Timeline Bosnia
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Located
in south-eastern Europe, Bosnia-Herzegovina is
divided into a Bosnian Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation.
Both parts have wide autonomy but share a common presidency, parliament
and government. Muslims make up 48 percent of the population, Serbs 37
percent and Croats 13 percent.
1291
The Catholic Franciscan order arrived in Bosnia.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A10)
1389 Jun 28, The Serbs were
defeated in the Battle of Kosovo at the Field of the Blackbirds. Sultan
Murat, the Ottoman leader was killed in the battle. 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. [see Jun 15] 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.
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A1,18)(SFEC, 7/23/00, BR p.7)
1463 The Ottomans conquered Bosnia.
(www.bartleby.com/67/314.html)
1479 The Turks erected a mosque in
the center of Banja Luka. It was leveled by the Serbs in 1993.
(WSJ, 8/26/98, p.A1)
1566 The Stari Most (Old Bridge)
was built over the Neretva River in Bosnia. It gave the city of Mostar
(bridge keeper) its name. It was destroyed in 1993 by Bosnian Croat
artillery. An annual diving contest was held off the bridge since it
was built. In 2004 the bridge was reopened.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 6/1/04, p.A1)(Econ,
11/26/05, p.64)
1566 A Serbian Orthodox monastery
was built in Zitomislic, Bosnia. It was destroyed in 1992 during the
Bosnian War, but was rebuilt and reopened in May 2005.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.64)
1699 Prince Eugene of Savoy looted
and burned Sarajevo, Bosnia.
(SSFC, 12/4/05, p.F5)
1762 The Osman-Pasha mosque was
built in Trebinje. It was destroyed during the 1992-1995 war.
(SSFC, 5/6/01, p.A15)
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)
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)
1880 The Serajevo Brewery was
built. Builders dug 3 wells down 600 feet to provide water for the
brewery. The Austro-Hungarian empire ruled Bosnia at this time.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A8)
1881 The area around Bosnia was
annexed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Pope Leo XIII reasserted the
Catholic Church with dioceses in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A10)
1882 The Hotel Evropa was built in
Sarajevo, Bosnia. It was gutted by Serb shells in 1992. Restoration
after the 1992-1995 war was completed in 2008.
(Econ, 7/19/08, p.60)
1875 Jul 29, Peasants in Bosnia
and Herzegovina in the Balkans rebelled against the Ottoman army.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1878 Bosnia came under
Austro-Hungarian. This continued until 1918. A representative from
Vienna governed the area.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.65)(Econ, 10/20/07, p.72)
1894 Jun 30, Gavrilo Princip,
Bosnian assassin (arch-duke Franz Ferdinand), was born.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1908 Oct 6, Austria annexed Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1908 Dec 1, The Italian Parliament
debated the future of the Triple Alliance and asked for compensation
for Austria’s action in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(HN, 12/1/98)
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 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.
(V.D.-H.K.p.290)(Compuserve Online, Grolier’s Amer.
Acad. Enc./ Albania)
1913 May 30, Conclusion of the
First Balkan War.
(HN, 5/30/98)
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. By the end of the summer of 1914, Europe was at war. The
event triggered World War I.
(V.D.-H.K.p.252, 284-285,290)(AP Internet
6/28/97)(HNPD, 6/28/98)
1918 Apr 28, Gavrilo Princip (22),
Bosnian murderer of arch duke Ferdinand, died in prison of tuberculosis.
(http://concise.britannica.com)(AP, 4/28/07)
1925 Aug 8, Alija Izetbegovic
(d.2003) was born in Bosanski Samac. He later led Bosnia's Muslims
during the 1992-95 war for independence and became one of the
republic's first postwar presidents.
(AP, 10/19/03)(SFC, 10/20/03, p.A18)
1928 Ivan Merz (32), Bosnian Croat
intellectual and theologian, died of meningitis. He was beatified in
2003 by Pope John Paul II.
(AP, 6/22/03)
1929 Oct 3, The Kingdom of Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes formally changed its name to the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia. It included the regions of Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia,
Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Macedonia. 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)(LCTH,
10/3/99)
c1939 During WW
II Herzegovina became a stronghold of the Croatian
Ustashe movement allied to the Nazis. Local clergy was seen condoning
and supporting Ustashe mass slayings of ethnic Serbs.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A10)
1942 Mar 1, Tito established the
2nd Proletariat Brigade in Bosnia.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1942 Mar 5, Josip Broz "Tito"
established the 3rd Proletariat Brigade in Bosnia.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1943 Nov 29, In Yugoslavia
partisan Tito formed a temporary government in Jajce, Bosnia.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1943 Jovan Ducic, a Serb poet born
in Trebinje, died in the US. He was reburied in his home town in 2000.
(SFC, 10/23/00, p.A11)
1944 May 7, There was a German
assault on Tito's hideout in Drvar, Bosnia.
(MC, 5/7/02)
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.
(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)
1984 Feb 8, Winter Olympics opened
in Sarajevo.
(HN, 2/7/97)
1990 Jul 31, The Assembly of
Bosnia-Herzegovina adopted constitutional amendments by which
Bosnia-Herzegovina was declared a democratic state of equal citizens of
the peoples of BH, Moslems, Serbs, Croats and others.
(www.balkan-archive.org.yu/politics/chronology/chron90.html)
1990 The Serb Democratic Party was
founded by Radovan Karadzic.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.B8)
1991 Apr 6, Bosnian Serbs began a
war in a quest for their own ethnically pure republic.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A6)
1991 Jun 25, The civil war in
Yugoslavia began when Croatia and Slovenia proclaimed independence from
Yugoslavia.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1991 Nov, Mile Mrksic, Miroslav
Radic, and Veselin Sljivan-Canin, officers in the Yugoslav National
Army, ordered the massacre of 261 Croats taken out of a Vukovar
hospital. Radic surrendered to Serbian authorities in 2003.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)(SFC, 4/22/03, A7)
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)
1992-1994 Croat Gen. Tihomir Blaskic ordered a series
of attacks on Muslim villagers in Bosnia as his forces tried to secure
the area for Croatia. In 2000 a UN Tribunal sentenced Blaskic to 45
years in prison for war crimes. In 2004 the sentence was reduced to 9
years.
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/30/04, p.A1)
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 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 1, Bosnian Serbs began
sniping in Sarajevo, after Croats and Moslems voted for Bosnian
independence.
(HN, 3/1/99)
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, Dusan Tadic was granted
power by Serb authorities who occupied his predominantly Muslim
community in the spring of this year. He use it to launch a frenzy of
violence in three detention camps, Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje near
his home village of Kozarac. Milojica Kos, a commander at the Omarska
camp, was detained by NATO troops in 1998. In 2002 Dusan Knezevic, a
Bosnian Serb accused of atrocities in the camps, gave himself up to the
Hague tribunal.
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.A-11)(SFC, 5/29/98, p.D4)
1992 Mar, The Tarcin camp for
holding Serbs began operating in Bosnia about this time. It was not
shut down until Jan, 1996.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A10)
1992 Apr 5, A medical student
(Suada Dilberovic) became the first fatality of war in
Bosnia-Herzegovina as Serb nationalists began forcibly opposing the
republic's secession from Yugoslavia.
(AP, 4/5/97)
1992 Apr 6, Alija Izetbegovic
declared independence for Bosnia. The European Community recognized the
former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina as an independent state.
(AP, 4/6/02)(SFC, 10/20/03, p.A18)
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, The EC recognized
Bosnia-Herzegovina and the US followed and also recognized Slovenia and
Croatia.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1992 Apr, Dragan Gagovic became
the police chief of Foca. He oversaw the detention of Muslims held in a
local sports hall. His men regularly beat and gang-raped female
detainees and he personally participated. He was later indicted for war
crimes and was killed during an arrest attempt in 1999.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.A17)
1992 Apr, In Bosnia Janko "Tuta"
Janjic, car mechanic, became a sub-commander and was responsible for
the rape and enslavement of dozens of Muslim women. In 2000
Janjic killed himself with a grenade when NATO troops came to arrest
him.
(SFC, 10/14/00,
p.A10)(www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/foc-ii960626e.htm)
1992 Serb forces overran Bosanski
Samac. Mayor Blagoje Simic was later accused of instigating and
planning atrocities against non-Serb men. In 2001 he gave himself up to
the war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A15)
1992 Apr-1992 Jul, Mladen
Vuksanovic (d.1999 at 57), writer and journalist, wrote a diary during
the first 100 days of rule by Radowan Karadzic in Pale, Bosnia. The
diary was published in Croatia in 1997 as "Pale, a Diary, April-July
1992."
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B4)
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 3, Armed men cruised into
Doboj and began a process of ethnic cleansing that pushed 62,000
non-Serbs from their homes in the surrounding area.
(WSJ, 11/3/97, p.A22)
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 24-1992 Aug 30, Serbian
forces confined over 3,000 Bosnian Muslims and Croats in inhuman
conditions at the Keraterm prison camp. Detainees were killed, sexually
assaulted and beaten. In 1999 Dragan Kulundzija, a shift commander at
Keraterm, was arrested on charges of killing and torturing prisoners.
(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A12)
1992 May 24-1992 Aug 30, Damir
Dosen served as a shift commander at the Keraterm prison camp in
northwestern Bosnia. Hundreds of Croats and Muslims were tortured and
died at a camp near Prijedor. In 1999 Dosen, a Bosnian Serb, was
arrested for war crimes and flown to the Hague for trial.
(WSJ, 10/26/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/9/99, p.A14)
1992 May 25-1992 Aug 30, Dragoljub
Prcac, a Bosnian Serb, served as the deputy commander of the Omarska
prison camp. He was arrested by NATO peacekeepers for war crimes in
2000. In 2001 Prcac and 3 others received sentences of 5-20 years.
Zoran Zigic was sentenced to 25 years for his acts of violence.
(SFC, 3/6/00, p.A12)(SFC, 11/3/01, p.C2)
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, Bosnia, Croatia and
Slovenia joined the UN.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
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 May, Local Muslim forces
attacked the Serb village of Bjelovcina in the Konjic district. Serb
prisoners suffered at the Celebici camp. In 1997 Mirko Babic testifies
that he was forced to drink urine, lick his captor’s boots and had his
leg set on fire with gasoline.
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A13)
1992 May, The Luka prisoner camp
in Brcko was commanded by Goran Jelisic. He was later indicted by the
UN for killing 16 Muslims and countless detainees. He was picked up by
UN troops in 1998. In 1998 Jelisic, who called himself "the Serb
Adolf," pleaded guilty to the murder of 12 Muslims and Croats. Jelisic
was acquitted of genocide but convicted of 31 accounts of torture and
murder. In 1999 he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.E2)(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A16)(SFC,
10/20/99, p.B2)(SFC, 12/15/99, p.A16)
1992 May-1992 Oct, In Bosnia
Dragan Nikolic commanded the Susica detention camp near Vlasenica. He
was arrested in 2000 for war crimes at the camp where an estimated
8,000 Muslims were held.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.C17)
1992 May-1992 Nov, Nikola
Vuckovic, a Bosnian-Serb soldier, allegedly beat and tortured Bosnian
Muslims and Croats during this period. Vuckovic later moved to the US
and was sued by a victim in 1998. Vuckovic returned to Bosnia in 2001
and was put on trial in Atlanta in absentia.
(SFC, 10/22/01, p.B1)
1992 May-1992 Dec, At least 14 of
250 detainees were killed, tortured, raped or beaten over this period
at the Celibici Camp in central Bosnia. On Nov 16, 1998, a UN
tribunal convicted a Bosnian Croat and 2 Muslims for the crimes at
Celebici. Hazimn Delic, deputy commander, received a 20 year sentence;
Zdravko Mucic, camp warden received 7 years; and Esad Landzo received
15 years.
(SFC, 11/17/98, p.A14)(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A12)
1992 Jun 1, In Kljuc, Bosnia,
local Serbs rounded up Muslims and shot them. About 200 bodies were
buried at the cave at Laniste and uncovered in 1996.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.A10)
1992 Jun 14, In Sokolina, Bosnia,
a massacre occurred that later yielded 47 bodies from a mass grave.
