Serbia and the Former Yugoslavia

Serbia had been part of the communist Yugoslav Federation since the end of World War II when, in the late 1980s, Yugoslavia began to dissolve into various republics with nationalistic aspirations. Slovenia and Croatia were the first to break away. Because of a territorial dispute with Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian nationalist politician and leader of Yugoslavia at this time, a civil war began in Croatia. By 1992, a further conflict had broken out in Bosnia, which had also declared independence. Serbs drove Bosnian Muslims from their homes and killed many, a course of action later described as "ethnic cleansing." By 1993, the Bosnian Muslim government was besieged in the capitol, Sarajevo, while Serbian forces controlled 70 percent of the republic. Bosnian Muslim forces were also fighting with Bosnian Croats, who wanted to be part of a greater Croatia. United Nations peacekeepers were ineffective in controlling the...