"Following the Slovenian and Croatian secessions from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, the multi-ethnic Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina – which was inhabited by mainly Muslim Bosniaks (44 percent), as well as Orthodox Serbs (32.5 percent) and Catholic Croats (17 percent) – passed a referendum for independence on 29 February 1992. This was rejected by the political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of independence (which gained international recognition), the Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadžić and supported by the Serbian government of Slobodan Milošević and the"
"state of the United Nations on 22 May 1992. Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević and Croatian leader Franjo Tuđman are believed to have agreed on a partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 1991, with the aim of establishing Greater Serbia and Greater Croatia. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of independence, Bosnian Serb militias mobilized in different parts of the country. Government forces were poorly equipped and unprepared for the war. International recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina increased diplomatic pressure for the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) to withdraw from the republic's territory, which they officially did in June 1992. The Bosnian"
"stopped the Serbian advance, and in some places they repelled the enemy. On 16 June 1992, President of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman and President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović signed an alliance according to which, Bosnia and Herzegovina legalized the activity of Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council on its territory. Bosnian Croat political leadership and the leadership of Croatia urged Izetbegović to form a confederation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, but Izetbegović denied this since he tried to represent Serbian interests as well as those of Bosniaks and Croats. The Bosnian Croat leadership was irritated by Izetbegović's neutrality,"
"of Yugoslavia, the Serbian Autonomous Area of the Bosnian Frontier was formed in the western Bosnian Frontier region of Bosnia and Herzegovina with its capital in Banja Luka, which was not recognised by the central government. SAO Bosnian Frontier made attempts to unite with the Autonomous Region of the Serbian Frontier in Croatia. The Serb political leadership martialled its own force assisted by the Yugoslav People's Army and declared independence from Bosnia and Herzegovina in late 1992. BiH's Bosniak and Bosnian Croat dominated government did not recognize the new Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose president was Radovan Karadžić"
"Milošević, the future president of Serbia, who publicly called the memo ""nothing else but the darkest nationalism"", and Radovan Karadžić, the future leader of Serbs in Bosnia, who stated ""Bolshevism is bad, but nationalism is even worse"". Despite these declarations, Milošević, Karadžić, and other Serb politicians publicly agreed with most of the memo and would form close political connections with the writers of the memo such as Mihailo Marković, who became the vice-president of the Socialist Party of Serbia and Dobrica Ćosić who was appointed president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992. Starting in 1987, Milošević, the party"
"Boban said that ""We want an independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, a joint state of three nations in which, like others, Croats will be sovereign"". In October 1992 he emphasized that Bosnia and Herzegovina should consist of three constituent units that would be split into several regions. On 14 November, Boban became the president of HDZ BiH. Throughout late 1992, tensions between Croats and Bosniaks increased and in early 1993 the Croat–Bosniak War fully escalated. Clashes spread in central Bosnia, particularly in the Lašva Valley. In late July 1993 the Owen-Stoltenberg Plan was proposed by U.N. mediators Thorvald Stoltenberg and David"
"the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jure Pelivan, of the HDZ, was elected as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Momčilo Krajišnik, of the SDS, was elected as the speaker of Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Throughout 1990, the RAM Plan was developed by a group of Serb officers of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and experts from the JNA's Psychological Operations Department to organize Serbs outside Serbia, consolidate control of the SDS, and prepare arms and ammunition. In 1990 and 1991, Serbs in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina had proclaimed a number of"
"seated in Pale. The Serb side accepted the proposed ethnic cantonization of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Carrington-Cutileiro peace plan), as did the Bosniak and Bosnian Croat sides in Lisbon in 1992, in the hope that war would not break out. The Bosniak political leadership under President Alija Izetbegović of Bosnia and Herzegovina subsequently revoked the agreement refusing to decentralize the newly created country based on ethnic lines. The Bosnian Civil War began. Among the Serb population, the war is known as the ""Defensive Fatherland War"". Serbs and the Army of the Serb Republic (VRS) was outnumbered, outgunned, and isolated, faced"
