The Yugoslav wars
Europe returns to ethnic cleansing and genocide within living memory of the last time.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 10 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
Yugoslavia fragments from 1991 into wars in Croatia, Bosnia and later Kosovo, characterised by deliberate expulsion of civilian populations, mass rape used systematically, and the siege of Sarajevo lasting nearly four years. In July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces kill over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica, a UN-declared safe area. The ICTY subsequently convicts senior figures, establishing precedent for international prosecution.