Survivors later said that Serbs blew up a busload of Muslim men who had
been told that they were on their way to a prisoner exchange.
(WSJ, 6/25/96, p.A1)(SFC, 6/25/96, p.A8)
1992 Jun 22, In Trnovace, Bosnia,
14 Muslims were massacred. In 1997 Novislav Djajic, member of a Bosnian
Serb military unit, was convicted and sentenced to 5 years for
participating.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.C1)
1992 Jun, Some 140 Muslims were
imprisoned and burned alive and others summarily shoot in some of the
cruelest ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian war. In 2008 Bosnian Serb
cousins Milan and Sredoje Lukic faced charges of murder, extermination
and cruel treatment at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for
violence in and around the historic south-eastern Bosnian town of
Visegrad.
(AP, 7/9/08)
1992 Jun 30, Planes loaded with
food and medicine arrived at the airport in Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, as part of an international relief effort.
(AP Internet 6/30/97)
1992 Jun, In Vrbanjci acting
police chief Djurdard Kusljic ordered the deaths of 6 Bosnian Muslims.
Kusljic was convicted of genocide and murder in 1999 and was sentenced
to life in prison.
(SFC, 12/16/99, p.C2)
1992 Jul 11, It was later alleged
on Dutch TV that Dutch troops deliberately drove an armored vehicle
into a Muslim blockade on this day and killed as many as 30 people.
(SFC, 8/21/98, p.A14)
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 26, Muhamed Cehajic,
mayor of Prijedor, Bosnia, disappeared and was believed killed. Milomar
Stakic became mayor and was later accused of direct involvement in
establishing concentration camps at Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje.
Momcilo Radanovic was later accused of leading a brigade that carried
out numerous massacres and extortion of money from non-Serbs. Stakic
was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison in 2003. In 2005
Isabelle Wesselingh and Arnaud Vaulerin authored “Raw Memory: Prijedor,
Laboratory of Ethnic Cleansing.”
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A12)(SFC, 3/24/01, p.A12)(SFC,
8/1/03, p.A3)(Econ, 7/25/05, p.72)
1992 Jul, 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 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.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A8)
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 3, An Italian relief
plane was shot down by ground-to-air missiles outside of Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(AP, 9/3/97)
1992 Oct 9, The U.N. Security
Council voted to ban all military flights over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(AP, 10/9/97)
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 28, In
Bosnia-Herzegovina, a breakthrough in the relief effort came with the
delivery of 137 tons of food and supplies to the isolated town of
Srebrenica (place of silver).
(AP, 11/28/97)
1992 Dec 31, U.N.
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was jeered by Bosnians during a
visit to Sarajevo.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1992 Sefir Halilovic helped form
the Bosnian army and was its 1st commander for over a year. In 2001 he
surrendered to the UN war crimes tribunal to face charges of atrocities
committed by his forces against ethnic Croats.
(SFC, 9/25/01, p.A12)
1992 Zeljko Raznatovic, aka Arkan,
was a Serb paramilitary leader involved in the seizure of the
north-eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina, that became a symbol of Serb
atrocities.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-12)
1992 In Brcko Serb soldiers and
militiamen conquered the town and expelled the Muslim and Croat
population. As many as 7,000 unarmed captives were killed.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.A10,11)
1992 In Mostar 3,200 Serbs
disappeared and 27,000 were forced to move.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A15)
1992 Croatian Pres. Franjo Tudjman
picked Mate Boban (d.7/7/97) to form an independent enclave of Bosnian
Croats. It was called the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosna. Muslims
and Serbs were purged and some of the worst concentration camps of the
war were set up for Muslim civilians.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A15)
1992 Sep, About this time more
than 30 Muslims in the Serb-run Omarska camp were murdered. Dusan
Tadic, former cafe owner and karate instructor, was convicted in 1997
of participating in the brutal murders.
(WSJ, 5/9/96, p.A-18)
1992 In Foca Zoran Vukovic, leader
of a paramilitary group, tortured and raped Muslim women and forced
them to serve as sex slaves to paramilitaries. Vukovic was arrested in
1999 for war crimes and shipped to the Hague.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A16)
1992-1993 Bosnian Croats attacked the Lasva Valley
area of central Bosnia. In 1996 nine men were charged with war crimes
by the UN tribunal on war crimes. 3 Bosnian Croats were later released
for insufficient evidence.
(SFC, 6/28/96, p.A13)(SFC,12/20/97, p.A10)
1992-1994 Major Gen'l. Stanislav Galic led the
Bosnian Serb Sarayevo Romanija Corps. In 1999 Ganic was captured by
NATO SFOR troops for war crimes. In 2003 Gen. Galic was sentenced to 20
years in prison.
(SFC, 12/21/99, p.A16)(SFC, 12/6/03, p.A11)
1992-1995 In 2000 Joe Sacco published "Safe Area
Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995," a comic book reportage
on the breakup of Yugoslavia.
(SFEC, 7/2/00, BR p.4)
1992-1995 Gen'l. Momir Talic of Bosnia commanded the
1st Krajina Corps. Talic and Radoslav Brdjanin planned and ordered a
terror offensive early in the war that killed hundreds of Muslims and
Croats and forced thousands to flee Prijedor a d Sanski. Talic was
arrested in Austria in 1999 on a secret UN war crimes indictment. Both
men pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of genocide at the Hague. During
the 3 ½ years of war some 200,000 Bosnians were dead or missing
and an estimated 20,000 women were raped. In 2004 Brdjanin was
convicted on 8 of 12 charges and sentenced to 32 years in prison. In
2005 a war crimes researcher reduced the death toll in Bosnian war to
about 100,000.
(SFC, 8/26/99, p.A12)(SFC, 1/12/00, p.A11)(SFC,
3/30/00, p.A18)(SFC, 9/2/04, p.A11)(AP, 11/23/05)
1993 Jan 2, Leaders of the three
warring ethnic groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina met face-to-face in Geneva.
(AP, 1/2/98)
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 8, Bosnian deputy Prime
Minister Hakija Turajlic was shot 7-8 times and killed by Serb gunmen
in the presence of French peacekeepers while riding in a UN personnel
carrier at a Serb checkpoint near the Serajevo airport. In 1998
government agents arrested Goran Vasic, the suspected gunman of the
murder.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(AP, 1/8/98)(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A12)
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 Jan, In Bosnia on the
Orthodox Christmas Day Muslim forces in Kravica killed at least 30
people.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.18)
1993 Feb 13, The government of
Bosnia-Herzegovina began blocking the distribution of food in the
capital of Sarajevo to protest ineffective international attempts to
stop the war.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1993 Feb 21, Four days after
suspending Bosnian relief operations because of interference from
Serbs, Muslims and Croats, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako
Ogata ordered full resumption of the aid effort. U.N. Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali had rebuked the suspension.
(AP, 2/21/98)
1993 Feb 23, President Clinton won
United Nations support for a plan to airdrop relief supplies to
starving Bosnians during an Oval Office meeting with Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
(AP, 2/23/98)
1993 Feb 25, President Clinton
ordered the Pentagon to mount an airdrop of relief supplies into
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(AP, 2/25/98)
1993 Feb 28, Three U.S. planes
carried out the first mission to drop relief supplies over
Bosnia-Herzegovina. The US Operations Deny Flight, Provide Promise,
Deliberate Force, Decisive Edge, Joint Endeavour and others began in
Bosnia and Macedonia. They cost $9.7 billion to date in 1999 and left 4
US casualties with 5 wounded.
(AP, 2/28/98)(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A8)
1993 Feb, A 15-year-old girl,
later identified as FWS-87 by the UN Hague war tribunal, was enslaved,
raped and tortured by countless soldiers and then sold for $330 on this
date to two soldiers. This was during the assault on the town of Foca
in 1992-1993. In 1998 Dragoljub Kunarac (37) pleaded guilty to raping 4
Muslim women. Testimony by FWS-75 was provided against him.
(SFC, 6/28/96, p.A13)(SFC, 3/10/98, p.A9)
1993 Feb, The UN declared safe
areas in Serajevo and five other Muslim enclaves.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1993 Mar 26, President Clinton
promised a "full-court press" against Bosnian Serbs to secure their
agreement to a United Nations peace plan endorsed by Bosnian Muslims
and Croats.
(AP, 3/25/98)
1993 Apr 2, The Bosnian Serb
parliament rejected a peace plan drafted by U.N. and European mediators
and already approved by Bosnian Muslims and Croats.
(AP, 4/2/98)
1993 Apr 12, NATO warplanes began
enforcing a United Nations no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina;
meanwhile, Bosnian Serbs bombarded the besieged eastern town of
Srebrenica.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1993 Apr 13, NATO forces began
combat patrols over Bosnia to enforce a UN ban on flights.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1993 Apr 16, Bosnian Croats took
part in a killing spree in the village of Ahmici and 116 Muslims were
massacred and the village set fire. 6 Bosnian Croats went on trial in
1998 in the Hague on charges of war crimes. In 2000 Vladimir Santic,
head of the Croat Jokers police unit, was sentenced to 25 years in
prison; Drago Josipovic was sentenced to 15 years; Zoran and Mirjan
Kupreskic were sentenced to 10 and 8 years, and Vlatko Kupreskic
received 6 years. In 2001 the tribunal overturned the convictions,
released 3 defendants and reduced the sentences of 2 others. In 2001 an
indictment was opened against Pasko Ljubicic, a former Bosnian-Croat
military police officer, for war crimes in Ahmici.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.C2)(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A11)(SFC,
10/24/01, p.C2)(SFC, 11/1/01, p.C7)
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 18, The government of
Bosnia-Herzegovina agreed to a truce, effectively relinquishing
besieged Srebrenica. Meanwhile, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic
threatened to boycott further U.N. peace talks if tougher sanctions
against Yugoslavia went into effect.
(AP, 4/18/98)
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 15, Bosnian Serbs began
voting in a two-day referendum that overwhelmingly rejected a
U.N.-backed peace plan.
(AP, 5/15/98)
1993 May 16, A two-day Bosnian
Serb referendum on a U.N.-backed peace plan ended, with voters
rejecting the proposal by a wide margin.
(AP, 5/16/98)
1993 May 22, The United States,
Russia, France, Britain and Spain agreed to enforce safe areas in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, but stopped short of endorsing President Clinton's
proposal to use military force.
(AP, 5/22/98)
1993 Jun 1, A mortar attack on a
holiday soccer game in a suburb of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, killed
at least 15 people and wounded more than 80.
(AP, 6/1/98)
1993 Jun 4, The U.N. Security
Council agreed to send up to 10,000 more U.N. peacekeepers to six
Bosnian cities to protect Muslim havens.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1993 Jun, The UN Security Council
voted with 2 abstentions to authorize the use of air strikes by the US
and its allies against Serb forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Gen. Colin
Powell vigorously opposed US military intervention.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.A15)
1993 Jun, NATO offered close air
support to UN troops in Bosnia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1993 Jul 30, Bosnia's outgunned
Muslim-led government abandoned its efforts to hold the region
together, agreeing to a preliminary accord to divide the former
Yugoslav republic into three ethnic states.
(AP, 7/30/98)
1993 Sep 29, Bosnia's parliament
spurned an international peace plan, voting overwhelmingly to reject it
unless Bosnian Serbs returned land taken by force.
(AP, 9/29/98)
1993 Nov 9, In Bosnia after two
days of concentrated cannon fire at point-blank range, the bridge at
Mostar finally collapsed into the river. Bosnian Serb armed militia
(BSA) fired on a school in Sarajevo and 9 children died.
(www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/killing.html)(www.hri.org/docs/USSD-Rights/93/Bosnia93.html)
1993 Robert Kaplan published
"Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History."
(WSJ, 8/3/99, p.A20)
1993 A Bosnian Croat state,
Herzeg-Bosnia, was declared by Croat nationalists during fighting
between Muslims and Croats. In Croat controlled parts of Bosnia it
collected taxes, ran schools and allowed use of Croatia’s currency.
