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108-651: In the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence. War broke out in Croatia between the Croatian Army and the breakaway Serb Krajina . Meanwhile, the Bosnian Muslims voted for independence. Bosnian Serbs declared an autonomous province , independent of Bosnia, and Bosnian Croats took similar steps. The war broke out in April 1992. Muslim foreign fighters came to support

216-743: A buffer state between the West and the Soviet Union and also prevented the Soviets from getting a toehold on the Mediterranean Sea . The central government's control began to be loosened due to increasing nationalist grievances and the Communist's Party's wish to support "national self determination ". This resulted in Kosovo being turned into an autonomous region of Serbia, legislated by

324-469: A collapse of existing collectivist arrangements". (Tito died soon after the book was published.) On 4 May 1980, Tito's death was announced through state broadcasts across Yugoslavia. His death removed what many international political observers saw as Yugoslavia's main unifying force, and subsequently ethnic tension started to grow in Yugoslavia. The crisis that emerged in Yugoslavia was connected with

432-698: A coup d'état in October 1988, but not a second one in January 1989. In addition to Serbia itself, Milošević could now install representatives of the two provinces and SR Montenegro in the Yugoslav Presidency Council. The very instrument that reduced Serbian influence before was now used to increase it: in the eight member Presidency, Milošević could count on a minimum of four votes – SR Montenegro (following local events), his own through SR Serbia, and now SAP Vojvodina and SAP Kosovo as well. In

540-488: A few hundred to several thousand men, but most had 2,000–3,000. There were 38 infantry brigades staffed by reservists, 19 had names and/or numbers and 19 only had names. The names commemorated famous or infamous figures from Croatian and Bosnian history. Each brigade had three or four battalions plus supporting elements. Two, the 107th and 109th were later transferred en masse to the ARBiH due to their Muslim majorities, as did

648-556: A group of mujahideens and a dozen Bosnian Army forces in Poljanice. They took prisoner at least 24 military-aged Croats and a 19 years old Croat girl who was wearing a Red Cross armband. The prisoners were taken to Bikoši, between Maljine and Mehurici. All these prisoners including the 19 years old girl were executed in Bikoši while they were being held prisoner. In the ICTY judgment during

756-638: A light anti-aircraft artillery battalion, Special Forces and artillery units. In early 1993 the HVO Home Guard was formed in order to provide support for the brigades. The HVO forces became better organized as time passed by, but they started creating guards brigades, mobile units of professional soldiers, only in early 1994. The Guards brigades were the sections of the HVO which handled its heavy weapons. The HVO had around 50 tanks, 400 artillery pieces, and 200 armored troop carriers. A brigade numbered between

864-610: A meeting in the Cankar Hall in Ljubljana, co-organized with the democratic opposition forces , publicly endorsing the efforts of Albanian protesters who demanded that Vllasi be released. In the 1995 BBC2 documentary The Death of Yugoslavia , Kučan claimed that in 1989, he was concerned that with the successes of Milošević's anti-bureaucratic revolution in Serbia's provinces as well as Montenegro, that his small republic would be

972-429: A much reduced Bosanska Posavina . Four Guards Brigades were formed, each manned by full-time professional soldiers. 29 brigades were reformed as three-battalion strong Home Defense Regiments, usually with the same name and depot. Four brigades were disbanded. The military police were reduced to one Light Assault Brigade at Mostar. Eight HVO units served with the ARBiH while two HVO brigades were forcibly incorporated into

1080-410: A ruling elite, and any tensions were solved on the federal level. The Yugoslav model of state organisation, as well as a "middle way" between planned and liberal economy , had been a relative success, and the country experienced a period of strong economic growth and relative political stability up to the 1980s, under Josip Broz Tito . After his death in 1980, the weakened system of federal government

1188-643: A senior leader of the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , had fought in Bosnia in 1995. Bosnian Salafi leader and mujahideen veteran Bilal Bosnić was in 2015 sentenced to seven years in prison for public incitement to terrorist activities, recruitment of terrorists to fight with ISIS in Syria. In a 2005 interview with U.S. journalist Jim Lehrer , Richard Holbrooke said: There were over 1,000 people in

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1296-533: A series of rallies, called "Rallies of Truth", Milošević's supporters succeeded in overthrowing local governments and replacing them with his allies. As a result of these events, in February 1989 ethnic Albanian miners in Kosovo organized a strike , demanding the preservation of the now-endangered autonomy. This contributed to ethnic conflict between the Albanian and Serb populations of the province. At 77% of

1404-617: A special unit. According to the ICTY indictment of Rasim Delić , Commander of Main Staff of the Bosnian army (ARBiH), after the formation of the 7th Muslim Brigade on 19 November 1992, the El Mudžahid were subordinated within its structure. According to a UN communiqué of 1995, the El Mudžahid battalion was "directly dependent on Bosnian staff for supplies" and for "directions" during combat with

1512-403: A strong Yugoslavia" but also hit at the heart of Serbian national sentiment. A majority of Serbs saw – and still see – Kosovo as the "cradle of the nation", and would not accept the possibility of losing it to the majority Albanian population. In an effort to ensure his legacy, Tito's 1974 constitution established a system of year-long presidencies, on a rotation basis out of the eight leaders of

