Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Pandora's Box Of the Balkans (1992-1995)
Over centuries of civilization in the Balkans, the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina had accumulated perhaps the greatest ethnic diversity in the very diverse Balkans. It had Muslim Bosnians, Slavic Croats, and Slavic Serbs as its three main minorities. The problem was that each ethnic group felt that it was the majority and the other two were the minority. Therefore, in 1992, the Serbs started a war to rid the now independent reupblic of Bosnia-Herzegovina of all Croats and Muslims.

The President of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, had taken advantage of the ethnic tensions in Bosnia to boost his own political stature. He orchestrated the deaths of thousands of his own people. Contrary to the hero the Bosnian Serbs thought him, Milosevic publicly called these zealous supporters "hicks"!

Thousands of people died in the guerilla warfare in the three years of conflict. The United Nations (UN) tried to intervene, but was unable to resolve anything. Luckily for the region and Bosnia's inhabititants, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), was able to negotiate a settlement at the Datyon Accords, in Dayton, Ohio, USA. There, Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians met to work out a treaty.

At the Dayton Accords, a tenuous peace was reached. It was decided that NATO would supply the peace keeping force that the UN was incapable of furnishing. Soon after the Dayton Accords were completed, 30,000 NATO peacekeepers  moved into Bosnia. The peacekeepers were intended to serve duty there for one year, then pull out.

The peacekeepers are still there today.

Croatia: (1992)

Kosovo: The Troubled Holy Land (February 1998-Present Day)
When the Turks had taken over Serbia, they had also occupied the lands of Kosovo, site of their victory. The Serbs living in the region moved by the thousands into Hungary, away from the opressive Turks. This opened up a huge amount of land to Albanians living in the region, and they gradually moved to exploit it. By the 1750s, the population of Kosovo was largely Albanian, with a Serb minority. With supremacy assured, the Albanians began to force out Serbs in a mass exodus. This aggressive act of Albanian colonization triggered decades of on and off fighting, that came to a head on the doorstep of the 21st Century.

In March, 1998, Serbia once again was in the headlines. While NATO peaekeepers who had saved the day in Bosnia stood idly by, President Milosevic clamped down on ethnic Albanians living in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Unlike Bosnia, where Serbs made up a sizeable section of the population, Serbs were the minority in Kosovo, comprising only 10% of the population. The Albanians numbered 90%, nearly 2 million people.

 Fisrt, the Serbs stripped the Albanians of their constitutional autonomy, restricting or out right repealing their rights. As a response, thr Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), was formed, in a Albanian effort to rid Kosovo of the Serb Army, which was suddenly active in repressing the population, and spreading the will of Slobodan Milosevic.

 The province was soon engaged in ferocious guerilla fighting between the KLA and Serb forces. By March 24, 1999, almost 45,000 Albanians had left Kosovo for the neighboring countries of Albania and Macedonia, forced to flee their homes because of the fighting. Hundreds more had been brutally slaughtered by the Yugoslav army.

 The world had not been standing idly by once fighting raged, however. After realizing the extent of the problem in Kosovo, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)got involved. At the Rambouillet Accords of February and March, 1999, the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s decision making body, chaired a peace conference in Rambouillet, France. NATO, KLA, and Serb represenatatives met there to discuss a diplomatic solution for Kosovo. True to their name, the KLA wanted liberation for Kosovo; in essence, they wanted NATO to make Kosovo independent. Of course the Serbs would not stand for this. They insisted that Kosovo remain part of Serbia. In time, a treaty was worked out that the KLA, while unhappy with not being granted independence, would sign for and endorse. The Serbs on the other hand, did not try to negotiate, did not try to compromise, but instead stood firm on what they were doing.

 As a way to pressure Milosevic and the Serbs into signing the Rambouillet Accords, on March 24, 1999, US President and unofficial leader of NATO Bill Clinton ordered NATO planes to begin assaulting Serb military installations in Yugoslavia. Air strikes were carried out from the airfields in Tirana, Albania; air craft carriers in the Adriatic Sea; and a US Air Force base in Aviano, Italy.
 As the bombing entered the second week of April,  Russian President Boris Yeltsin violently denounced NATO as aggressors who were bringing on a European War, and possibly World War Three. In a move to intimidate NATO, Yeltsin authorized the deployment of a small Russian fleet in the Adriatic. Son afer this, rumor had it that Russia had targetted NATO countries with nuclear missiles.These were two of the major opening moves of a long political war between the US and Russia.

 NATO forces continued to attack throughout the rest of the month of April, wreaking heavy damage on Serbian supply depots, oil refineries, and airfields. The Serb Air Force, which humbly boasted only 15 MiG-29 fighter jets of antiquated Cold War vintage, was no match for the NATO F-16 fighters , B-52 bombers, F-117s, FA-18s, and other thousands of military aircraft that NATO could field. NATO had 19 countries: Belgium, Canada, Czek Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy,Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States. Out of these countries, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK, and the US were actively supporting the air war. This was 10 countries against one; the odds seemed heavily in favor of NATO.

 So far, the results have not been as NATO predicted. As of the first week of June, 1999, Yugoslavia had suffered severe damage, but had not surrendered. On June 3, the Yugoslav Parliament agreed to a peace deal, but no cease fire was declared. Over one third of the Serbian military had been destroyed, and all of Serbia had suffered severe structural and infrastructural damage. Serbia has proven a dangerous opponent over the past decade, from Slovenia, to Croatia, to Bosnia, and now Kosovo. Looking at the map of the former Yugoslavia, one has to wonder if Montenegro and/or Vojvodina is next. If NATO doesn’t prevail, it is guaranteed there will be a next time.