(SFC, 6/15/96, p.A10)
1993 Bosnian Croat forces
campaigned to drive Muslims out of the Lasva River Valley. A Muslim
female was raped during interrogation at Vitez in the presence of
paramilitary chief Anto Furundzija. He was convicted Dec 10, 1998, by
the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal and sentenced to 10 years.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D3)(SFC, 7/22/00, p.C1)
1993 Fikret Abdic declared Bihac
an autonomous province. He and his followers fled to Croatia in 1995.
He was indicted in 1999 for inhumane treatment of civilians and
prisoners of war.
(SFC, 1/11/99, p.A10)
1993-1994 Members of the Canadian 12th Armored
Regiment were assigned to protect the Bakovici mental hospital in
Bosnia. Later 57 members were accused of various abuses that included
sex, drinking, and patient abuse.
(SFC, 1/18/96, p.A8)
1993-1994 Mladen Naletilic commanded a gang of
convicts who terrorized Muslims in southwestern Bosnia. In 2000 Croatia
handed over Naletilic, a Bosnian Croat indicted in 1998 on 17 counts of
war crimes, to the UN tribunal.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A12)
1994 Feb 5, Sixty-eight people
were killed when a mortar shell exploded in the Markale marketplace in
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(AP,
2/5/99)
1994 Feb 6, A day after a mortar
shell killed 68 people in a Sarajevo marketplace, President Clinton
called for a United Nations probe.
(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 13, Dusan Tadic was
arrested by German police in Munich after he was recognized by refugees
from the Omarska and Trnopolje prison camps.
(SFC, 1/27/00, p.A13)
1994 Feb 17, Bosnian Serbs began
large-scale withdrawal of its heavy guns from the hills around Sarajevo
under pressure from Russia.
(AP, 2/17/99)
1994 Feb 19, With Bosnian Serbs
facing a NATO deadline to withdraw heavy weapons encircling Sarajevo or
face air strikes, President Clinton delivered an address from the Oval
Office reaffirming the ultimatum.
(AP, 2/19/99)
1994 Feb 20, Bosnian Serbs, faced
with the threat of air strikes, pulled back most of their heavy guns
from around Sarajevo as a NATO deadline approached.
(AP, 2/20/99)
1994 Feb 21, With Bosnian Serbs
complying with a NATO ultimatum to remove heavy guns near Sarajevo,
President Clinton promised renewed efforts to help "reinvigorate the
peace process."
(AP, 2/21/99)
1994 Feb 23, Military chiefs of
Bosnia's Muslim-led government and their second-strongest foes,
Bosnia's Croats, signed a truce.
(AP, 2/23/99)
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, 2/28/99)(HN, 2/28/99)
1994 Mar 18, Bosnian Muslims and
Croats agreed to a federation between them and confederation with
Croatia in an agreement brokered by the US. Pres. Tudjman of Croatia
approached US diplomats about possible arms shipments from Iran.
(AP, 3/18/04)(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97,
p.A12)
1994 Mar 26, U.N. peacekeepers in
Bosnia-Herzegovina destroyed a Serb bunker following a seven-hour
exchange of fire.
(AP, 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, 3/30/99)
1994 Mar, Pres. Clinton tacitly
approved covert Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia despite a UN
arms embargo.
(SFC, 4/5/96, p.A-1) (WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1994 Apr 9, Bosnian Serbs by this
time 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, Two U.S. F-16
fighters bombed Bosnian Serb targets in Gorazde, which was under heavy
attack. This was NATO's first-ever attack on ground positions. A second
air strike took place the following day.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(AP, 4/10/99)
1994 Apr 16, Bosnian Serbs downed
a British Sea Harrier jet near Gorazde; the pilot ejected and was
rescued by Bosnian government troops.
(AP, 4/16/99)
1994 Apr 17, Bosnian Serb tanks
entered the Muslim enclave of Gorazde; the UN Security Council issued a
nonbinding statement that condemned the Serbs' escalating military
activities, but made no threat of force to back its condemnation.
(AP, 4/17/99)
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 Apr 24, Bosnian Serbs,
threatened with NATO air strikes, grudgingly gave up their three-week
assault on Gorazde, burning houses and blowing up a water treatment
plant as they withdrew.
(AP, 4/24/99)
1994 May, Bosnian offensives
opened a road near Tuzla.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1994 Jun 8, Bosnia's warring
factions agreed to a one-month cease-fire.
(AP, 6/8/99)
1994 Jul 4, The United States
opened its embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a Fourth of
July party.
(AP, 7/4/99)
1994 Jul 20, Bosnian Serbs
rejected an international peace plan sponsored by the United States,
Russia, France, Britain and Germany.
(AP, 7/20/99)
1994 Jul 27, Bosnian Serbs
reimposed their blockade of Sarajevo and fired on a U.N. convoy,
killing one British soldier and wounding another.
(AP, 7/27/99)
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 Aug 29, At the end of a
weekend referendum, Bosnian Serbs overwhelmingly rejected what was
billed as a last-chance peace plan.
(AP, 8/29/99)
1994 Oct, Bosnian forces defeated
the Serbs near Bihac.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)
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 25, NATO warplanes buzzed
the besieged "safe haven" of Bihac in northwest Bosnia but did not
carry out airstrikes against rebel Serbs.
(AP, 11/25/99)
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 Nov, The Bosnian forces were
on the offensive on three fronts and were joined by the Croat militias.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1994 Dec 3, Rebel Serbs in Bosnia
failed to keep a pledge to release hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers, some
already held for more than a week.
(AP, 12/3/99)
1994 Dec 4, Bosnian Serbs released
53 of some 400 U.N. peacekeepers held as insurance against further NATO
airstrikes.
(AP, 12/4/99)
1994 Dec 8, Bosnian Serbs released
dozens of hostage peacekeepers, but continued to detain about 300
others.
(AP, 12/8/99)
1994 Dec 14, Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic asked former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to mediate a
lasting peace in Bosnia.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1994 Dec 18, Former U.S. president
Jimmy Carter arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina on a private mission to seek
an end to 32 months of war.
(AP, 12/18/99)
1994 Dec 19, Former President
Jimmy Carter, on a peace mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina, met with
Bosnian Serb leaders, who offered a four-month cease-fire.
(AP, 12/18/99)
1994 Dec 20, Former President
Jimmy Carter succeeded in getting Bosnia's warring factions to agree to
a temporary cease-fire.
(AP, 12/20/99)
1994 Dec 23, Bosnian Serbs and the
Muslim-led government agreed to a week-long truce beginning the next
day as they worked on details of a four-month cease-fire.
(AP, 12/23/99)
1994 Dec 31, Bosnian government
officials and Bosnian Serb leaders signed a U.N.-brokered cease-fire
agreement.
(AP, 12/31/99)
1994 Noel Malcolm published
"Bosnia: A Short History."
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A20)
1994 US Pres. Clinton assigned
Richard Holbrooke, ambassador in Germany, to be in charge of European
Affairs at the State Dept. This meant that he was to handle affairs
concerning Bosnia.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, BR p.9)
1994 The area of the world being
mined most heavily is the war zone of the former Yugoslavia, where 3
million mines have been laid in just a few years.
(UNICEFF Mailer,11/94)
1994-1995 Depleted uranium shells were used by NATO
forces against Bosnian Serb positions around Serajevo.
(WSJ, 1/11/00, p.A14)
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 Jan, Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic reportedly made contact with an arms dealer, Nikolas
Oman, to buy a secret nuclear device of red mercury for $6 million cash
and an additional $60 million from the mortgage of a state-owned
refinery.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A25)
1995 Jan, British Lieutenant
General Rupert Smith, UN commander in Bosnia, arrived in the Bosnian
capital and set up an intelligence cell.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1995 Feb 13, The Hague War Crimes
Tribunal indicted 21 Serbs. Zeljko Meakic, Bosnian Serb police officer,
was charged with commanding the Serb Omarska camp in northwest Bosnia.
Dusan Tadic, Bosnian Serb cafe owner, was charged for visiting Serb-run
camps to beat and kill non-Serb inmates.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)
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 Mar 1, The Bosnian Serb
government received a $60 million mortgage for the oil refinery in
Srpski Brod from a Liberian-owned company, Orbal Marketing Service Ltd.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A25)
1995 Mar, Delivery was made to the
Bosnian Serbs in late March of a supposed nuclear device of red mercury
at the Gradiska border. It was discovered to be a swindle.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A25)
1995 Apr, The intelligence cell of
Gen. Smith determined that Mladic was preparing for a major push to
seize the 3 eastern safe areas: Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1995 May 1, The Croatian army
captured the Serb enclave of Western Slavonia in its first major bid to
retake occupied territories. 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.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 May 24, Gen. Janvier told the
UN Security Council that the Bosnian government forces were sufficient
to defend Srebrenica, that UN troops should be withdrawn and that NATO
air power was not needed.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
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 May 27, In Bosnia General
Mladic launched an assault against the UN observation point of the
Vrbanja bridge. French soldiers Marcel Amaru and Jacky Humboldt were
killed in the operation of liberating the Vrbanja Bridge under siege in
Sarajevo. They became the symbol of the 84 French soldiers, who gave
their lives for Bosnia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNPROFOR)(http://tinyurl.com/qdsxo)
1995 May 28, Bosnia’s foreign
minister and three colleagues were killed when rebel Serbs shot down
their helicopter.
(AP, 5/28/00)
1995 May 30, In a letter to UN
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic demanded guarantees of no further NATO air attacks and de
facto recognition of a self-styled Serb state.
(AP, 5/30/00)
1995 May, The Croatian Army
overran Pakrac and some 4,100 Serbs were never heard from again.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A15)
1995 Jun 2, A U.S. Air Force F-16C
was shot down by Bosnian Serbs while on a NATO air patrol in northern
Bosnia; the pilot, Capt. Scott F. O'Grady, was rescued six days later.
(AP, 6/2/97)
1995 Jun 3, Mladic forces seized a
Dutch observation post.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1995 Jun 4, French General Bernard
Janvier, supreme UN military commander in the former Yugoslavia, met
with Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic. He pleaded for the
release of UN captives and offered to halt future NATO air attacks.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A10)
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 Jun 8, U.S. Air Force pilot
Captain Scott O'Grady was rescued by U.S. Marines after surviving alone
in Bosnia after his F-16 fighter was shot down.
(HN, 6/8/99)
1995 Jun 9, UN representative
Akashi summoned Gens. Janvier and Smith to resolve their differences
over military policies in Bosnia. Shortly after Yasushi Akashi publicly
affirmed that the UN would abide by peacekeeping principles - shorthand
for no more air attacks.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A10,12)
1995 Jun 16, Bosnian government
forces aided by Bosnian Croats unleashed a major offensive in hopes of
breaking the Serb stranglehold on Sarajevo.
(AP, 6/16/00)
1995 Jun 18, The Bosnian Serbs
announced the resumption of cooperation with the UN. The UN hostages in
Bosnia were freed. A planned NATO air strike was vetoed.
(SFC, 6/4/96,
p.A12)(www.washington-report.org/backissues/0995/9509111.htm)
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 7, UN military observers
appealed to the UN to "stop the carnage and damage in a UN declared
safe zone."
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1995 Jul 8, Shelling resumed and
the Dutch abandoned 3 posts under direct fire. 30 Dutch troops were
taken by the Serbs to Bratunac.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1995 Jul 9, The Dutch again asked
for air support but it was refused.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
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. In 1998 the book "The Graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar" was
published with photographs by Gilles Peress and text by Eric Stover.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)(SFC, 7/7/96, A10) (SFC, 6/1/96,
p.A10)(SFEC, 12/20/98, BR p.6)
1995 Jul 11, Videotape showed Gen.
Ratco Mladic entering Srebrenica.