1620-625: A subordinate relationship between the Mujahedin and the Accused prior to August 13, 1993. Testimony heard by the Trial Chamber and, in the main, documents tendered into evidence demonstrate that the ARBiH maintained a close relationship with the foreign Mujahedin as soon as these arrived in central Bosnia in 1992. Joint combat operations are one illustration of that. In Karaula and Visoko in 1992, at Mount Zmajevac around mid-April 1993 and in

1728-639: A time of austerity. Increasingly, demands were voiced in Serbia for more centralisation in order to force Croatia and Slovenia to pay more into the federal budget, demands that were completely rejected in the "have" republics. The relaxation of tensions with the Soviet Union after Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , the top position in 1985, meant that western nations were no longer willing to be generous with restructuring Yugoslavia's debts, as

1836-891: Is still felt decades later. On April 27, 1992, the Federal Council of the Assembly of the SFRY, based on the decision of the Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and the Assembly of Montenegro, adopted the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , which formally ended the breakup. Yugoslavia occupied a significant portion of the Balkan Peninsula , including a strip of land on the east coast of

1944-825: The SS (primarily in the 13th Waffen Mountain Division ). At the same time, former royalist, General Milan Nedić , was installed by the Axis as head of the puppet government in the German-occupied area of Serbia, and local Serbs were recruited into the Gestapo and the Serbian Volunteer Corps , which was linked to the German Waffen-SS . Both quislings were confronted and eventually defeated by

2052-602: The 1974 constitution . This constitution broke down powers between the capital and the autonomous regions in Vojvodina (an area of Yugoslavia with a large number of ethnic minorities) and Kosovo (with a large ethnic- Albanian population). Despite the federal structure of the new Yugoslavia , there was still tension between the federalists, primarily Croats and Slovenes who argued for greater autonomy, and unitarists , primarily Serbs. The struggle would occur in cycles of protests for greater individual and national rights (such as

2160-788: The Adriatic Sea , stretching southward from the Bay of Trieste in Central Europe to the mouth of Bojana as well as Lake Prespa inland, and eastward as far as the Iron Gates on the Danube and Midžor in the Balkan Mountains , thus including a large part of Southeast Europe , a region with a history of ethnic conflict. The important elements that fostered the discord involved contemporary and historical factors, including

2268-662: The Allied victory in World War II , Yugoslavia was set up as a federation of six republics, with borders drawn along ethnic and historical lines: Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia , Macedonia , Montenegro , Serbia , and Slovenia . In addition, two autonomous provinces were established within Serbia: Vojvodina and Kosovo . Each of the republics had its own branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia party and

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2376-584: The Army of Republika Srpska , but in the latter stage of the conflict clashed against its former ally, particularly in the Mostar area. The European Community Monitoring Mission estimated the strength of the HVO in the beginning of 1993 at 45,000–55,000. In July 1993, the Central Intelligence Agency estimated the HVO forces at 40,000 to 50,000 men. HVO was incorporated into the Army of

2484-478: The Croatian Spring ) and subsequent repression. The 1974 constitution was an attempt to short-circuit this pattern by entrenching the federal model and formalising national rights. The loosened control basically turned Yugoslavia into a de facto confederacy , which also placed pressure on the legitimacy of the regime within the federation. Since the late 1970s a widening gap of economic resources between

2592-522: The ICTY trial against Dario Kordić and Mario Čerkez  [ bs ] . In 2004, Evan Kohlmann stated that "the deployment of Arab fighters in Bosnia who were generally loyal to the jihadi leadership in Afghanistan exploded in the mid-1990s into numbers sometimes estimated even to exceed 5,000". Stephen Schwartz stated that "up to 6,000 “Arab Afghan” volunteers arrived in the country and enlisted in combat." In 2011, Thomas Hegghammer estimated

2700-608: The League of Communists of Slovenia , was endorsing Kosovo and Slovene separatism. Initial strikes in Kosovo turned into widespread demonstrations calling for Kosovo to be made the seventh republic. This angered Serbia's leadership which proceeded to use police force, and later the federal army (the Yugoslav People's Army JNA) by order of the Serbian-controlled Presidency. In February 1989 ethnic Albanian Azem Vllasi , SAP Kosovo's representative on

2808-515: The SANU Memorandum as "nothing else but the darkest nationalism". However, Kosovo's autonomy had always been an unpopular policy in Serbia, and he took advantage of the situation and made a departure from traditional communist neutrality on the issue of Kosovo. Milošević assured Serbs that their mistreatment by ethnic Albanians would be stopped. He then began a campaign against the ruling communist elite of SR Serbia, demanding reductions in

2916-569: The Socialist Republic of Serbia , SAP Kosovo and SAP Vojvodina . Since the SFR Yugoslav federation was formed in 1945, the constituent Socialist Republic of Serbia (SR Serbia) included the two autonomous provinces of SAP Kosovo and SAP Vojvodina. With the 1974 constitution, the influence of the central government of SR Serbia over the provinces was greatly reduced, which gave them long-sought autonomy. The government of SR Serbia

