Editing Yugoslavia (section)

===Yugoslav Wars===
{{Main|Yugoslav Wars}}
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The war broke out when the new regimes tried to replace Yugoslav civilian and military forces with secessionist forces. When, in August 1990, Croatia attempted to replace police in the Serb-populated Croat Krajina by force, the population first looked for refuge in the Yugoslav Army barracks, while the army remained passive. The civilians then organised armed resistance. These armed conflicts between the Croatian armed forces ("police") and civilians mark the beginning of the Yugoslav war that inflamed the region. Similarly, the attempt to replace Yugoslav frontier police by Slovene police forces provoked regional armed conflicts which ended with a minimal number of victims.<ref name="Allcock, 1998">Allcock, et al. eds., ''Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia: An Encyclopedia'' (1998)</ref>

A similar attempt in Bosnia and Herzegovina led to a war that lasted more than three years (see below). The results of all these conflicts were the almost total emigration of the Serbs from all three regions, the massive displacement of the populations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the establishment of the three new independent states. The separation of Macedonia was peaceful, although the Yugoslav Army occupied the peak of the Straža mountain on Macedonian soil.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Serbian uprisings in Croatia began in August 1990 by blocking roads leading from the Dalmatian coast towards the interior almost a year before Croatian leadership made any move towards independence. These uprisings were more or less discreetly backed by the Serb-dominated federal army (JNA). The Serbs in Croatia proclaimed "Serb autonomous areas", which were later united into the [[Republic of Serb Krajina]]. The federal army tried to disarm the territorial defence forces of Slovenia (the republics had their local defence forces similar to the Home Guard) in 1990 but was not completely successful. Still, Slovenia began to covertly import arms to replenish its armed forces.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Croatia also embarked upon the illegal importation of arms, (following the disarmament of the republics' armed forces by the federal army) mainly from Hungary.  These activities were under constant surveillance and produced a [[Špegelj Tapes|video of a secret meeting]] between the Croatian Defence minister Martin Špegelj and two unidentified men.  The video, filmed by the Yugoslav counter-intelligence ({{lang|sr|KOS, Kontra-obavještajna služba}}), showed Špegel announcing that they were at war with the army and giving  instructions about arms smuggling as well as methods of dealing with the Yugoslav Army's officers stationed in Croatian cities. Serbia and JNA used this discovery of Croatian rearmament for propaganda purposes. Guns were also fired from army bases through Croatia. Elsewhere, tensions were running high. In the same month, the Army leaders met with the Presidency of Yugoslavia in an attempt to get them to declare a [[state of emergency]] which would allow for the army to take control of the country. The army was seen as an arm of the Serbian government by that time so the consequence feared by the other republics was to be total Serbian domination of the union. The representatives of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Vojvodina voted for the decision, while all other republics, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, voted against. The tie delayed an escalation of conflicts, but not for long.<ref name="Allcock, 1998"/>

Following the first multi-party election results, in the autumn of 1990, the republics of Slovenia and Croatia proposed transforming Yugoslavia into a loose [[confederation]] of six republics. By this proposal, republics would have right to self-determination. However [[Slobodan Milošević|Milošević]] rejected all such proposals, arguing that like Slovenes and Croats, the Serbs (having in mind Croatian Serbs) should also have a right to self-determination.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

On 9 March 1991, demonstrations were held against Slobodan Milošević in [[Belgrade]], but the police and the military were deployed in the streets to restore order, killing two people. In late March 1991, the [[Plitvice Lakes incident]] was one of the first sparks of open war in Croatia. The [[Yugoslav People's Army]] (JNA), whose superior officers were mainly of Serbian ethnicity, maintained an impression of being neutral, but as time went on, they became increasingly more involved in state politics.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

On 25 June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia became the first republics to declare independence from Yugoslavia. The federal customs officers in Slovenia on the border crossings with Italy, Austria, and Hungary simply changed uniforms since most of them were local Slovenes. The following day (26 June), the Federal Executive Council specifically ordered the army to take control of the "internationally recognized borders", leading to the [[Ten-Day War]]. As Slovenia and Croatia fought towards independence, the Serbian and Croatian forces indulged in violent and perilous rivalry.<ref name=":0" />