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A8)
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 12, In Bosnia Momir
Nikolic, an intelligence officer, was nearby when 80-100 prisoners were
decapitated and their headless corpses loaded onto trucks. Nikolic was
arrested in 2002 on charges that he was responsible for the killing of
some 1,000 Muslim males (16-60), who were taken from a UN compound in
Jul 1995. He was also charged for the deaths of 6,000 more prisoners
captured while fleeing from Srebrenica. In 2003 Nikolic pleaded guilty
to war crimes. In 2003 Nikolic accepted that he was on duty when 80-100
prisoners were decapitated and their corpses loaded onto trucks.
Prosecutors recommended 20 years in prison.
(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A8)(AP, 5/6/03)(AP, 10/28/03)
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 21, At a 16-nation
conference in London, the United States and NATO allies warned Bosnian
Serbs that further attacks on UN safe havens would draw a "substantial
and decisive response."
(AP, 7/21/00)
1995 Jul 21, Dusko Sikirica,
Bosnian Serb, was indicted for genocide by the UN War Crimes Tribunal
for running the Serb Keraterm camp in northwest Bosnia in 1992.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)
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 Internet 7/23/97)
1995 Jul 25, Two weeks after
overrunning Srebrenica, Bosnian Serbs took over the safe area of Zepa.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14) (SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Jul 25, Radovan Karadzic and
Gen’l. Ratko Mladic were indicted for genocide by the UN War Crimes
Hague Tribunal for commanding forces responsible for sniping in
Serajevo and for genocide and crimes against humanity. Also indicted
was Milan Martic, Croatian Serb leader of rebel Serb forces, for
ordering the shelling of Zagreb in May ‘95.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)
1995 Jul 26, The US Senate voted
69-to-29 to unilaterally lift the UN embargo on arms shipments to
Bosnia.
(AP, 7/26/00)
1995 Jul 27, Satellite photos
revealed fresh graves in the area of Srebrenica.
(SFEC, 3/19/00, p.A30)
1995 Jul, Drazen Erdemovic (24),
an ethnic Croat, participated in killing 70 men at Srebrenica. He later
admitted that 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. In Nov 1996, the UN War Tribunal sentenced him to ten years in
prison.
(SFC, 6/1/96, p.A10)
1995 Jul, Forensic experts in 1998
began exhuming 274 bodies in the village of Donja Glumina. They were
believed to be Bosnian Muslims killed in Srebrenica by Serbs in Jul
1995.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A8)
1995 Jul, A UN War Crimes Tribunal
in the Hague issued indictments. Dusko Sikirica, who commanded a camp
at Prijedor in 1992 where over 3,000 Bosnian Muslims and Croats were
killed and tortured, was among the indicted. Sikirica was arrested in
2000.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)
1995 Jul, Serb troops made some
video tapes of their killings. In 2005 a video was shown by the War
Crimes Tribunal that displayed the murder of 6 civilians including
Azmir Alispahic (16) on Mount Treskavica near Pale.
(AP, 6/3/05)
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 11, Pres. Clinton vetoed
a congressional move to end the arms embargo on Bosnia and sent Envoy
Richard Holdbrooke on a new peace mission.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Aug 19, Three top US
diplomats heading to peace talks in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, were
killed when their armored vehicle plunged off a muddy road and
exploded.
(AP, 8/19/00)
1995 Aug 28, A mortar shell tore
through a crowded market in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, killing 38
people and triggering NATO airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs.
Bosnian Serb shells hit Serajevo near the main market and killed 37
people and wounded 85 others.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(HTNet, 8/28/99)(AP, 8/28/00)
1995 Aug 30, Bosnian Serbs gave
Serbian Pres. Slobodan Milosevic authority to negotiate for them. The
West pounded the Bosnian Serbs with artillery and air attacks in hopes
of bludgeoning them into serious peace talks.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(AP, 8/30/00)
1995 Aug 30-31, NATO planes and UN
artillery blasted Serb targets in Bosnia in response to the market
attack in Serajevo.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Aug, Some 200,000 Serbs were
moved from the Krajina region. 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)
1995 Sep 3, Testing Serb will the
United Nations reopened a route to Sarajevo and threatened more air
attacks if the rebel stranglehold of the Bosnian capital didn’t end.
(AP, 9/3/00)
1995 Sep 9, Bosnian Serbs blamed
UN forces for a shell that killed ten people at a Bosnian Serb hospital
the day before.
(AP, 9/9/00)
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 Slovenia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Sep 26, Bosnia’s warring
factions agreed on guidelines for elections and a future government.
(AP, 9/26/00)
1995 Sep 30, US envoy Richard
Holbrooke, trying to negotiate a Bosnian cease-fire, ended inconclusive
talks with the Sarajevo government and headed for Belgrade to try his
luck with the Serbs.
(AP, 9/30/00)
1995 Sep, The US warned Bosnia to
desist from an offensive against the Serb stronghold of Banja Luka.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)
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. Bosnia’s combatants
agreed to a 60-day cease-fire and new talks on ending their three and
a-half years of battle.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(AP, 10/5/00)
1995 Oct 11, A cease-fire was
declared in Bosnia.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)
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, Bosnian Serb leader
Karadzic fired four generals for battlefield losses. Appeals were made
to Serbian leader Milosevic for protection.
(WSJ, 10/17/95, A1)
1995 Oct 16-1995 Oct 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 7, Mile Mrksic, Miroslav
Radic, and Veselin Sljivan-Canin, officers in the Yugoslav National
Army, were indicted for genocide by the UN War Crimes Tribunal for
ordering the massacre of 261 Croats taken out of a Vukovar hospital in
1991.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)
1995 Nov 10, Dario Kordic,
ex-chairman of the Croatian Party in Bosnia, and Gen’l. Tihomir
Blaskic, former leader of the Bosnian Croat militia, were indicted for
genocide by the UN War Crimes Tribunal for commanding forces
responsible that killed hundreds of Muslims in Central Bosnia in
1992-93.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)
1995 Nov 16, Radovan Karadzic and
Gen’l. Ratko Mladic were again indicted for genocide by the UN War
Crimes Tribunal for ordering the slaughter of Muslims after the
takeover of Srebrenica.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)
1995 Nov 21, A Peace Pact 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.
One year deployment of 20,000 US troops as one-third of a NATO peace
keeping force is estimated to cost about $1.5 bil. The US also will
contribute $600 mil over three years to help rebuild Bosnia.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-1,3)
1995 Nov 23, Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic grudgingly accepted the US-backed peace plan for the
former Yugoslavia after meeting with Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic.
(AP, 11/23/00)
1995 Nov 24, Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic promised during a televised address to accept a
U-S-brokered peace plan.
(AP, 11/24/00)
1995 Nov 26, Senior US officials
declared the Dayton treaty on Bosnia was final, rejecting demands from
Bosnian Serbs that provisions relating to the future of Sarajevo be
changed.
(AP, 11/26/05)
1995 Nov, Top Bosnian Serb leaders
were indicted by a UN war crimes tribunal. The charges were the second
set leveled against Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
(WSJ, 11/17/95, p.A-1)
1995 Dec 4, In a near-freezing
drizzle, the first NATO troops landed in the Balkans to begin setting
up a peace mission that brought American soldiers into the middle of
the Bosnian conflict.
(AP, 12/4/00)
1995 Dec 7, 5000 Serbs protested
in Serajevo against the US brokered peace accord. They were opposed to
control by the Bosnian-Croat federation.
(WSJ, 12/8/95, p.A-1)
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. 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 Dec 20, In
Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO began its peacekeeping mission, taking over
from the United Nations.
(AP, 12/20/00)
1995 Dec 31, The first US tanks
crossed a pontoon bridge over the Sava River from Croatia to Bosnia to
start the deployment of 20,000 US troops under IFOR, the Implementation
Force under NATO command.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1995 Dec 31, Bosnian government
officials and Bosnian Serb leaders signed a UN-brokered cease-fire
agreement.
(AP, 12/31/00)
1995 Dec, The Sarajevo government
decreed in a law that any Sarajevo residents who were outside the city
had seven days to reclaim their homes if they were in Bosnia and 14
days if they were out of the country.
(SFC, 6/1/96, p.A10)
1995 The US Predator surveillance
drone was 1st used over Bosnia. In 2001 it was equipped with the
hell-fire missile and used over Afghanistan. This unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV) flew as slowly as a Cessna.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A12)(Econ, 12/8/07, TQ p.22)
1996 Jan 19, The Bosnian peace
agreement suffered its first setback as a planned nationwide prisoner
release fell far short of its goal.
(AP, 1/19/01)
1996 Feb, Bosnian President
Izetbegovic was accused of detaining Serbian military officers not
sought by the war crimes tribunal.
(WSJ, 2/16/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb, Serbs withdrew from the
suburbs of Serajevo.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1996 Mar 14, The US approved arms
and equipment for Bosnia. It was the same day that the UN embargo on
small arms for the region was lifted. In the following weeks M-16
rifles, machine guns, field phone systems, and military radio equipment
arrived in Bosnia.
(SFC, 5/24/96, p.A12)
1996 Apr 1, Muslim and Croat
officials signed an accord to jointly collect customs duties and agreed
on a flag.
(WSJ, 4/1/96, p.A-1)
1996 Apr 13-1996 Apr 14,
Representatives of 55 nations met in Brussels and pledged to raise $1.2
billion for the reconstruction of Bosnia. Serbs refused to attend as
part of a delegation with Muslims and Croats.
(WSJ, 4/16/96, 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 2000 the Tadic case
ended with the sentence reduced to 20 years from 25.
(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 5/8/97, p.C2)(SFC, 1/27/00, p.A13)
1996 May 15, Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic sacked a moderate rival, Rajko Kasagic, who supported
compromise and negotiation. Kasagic had just been appointed a few
months ago as "premier" of the Bosnian Serb Republic.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 18, Biljana Plavsic (66),
vice president of the Bosnian Serbs’ self-proclaimed republic, was
chosen by Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to be his representative
to the international community.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-12)
1996 May 18, A vote to replace
Kasagic with Gojko Klickovic was passed by the joint meeting of the
so-called parliamentary Deputies Club, which convened in the ruling
party’s stronghold in Pale, Bosnia.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 30, UN officials
confirmed the statement of Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic that Bosnian
Serbs were expelling Muslims from the Teslic area in central Bosnia.
(SFC, 5/31/96, E1)
1996 Jun 14, Leaders of Serbia,
Croatia and Bosnia signed an agreement to reduce arsenals of heavy
weapons.
(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A1)
1996 Jun 16, Croats in Mostar
named Pero Markovic as the new president of Herzeg-Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/15/96, p.A10)
1996 Jun 16, Members of a Muslim
party beat former Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic during a northern
Bosnia political rally. Leaders of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia signed an
agreement to reduce arsenals of heavy weapons.
(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 19, In Bosnia Radovan
Karadzic agreed to give up political power after negotiations led by US
envoy Richard Holbrooke.
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 27, The municipal
elections scheduled for Sep 14 were cancelled by the American diplomat
Robert Frowick due to widespread abuse of rules and regulations.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A8)
1996 Sep 17, In Bosnia Alija
Izetbegovic led the polls to become chairman of the new 3-member
presidency. Serbian nationalist Momcilo Krajisnik and Croat nationalist
Kresimir Zubak won their respective regions.
(SFC, 9/18/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/20/96, p.A10)
1996 Sep 29, The organization that
supervised Bosnia's first postwar elections officially certified the
results -- with victories by nationalist parties and the country's
Muslim president, Alija Izetbegovic.
(AP, 9/29/97)
1996 Sep, Iran delivered at least
$500,000 to Bosnian Pres. Alija Izetbegovic for his campaign.
(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct 22, Municipal elections
were postponed till the spring because Bosnian Serbs clung to their
decision to boycott the vote.
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.A8)
1996 Oct 25, The US held back $100
million in arms until Bosnia cuts its ties to Iran. M-60 tanks, M-111
armored personnel carriers and 50,000 small arms, ammunition and
supplies were part of the deal.
(SFC, 10/28/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov 8, Bosnian Serb Pres.
Biljana Plavsic announced that he had dismissed General Ratko Mladic.