3024-711: The United Kingdom , the United States , Somalia and Yemen . The Bosnian mujahideen were primarily from Iran, Afghanistan and numerous Arab countries. Foreign mujahideen arrived in central Bosnia in the second half of 1992 with the aim of helping their Bosnian Muslim co-religionists to defend themselves from the Serb and Croat forces. Some originally went as humanitarian workers, while some of them were considered criminals in their home countries for illegally travelling to Bosnia and becoming soldiers. On 13 August 1993,

3132-446: The "motivating causes of the disintegration in economic circumstance and its ferocious pressures". Likewise, Sabine Rutar states that, “while antagonistic representations of the ethnic-national past indeed were heavily (mis-)used during the conflict, one must be careful not to turn these forceful categories of practice into categories of historical analysis”. As President, Tito's policy was to push for rapid economic growth , and growth

3240-619: The 7th Muslim Brigade of the 3rd Corps of the ARBiH, the Trial Chamber found that: the foreign Mujahedin established at Poljanice camp were not officially part of the 3rd Corps or the 7th Brigade of the ARBiH. Accordingly, the Prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the foreign Mujahedin officially joined the ARBiH and that they were de iure subordinated to the Accused Enver Hadžihasanović and Amir Kubura . It also found that: there are significant indicia of

3348-481: The ARBiH. The 115th Brigade became part of the ARBiH 2nd Corps while the King Tvrtko Brigade became part of the ARBiH 1st Corps. The HVO Air Forces and Anti-aircraft Artillery was formed in 1992 and consisted of the 11th Combined Squadron, operated helicopters and transports, and the 121st Observation Squadron which operated various civilian light aircraft in an observation and communications role. There

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3456-449: The BiH federal prosecutor. Kebo also accused Šefik Džaferović who at that time was a police commander of Zenica , and others, of deliberately hiding the war crimes. The SDA party denounced his accusations as "lies and cheap fabrications." The prosecutors investigating Džaferović decided to drop the investigation after examining documents sent by Kebo. An Iraqi mujahideen Abduladhim Maktouf

3564-634: The Bila valley in June 1993, the Mujahedin fought alongside ARBiH units against Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat forces." However, the ICTY Appeals Chamber in April 2008 concluded that the relationship between the 3rd Corps of the Bosnian Army headed by Hadžihasanović and the El Mudžahid detachment was not one of subordination but was instead close to overt hostility since the only way to control

3672-540: The Bosnian Muslims and an independent Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were also Islamist organizations and Muslim non-profit organizations and charitable trusts that supported the Bosnian Muslims. Volunteer mujahideen arrived from all around the world, including Afghanistan , Egypt , France , Indonesia , Iraq , Iran , Lebanon , Malaysia , Morocco , Pakistan , Russia (especially around Chechnya and Dagestan ), Saudi Arabia , Spain , Thailand , Turkey ,

3780-607: The Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović regarded them as symbolically valuable as a sign of the Muslim world's support for Bosnia, they appear to have made little military difference and became a major political liability. Estimates of the mujahideen forces size vary. In 2003, Charles R. Shrader reported that HVO general Tihomir Blaškić had estimated 3,000 to 4,000, but the actual figure would probably be closer to 2,000, based on testimonies given in

3888-483: The Bosnian government officially organized foreign volunteers into the detachment known as El Mudžahid in order to impose control and order. Initially, the foreign mujahideen gave food and other basic necessities to the local Muslim population, who were deprived of such by the Serb forces. Once hostilities broke out between the Bosnian government and the Croat forces (HVO), the mujahideen also participated in battles against

3996-581: The Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia on 23–24 September 1987. At a 1988 rally in Belgrade, Milošević made clear his perception of the situation facing SR Serbia in Yugoslavia, saying: At home and abroad, Serbia's enemies are massing against us. We say to them "We are not afraid. We will not flinch from battle". On another occasion, he privately stated: We Serbs will act in

4104-554: The Communist elites who had so mismanaged the economy by recklessly borrowing money abroad. The policies of austerity also led to uncovering much corruption on the part of the elites, most notably with the "Agrokomerc affair" of 1987, when the Agrokomerc enterprise of Bosnia turned out to be the centre of a vast nexus of corruption running all across Yugoslavia, and that the managers of Agrokomerc had issued promissory notes equivalent to almost US$ 1 billion without collateral, forcing

4212-759: The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (VFBiH) in December 1995 by following agreement made after signing the Dayton Accords . In December 2005 HVO was reorganized as 1st Infantry Guard Regiment of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina , after VFBiH and Army of Republika Srpska were united into a single armed force. The HVO was established on 8 April 1992 in Grude by the political leadership of Croats, mainly members of Croatian Democratic Union as

4320-538: The HVO alongside ARBiH units. The foreign mujahideen sometimes recruited local young men into the foreign mujahideen units. Accordingly, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) noted that it was sometimes "difficult to distinguish between the two groups". For that reason, the ICTY has used the term "Mujahideen" (which they spell Mujahedin ) for both fighters from Arab countries, and also local Muslims who joined

