Zorislav Šojat Sequence of Events in the Area of Former Yugoslavia 1989 – 1995 Third Edition Zagreb, October 2017 Preface to the 3 rd Edition This Chronology of the events happening in the area of the former Socialist Federa- tive Republic of Yugoslavia (Socijalistička federativna republika Jugoslavija - SFRJ) was a result of intensive study of a vast variety of documents, as for example newspapers, mem- oranda, resolutions, other chronologies and synopses etc. It spans the time period of over six years, starting from January 19, 1989 and ending on March 8, 1995, almost exactly five months prior to the Action “Storm” (Akcija Oluja), which noted the end of the war in Croatia, although the final peaceful reintegration of all the territory of the Republic of Croatia (Republika Hrvatska) was finished only on January 15, 1998. It stops also before the infamous massacre of civilians in Srebren- ica, Bosnia and Hercegovina, between July 13 and 19, 1995, when the forces of the Army of the Republic of Serbs (Vojska Republike Srpske) and the Serbian special unit “Scorpions” killed 8.372 women and men in the UN Protected Area of Sre- brenica. The war in Bosnia and Hercegovina finally ended by the signing of the “Dayton Agreement” on December 14, 1995, and the siege of Sarajevo finally stopped on February 29, 1996. This Edition of the Sequence of Events in the Area of Former Yugoslavia is intended as a historical reference to that time, and will hopefully be of value to anybody interested in exploring the sequence of events during the dissolution of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. It is to be noted here that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Savezna republika Jugoslavija) of the time this Chronology was compiled, which con- sisted of the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro, does not exist any more nowadays, as in the meantime it broke into three independent states: Republic of Serbia (Republika Srbija), Montenegro (Crna Gora) and Republic of Kosovo (Republika Kos- ovo). From present day perspective, all of the constituent Socialist Republics of the Social- ist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia and one of its Socialist Autonomous Provinces (Socijalistička autonomna pokrajina) are now sovereign countries, except the former Socialist Autonomous Province of Voyvodina (SAP Vojvodina), which is still part of the present day Republic of Serbia. This Sequence of Events presented here was made on the initiative of the European Commission Monitor Mission, and was partly financed by it. The work itself was very much collaborative, specifically in the area of data and information collection. The partic- ular events chosen, and the text of the entries was the responsibility of the named Author, Zorislav Šojat. However much common effort was put into properly and truthfully reporting events directly from the various sources, by making short, one-paragraph abstracts, without any comments. The book itself is written in such a way that any particular event entry is fully self- contained so the dates can randomly be accessed and read. Sometimes that may be strange if reading the Sequence actually sequentially, specifically when a longer development is Preface to the 3 rd Edition Page 1 followed. However, the choice for self-contained event descriptions was preferred to ena- ble the book to be both readable sequentially and as a quick reference to specific dates. It shall be noted that, except for the additional Preface written, no text in this book was changed from the 2 nd Edition (March 1995), except several minor corrections and some reformatting, so, in a way, this is actually just a re-edition. I would like sincerely to thank the European Community Monitor Mission (ECMM) and specifically Ambassadors Dr. Paul Joachim von Stülpnagel and Albert Turot, whose support for the project was essential. Without my dear colleagues from the Croatian Office for ECMM (Hrvatski ured pri Promatračkoj misiji Europske zajednice), which later became the ECMM Croatian Assistance Team, this Chronology could have never been done, and I am very grateful to them for all they contributed, and for all the time and friendship we had. Finally, special thanks goes to the Soul of the group, Mrs. Verica Varga. Thank you! October 25, 2017 Zorislav Shoyat (Šojat) Preface to the 3 rd Edition Page 2 The 2 nd Edition European Community Monitor Mission Zagreb, March, 1995 Albert Turot Ambassador The 2 nd Edition Page 3 Preface to the 1 st Edition This chronology, compiled by the European Community Monitor Mission – Assis- tance Team, endeavours to compile the major events in the former Yugoslavia from 1989 to the present. It was written during the German Presidency of the ECMM and denotes the first attempt at such a chronology. Since the sources for this chronology were numerous and varied (newspapers, mem- oranda, resolutions, other chronologies and synopses), creating a bibliography would be too vast an undertaking at the start. Therefore, this chronology does not pretend to be exhaustive or definitive. It is intended, rather, to be a helpful reference system for assess- ing, in retrospect, the events in the theatre of the former Yugoslavia. Also, apart from its intrinsic value, the chronology may serve as a complement to ECMM records. Indeed it is thought of as a “living” document, open to additions, advice, improvement and continua- tion. Thus, any contributions are welcome and greatly appreciated; the ECMM Assistance Team will serve as the point of contact for comments and the further development of the work. December 1994 Dr. Paul Joachim von Stülpnagel Ambassador Preface to the 1 st Edition Page 5 Introduction 1989 – 1995 This is a short chronology of the main developments during the formation period of the Republic of Slovenia, the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzego- vina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), countries which came into existence after the disintegration of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. However, the main emphasis of this short overview is on the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because, for these several years, it was there that the war is being waged. This chronology is a result of research of different chronological overviews, as well as of several individual books. Its intention is to be neither exhaustive, nor to be absolutely error-free (which means that the authors did try to solve as many of the problems of dif- fering data as possible, but give no guarantees for the exactness of the dates. 1), but to be a brief introduction to what happened then. It will also present, as much as possible, the state of the society and the different influencing factors on society, which could have been partly instrumental in the events thereafter. Many of the aspects of the crisis in the area of the former Yugoslavia are based on notions of Nations, National and Ethnic Minorities and Ethnic Communities. Being a federative multinational country, the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia was from its very conception internally divided on a national and ethnic basis. For the countries of Western Europe, the notions of a Nation and a State have been almost synonymous from the time of the formation of so-called nation-states, which started several centuries ago, and was mostly completed in the last century. This led to the suppression, for example in the English language, i.e. the language this overview is written in, of the differing denota- tions of the words “citizenship” and “nationality”, where connotatively the latter included also most of the semantic field of the former. However, in the Socialist Federative Repub- lic of Yugoslavia this was never the case. Thus, according, for example, to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (SRC), a citizen of any nationality living 2 in the SRC, had the citizenship of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, and because the Socialist Republic of Croatia was federated into the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), this citizen had, consequently, also the citizenship of the SFRY. His nationality, of which many of the SFRY citizens were very much aware and very proud, could have been one of several tens of nationalities living in this area. To distinguish the citizenship from the nationality in the following overview, a prin- ciple in the English language is used. This principle is already often used by different 1. It is important to note here that even, for example, for the same document (Agreement, Declaration etc.) there can be, and more often then not are, different signing dates. It often happens that a politician from one country signed a document on one date, while one from another country signed several days later. Often this applies also to resolutions, whose days of voting and of publishing differ. 2. Here we will not enter the specialist law formulations of citizenship. Though it is not so simple as “living in”, for the sake of this introduction it is proper enough. Introduction 1989 – 1995 Page 7 international organisations, but is here extended to all nations and countries of the former Yugoslavia. So, a citizen of Croatia is a Croatian, but by his nationality he can be Croat, Serb, Slovene etc. In the Province of Kosovo in Serbia, there are many Serbs, but the majority are Albans, though all of them are Serbians. However, all Albans living in Alba- nia are Albanians, as are all Muslims living in Slovenia Slovenians, though certainly not Slovenes 3. In the text certain comments which relate a particular event to the framework of the general situation, but are not the event itself are given in square brackets ‘[…]’. These comments are generally not to be understood as the view of the Authors, but as an aid in the reading of the text.