(SFC, 11/9/96, p.A12)
1996 Nov 19, The Muslim-Croat
government fired Deputy Defense Minister Hasan Cengic. His ties to Iran
interfered with a $100 million US disbursement of arms. He was replaced
by an executive order of Kresimir Zubak, president of the Muslim-Croat
federation.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C6)
1996 Nov 27, Gen’l. Ratko Mladic
agreed to resign. He passed authority to his deputy Gen’l. Manojlo
Milovanovich.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.B7)
1996 Nov 28, Defense Secretary
William Perry joined U.S. soldiers in the mud and freezing rain of
Bosnia-Herzegovina to deliver a Thanksgiving message of discipline and
patience for their still-unfinished peacekeeping mission.
(AP, 11/28/97)
1996 The Int’l. Commission for
Missing Persons (ICMP) was created by the G-7 nations to help identify
victims of the 1992-1995 war.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)
1997 Feb 10, Bosnian Croat gunmen
killed a Bosnian Muslim man and wounded 22 others who were among a
crowd of some 200 trying to visit a cemetery in the divided city of
Mostar.
(WSJ, 2/11/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 11, Bosnian Croats
evicted 26 Muslim families from the Croat half of the city of Mostar.
(WSJ, 2/12/97, p.A1)
1997 Apr 15, The joint presidency
agreed on a new currency, a coupon with a value equal to one German
mark, or about 57 cents.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.A12)
1997 Apr 24, A Bosnian Serb court
sentenced 3 Muslims to 20 years in prison on murder charges for killing
4 Serb civilians in Krusev Dol, near Srebrenica, in May 1996. The men
claimed to have been tortured into confessing and denied the charges
with scant defense representation.
(SFC, 4/25/97, p.A14)
1997 Jun 5, In Pale Radovan
Karadzic and Momcilo Krajisnik were reported to control the operations
of Selekt Impex and Centrex, 2 companies that control trade in
cigarettes and gasoline in the Bosnian Serb Republic.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C2)
1997 Jul 3, Bosnian Serb Pres.
Biljana Plavsic dissolved her parliament saying that it was taking
orders from Radovan Karadzic. Bosnian Serb Premier Gojko Klickovic
rejected the decree, though he was not empowered to do so.
(SFC, 7/4/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul 10, In Operation Tango
NATO forces captured Milan Kovacevic, a physician who was the 2nd
ranking officer in the Prijedor City Hall during the war. An attempt to
capture Simo Drljaca, a leader of local "ethnic cleansing" led to a
shootout and his death. Kovacevic died in 1998 while jailed in the
Hague.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 8/3/98, p.A1)
1997 Jul 19, The Serb Democratic
Party expelled Pres. Biljana Plavsic after she threatened to arrest
Karadzic and his allies for rampant corruption.
(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 4, It was reported that
Croats near Jajce had driven out hundreds of Muslims who had recently
returned to their homes.
(WSJ, 8/4/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 8, Gen’l. Eric Shinseki,
the American in charge of NATO forces in Bosnia, announced a plan to
force all paramilitary troops to disband or face arrest.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug 15, The high court ruled
that Pres. Biljana Plavsic had no right to disband the Parliament.
Plavsic announced the formation of a new political party, the Serb
National Union.
(SFC, 8/16/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 20, NATO troops in Bosnia
seized truckloads of weapons from police stations in Banja Luka. They
moved to force out officers loyal to Karadzic.
(WSJ, 8/21/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 21, Judge Jovo Rosic
reported that he was beaten up and ordered to vote against Pres.
Plavsic last week.
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A14)
1997 Aug 28, US troops clashed
with Bosnian Serbs in Brcko. NATO forces rescued some 50 besieged UN
police monitors as crowds, opposed to Pres. Plavsic, demanded the
expulsion of Western peacekeepers. U.S. troops fired tear gas and
warning shots to fend off rock-hurling Serb mobs. The attempt by US-led
NATO forces to install Plavsic forces in police stations in 3 cities
failed.
(SFC, 8/29/97, p.A1)(SFC, 9/3/97, p.C2)(AP, 8/28/98)
1997 Sep 1, In Bosnia several
hundred Bosnian Serbs attacked some 300 armed US troops in an effort to
take back a key TV transmitter that was seized by the Americans last
week. The melee was a standoff.
(SFC, 9/2/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 2, US troops in Bosnia
relinquished control of the TV transmitter in exchange for agreements
to permit opposition voices on the air and an end to inflammatory
rhetoric.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.C2)
1997 Sep 13-1997 Sep 14, Municipal
elections were held under NATO escort. There was a high voter turnout.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A22)(SFC, 9/15/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 17, A UN helicopter
crashed in Bosnia and 12 officials were killed.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 18, In Bosnia a car bomb
in Mostar injured about 50 people and destroyed 56, apartments, 9
businesses and 44 cars.
(SFC, 9/20/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 26, A German court
convicted Nikola Jorgic, a Bosnian Serb, for leading a death squad that
killed 22 Muslims in Grapska during the war.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 26, Political broadcasts
began in Banja Luka under an agreement by rival factions to share the
airwaves on alternate days.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A26)
1997 Oct 1, In Bosnia NATO seized
4 key Bosnian Serb television transmitters.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 6, Nine Bosnian Croats
surrendered to the int’l. war crimes tribunal in the Hague. Dario
Kordic joined the group when the US promised a speedy trial to
volunteer suspects. Kordic was the leader of the Bosnian branch of
Franjo Tudjman’s Croatian Democratic Union political party, and was
charged with commanding troops who rampaged through 14 towns in the
Lasva Valley torturing and killing hundreds of Muslims and burning
their homes.
(SFC, 10/6/97, p.A11)
1997 Oct 4, It was reported that
an Egyptian ship loaded with Soviet-made T-55 tanks was sitting at
anchor in the Croatian port of Ploce. The shipment was registered with
officials of the foreign peace force. An error on the manifest said the
tanks were intended for the Bosnian Army.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Oct 9, Bosnian Muslims won
the municipal elections in Srebrenica when refugee voters returned to
outnumber Serbs who had moved in following mass executions in 1995.
(SFC, 10/10/97, p.D5)
1997 Oct 10, Bosnian Serb
nationalists won a narrow victory in the Sept. Brcko municipal
elections. A Muslim party coalition won 14 of 24 seats in Mostar. An
int’l. supervisor, US diplomat Robert Farrand, issued an order that the
municipal administration in Brcko must reflect the prewar multiethnic
composition, and that this would extend to the police and the judiciary.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A9)
1997 Oct 12, Elections were
scheduled by Pres. Plavsic.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 16, It was reported that
the US Agency for Int’l. Development donated $1 million to Bosnian Serb
Pres. Biljana Plavsic for reconstruction in Banja Luka.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A14)
1997 Oct 16, Bosnian Serb
hard-liners launched a guerrilla-style TV broadcast and attacked the
West’s efforts to silence them.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.D2)
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-Shrebrenica area of eastern
Bosnia in 1991.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.D3)
1997 Nov 15, Parliamentary
elections were scheduled under supervision by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A3)
1997 Nov 22-1997 Nov 23, The Serb
Democratic Party of Radovan Karadzic won 24 seats vs. 15 seats for the
allied Radical party of Biljana Plavsic. The elections were organized
by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
(SFC,12/897, p.A18)
1997 Dec 7, Presidential elections
were scheduled under supervision by the Organization for security and
Cooperation in Europe.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 18, In Bosnia NATO forces
seized 2 war crimes suspects. Vlatko Kupreskic was shot when he fired
on Dutch soldiers. Anto Furundzija was arrested without trouble.
(SFC,12/19/97, p.B2)
1997 Dec 22, During his visit to
Bosnia, President Clinton thanked American troops and lectured the
nation's three presidents to set aside their differences.
(AP, 12/22/98)
1997 A French military officer
held secret meetings with Radovan Karadzic and foiled an Allied forces
planned attempt to capture Karadzic. US Army Gen’l. Wesley Clark, the
Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, called off the plan due to undue risk
after he learned about the secret meetings.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A12)
1998 Jan 18, The Bosnian Serb
Parliament named a coalition government led by Milorad Dodik, a
pro-western leader of the Independent Social Democrats.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A8)
1998 Jan 21, Western mediators
unveiled a common currency and ordered that it be accepted by the
Muslims, Serbs and Croats.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B2)
1998 Jan 22, Goran Jelisic (29)
was detained by UN peace troops in Bijeljina. An indictment against him
held that he commanded the Luka prisoner camp in Brcko in May 1992 and
killed 16 Muslims, and that he was responsible for the deaths of
countless detainees. In 1999, he was found guilty on all counts of
crimes against humanity and violating the customs of war. He was
acquitted on the charge of genocide as the court did not believe the
prosecution had proved this beyond reasonable doubt. On May 29, 2003,
Jelisic was transferred to Italy to serve the remainder of his sentence
with credit for time served since his arrest.
(SFC, 1/22/98,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goran_Jelisi%C4%87)
1998 Feb 7, Government agents
arrested Goran Vasic, the suspected gunman of the 1993 murder of deputy
prime minister Hakija Turaljic. Serb hard-liners then seized 2 UN
buses, several cars and an unknown number of Muslim hostages and
demanded the release of Vasic.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A12)
1998 Apr 8, In Bosnia NATO forces
arrested Miroslav Kvocka and Mladen Radic, both whom were charged for
war crimes at the Omarska camp near Prijedor where scores of Muslim and
Croat prisoners were killed in 1992.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.A12)
1998 Apr 24, Some 1500 Bosnian
Croats rioted in retaliation for a Serbian attack on Croatian Roman
Catholic Cardinal Vinko Puljic.
(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A9)
1998 May 6, Five key Karadzic
holdovers were arrested or suspended for political and economic illegal
acts.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A10)
1998 May, In Croatia Gojko Susak,
the Croatian Defense Minister, died of cancer. He had directed the
wartime revolt by Bosnian Croats against the Muslim-led Bosnian
government.
(SFC, 5/14/98, p.C18)
1998 Jul 25, It was reported that
the US dropped secret plans to seize Radovan Karadzic and Gen’l. Ratko
Mladic in Bosnia.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.A17)
1998 Sep 16, Early results from
weekend elections indicated that hard-line nationalists led with 60% of
the votes counted.
(SFC, 9/17/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 21, In Bosnia Biljana
Plavsic conceded defeat to nationalist Nikola Poplasen. Nine hard-line
candidates were disqualified. For the presidency Serb Zivko Radisic
defeated Momcilo Karjisnik, Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic won, and
Croat Ante Jelavic defeated Kresimir Zubak.
(SFC, 9/22/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 9/22/98, p.A1)(SFC,
9/26/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 11, In Bosnia forensic
experts began exhuming 274 bodies in the village of Donja Glumina. They
were believed to be Bosnian Muslims killed in Srebrenica by Serbs in
Jul 1995.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A8)
1998 Nov 16, A UN tribunal
convicted a Bosnian Croat and 2 Muslims for murder, torture and rape at
the Celebici Camp in central Bosnia in 1992. Hazimn Delic, deputy
commander, received a 20 year sentence; Zdravko Mucic, camp warden
received 7 years; and Esad Landzo received 15 years.
(SFC, 11/17/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 2, In Bosnia US troops
arrested Bosnian Serb Gen’l. Radislav Krstic for genocide in the 1995
takeover of Srebrenica.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Roger Cohen published "Hearts
Grown Brutal: Sagas of Serajevo."
(SFEC, 1/10/99, BR p.5)
1998 Richard Holbrooke published
"To End a War," about his experiences in Bosnia from 1994-1996.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, BR p.9)
1998 Noel Malcolm published
"Kosovo: A Short History," a history of the troubled region and
Albania. Malcolm earlier wrote "Bosnia: A Short History."
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 9/6/98, BR p.8)
1999 Jan 9, Near Foca, Bosnia,
French troops shot and killed Dragan Gagovic (38), the former police
chief of Foca and a war crimes suspect.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.A17)
1999 Jan 10, A warrant was issued
for the arrest of former warlord Fikret Abdic, who declared Bihac an
autonomous province in 1993. He and his followers fled to Croatia in
1995.