4428-525: The Muslim contingent of the 108th Brigade who went on to form the ARBiH's 108 Motorized Brigade. The 107th became the ARBiH 107th "Chilvalrous" Brigade while the 109th became the 109th Mountain Brigade. In 1993 General Ante Roso restructured the HVO along the lines of the Croatian Army (HV). The four OZ's were designated as Corps Districts Mostar, Tomislavgrad , Vitez and Orašje . Orašje included

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4536-408: The Presidency, was forced to resign and was replaced by an ally of Milošević. Albanian protesters demanded that Vllasi be returned to office, and Vllasi's support for the demonstrations caused Milošević and his allies to respond stating this was a "counter-revolution against Serbia and Yugoslavia", and demanded that the federal Yugoslav government put down the striking Albanians by force. Milošević's aim

4644-449: The Serb forces. The issue has formed part of two ICTY war crimes trials against two former senior officials in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis of superior criminal responsibility. In its Trial Chamber judgement in the case of ICTY v. Enver Hadžihasanović , commander of the ARBiH 3rd Corps (who was later made part of the joint command of the ARBiH and was the Chief of the Supreme Command Staff), and Amir Kubura , commander of

4752-417: The Serbian "ruling class", and the minorities who were seen to benefit from government legislation. Real earnings in Yugoslavia fell by 25% from 1979 to 1985. By 1988, emigrant remittances to Yugoslavia totalled over $ 4.5 billion (USD), and by 1989 remittances were $ 6.2 billion (USD), making up over 19% of the world's total. In 1990, US policy insisted on the shock therapy austerity programme that

4860-524: The Serbian minority were to be killed, one-third expelled, and one-third converted to Catholicism and assimilated as Croats. Conversely, Serbian Royalist Chetniks pursued their own campaign of persecution against non-Serbs in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia and Sandžak per the Moljević plan ("On Our State and Its Borders") and the orders issues by Draža Mihailović which included "[t]he cleansing of all nation understandings and fighting". Both Croats and Muslims were recruited as soldiers by

4968-410: The Serbian monarch's absolutism . The assassination and human rights abuses were subject of concern for the Human Rights League and precipitated voices of protest from intellectuals, including Albert Einstein . It was in this environment of oppression that the radical insurgent group (later fascist dictatorship) the Ustaše were formed. During World War II, the country's tensions were exploited by

5076-513: The actual number of dead was about 1 million. Of that number, 330,000 to 390,000 ethnic Serbs perished from all causes in Croatia and Bosnia. These same historians also established the deaths of 192,000 to 207,000 ethnic Croats and 86,000 to 103,000 Muslims from all affiliations and causes throughout Yugoslavia. Prior to its collapse, Yugoslavia was a regional industrial power and an economic success. From 1960 to 1980, annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged 6.1 percent, medical care

5184-420: The autonomous province of Kosovo was poorly developed, and per capita GDP fell from 47 percent of the Yugoslav average in the immediate post-war period to 27 percent by the 1980s. It highlighted the vast differences in the quality of life in the different republics. Economic growth was curbed due to Western trade barriers combined with the 1973 oil crisis . Yugoslavia subsequently fell into heavy IMF debt due to

5292-436: The autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina. These actions made him popular amongst Serbs and aided his rise to power in Serbia. Milošević and his allies took on an aggressive nationalist agenda of reviving SR Serbia within Yugoslavia, promising reforms and protection of all Serbs. The ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia was the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), a composite political party made-up of eight Leagues of Communists from

5400-414: The body which is charged with reconsidering the citizenship status of the foreign volunteers in the Bosnian War, including Christian fighters from Russia and Western Europe , states that 1,500 cases will eventually be examined. It was alleged that Bosnian mujahideen participated in war crimes , including the killing, torture and beheading of Serbian and Croat civilians and soldiers. However no indictment

5508-426: The charge of not saving 24 imprisoned Croat POWs and 19 years old Croat girl Ana Pranješ from being executed by the Mujahideen since the prosecution could not prove he had already assumed the position of Chief of Staff of the ARBiH to which he had been appointed on the same day. The judges concluded that the prosecution had proven that the Mujahideen from July to August 1995 had treated 12 Serbian POWs detained first in

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5616-419: The civilians in the villages taken by the Bosnian Army. The wounded were left on-site and around 200 people, including civilians and Croat soldiers, were taken by the police officers towards Mehurici. The commander of the 306th Brigade authorised the wounded be put onto a truck and transported to Mehurici. The 200 villagers who were being escorted to Mehurici by the 306th Brigade military police were intercepted by

5724-400: The communist-led, anti-fascist Partisan movement composed of members of all ethnic groups in the area, leading to the formation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . The official Yugoslav post-war estimate of victims in Yugoslavia during World War II was 1,704,000. Subsequent data gathering in the 1980s by historians Vladimir Žerjavić and Bogoljub Kočović showed that

5832-429: The controversial SANU Memorandum protesting against the weakening of the Serbian central government. The problems in the Serbian Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo between ethnic Serbs and Albanians grew exponentially. This, coupled with economic problems in Kosovo and Serbia as a whole, led to even greater Serbian resentment of the 1974 Constitution . Kosovo Albanians started to demand that Kosovo be granted

