory in the runoff election
against Vojislav Seselj, but it wasn’t clear if the turnout exceeded
50%.
(WSJ, 12/22/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 30, Riot police
dispersed thousands of Albanian students protesting in Pristina, who
demanded the right to study in their own language.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec, An arms deal in
principle between Russia and Yugoslavia was made in Moscow. The deal
was later denied by the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A10)(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B2)
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