The [[Yugoslav People's Army]] forces, based in barracks in Slovenia and Croatia, attempted to carry out the task within the next 48 hours. However, because of misinformation given to the Yugoslav Army conscripts that the Federation was under attack by foreign forces and the fact that the majority of them did not wish to engage in a war on the ground where they served their conscription, the Slovene territorial defence forces retook most of the posts within days with minimal loss of life on both sides.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

There was, however, evidence of a suspected war crime.  The Austrian [[ORF (broadcaster)|ORF TV network]] showed [[Ten-Day War#Holmec incident|footage]] of three Yugoslav Army soldiers surrendering to the territorial defence force when  gunfire was heard and the troops were seen falling down. None were killed in the incident, yet there were numerous cases of destruction of civilian property and civilian life by the Yugoslav People's Army, including houses and a church. A civilian airport, along with a hangar and aircraft inside the hangar, was bombarded; truck drivers on the road from Ljubljana to Zagreb and Austrian journalists at the [[Ljubljana Airport]] were killed.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

A ceasefire was eventually agreed upon. According to the [[Brioni Agreement]], recognised by representatives of all republics, the international community pressured Slovenia and Croatia to place a three-month [[Moratorium (law)|moratorium]] on their independence.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

During these three months, the Yugoslav Army completed its pull-out from Slovenia, but in Croatia, a bloody [[War in Croatia|war]] broke out in the autumn of 1991. Ethnic Serbs, who had created their own state [[Republic of Serbian Krajina]] in heavily Serb-populated regions resisted the police forces of the Republic of Croatia who were trying to bring that breakaway region back under Croatian jurisdiction. In some strategic places, the Yugoslav Army acted as a buffer zone; in most others it was protecting or aiding Serbs with resources and even manpower in their confrontation with the new Croatian army and their police force.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

In September 1991, the [[Republic of Macedonia]] also declared independence, becoming the only former republic to gain sovereignty without resistance from the Belgrade-based Yugoslav authorities. 500 US soldiers were then deployed under the UN banner to monitor Macedonia's northern borders with the Republic of Serbia. Macedonia's first president, [[Kiro Gligorov]], maintained good relations with Belgrade and the other breakaway republics and there have to date been no problems between Macedonian and Serbian border police even though small pockets of Kosovo and the [[Preševo]] valley complete the northern reaches of the historical region known as Macedonia (Prohor Pčinjski part), which would otherwise create a border dispute if ever Macedonian nationalism should resurface (see [[Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization]]). This was despite the fact that the Yugoslav Army refused to abandon its military infrastructure on the top of the Straža Mountain up to the year 2000.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

As a result of the conflict, the [[United Nations Security Council]] unanimously adopted [[UN Security Council Resolution 721]] on 27 November 1991, which paved the way to the establishment of [[peacekeeping]] operations in Yugoslavia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nato.int/ifor/un/u911127a.htm |title=Resolution 721 |date=25 September 1991 |work=N.A.T.O. |access-date=21 July 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060629130641/http://www.nato.int/ifor/un/u911127a.htm |archive-date=29 June 2006 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In Bosnia and Herzegovina in November 1991, the Bosnian Serbs held a referendum which resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of forming a Serbian republic within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and staying in a common state with Serbia and Montenegro. On 9 January 1992, the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb assembly proclaimed a separate "Republic of the Serb people of Bosnia and Herzegovina". The referendum and creation of SARs were proclaimed [[Constitutionality|unconstitutional]] by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina and declared illegal and invalid. In February–March 1992, the government held a national referendum on Bosnian independence from Yugoslavia. That referendum was in turn declared contrary to the BiH and the Federal constitution by the federal Constitutional Court in Belgrade and the newly established Bosnian Serb government.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The referendum was largely boycotted by the Bosnian Serbs. The Federal court in Belgrade did not decide on the matter of the referendum of the Bosnian Serbs. The turnout was somewhere between 64 and 67% and 98% of the voters voted for independence. It was not clear what the two-thirds majority requirement actually meant and whether it was satisfied. The republic's government declared its independence on 5 April, and the Serbs immediately declared the independence of {{lang|sr|Republika Srpska}}. The [[Bosnian war|war in Bosnia]] followed shortly thereafter.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}