5940-495: The council of the League of Communists, as a means to induce the other members to realize that enormous support was on his side in putting down the Albanian strike in Kosovo. Serbian parliament speaker Borisav Jović , a strong ally of Milošević, met with the current President of the Yugoslav Presidency, Bosnian representative Raif Dizdarević , and demanded that the federal government concede to Serbian demands. Dizdarević argued with Jović saying that "You [Serbian politicians] organized

6048-669: The country in line with the Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe . The League of Communists of Yugoslavia dissolved in January 1990 along federal lines. Republican communist organisations became the separate socialist parties. During 1990, the socialists (former communists) lost power to ethnic separatist parties in the first multi-party elections held across the country, except in Montenegro and in Serbia , where Milošević and his allies won. Nationalist rhetoric on all sides became increasingly heated. Between June 1991 and April 1992, four constituent republics declared independence while Montenegro and Serbia remained federated. Germany took

6156-413: The country who belonged to what we then called Mujahideen freedom fighters. We now know that that was al-Qaida. I'd never heard the word before, but we knew who they were. And if you look at the 9/11 hijackers, several of those hijackers were trained or fought in Bosnia. We cleaned them out, and they had to move much further east into Afghanistan . So if it hadn't been for Dayton, we would have been fighting

6264-474: The country's leaderships' decision to enforce a policy of full employment ), and ethno-religious tensions. Yugoslavia's non-aligned status resulted in access to loans from both superpower blocs. This contact with the United States and the West opened up Yugoslavia's markets sooner than the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. The 1980s were a decade of Western economic ministrations. A decade of frugality resulted in growing frustration and resentment against both

6372-534: The demonstrations, you control it", Jović refused to take responsibility for the actions of the protesters. Dizdarević then decided to attempt to bring calm to the situation himself by talking with the protesters, by making an impassioned speech for unity of Yugoslavia saying: Our fathers died to create Yugoslavia. We will not go down the road to national conflict. We will take the path of Brotherhood and Unity . Croatian Defence Council The Croatian Defence Council ( Croatian : Hrvatsko vijeće obrane , HVO )

6480-419: The detachment was to attack them as if they were a distinct enemy force. In 1995, veterans of the Bosnian mujahideen established the Active Islamic Youth , regarded the most dangerous of the Islamist groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The foreign mujahideen were required to leave the Balkans under the terms of the 1995 Dayton Agreement , but many stayed. Although the U.S. State Department report suggested that

6588-441: The developed and underdeveloped regions of Yugoslavia severely deteriorated the federation's unity. The most developed republics, Croatia and Slovenia, rejected attempts to limit their autonomy as provided in the 1974 Constitution. Public opinion in Slovenia in 1987 saw better economic opportunity in independence from Yugoslavia than within it. There were also places that saw no economic benefit from being in Yugoslavia; for example,

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6696-481: The example of a communist country outside of the Eastern Bloc was no longer needed by the West as a way of destabilising the Soviet bloc. The external status quo, which the Communist Party had depended upon to remain viable, was thus beginning to disappear. Furthermore, the failure of communism all over Central and Eastern Europe once again brought to the surface Yugoslavia's inner contradictions, economic inefficiencies (such as chronic lack of productivity, fuelled by

6804-485: The federal level across Yugoslavia, which were seen as an obstacle for Serb interests. In 1987, Slobodan Milošević came to power in Serbia, and through a series of populist moves acquired de facto control over Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Montenegro, garnering a high level of support among Serbs for his centralist policies. Milošević was met with opposition by party leaders of the western constituent republics of Slovenia and Croatia, who also advocated greater democratisation of

6912-516: The first, monarchist Yugoslavia 's multi-ethnic make-up and relative political and demographic domination of the Serbs. Fundamental to the tensions were the different concepts of the new state. The Croats and Slovenes envisaged a federal model where they would enjoy greater autonomy than they had as a separate crown land under Austria-Hungary . Under Austria-Hungary, both Slovenes and Croats enjoyed autonomy with free hands only in education, law, religion, and 45% of taxes. The Serbs tended to view

7020-404: The formation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , the first breakup and subsequent inter-ethnic and political wars and genocide during World War II , ideas of Greater Albania , Greater Croatia and Greater Serbia and conflicting views about Pan-Slavism , and the unilateral recognition by a newly reunited Germany of the breakaway republics. Before World War II , major tensions arose from

7128-414: The initiative and recognized the independence of Croatia and Slovenia, but the status of ethnic Serbs outside Serbia and Montenegro, and that of ethnic Croats outside Croatia, remained unsolved. After a string of inter-ethnic incidents, the Yugoslav Wars ensued, first in Croatia and then, most severely, in multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina . The wars left economic and political damage in the region that

7236-495: The interest of Serbia whether we do it in compliance with the constitution or not, whether we do it in compliance in the law or not, whether we do it in compliance with party statutes or not. The Anti-bureaucratic revolution was a series of protests in Serbia and Montenegro orchestrated by Milošević to put his supporters in SAP Vojvodina, SAP Kosovo, and the Socialist Republic of Montenegro (SR Montenegro) to power as he sought to oust his rivals. The government of Montenegro survived

