Serbian policy during the wars of Yugoslav secession, first in Slovenia and Croatia and then in Bosnia, hovered uneasily between a need to protect the specific interests of the Serbian republic and a desire to defend the wider Serb diaspora. The choice was usually shaped by the SPS to defend its position. When the Slovene and Croatian governments implemented their threat to withdraw from the federation on June 25, 1991, a 10-day war was fought between the multiethnic YPA and Slovene militia and civilian reserves. The clash ended with the ignominious withdrawal of the Yugoslav army into Croatia, where the YPA troops then squared off with Croatian paramilitary groups. Germany’s quick recognition of the new independent states of Slovenia and Croatia was followed by wider Western recognition.

From the Serbs’ perspective, the loss of Slovenia could be countenanced because very few Serbs lived there; for the same reason, the independence of Macedonia in September 1991 went uncontested. Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, were a different matter: there Serbs constituted 12 percent and 31 percent of the population, respectively. Serbia backed local Serbs in separatist resistance, with the apparent aim of retaining some areas of the republics within a rump of Yugoslavia.

Parts of Croatia along its border with Bosnia and adjoining the Vojvodina were combined into the Serbian Krajina and Eastern Slavonia. The Slavonian city of Vukovar surrendered to Serb forces in November 1991. Some 250 wounded Croats were removed from the hospital in Vukovar and executed, an action Serbia recognized as a war crime in 2010. In January 1992 a United Nations-sponsored cease-fire was negotiated between the Croatian National Guard and the Serb forces, which permitted patrols by a UN Protection Force.

Initially, with the assistance of the YPA, local Serb militias carved out several autonomous regions in Bosnia, which were consolidated in March 1992 into the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A bitter and protracted war broke out between the forces that were loyal to the government of Bosnia, Croatian units attempting to secure a union between Croatia and Croat-majority areas of the republic, and a secessionist Serb army. The destructive use of ethnic cleansing (the effort to establish an ethnically homogenous area by forcibly expelling a particular ethnic group) by irregular Serb troops to consolidate strongholds in places with a previously mixed population created a flood of refugees. Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, was besieged from May 1992 to December 1995, during which time its citizens endured severe privations and losses. Meanwhile, logistical and financial support from the Milošević regime sustained the Bosnian Serb forces.

The “third Yugoslavia”

On April 27, 1992, a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was inaugurated, comprising only Serbia and Montenegro. Its capital and assembly were both placed in Belgrade. The new state was not recognized by the entire international community, however, because of its continued military involvement in other republics of the former Yugoslavia. Stricter economic sanctions than those that had been imposed in 1991 were established by a UN security council resolution in May 1992, contributing to the hyperinflation that afflicted the country from 1992 to 1994.

Despite the hardships the population experienced and massive antigovernment demonstrations in 1991, Milošević still managed to win the election in December 1993, using a largely controlled media against a divided opposition. The SPS remained the largest party in the Skupština, and it was able to hang on to power by promising the public continued commitment to the autonomist movements in Croatia and Bosnia. But the economic and political cost of this commitment was beginning to wear on the regime. Thus, when a Croatian offensive in the spring and summer of 1995 stripped the Krajina of virtually its entire Serb population, Serbia did not intervene (although many of the expelled Serbs were resettled in the Vojvodina). Serbia also failed to go to the aid of Bosnian Serbs when a Croat-Bosniak (Muslim) alliance scored a series of military victories during the summer.

The collapse of Bosnian Serb military resistance, together with the withdrawal of Serbia’s support and NATO bombing orchestrated by the United States, forced the Bosnian Serbs to accept a series of agreements negotiated in December 1995 in Dayton, Ohio. The vigorous backing of the Dayton Accords by Milošević secured the removal of most of the economic sanctions that had been imposed on the new federation. Serbia’s slow movement toward improved international standing advanced again when it concluded an agreement in January 1996 that provided for demilitarizing and returning to Croatian control the Serb-occupied region of Eastern Slavonia.

Some reconstruction of the reduced, sanctioned, and unreformed Serbian economy began with a currency reform introduced in January 1994. The manufacturing and marketing sectors were rejuvenated, and the rampant black market and racketeering were brought under control. Attempts to stabilize the economy were constantly undermined, however, by the determination of Milošević and the SPS to retain power in spite of overwhelming opposition by the mid-1990s. Elections in November 1996 returned the SPS to power, in coalition with minority parties. After three months of demonstrations, the government conceded that there had been large-scale electoral fraud. In response, Milošević removed ministers representing SPS coalition partner Yugoslav United Left, a political party led by his wife, Mirjana Marković, but he otherwise failed to introduce economic reforms or expel corrupt party favourites from enterprise or bank management.

As the SPS continued to introduce additional repressive measures, it strained relations between Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrins were eager to integrate their economy with that of the international community, but they were increasingly frustrated by the central government in Belgrade. In July 1997 Milošević, debarred by the constitution from further service as Serbia’s president, engineered his election to the federal presidency, and elections in October returned an opposition candidate, Milo Djukanović, as president of Montenegro. The two units of the federation then embarked on a succession of clashes that resulted in Montenegrin representatives’ losing their federal powers, leaving the federation one in name only. With the economy in decline, Milošević was defeated by Vojislav Koštunica in the Yugoslav presidential election in 2000, after which international sanctions against the country were lifted. Milošević was arrested in 2001 and extradited to The Hague to be prosecuted for war crimes.