"remove these forces. Slobodan Milošević, the president of Serbia, agreed only to withdraw individuals who originated from outside Bosnia's borders, an insignificant number. JNA soldiers who were ethnic Serbs from Bosnia were transferred to the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) under the command of General Ratko Mladić, with the VRS having rescinded its allegiance to Bosnia a few days after Bosnia seceded from Yugoslavia. In May 1992, units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stationed in Sarajevo found themselves repeatedly under attack. On 2 May, Bosniak forces consisting of ""Green Berets"" and ""Patriotic League"", opened fire on a column of eight"
"Cold War, Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milošević took power as the leader of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. His nationalist policies alienated leaders of the other constituent countries of Yugoslavia, a multi-ethnic state that had been established in 1918. Slovenia, Croatia, and the Republic of Macedonia each declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, but Serbian forces forcefully opposed Croatia's independence, beginning the Yugoslav Wars. In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina also declared independence. As in Croatia, a significant minority of Serbs opposed to independence lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Bosnian War began between proponents and opponents of independence. ethnic cleansing"
"Bosnian Territorial Defense, claimed in June 1992 that his forces were 70% Muslim, 18% Croat and 12% Serb. The percentage of Serb and Croat soldiers in the Bosnian Army was particularly high in Sarajevo, Mostar and Tuzla. The deputy commander of the Bosnian Army's Headquarters, was general Jovan Divjak, the highest-ranking ethnic Serb in the Bosnian Army. General Stjepan Šiber, an ethnic Croat was the second deputy commander. Izetbegović also appointed colonel Blaž Kraljević, commander of the Croatian Defence Forces in Herzegovina, to be a member of Bosnian Army's Headquarters, seven days before Kraljević's assassination, in order to assemble a"
"in April 1992. In neighbouring Bratunac, Bosniaks were either killed or forced to flee to Srebrenica, resulting in 1,156 deaths, according to Bosnian government data. Thousands of Bosniaks were also killed in Foča, Zvornik, Cerska and Snagovo. Serb military and paramilitary forces from the area and neighboring parts of eastern Bosnia and Serbia gained control of Srebrenica for several weeks in early 1992, killing and expelling Bosniak civilians. In May 1992, Bosnian government forces under the leadership of Naser Orić recaptured the town. The Serb authorities remained intent on capturing the enclave. On April 13, 1993, the Serbs told the"
"Croatian Serbs in 1991. It was also in 1991 that the Serbs of Prijedor organized and enforced a Serb-only administration in the town and placed it under the control of the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka. Milomir Stakić, a physician who had been the deputy to the elected Bosniak mayor Muhamed Čehajić, was declared the Serb mayor of Prijedor. On 30 April 1992, Bosnian Serb forces seized control of Prijedor. Four-hundred Bosnian Serb police participated in the takeover, whose objective was to usurp the functions of the municipality's president and vice-president, the director of the post office, and the chief"
"in the Bosnian government including the premiership and the ministry of defence, but despite this carried out a separate policy and refused for the HVO to be integrated into ARBiH. Jerko Doko, the Bosnian defence minister, gave the HVO priority in the acquisition of military weapons. In January 1992, Tuđman had arranged for Stjepan Kljuić, president of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) who favored cooperating with the Bosniaks towards a unified Bosnian state, to be ousted and replaced by Mate Boban, who favored Croatia to annex Croat-inhabited parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A rift existed"
"of sovereignty, Bosnia-Herzegovina has no prospects"" and recommended that Croatian policy ""support for the sovereignty [of Bosnia and Herzegovina] until such time as it no longer suits Croatia."" That same month HOS was disbanded by the Croatian government. On 3 January 1992, Dobroslav Paraga, leader of the HSP, appointed Kraljević as leader of the HOS in Bosnia and Herzegovina and established its main headquarters in Ljubuški. It ""supported Bosnian territorial integrity much more consistently and sincerely than the HVO"" which supported a partition of its territory. It was more accepting of Bosniaks in its ranks than the HVO and consisted"
"Bosnia and Herzegovina, shortened to the Patriotic League. In January 1992, the SDS assembly proclaimed the ""Republic of the Serbian People of Bosnia and Herzegovina"" and Radovan Karadžić, its soon-to-be president, announced that a ""unified Bosnia and Herzegovina no longer exists"". In March, the Bosnian referendum on independence passed with overwhelming support from Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, having been boycotted by most Bosnian Serbs. The SDS, claiming that independence would result in the Serbs becoming ""a national minority in an Islamic state"", had used armed irregular units to block the delivery of ballot boxes, and dropped leaflets encouraging the boycott."