7344-522: The large number of International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans taken out by the regime. As a condition of receiving loans, the IMF demanded the " market liberalisation " of Yugoslavia. By 1981, Yugoslavia had incurred $ 19.9 billion in foreign debt. Another concern was the level of unemployment, at 1 million by 1980. This problem was compounded by the general "unproductiveness of the South", which not only added to Yugoslavia's economic woes, but also irritated Slovenia and Croatia further. The SFR Yugoslavia

7452-421: The mid-1980s increasingly started to corrode the legitimacy of the Communist system, as ordinary people started to lose faith in the competence and honesty of the elites. A wave of major strikes developed in 1987–88 as workers demanded higher wages to compensate for inflation, as the IMF mandated the end of various subsidies , and they were accompanied by denunciations of the entire system as corrupt. Finally,

7560-443: The more prosperous republics of SR Slovenia and SR Croatia wanted to move towards decentralization and democracy. The historian Basil Davidson contends that the "recourse to 'ethnicity' as an explanation [of the conflict] is pseudo-scientific nonsense". Even the degree of linguistic and religious differences "have been less substantial than instant commentators routinely tell us". Davidson agrees with Susan Woodward , who found

7668-409: The mujahideen "a pact with the devil" from which Bosnia still is recovering. On the other hand, according to general Stjepan Šiber , the highest ranking ethnic Croat in the Bosnian Army, the key role in foreign volunteers arrival was played by Tuđman and Croatian counter-intelligence with the aim to justify the involvement of Croatia in the Bosnian War and the crimes committed by Croat forces. Although

7776-459: The mujahideen units. The first mujahideen training camp was located in Poljanice next to the village of Mehurici , in the Bila valley, Travnik municipality. The mujahideen group established there included mujahideen from Arab countries as well as some Bosniaks. The mujahideen from Poljanice camp were also established in the towns of Zenica and Travnik and, from the second half of 1993 onwards, in

7884-411: The next target for a political coup by Milošević's supporters if the coup in Kosovo went unimpeded. Serbian state-run television denounced Kučan as a separatist, a traitor, and an endorser of Albanian separatism. Serb protests continued in Belgrade demanding action in Kosovo. Milošević instructed communist representative Petar Gračanin to make sure the protest continued while he discussed matters at

7992-479: The number could be higher, an unnamed SFOR official said allied military intelligence estimated that no more than 200 foreign-born militants actually lived in Bosnia in 2001, of whom around 30 represented a hard-core group with direct or indirect links to terrorism. In September 2007, 50 of these individuals had their citizenship status revoked. Since then 100 more individuals have been prevented from claiming citizenship rights. 250 more were under investigation, while

8100-481: The number of foreign Muslim fighters in Bosnia to be 1,000–2,000. In 2013, the International Crisis Group estimated that "between 2,000 and 5,000 fought in BiH." In 2017, a Center for Strategic and International Studies report stated that "figures range from 500–5,000 with a preponderance of estimates in the 1,000–2,000 range", citing Hegghammer for the later estimate. ICTY found that there

8208-639: The occupying Axis forces which established a Croat puppet state spanning much of present-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina . The Axis powers installed the Ustaše as the leaders of the Independent State of Croatia . The Ustaše resolved that the Serbian minority were a fifth column of Serbian expansionism and pursued a policy of persecution against the Serbs. The policy dictated that one-third of

8316-755: The official military formation of Herzeg-Bosnia . On 15 May 1992 the HVO Department of Defense was established. By that time the HVO Main Staff, Main Logistics Base, Military Police, and Personnel Administration were also formed. War broke out between Herzeg-Bosnia, supported by Croatia and the Croatian Defence Forces , and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In March 1994, the Washington Agreement

8424-403: The politics of austerity brought to the fore tensions between the well off "have" republics like Slovenia and Croatia versus the poorer "have not" republics like Serbia. Both Croatia and Slovenia felt that they were paying too much money into the federal budget to support the "have not" republics, while Serbia wanted Croatia and Slovenia to pay more money into the federal budget to support them at

8532-552: The population of Kosovo in the 1980s, ethnic-Albanians were the majority. In June 1989, the 600th anniversary of Serbia's historic defeat at the field of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević gave the Gazimestan speech to 200,000 Serbs, with a Serb nationalist theme which deliberately evoked medieval Serbian history . Milošević's answer to the incompetence of the federal system was to centralise the government. Considering Slovenia and Croatia were looking farther ahead to independence, this

8640-452: The republics and autonomous provinces. Tito's death would show that such short terms were highly ineffective. Essentially it left a power vacuum which was left open for most of the 1980s. In their book Free to Choose (1980), Milton Friedman and his wife Rose Friedman foretold: "Once the aged Marshal Tito dies, Yugoslavia will experience political instability that may produce a reaction toward greater authoritarianism or, far less likely,

8748-579: The risk of a terrorist attack in Bosnia and Herzegovina 'is not higher than in other parts of the world'. Breakup of Yugoslavia After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart, but the unresolved issues caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav Wars . The wars primarily affected Bosnia and Herzegovina , neighbouring parts of Croatia and, some years later, Kosovo . Following