(SFC, 1/11/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 25, Bosnian Serb
legislators rejected Pres. Poplasen's choice for premier, Brane Miljus.
(SFC, 1/26/99, p.A14)
1999 Jan 26, Some 700 US troops
were ordered by NATO to be pulled from Bosnia in a 10% force reduction.
(WSJ, 1/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 5, In Bosnia the town of
Brco was removed from ethnic Serb control and proclaimed a neutral zone
under int'l. supervision. Nikola Poplasen, president of the Bosnian
Serb Republic, was removed from office for not cooperating with the
int'l. community.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A12)(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 26, In Bulgaria some
10,000 people protested NATO strikes; in Greece some 15,000 marched on
the US embassy in protest; in Bosnia some 3,000 Serb youths turned
violent in Banja Luka over the NATO strikes.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 28, UN officials reported
that some 500,000 ethnic Albanians had fled Kosovo. NATO officials
raised the possibility of using ground troops in Yugoslavia as
low-level strikes against tanks began. It was feared that anger over
the war would spill over to Bosnia.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A1,10)
1999 May 14, It was reported that
30,000 NATO troops were in Bosnia to enforce the 1995 peace agreement.
(WSJ, 5/13/99, p.A1)
1999 May, The national employment
bureau began operations.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.D3)
1999 Jun 20, The last Serbian
officer left Kosovo. Pres. Milosevic urged the Serbs of Kosovo to stay
in Kosovo under NATO protection. As the last or 40-thousand Yugoslav
troops rolled out of Kosovo, NATO declared a formal end to its bombing
campaign against Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A1,7)(AP, 6/20/00)
1999 Jun 25, Bosnia's banking
agency took over the Bosnia and Herzegovina Bank which became insolvent
following a run on the bank triggered by the call in of loans by USAID.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 6, In Bosnia British
troops seized Radoslav Brdjanin, who was charged with crimes against
Muslims and Croats around Banja Luka in 1992.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 29, In Serajevo a 2-day
conference by leaders of over 60 countries was to begin for a Balkan
Stability Pact nicknamed "Marshall II."
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 30, In Serajevo Pres.
Clinton pledged $700 million in aid in addition to $500 million for
Kosovo as talks began to rebuild the Balkans.
(SFC, 7/31/99, p.A6)
1999 Aug 2, In Bosnia NATO troops
arrested Radomir Kovac, former Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader, for
enslaving and raping Muslim women in 1992-1993.
(WSJ, 8/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 17, In Bosnia the Office
of the High Representative, an int'l. agency for carrying out aspects
of the Dayton peace agreement, reported that as much as a billion
dollars disappeared from public funds from int'l. aid projects. Losses
were triggered when USAID called in loans from the Bosnia and
Herzegovina Bank that could not be covered.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 25, Gen'l. Momir Talic of
Bosnia was arrested in Austria on a secret UN war crimes indictment.
Talic had commanded the 1st Krajina Corps from 1992-1995.
(SFC, 8/26/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 12, The world population
was projected to reach 6 billion. This day was declared by the UN as
the Day of 6 Billion. The designated 6 billionth baby was born in
Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A12)(SFEC, 7/11/99, p.A19)(SFC,
10/12/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 14, In Bosnia 4 NATO
soldiers were injured as they attempted to seize weapons in the divided
city of Mostar.
(SFC, 10/15/99, p.D3)
1999 Oct 22, In Bosnia Zeljko
Kopanja, editor-in-chief of Nezavisne Novine, lost both legs due to a
bomb attack as he opened his car door. He had recently published a
series of war time atrocities committed against non-Serbs by Bosnian
and Serb forces.
(SFC, 10/23/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 25, In Bosnia some 30,000
people streamed into Serajevo to protest for job protection and an end
to corruption.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B2)
1999 Oct 25, Mladen Vuksanovic,
author of "Pale, a Diary, April-July 1992," written during the first
100 days of rule by Radowan Karadzic, died at age 57 in Croatia.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B4)
2000 Jan 14, A UN tribunal
sentenced five Bosnian Croat militiamen to up to 25 years in prison for
a 1993 murder rampage that emptied a Bosnian village of every one of
its Muslim inhabitants.
(AP, 1/14/01)
2000 Jan 25, In Bosnia NATO
peacekeepers arrested Mitar Vasiljevic (45), a member of the White
Eagles Bosnian-Serb paramilitary group, on charges of extermination of
Bosnian Muslim civilians between 1992 and 1994. The charges included
helping to burn scores of Muslims to death in Visegrad.
(SFC, 1/26/00, p.A9)
2000 Feb, The government was
dissolved because it had 2 prime ministers.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A13)
2000 Mar 5, NATO peacekeeping
troops arrested Dragoljub Prcac, a Bosnian Serb, for war crimes
committed at the Omarska prison camp in 1992, where he served as deputy
commander.
(SFC, 3/6/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 9, In Bosnia US Sec. of
state Madeleine Albright won a pledge from Croatian and Bosnian Serb
leaders to allow thousands of refugees to go home.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A13)
2000 Apr 3, In Bosnia NATO troops
arrested Momcilo Krajisnik, former speaker of the Bosnian Serb
assembly, for war crimes and flew him to the Netherlands to stand trial.
(SFC, 4/4/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr 9, In Bosnia the moderate
Social Democratic party claimed victory in 20 cities of the
Muslim-Croat Federation. In the Serb Republic the Serbian Democratic
Party won 56.5% of the vote.
(SFC, 4/10/00, p.A14)
2000 Apr 11, In Bosnia 3 children
were killed after they wandered into a mine field near Serajevo.
(WSJ, 4/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 22, In Bosnia a new
cabinet proposed by Prime Minister Spasoje Tusevljak won parliamentary
approval. Tusevljak, an economics professor, was approved by parliament
earlier in June.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A13)
2000 Sep 25, In NYC a US District
court ordered Radovan Karadzic, a former Bosnian Serb leader, to pay
$4.5 million in damages for 1992 war atrocities committed by his
soldiers.
(SFC, 9/26/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 13, Janko "Tuta" Janjic
(43), a war crimes suspect, killed himself in Foca, a town in the Serb
section of Bosnia, when NATO troops came to arrest him.
(SFC, 10/14/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 18, In Bosnia over 1,000
Bosnian Serb high school students rioted in Brcko and demanded an end
to the city’s multiethnic status.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C2)
2000 Nov 10, It was reported that
Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic managed an illicit public fund, the
national employment bureau, that disbursed tens of millions of tax
dollars to private companies, state enterprises and veteran subsidies.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.D3)
2000 Nov 11, General elections
were held in Bosnia. Mirko Sarovic of the Serb Democratic Party led
over Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.A24)(SFC, 11/14/00, p.A20)
2000 Nov 21, Final election
results were released. Hard-line nationalists won support among the
Serbs and Croats. Mirko Sarovic was declared the winner of the Bosnian
Serb republic over prime minister Milorad Dodik. The ultranationalist
Croatian Democratic Union was not included in the new government.
(SFC, 11/22/00, p.C5)(SFC, 11/24/00, p.D8)(SFC,
4/21/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 9, Biljana Plavsic,
former Bosnian Serb president, left for the Hague to appear before the
UN war crimes tribunal over her role in the 1992-1995 war.
(SFC, 1/10/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 22, A UN tribunal on
Yugoslav War Crimes found 3 Bosnian Serbs guilty of crimes against
humanity for the rape, torture and enslavement of Muslim women in Foca
between 1992-1993. The landmark case established rape and sexual
enslavement as a crime against humanity. They were sentenced to 28, 20
and 12 years, respectively.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A1)(AP, 11/1/07)
2001 Feb 26, The UN War Crimes
tribunal in the Hague convicted Dario Kordic, a former Bosnian Croat
leader, for crimes against humanity in the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. Mario
Crekez (41), a brigade commander of Croatian troops in Bosnia, was also
convicted. They had carried out an "ethnic cleansing" campaign in an
area they wished to be joined to Croatia.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 28, Bosnian Croat
soldiers deserted by the hundreds following orders by the
self-proclaimed Croat National Assembly led by the nationalist Croat
Democratic Union. Many returned after the defense ministry warned that
they would forfeit wages and benefits.
(SFC, 3/29/01, p.A12)
2001 Apr 6, Bosnian Croats stoned
Nato peacekeepers after police and troops seized the Hercegovacka Banka
and its 10 branches. The bank was believed to be used by the Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ) to promote a separate Croatian ministate.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 15, U.N. investigators
arrested Bosnian Serb army officer Dragan Obrenovic in connection with
the Serbian Army's slaughter of as many as 7,000 Muslim men and boys.
Obrenovic later pleaded guilty to five war crimes charges and testified
against his one-time superior officers; he was sentenced to 17 years in
prison.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2001 Apr 24, Bosnian Serbs blocked
a takeover of their part of Serajevo after an int’l. judge gave it to
the Muslim-Croat federation.
(WSJ, 4/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 31, Stevan Todorovic, a
former Bosnian Serb police chief, was sentenced at the Hague to 10
years in prison for war crimes in 1992-1993. Todorovic was known as
"Monstrum" for his cruelty.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 2, The UN war crimes
tribunal found Radislav Krstic, former Bosnian Serb general, guilty for
the 1995 genocide of some 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica. He was
sentenced to 46 years in prison. A 2004 appeal reduced the sentence to
35 years.
(SFC, 8/3/01, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/gm9l9)
2001 Aug 15, Dragan Jokic
surrendered to the UN war crimes tribunal to face charges from the 1995
Srebrenica massacre.
(WSJ, 8/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 16, Col. Vidoje
Blagojevic, former commander of Bratunac, pleaded innocent at the Hague
war crimes tribunal for 1995 war crimes in Srebrenica. On January 17,
2005, Col. Vidoje Blagojevic became the second indictee to be convicted
on Srebrenica Genocide charges and other human rights violations. He
was sentenced to 18 years in prison. On May 9, 2007, the Appeals
Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia ruled that Col Blagojevic had not been complicit in the
genocide at Srebrenica because he had not known his troops intended to
commit it. Blagojevic’s sentence was reduced to 15 years.
(SFC, 8/17/01,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre)
2001 Oct 24, A NATO spokesman said
peacekeepers in Bosnia had disrupted a Bosnian terrorist network.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A14)
2001 Dec 4, Edwin Huffine, US
forensic scientist, launched a new DNA ID software program developed
with a team of Bosnian experts at the Sarajevo-based Int’l. Commission
for Missing Persons (ICMP). The program used kinship analysis.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)
2002 Jan 18, US forces took 6
terrorism suspects, held since October, from Bosnia after local courts
ruled that there was too little evidence to hold them. The suspects
included Bensayah Belkacem, a key European al Qaeda lieutenant.
Protesters clashed with riot police.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A12)(SFC, 1/23/02, p.A9)(WSJ,
3/18/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 18, It was reported that
94 former Arab mujahedeen had been stripped of Bosnian citizenship and
deported or forced to flee. They left some 300 Bosnian-born children
behind.
(WSJ, 3/18/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 20, The US Embassy in
Bosnia was shut down to the public due to a possible terrorist threat.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A18)
2002 Jun 30, The United States
vetoed a resolution extending the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia,
then agreed to keep the mission alive three more days while the
Security Council seeks a way to meet U.S. demands for immunity from a
new global war crimes court.
(Reuters, 6/30/02)(SFC, 7/1/02, p.A3)
2002 Jul 22, In Bosnia forensic
experts discovered a mass grave in the northeast that may contain up to
100 bodies of Muslims killed at the end of the country's 1992-95 war.
(AP, 7/23/02)
2002 Sep 27, Lord Ashdown (b.1941)
began serving as the international community's High Representative for
Bosnia and Herzegovina. He ended his term May 30, 2006.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Ashdown)
2002 Oct 2, Bosnian Serb wartime
leader Biljana Plavsic, one of the highest-ranking suspects at the U.N.
war crimes tribunal, pleaded guilty to one count of crimes against
humanity.