"former JNA officers began to prepare for the defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 8 April 1992, the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina transformed the existing Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina TO (Teritorijalna Odbrana-Territorial Defence) into the TO of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In mid-April 1992, the Potočari TO was established, and Orić became its Commander. In May 1992, members of the Crisis Staff of the TO Srebrenica appointed him as the Commander, which Sefer Halilović, Chief of the Supreme Command Staff of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), officially confirmed in June. Orić also became"
"(JNA), which was controlled by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. In September 1991, Bosnian Serbs proclaimed a Serbian Autonomous Oblast with Bijeljina as its capital. In March 1992, the Bosnian referendum on independence was passed with overwhelming support from Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, although Bosnian Serbs either boycotted it or were prevented from voting by Bosnian Serb authorities. A poorly organized, local Bosniak Patriotic League paramilitary group had been established in response to the Bosnian Serb proclamation. On 31 March, the Patriotic League in Bijeljina was provoked into fighting by local Serbs and the SDG. On 1–2 April, the SDG and"
"this was established was never specified), and that it was to be a part of the federal Yugoslav state. On 29 February and 1 March 1992 a referendum on the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Yugoslavia was held. Many Serbs boycotted the referendum and pro-independence Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats turned out. On 6 and 7 April 1992, Bosnia was recognized as an independent state by the European Community and the US. It was admitted to the UN on 22 May 1992. Karadžić was voted President of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb administration, in Pale on about 13 May 1992"
"1992, the Bosnian Serbs—whose strategic goal was to create a new Bosnian Serb state of Republika Srpska (RS) that would include Bosniak-majority areas—encircled Sarajevo with a siege force of 13,000 stationed in the surrounding hills. From there they assaulted the city with artillery, tanks, and small arms. From 2 May 1992, the Serbs blockaded the city. The Bosnian government defence forces (ARBiH) inside the besieged city, 19 months since start of conflict, numbered some 70,000 troops, were poorly equipped and unable to break the siege. A total of 13,952 people were killed during the siege, including 5,434 civilians. The ARBiH"
"In April 1992, the siege of Sarajevo began, by which time the Bosnian Serb-formed Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) controlled 70% of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 8 April, Bosnian Croats were organized into the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). A sizable number of Bosniaks also joined. On 15 April 1992, the multi-ethnic Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) was formed, with slightly over two-thirds of troops consisting of Bosniaks and almost one-third of Croats and Serbs. In the winter Bosniaks began leaving the HVO and joining the ARBiH which also began receiving supplies from Croatia. In May, HVO"
"in March 1992. In the early 1990s, before the Yugoslav Wars, the Jewish population of Bosnia and Herzegovina was over 2,000, and relations between Jews and their Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim neighbors were very good. The Jewish community of Bosnia and Herzegovina was headed by Ivan Ceresnjes from 1992 until his emigration to Israel in 1996. His tenure coincided with the Bosnian War of 1992–1995. When the besieging Serb army occupied the Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo, Ceresnjes gave permission to the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to bomb the cemetery. The Sarajevo Jewish humanitarian society, ""La Benevolencija"","
"Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, in a letter to United States senator Robert Dole, later presented the agreement as part of a Conference on Bosnia and Herzegovina sponsored by the European Community. The parties ultimately parted ways without signing any agreement and clashes between Croat and Serb forces continued. On 6 May 1992, the representatives of the Serbian community of BiH, Radovan Karadžić, Momčilo Krajišnik and Branko Simić, and the Croatian Community of BiH, represented by Mate Boban and Franjo Boras, met without Bosnian Muslim representatives in the city of Graz in Austria to discuss the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina."