8856-418: The six republics and two autonomous provinces. The League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) governed SR Serbia. Riding the wave of nationalist sentiment and his new popularity gained in Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević (Chairman of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) since May 1986) became the most powerful politician in Serbia by defeating his former mentor President of Serbia Ivan Stambolic at the 8th session of

8964-486: The state to assume responsibility for their debts when Agrokomerc finally collapsed. The rampant corruption in Yugoslavia, of which the "Agrokomerc affair" was merely the most dramatic example, did much to discredit the Communist system, as it was revealed that the elites were living luxurious lifestyles, well beyond the means of ordinary people, with money stolen from the public purse during a time of austerity. The problems imposed by heavy indebtedness and corruption had by

9072-411: The status of a constituent republic beginning in the early 1980s, particularly with the 1981 protests in Kosovo . This was seen by the Serbian public as a devastating blow to Serb pride because of the historic links that Serbians held with Kosovo. It was viewed that that secession would be devastating to Kosovar Serbs. This eventually led to the repression of the Albanian majority in Kosovo. Meanwhile,

9180-625: The subject are "pure propaganda" based on their historical hatred for Bosniaks "as Muslim aliens in the heart of Christian lands". According to the Radio Free Europe research "Al-Qaeda In Bosnia-Herzegovina: Myth Or Present Danger", Bosnia is no more related to the potential terrorism than any other European country. In 2007, Juan Carlos Antúnez in an analysis of the phenomenon of Wahhabism in Bosnia concluded that despite Bosnian Serb and Serbian media inflated and often fictitious reports on risk of terrorism and existence of terrorist cells,

9288-722: The territories as a just reward for their support of the allies in World War ;I and the new state as an extension of the Kingdom of Serbia . Tensions between the Croats and Serbs often erupted into open conflict, with the Serb-dominated security structure exercising oppression during elections and the assassination in the National Assembly of Croat political leaders, including Stjepan Radić , who opposed

9396-590: The terrorists deep in the ravines and caves of Central Bosnia in the heart of Europe. Evan Kohlmann wrote: "Some of the most important factors behind the contemporary radicalization of European Muslim youth can be found in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the cream of the Arab mujahideen from Afghanistan tested their battle skills in the post-Soviet era and mobilized a new generation of pan-Islamic revolutionaries". He also noted that Serbian and Croatian sources about

9504-650: The trial of Rasim Delić , the judges concluded that the prosecution had proven that more than 50 Serbs captured during the Battle for Vozuća had been killed in the Kamenica camp by the Mujahideen. Though the judges agreed Delić had effective control over the El Mujahideen unit, he was acquitted from responsibility since ICTY concluded he did not possess enough information to stop them. He was also acquitted from

9612-466: The village of Orasac , also located in the Bila valley. The military effectiveness of the mujahideen is disputed. However, former U.S. Balkans peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke said in an interview that he thought "the Muslims wouldn't have survived without this" help, as at the time a U.N. arms embargo diminished the Bosnian government's fighting capabilities. In 2001, Holbrooke called the arrival of

9720-592: The village of Livada and then the Kamenica camp, inhumanely and had killed three of them. Delić was sentenced to three years in prison for not stopping it. In 2015, former Human Rights Minister and Vice President of BiH Federation Mirsad Kebo talked about numerous war crimes committed against Serbs by mujahideen in Bosnia and their links with current and past Muslim officials including former and current presidents of federation and presidents of parliament based on war diaries and other documented evidence. He gave evidence to

9828-512: The village of Miletići in April 1993, inhumanely treating POWs and killing one at the Orašac camp in October 1993. The judgments in the cases of Hadžihasanović and Kabura concerned a number of events involving the mujahideen. On June 8, 1993, Bosnian Army units attacked Maljine, a Croat village. After the village was taken, a military police unit of the 306th Brigade of Bosnian Army arrived there. These policemen were tasked with evacuating and protecting

9936-717: The weakening of the Communist states in Eastern Europe towards the end of the Cold War , leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In Yugoslavia, the national communist party, officially called the League of Communists of Yugoslavia , had lost its ideological base. In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) contributed significantly to the rise of nationalist sentiments, as it drafted

10044-609: Was a colossal sum for a poor country. In 1984, the Reagan administration issued a classified document, National Security Decision Directive 133, expressing concern that Yugoslavia's debt load might cause the country to align with the Soviet bloc. The 1980s were a time of economic austerity as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed stringent conditions on Yugoslavia, which caused much resentment toward

10152-540: Was a conglomeration of eight federated entities, roughly divided along ethnic lines, including six republics: Two autonomous provinces within Serbia: With the 1974 Constitution , the office of President of Yugoslavia was replaced with the Yugoslav Presidency , an eight-member collective head-of-state composed of representatives from six republics and, controversially, two autonomous provinces of

10260-501: Was aided when a huge protest was formed outside of the Yugoslav parliament in Belgrade by Serb supporters of Milošević who demanded that the Yugoslav military forces make their presence stronger in Kosovo to protect the Serbs there and put down the strike. On 27 February, SR Slovene representative in the collective presidency of Yugoslavia, Milan Kučan , opposed the demands of the Serbs and left Belgrade for SR Slovenia where he attended

