The Break-up of Yugoslavia

1995

Slovenia and Croatia were the first states to break away from Yugoslavia in 1992, but this resulted in renewed hostilities with Serbia. The war in Croatia led to hundreds of thousands of displaced refugees and brought back memories of the brutality of the 1940s. After Croatia's secession, the Croatians and Muslims in Bosnia no longer wished to be a part of a Serbian dominated federation, but Bosnian-Serbians were staunchly against separation from Serbia. Following the referendum, the Bosnian government declared its secession from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which triggered the Bosnian War between the mutually hostile ethnic groups. Yugoslavia was officially dissolved by its two remaining members, Serbia and Montenegro, which used to comprise the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).