(AP, 10/2/02)
2002 Oct 5, In Bosnia elections
the centrist Muslim Party for Democratic Action reported the party was
in the lead following a 55% turnout. Bosnia's three nationalist parties
beat moderates in the country's first self-organized elections since
the 1992-1995 war. Postwar Bosnia is made up of two mini-states, the
Serb republic and the Muslim-Croat federation. The two have wide powers
and are linked by a joint parliament and government. Elections provided
winners with four years in office instead of two.
(AP, 10/6/02)(AP, 10/5/03)
2003 Jan 1, In Bosnia the EU
hoisted its dark blue banner to officially mark the transfer of
peacekeeping duties from the United Nations, while NATO-led troops
handed over control of Sarajevo's airport to Bosnian authorities.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2003 Jan 17, Parliament of the
Bosnian Serb ministate approved a Cabinet and Dragan Mikerevic (48) as
the new prime minister.
(AP, 1/17/03)
2003 Feb 27, Biljana
Plavsic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who expressed remorse for the
horrors committed against non-Serbs during the Bosnian war, was
sentenced to 11 years in prison.
(AP, 2/27/03)
2003 Mar 7, International
officials froze assets linked to top Bosnian-Serb war crimes fugitive
Radovan Karadzic. A panel of Bosnian and int’l. judges ordered Bosnia’s
Serb Republic to pay $2.25 million in compensation for the 1995
massacre at Srebrenica.
(AP, 3/7/03)(SFC, 3/8/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 25, Muhamed Sacirbegovic
(46), former Bosnia ambassador to the US (1992-2000) was arrested in
NYC. The Bosnian government has accused him of stealing more than $2.4
million, about $1.8 million from the nation's Investment Fund Ministry
and more than $600,000 from the account of Bosnia's representation at
the UN.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Apr 2, Mirko Sarovic, a
Bosnian Serb who was the chairman of the country's three-member
multiethnic presidency, resigned after being implicated in a local
company's violation of the U.N. arms embargo against Iraq.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 11, NATO-led peacekeepers
in Bosnia arrested Naser Oric (35), a Bosnian Muslim wanted by the
Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and flew him to The Hague. He was the
wartime army commander in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. In
2006 Oric was acquitted of direct involvement in the murder of
prisoners in the early years of the 1992-95 Bosnia war. But the court
found he had closed his eyes to their mistreatment and failed to punish
their killers. He was sentenced to 2 years and then ordered to be
released since he has been in jail for more than three years.
(AP, 4/11/03)(AP, 6/30/06)
2003 May 5, Momir Nikolic, a
Bosnian Serb captain and member of the Bratunac Brigade that
participated in the executions of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys
in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica at the end of the 1992-1995
Bosnian war, pleaded guilty to war crimes. Nikolic was nearby when
80-100 prisoners were decapitated and their headless corpses loaded
onto trucks on July 12, 1995.
(AP, 5/6/03)
2003 May 16, Bosnia signed an
agreement with the United States on Friday that exempts Americans from
prosecution by a new international criminal court.
(AP, 5/17/03)
2003 Jul 11, Thousands marked the
anniversary of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica in Bosnia, burying 282
newly identified victims.
(AP, 7/11/04)
2003 Oct 19, Alija Izetbegovic
(78) died in Sarajevo. He led Bosnia's Muslims during the 1992-95 war
for independence and became one of the republic's first postwar
presidents.
(AP, 10/19/03)
2003 Oct 27, Prosecutors in the
Netherlands said Momir Nikolic (48), a Bosnian Serb captain who
admitted participating in the mass killing of more than 7,000 Muslim
boys and men in Srebrenica, should serve up to 20 years in
prison. Nikolic accepted that he was on duty when 80-100
prisoners were decapitated and their corpses loaded onto trucks on July
12, 1995. In 2006 a UN appeals court reduced his 27-year sentence to 20
years.
(AP, 10/28/03)(AP, 3/8/06)
2003 Oct 30, The US and 29 other
countries pledged $18.4 million to create a new war crimes court in
Bosnia that will lighten the load at the U.N. tribunal in the
Netherlands.
(AP, 10/30/03)
2003 Dec 18, Dragan Nikolic (46),
former Bosnian Serb prison camp commander who allowed his troops to
rape, torture and murder his Muslim prisoners, was sentenced to 23
years in jail at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
(AP, 12/18/03)
2004 Jan 28, Bosnia's
international administrator imposed a decree to unify the ethnically
divided city of Mostar, a precondition for Bosnia to join international
organizations and perhaps even the European Union.
(AP, 1/28/04)
2004 Apr 5, Six ethnic Croats
surrendered to the U.N. war crimes tribunal to face allegations they
participated in the torture and massacre of Muslims in Bosnia in 1993.
(AP, 4/5/04)
2004 Apr 30, Bosnian Serb
authorities offered details of six previously undisclosed mass graves
in the town of Srebrenica.
(AP, 4/30/04)
2004 Jun 11, A commission of the
government of the Republika Srpska, the Serbian part of Bosnia, finally
admitted that Serbian forces were responsible for the 1995 Muslim
massacre at Srebrenica.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.53)
2004 Jul 23, In Bosnia Britain's
Prince Charles and other foreign dignitaries gathered to reopen the
Mostar bridge over the Neretva River. The original was built in 1566.
(AP, 7/23/04)
2004 Aug 9, Forensic experts said
they found a mass grave in the waste dump of a coal mine in eastern
Bosnia, which they suspect may contain the bodies of about 350 Muslims
who disappeared from a Bosnian Serb detention centre during the Bosnian
war.
(AP, 8/9/04)
2004 Nov 10, Bosnian Serb
authorities apologized for the first time to relatives of around 8,000
Muslims killed by Serb forces in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's
worst atrocity since World War II.
(AP, 11/10/04)
2004 Nov 24, The US military ended
a 9-year peacekeeping role in Bosnia but kept on a small contingent to
hunt down top war crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
(AP, 11/24/04)
2004 Dec 2, The European Union
began its biggest-ever military operation, formally taking over NATO's
peacekeeping mission in Bosnia with 7,000 troops (EUFOR).
(AP, 12/2/04)(Econ, 3/19/05, p.60)
2004 Dec 17, Bosnian Serb Prime
Minister Dragan Mikerevic resigned, one day after the international
community imposed sanctions against Bosnian Serb police and officials
for allegedly helping fugitive war crimes suspects evade justice.
(AFP, 12/17/04)
2005 Jan 15, Savo Todovic (52), a
Bosnian Serb wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for crimes he
allegedly committed during the 1992-95 war, surrendered to Bosnian Serb
police.
(AP, 1/15/05)
2005 Oct 4, A Bosnian Serb panel
said it identified more than 17,000 people with varying levels of blood
on their hands for abetting the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
(WSJ, 10/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Oct 17, Radovan Karadzic,
former Bosnian-Serb leader and war-crimes fugitive, released a 6th
collection of poems titled “Under the left Breast of the Century.”
(SFC, 10/19/05, p.A2)
2005 Oct 19, Police in Bosnia
arrested a cyber-jihadist who called himself Maximus. Mirsad
Bektasevic, a Swedish teenager of Bosnian extraction, was sentenced to
jail along with 3 others for plotting attacks to take place in Bosnia
or other European countries. On his computer police found contacts with
other jihadists in Europe including Younis Tsouli (Irhabi007), whom
British police arrested 2 days later.
(Econ, 7/14/07,
p.28)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irhabi_007)
2005 Oct 21, The European
Commission agreed to open talks with Bosnia on a cooperation agreement
that could lead to full EU membership for the Balkan nation.
(AP, 10/21/05)
2005 Oct 27, In Denmark 4 young
Muslims were arrested for helping to supply weapons and explosives for
a planned terror attack in Europe. They helped two main suspects in
Bosnia get hold of weapons and explosives with the aim of committing a
terror act. In 2007 a Danish court convicted Abdul Basit Abu-Lifa (17)
and sentenced him to 7 years in jail.
(AP, 8/24/06)(AP, 2/16/07)
2005 Oct, Police in Bosnia
arrested a cyber-jihadist who called himself Maximus. Mirsad
Bektasevic, a Swedish teenager of Bosnian extraction, was sentenced to
jail along with 3 others for plotting attacks to take place in Bosnia
or other European countries. On his computer police found contacts with
other jihadists in Europe including Younis Tsouli (Irhabi007), whom
British police arrested 2 days later.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.28)
2005 Nov 1, In Bosnia 2 children
in Doribaba died when they were playing with a hand grenade and pulled
the security pin.
(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Nov 21, EU foreign ministers
authorized the start of negotiations on an agreement to prepare Bosnia
for EU membership a decade after the Balkan nation was ravaged by
Europe's worst fighting since World War II. Leaders of Bosnia's three
major ethnic groups signed an accord designed to unify the Balkans by
remaking the government's constitutional structure.
(AP, 11/21/05)(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 25, EU Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn officially opened landmark negotiations on
closer ties between Bosnia and the 25-member European Union.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 26, Bosnia's southern
town of Mostar unveiled the world's first statue of kung fu legend
Bruce Lee, paying homage to a childhood hero of all its divided ethnic
groups.
(Reuters, 11/28/05)
2005 Dec 7, The Hague war crimes
tribunal sentenced Miroslav Bralo (aka Cicko), a former Bosnian Croat
soldier, to 20 years in jail on eight counts of war crimes and human
rights abuses committed during the 1993 Muslim-Croat war in central
Bosnia.
(Reuters, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 17, In Bosnia the
reconstructed Stari Most, a bridge that came to symbolize the senseless
brutality of the Bosnian war, took its place on the UN's list of
protected World Heritage Sites.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2006 Jan, In the Hague Col. Vidoje
Blagojevic (56), Bosnian Serb wartime commander of the Bratunac
brigade, was convicted of war crimes and complicity in genocide by the
Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal. In 2007 an appeals panel overturned the
charge of complicity in genocide.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2005 Jun 27, Bosnian Serb police
said they had arrested 11 people on war crimes charges.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jul 7, In Pale,
Bosnia-Hercegovina, NATO troops arrested Aleksandar Karadzic, the son
of top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic, who is wanted
for alleged genocide including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
(AFP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 19, Miroslav Bralo (37),
former Bosnian Croat special forces soldier, pleaded guilty to war
crimes at the Yugoslav tribunal in the Hague. Bralo was a member of an
infamous unit, known as "the Jokers," responsible for attacks on
Bosnian Muslim villages in the Lasva Valley of central Bosnia and
Herzegovina in 1993.
(AP, 7/19/05)
2005 Aug 8, Milan Lukic, a former
Bosnia Serb paramilitary leader, was captured in Argentina. He was
wanted by a U.N. tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity.
(AP, 8/8/05)
2005 Sep 13, Sredoje Lukic, a top
Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect, surrendered to the Serb authorities in
Bosnia. He was indicted by a UN tribunal in 2000 for some of the worst
atrocities in the Bosnian war.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2005 Oct 4, A Bosnian Serb panel
said it identified more than 17,000 people with varying levels of blood
on their hands for abetting the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
(WSJ, 10/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Oct 17, Radovan Karadzic,
former Bosnian-Serb leader and war-crimes fugitive, released a 6th
collection of poems titled “Under the left Breast of the Century.”
(SFC, 10/19/05, p.A2)
2005 Oct 21, The European
Commission agreed to open talks with Bosnia on a cooperation agreement
that could lead to full EU membership for the Balkan nation.
(AP, 10/21/05)
2005 Oct 27, In Denmark 4 young
Muslims were arrested for helping to supply weapons and explosives for
a planned terror attack in Europe. They helped two main suspects in
Bosnia get hold of weapons and explosives with the aim of committing a
terror act. In 2007 a Danish court convicted Abdul Basit Abu-Lifa (17)
and sentenced him to 7 years in jail.
(AP, 8/24/06)(AP, 2/16/07)
2005 Nov 1, In Bosnia 2 children
in Doribaba died when they were playing with a hand grenade and pulled
the security pin.