10368-587: Was completely isolated in northern Bosnia on right bank of Sava river around Orašje and was entirely dependent on support from Croatia . There was also an HCO headquarters in the Bihać enclave which liaised with the ARBiH 5th corps. Each OZ controlled 8-14 infantry brigades, a military police battalion and an MP "Light Assault Battalion". The HVO also included the brigade sized Ante Bruno Bušić Regiment manned by full-time soldiers, two independent infantry battalions,

10476-557: Was considered unacceptable. Meanwhile, the Socialist Republic of Croatia (SR Croatia) and the Socialist Republic of Slovenia (SR Slovenia), supported the Albanian miners and their struggle for recognition. Media in SR Slovenia published articles comparing Milošević to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini . Milošević contended that such criticism was unfounded and amounted to "spreading fear of Serbia". Milošević's state-run media claimed in response that Milan Kučan , head of

10584-523: Was convicted of helping his compatriots to abduct Croat civilians of Travnik in 1993. He was ultimately given a prison term of three years. In 2016, former Bosnian Army Third Corps commander Sakib Mahmuljin was put on trial for having failed to prevent the murders and torture of Bosnian Serbs by members of the Mujahideen unit in the Vozuća and Zavidovići areas. According to the indictment, 50 Serb prisoners of war were killed and several were decapitated. He

10692-535: Was free, literacy was 91 percent, and life expectancy was 72 years. Prior to 1991, Yugoslavia's armed forces were amongst the best-equipped in Europe. Yugoslavia was a unique state, straddling both the East and West. Moreover, its president, Josip Broz Tito , was one of the fundamental founders of the " third world " or " group of 77 " which acted as an alternative to the superpowers. More importantly, Yugoslavia acted as

10800-427: Was indeed high in the 1970s. However, the over-expansion of the economy caused inflation and pushed Yugoslavia into economic recession . A major problem for Yugoslavia was the heavy debt incurred in the 1970s, which proved to be difficult to repay in the 1980s. Yugoslavia's debt load, initially estimated at a sum equal to $ 6 billion U.S. dollars, instead turned out to be equivalent to $ 21 billion U.S. dollars, which

10908-412: Was issued by the ICTY against them, but a few Bosnian Army officers were indicted on the basis of command responsibility . Both Amir Kubura and Enver Hadžihasanović (the indicted Bosnian Army officers) were ultimately acquitted on all counts related to the incidents involving the mujahideen. In the judgment, the judges concluded that the Mujahideen were responsible for execution of 4 Croatian civilians in

11016-454: Was left unable to cope with rising economic and political challenges. In the 1980s, Kosovo Albanians started to demand that their autonomous province be granted the status of a full constituent republic, starting with the 1981 protests . Ethnic tensions between Albanians and Kosovo Serbs remained high over the whole decade, which resulted in the growth of Serb opposition to the high autonomy of provinces and ineffective system of consensus at

11124-513: Was meted out to the ex- Comecon countries. Such a programme had been advocated by the IMF and other organisations "as a condition for fresh injections of capital." In 1987, Serbian official Slobodan Milošević was sent to bring calm to an ethnically driven protest by Serbs against the Albanian administration of SAP Kosovo. Milošević had been, up to this point, a hard-line communist who had decried all forms of nationalism as treachery, such as condemning

11232-451: Was one battalion -sized unit called El Mudžahid (El Mujahid). It was established on 13 August 1993, by the Bosnian Army, which decided to form a unit of foreign fighters in order to impose control over them as the number of the foreign volunteers started to increase. The El Mudžahid unit was initially attached to and supplied by the regular Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), even though they often operated independently as

11340-483: Was restricted in making and carrying out decisions that would apply to the provinces. The provinces had a vote in the Yugoslav Presidency, which was not always cast in favor of SR Serbia. In Serbia, there was great resentment towards these developments, which the nationalist elements of the public saw as the "division of Serbia". The 1974 constitution not only exacerbated Serbian fears of a "weak Serbia, for

11448-567: Was sentenced to 10 years in first instance in January 2021. US intelligence and phone calls intercepted by the Bosnian government show communication between Al-Qaeda commanders and Bosnian mujahideen. Several of the mujahideen were connected to Al-Qaeda. Osama Bin Laden sent resources to the Bosnian mujahideen. Two of the five 9/11 hijackers , childhood friends Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi , had been Bosnian mujahideen. Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi ,

11556-566: Was signed which ended fighting between the HVO and ARBiH. In March 1996, Herzeg-Bosnia ceased to exist as it was merged with the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina , and the HVO was reorganized as 1st Infantry (Guard) Regiment of the ARBiH. HVO was located in Mostar and was divided into four corps-status operational zones: 1OZ/South-Eastern (Herzegovina) and 2OZ/North-Western Herzegovina , 3OZ/Central Bosnia and 4OZ/Posavina. While first three zones were grouped more or less together, Posavina

11664-634: Was the official military formation of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia , an unrecognized state that existed in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1996. The HVO was the main military force of the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina . In the initial stage of the Bosnian War , the HVO fought alongside the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) against

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