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Feb 29 - March 1, Bosnia's Muslims and the Croats vote for their independence in a referendum boycotted by Serbs. -
European Union recognizes Bosnia’s independence. War breaks out and Serbs under the leadership of Radovan Karadzic, ambush the capital Sarajevo.They occupied 70 percent of the country, killing and persecuting Muslims and Croats to form the Republic of Serbia. -
January - Bosnia peace efforts fail, war breaks out between Muslims and Croats, previously allied against Serbs. -
April - Three of the six U.N. “Safe areas”are established in eastern Bosnia: Srebrenica, Zepa, and Gorazde. The attacks by the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) cease when troops from the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) are sent in. However, the town stays cut off, and throughout the next two years, only a few aid convoys manage to reach there. -
March - A deal mediated by the United States puts an end to the Muslim-Croat war and establishes a Muslim-Croat federation. -
March - Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic orders that Srebrenica and Zepa be entirely cut off and aid convoys be stopped from reaching the towns. -
Radovan Karadzic issues a new order to conquer Srebrenica. -
Bosnian Serbs troops, under the command of General Ratko Mladic, capture the eastern territory and U.N. “Safe area” of Srebrenica, Killing about 8000 Muslim males in the following week. Karadzic and Mladic are charged with genocide for the siege of Sarajevo by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. -
NATO starts airstrikes against Bosnian Serb troops. -
Following NATO airstrikes against Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslim President Alija Izetbegovix, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic agree to a U.S. brokered peace deal in Dayton, Ohio. -
The three leaders sign the Dayton peace accords in Paris, paving the way for the arrival of 66,000- strong NATO peacekeeping Implementation Force (IFOR) in Bosnia. The international community establishes a permanent presence in the country through the office of an international peace overseer. -
July - West forces Karadzic to quit as Bosnian Serb president. -
September - Nationalist parties win first post-war election, confirming Bosnia’s ethnic division. -
Having lost power, Karadzic goes underground. -
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic goes on trial charged with 66 counts of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. -
UK politician Paddy Ashdown becomes High Representative. -
October - Nationalists win back power in federation presidential, parliamentary and local elections. -
Ex NATO commander tells the court Milosevic knew Bosnian Serbs planned to massacre Muslims in Bosnia 1995. -
In a belated abandonment of its never ending denials and under strong international pressure, the Bosnian Serb government makes a landmark admission that Serbs indeed massacred thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica, on Karadzic’s orders. -
NATO hands over peacekeeping duties to a European Union-led force, Eufor. -
Milosevic is found dead in his cell in The Hague. -
Bosnia joins NATO’s Partnership for peace pre-membership programme. -
Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic, one of the world’s most wanted men for planning and ordering genocide, is arrested. -
Serbian authorities arrest former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, one of the world’s most wanted war crimes suspects.