(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Nov 21, EU foreign ministers
authorized the start of negotiations on an agreement to prepare Bosnia
for EU membership a decade after the Balkan nation was ravaged by
Europe's worst fighting since World War II. Leaders of Bosnia's three
major ethnic groups signed an accord designed to unify the Balkans by
remaking the government's constitutional structure.
(AP, 11/21/05)(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 25, EU Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn officially opened landmark negotiations on
closer ties between Bosnia and the 25-member European Union.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 26, Bosnia's southern
town of Mostar unveiled the world's first statue of kung fu legend
Bruce Lee, paying homage to a childhood hero of all its divided ethnic
groups.
(Reuters, 11/28/05)
2005 Dec 7, The Hague war crimes
tribunal sentenced Miroslav Bralo (aka Cicko), a former Bosnian Croat
soldier, to 20 years in jail on eight counts of war crimes and human
rights abuses committed during the 1993 Muslim-Croat war in central
Bosnia.
(Reuters, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 17, In Bosnia the
reconstructed Stari Most, a bridge that came to symbolize the senseless
brutality of the Bosnian war, took its place on the UN's list of
protected World Heritage Sites.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2006 Jan 5, The wife of Dragomir
Abazovic, a Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect, was killed in a shoot-out
when European Union (EUFOR) peacekeepers moved in to arrest her husband
at their home. Abazovic and the couple's 11-year-old son were also shot
and injured.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 31, Dr. Christian
Schwarz-Schilling (b.1930), former German cabinet minister, was
appointed as the EU's High Representative in Bosnia, succeeding Lord
Ashdown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Schwarz-Schilling)(Econ,
6/30/07, p.60)
2006 Feb 20, Milan Lukic, a
Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect who had been indicted by a UN tribunal
in connection with atrocities during the former war in Bosnia, was
extradited from Argentina to The Hague.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 27, In the Netherlands
the International Court of Justice heard arguments by Bosnia accusing
Serbia of genocide, the first time a state has faced trial for
humanity's worst crime.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, Bosnia's veterinary
office said tests at the EU reference laboratory had confirmed its
first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in two wild swans.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Mar 22, In the Netherlands an
appeals chamber of the UN war crimes court dropped the life sentence of
Bosnian Serb Milomir Stakic and instead sentenced him to 40 years for
overseeing detention camps in Bosnia.
(AFP, 3/22/06)
2006 Apr 18, Christian
Schwarz-Schilling, Bosnia's international administrator, said the
international community should end its decade-long control and allow
Bosnia to assume the responsibilities of a "normal" democracy.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 May 8, In the Hague the UN
war crimes court sentenced Ivica Rajic, a Bosnian Croat former militia
leader, to 12 years in prison. Rajic admitted that forces under his
command operating in the Muslim village of Stupni Do in central Bosnia
in October 1993 "forced Bosnian Muslim civilians out of their homes and
hiding places, robbed them of their valuables, willfully killed Muslim
men, women and children and sexually assaulted Muslim women".
(AFP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 9, Bosnia's war crimes
court launched the trial of 11 Bosnian Serbs charged over the 1995
Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, its first genocide trial
since it opened last year.
(Reuters, 5/9/06)
2006 May 26, Bosnia's war crimes
court sentenced Bosnian Serb former officer Dragoje Paunovic to 20
years in prison for crimes against humanity during the country's
1992-95 war.
(Reuters, 5/26/06)
2006 Jun 9, Bosnia's war crimes
court said it would deliver Serb war crimes suspect Dragan Zelenovic to
the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague after he was handed over to
Sarajevo by Russia. Zelenovic, a former policeman, was wanted by the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for
atrocities committed against non-Serbs in the eastern Foca region
during the 1992-95 war. In 2007 Zelenovic was convicted of raping women
in Foca and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 6/9/06)(AP, 11/1/07)
2006 Aug 23, Russia’s Gazprom
threatened to cut off gas exports to Bosnia on Oct 1 if strides toward
repaying $104.8 million from debts incurred during wars that ended in
1995.
(WSJ, 8/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Sep 27, At the Hague,
Netherlands, a UN tribunal sentenced Momcilio Krajisnik (61), the
former speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament, to 27 years in prison
for war crimes, but acquitted him of the harsher charge of genocide.
(AP, 9/27/06)
2006 Oct 1, Bosnians voted in
historic general elections that will choose the first government to run
the country without international supervision since the end of the
1992-1995 war.
(AFP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 2, Preliminary results
indicated that Bosnians elected new leaders, Milorad Dodik and Haris
Silajdzic, split along ethnic lines over whether to further unify the
country in a push toward European Union membership or allow Serbs to
maintain their political distinctness.
(AP, 10/2/06)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.60)
2006 Nov 21, The UN Security
Council voted to extend the EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a year,
welcoming "tangible signs" of the Balkan nation's progress toward EU
membership.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 29, NATO leaders finished
a two-day summit without agreement on some members' refusal to send
troops into combat in Afghanistan's most dangerous regions. NATO vowed
to give its troubled mission in Afghanistan the "forces, resources and
flexibility needed" to tackle increasingly ferocious Taliban fighters.
Leaders invited Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina to join a
program considered a first step toward eventual membership, but urged
Serbia and Bosnia to fully cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 11/29/06)(AFP, 11/29/06)
2006 Dec 4, Against a backdrop of
protests, the defense minister gave citations to Dutch troops who
served in the UN peacekeeping force that failed to prevent the
slaughter of Muslims in the Srebrenica enclave during the Bosnian war.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2007 Jan 10, Bosnia's state court
jailed a Swede, a Turk and a Bosnian for up to 15 years four months for
planning a suicide attack in Europe. All 3 men were Muslims and wanted
to pressure Bosnia and European governments to withdraw forces from
Iraq and Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 1/10/07)
2007 Mar 1, Britain confirmed it
will withdraw its more than 600 remaining troops from Bosnia as
concerns about security in the Balkan state ease.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Apr 22, In Bosnia a
fast-moving fire tore through an orphanage in Sarajevo, killing five
babies and injuring 17 others.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 May 19, Miroslav Deronjic
(52), Bosnian Serb war criminal, died in a hospital in Sweden.
Deronjic, the top authority in the eastern Bosnian city of Bratunac
during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, was convicted of ordering a 1992
attack on a Bosnian village in which 65 civilians were killed. He had
been serving a 10-year sentence for war crimes.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 25, Radovan Stankovic, a
convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal, escaped from custody while being
transported to a hospital in eastern Bosnia after complaining of
feeling ill.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 Jun 4, Thousands of survivors
of Europe's worst massacre since World War II filed a lawsuit against
the UN and the Dutch government for their failure to protect civilians
in the Srebrenica safe haven when Bosnian Serb forces overran it in
1995 and slaughtered some 8,000 men.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 9, In Bosnia Karray Kamel
bin Ali, alias Abu Hamza, Tunisian-born radical Islamist, was arrested
near Zenica. This was several hours after he and possibly three or four
others attacked a house owned by Zijad Kovac. 3 family members were
wounded.
(http://isaintel.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45)
2007 Jun 11, In Bosnia thousands
of survivors of Europe's worst massacre since WW II protested in
Sarajevo, demanding a special administrative status for the town of
Srebrenica and saying it should not be run by Bosnian Serb authorities
who were responsible for genocide there.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jul 1, Miroslav Lajcak,
Slovak diplomat, took over as the EU's High Representative in Bosnia
replacing Dr. Christian Schwarz-Schilling.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.60)
2007 Jul 18, Bosnia's war crimes
court acquitted Momcilo Mandic, the most senior ethnic Serb official
indicted by Bosnian authorities, of all charges related to crimes
during the 1992-95 war.
(Reuters, 7/18/07)
2007 Sep 30, Milan Jelic (51),
president of Bosnia's Serb Republic died of a heart attack after less
than a year on the job.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, Bosnian PM Nikola
Spiric resigned in protest at an international envoy's decision to
impose EU-backed reforms, deepening the country's worst post-war
political crisis.
(AFP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, The Bosnian Serb
parliament approved Igor Radojcic, the government's candidate, as
interim president following the death of President Milan Jelic.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Nov 21, The UN Security
Council extended the EU's peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a year,
citing the Balkan nation's "very limited progress" towards EU
membership and its failure to implement key reforms.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Bosnia 4 men
wearing police uniforms and armed with automatic weapons stormed
Sarajevo international airport's cargo zone and stole $1.9 million.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 9, Voters in Bosnia's
Serb entity went to polls to choose a new president, as the country was
taking initial steps towards European integration.
(AFP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 12, The UN war crimes
tribunal sentenced former Bosnian Serb general Dragomir Milosevic to 33
years imprisonment for the shelling of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war,
one of the court's toughest sentences.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2008 Mar 4, The US embassy in
Sarajevo said the US government has cut development aid to the
political party of Bosnian Serb PM Milorad Dodik because of its
nationalist policy.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 25, Director Koichiro
Matsuura said that Visegrad’s Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic bridge, a 16th
century stone bridge over the Drina River that links Bosnia and Serbia,
has been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List. A ceremony in Sarajevo
marked the event.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 May 29, Tomislav Petrovic, a
former Bosnian soldier, shot dead six people and wounded another in a
rampage in a Tuzla before being detained as he fired on a parked car.
(AFP, 5/29/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Bosnia genocide
charges were filed against Vaso Todorovic (40), a former Bosnian Serb
police officer. He was accused of taking part in the 1995 massacre of
more than 7,000 Muslims, Europe's worst slaughter since World War II.
(www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080604-0441-bosnia-warcrimes.html)
2008 Jun 16, Bosnia signed a
stabilization agreement with the EU, the first step towards membership.
(Econ, 6/21/08, p.64)
2008 Jun 19, In central Bosnia a
helicopter carrying two Spanish pilots of the EU peace force and two
German officers crashed, but it was not clear if there were any
casualties.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 21, Serb authorities
turned over an ex-Bosnian Serb police chief to the Yugoslav war crimes
tribunal in the Netherlands. Stojan Zupljanin was arrested in the town
of Pancevo last week after nine years on the run.
(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Radovan Karadzic
(63), the wartime leader of Bosnian Serbs, was arrested in a Belgrade
suburb. A judge ordered his transfer to the UN war crimes tribunal in
The Hague.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 29, The Bosnian war
crimes court convicted seven Bosnian Serbs of genocide in the 1995
massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica and handed down prison
sentences ranging from 38 to 42 years. Four others were acquitted.
Milenko Trifunovic, Brano Dzinic and Aleksandar Radovanovic received
the 42-year sentences, while Milos Stupar, Slobodan Jakovljevic and
Branislav Medan each got 40 years and Petar Mitrovic received 38 years.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 30, Former Bosnian Serb
leader Radovan Karadzic sat in a UN jail cell after being flown to the
Netherlands in the dead of night to face charges of genocide against
Muslims and Croats during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Sep 10, A Dutch court
dismissed a bid by Bosnian Muslim survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica
massacre to hold the Netherlands liable for its troops' failure to
protect the so-called safe haven.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Oct 14, The prosecution
office of Bosnia's war crimes court said it ordered the arrest of
Milorad Skrbic, 48; Milorad Radakovic, 46; Gordan Djuric, 40; and
Ljubisa Cetic, 39, for allegedly having participated in 1992 in the
wartime execution of 200 civilians.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the European Union's peacekeeping
force in Bosnia for a year, emphasizing the importance of the country's
progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Dec 16, Three Guantanamo
prisoners were flown to Bosnia and released to their families.
(SFC, 12/17/08, p.A2)
2008 Carla Del Ponte, a Swiss
prosecutor, authored (with Chuck Sudetic) “Madame Prosecutor:
Confrontations with Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of
Impunity.” It covered her 8 years chasing Balkan war criminals. In 2009
this Italian edition was made available in English.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.88)
2009 Mar 17, In the Netherlands
the UN criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia reduced the jail
sentence of Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik from 27 to 20 years,
quashing some convictions from a 2006 judgment.
(AP, 3/17/09)
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Subject = Bosnia
End of file