"at least 200 reinforced positions and bunkers in the surrounding hills. On 3 May 1992, members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) attacked a convoy of withdrawing Yugoslav National Army (JNA) soldiers on Dobrovoljačka Street in Sarajevo, killing 42 and wounding many more. The attack is thought to have been in retaliation for the arrest of Bosnia's Muslim President Alija Izetbegović, who was detained at Sarajevo Airport by Yugoslav police the previous day. The Army of Republika Srpska was newly established, put under the command of General Ratko Mladić, in a new phase of the war. Shellings on"
"referendum was in favor of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, but of Bosnian Serbs, therefore the Bosnian Serbs boycotted the referendum. The turnout was 64.3% of which 99.7% of the votes were in favor of the Bosnian independence, thus on March 3 1992 the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Alija Izetbegovic declared the independence of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Yugoslav People's Army had a concept of ""Total National Defence"", which gave the army a role to defend the borders from aggressors. According to some sources, the higher officials of the Yugoslav People's Army stated"
"to prevent Bosnian citizens from voting in the 1992 referendum on independence. This did not succeed in persuading people not to vote and instead the intimidating atmosphere combined with a Serb boycott of the vote resulted in a resounding 99% vote in support for independence. On 19 June 1992, the war in Bosnia broke out, though the Siege of Sarajevo had already begun in April after Bosnia and Herzegovina had declared independence. The conflict, typified by the years-long Sarajevo siege and Srebrenica, was by far the bloodiest and most widely covered of the Yugoslav wars. Bosnia's Serb faction led by"
"Zulfikarpašić–Karadžić agreement In June 1991, representatives of Bosnian Muslims (Party of Democratic Action, SDA) and Bosnian Serbs (Serb Democratic Party, SDS) met to discuss the future status of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav crisis. On behalf of SDA president Alija Izetbegović, Adil Zulfikarpašić and Muhamed Filipović met with SDS president Radovan Karadžić, Nikola Koljević and Momčilo Krajišnik. The two sides reached an agreement that was to be sovereign and undivided, remaining in a Yugoslav confederation with Serbia and Montenegro. The Muslim-inhabited area of Sandžak in SR Serbia was to become autonomous, while SAO Krajina and SAO Bosanska Krajina"
"the European Union formally recognized the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence on 7 April 1992. On 12 August 1992, the reference to Bosnia and Herzegovina was dropped from the name, and it became simply ""Republika Srpska"". During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Srpska's President Radovan Karadžić declared that he did not want Srpska to be in a federation alongside Serbia in Yugoslavia, but that Srpska should be directly incorporated into Serbia. On 12 May 1992, at a session of the Bosnian Serb assembly, Radovan Karadžić announced the six ""strategic objectives"" of"
"Bosnia and Herzegovina on 9 January 1992, ahead of the referendum on the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina that took place between 29 February and 1 March 1992. This declaration would later be cited by the Bosnian Serbs as a pretext for the Bosnian War. Bosnian Serbs began fortifying the capital, Sarajevo, and other areas on 1 March 1992. On the following day, the first fatalities of the war were recorded in Sarajevo and Doboj. In the final days of March, Bosnian Serb forces bombarded Bosanski Brod with artillery, resulting in a cross-border operation by the Croatian Army (""Hrvatska vojska"""
"Momčilo Krajišnik Momčilo Krajišnik (; born 20 January 1945) is a former Bosnian Serb political leader, who along with Radovan Karadžić co-founded the Bosnian Serb nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS). Between 1990-92, he was Speaker of the People's Assembly of Republika Srpska. Between June and December 1992, he also served as member of the expanded Presidency of Republika Srpska. After the Bosnian War, he was elected Serb member of the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the September 1996 and served in that post from October 1996 to October 1998. He lost his bid for re-election in 1998 to"
"of Bosnia and Herzegovina that took place between 29 February and 1 March 1992. This declaration would later be cited by the Bosnian Serbs as a pretext for the Bosnian War. Bosnian Serbs began fortifying the capital, Sarajevo, and other areas on 1 March 1992. On the following day, the first fatalities of the war were recorded in Sarajevo and Doboj. In the final days of March, Bosnian Serb forces bombarded Bosanski Brod with artillery, resulting in a cross-border operation by the Croatian Army (""Hrvatska vojska"" – HV) 108th Brigade. On 4 April 1992, JNA artillery began shelling Sarajevo. There"
"to ensure equality. The Presidency is responsible for: More than 95% of population of Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to one of its three constituent nations: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. According to the Constitution, the Presidency consists of three members: one Bosniak and one Croat elected from the Federation and one Serb elected from the Republika Srpska. 1. Ejup Ganić - representing Yugoslavs 1. Momčilo Krajišnik 2. Mariofil Ljubić - as Deputy Speaker 3. Miro Lazović 1. Jure Pelivan 2. Mile Akmadžić 3. Haris Silajdžić 1. Hasan Efendić 1. Sefer Halilović 1. Rasim Delić When the country declared independence in 1992,"
"declaration of Bosnian sovereignty on 15 October 1991 was followed by a referendum for independence from Yugoslavia on 29 February and 1 March 1992. This referendum was boycotted by the vast majority of the Serbs. The turnout in the independence referendum was 63.4% and 99.7% of voters voted for independence. The city was mostly peaceful except for the Sarajevo wedding shooting at a Serbian wedding. The wedding guests had brandished Serbian flags, which was interpreted by the Muslims present there as a deliberate provocation while the independence referendum had been held. The Bosnian leader Momčilo Krajišnik declared it as a"