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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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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