Timeline of main events of the Bosnian War
1990-1991
Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) and the Serbian State Security (DB) begin training Serbian paramilitary soldiers in secret compounds in Yugoslavia. These paramilitary soldiers would later be outsourced by the Serbian state to seize territories in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
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1992
29 February – 1 March: Bosnia’s independence referendum is held. 99.7% of those who voted vote to break away from the crumbling state of Yugoslavia. Turnout is 66.7%, as the Serb ethnonationalist party (SDS) deploy militants to intimidate Serbs into not voting.
31 March: During the night, Bijeljina (NE Bosnia) becomes the first settlement in Bosnia to be attacked and then seized by Bosnian Serb/Serbian paramilitary units, including the infamous Arkan’s Tigers. This marks the beginning of the Bosnian War.
April: Towns and cities across northern and eastern Bosnia are barricaded and seized by Bosnian Serb and Serbian forces. The majority of the non-Serb population are expelled, sent to detention camps, tortured or killed.
6 April: The European Economic Community recognises Bosnia’s independence from Yugoslavia.
17-18 April: The first Serb attack against Srebrenica begins.
21-22 April: The eastern town of Vlasenica is reported to have been “ethnically cleansed” of its non-Serb population.
29 April: Occupying Serb(ian) forces issue an ultimatum to the remaining Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) population of Bratunac, by which they must sign an oath of loyalty to the new Serb regime.
May: Occupying Serb(ian) forces begin capturing Bosniak women in Foča (SE Bosnia).
May: The infamous Trnopolje detention camp is set up by Serb(ian) forces near Prijedor (N Bosnia).
May: The Rasadnik detention camp is set up by Serb(ian) in Rogatica (E Bosnia).
9 May: Srebrenica town is liberated by local Bosnian defences. The town remains under siege by Serb(ian) forces.
12 May: Radovan Karadžić and his SDS party set out the “Six Strategic Goals” of the aspiring regime, which include the “elimination of the Drina [river] as a border between the two Serb states”. The “two Serb states” refers to the Serb statelet that the SDS was in the process of creating through “ethnic cleansing”, and Serbia proper. By removing the non-Serb population from its desired territory in Bosnia, the SDS hoped to symbolically unite Bosnian Serbs with the Serbian population across the border.
12 May: The Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS) is created, with General Ratko Mladić as its chief.
22 May: The United Nations recognises Bosnia’s independence from Yugoslavia.
25 May: The infamous Omarska concentration camp is set up near Prijedor (N Bosnia).
31 May: The Sušica detention camp is established (near Vlasenica) by the Republika Srpska (RS) authorities and the local Serb police.
June: The RS-run Batković detention camp in Bijeljina is believed to have been operational by June 1992 the latest.
14 June: The Pionirska Street massacre is committed by Serb paramilitary forces in Višegrad (E Bosnia). 70 Bosniak men, women and children are locked in a house and burned alive. 59 were killed.
12 July: The Srebrenica war hospital is established.
2 August: The Aladža mosque in Foča is destroyed by Serb(ian) occupying forces. Detained Bosniak women and girls are raped by triumphant Serb soldiers.
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1993
25 February: President Bill Clinton orders food to be airdropped into isolated settlements in eastern Bosnia.
February-March: Airdrops of food pallets begin in the enclaves of eastern Bosnia.
12 April: The Srebrenica playground massacre; VRS forces shell Srebrenica’s playground, killing 74 civilians.
16 April: UN Resolution 819 designates the enclave of Srebrenica a UN “safe area”. The UN Secretariat informs the commander of the UN Peacekeeping Forces that this resolution creates “no military obligation for UNPROFOR to […] protect such a safe area”.
18 April: Canadian battalion of UNPROFOR soldiers arrive in Srebrenica.
Second half of April: First regular aid convoys arrive in starving Srebrenica.
6 May: UN Resolution 824 extends the “safe area” status to Sarajevo, Žepa, Goražde, Tuzla and Bihać.
4 June: UN Resolution 836 mandates UNPROFOR troops stationed in Bosnian “safe areas” to act against aggressor forces in “self-defence”. The resolution eschews terms such as “protect” or “defend”.
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1994
March: The Canadian UNPROFOR battalion hand over the monitoring of Srebrenica to the Dutch UNPROFOR battalion (Dutchbat).
31 March: The VRS launch an offensive on the UN-declared “safe area” of Goražde (E Bosnia).
14-15 April: The VRS take 150 UN personnel hostage and break critical defence lines of the Army of BiH, advancing on the UN “safe area” of Goražde (E Bosnia).
18 April: New York Times report that the VRS has entered the UN “safe area” of Goražde (E Bosnia).
End of April: The UN broker a deal according to which the VRS shall retreat to the pre-established 3km exclusion zone, outside the city limits of Goražde.
22 July: VRS Order 03/4-1325 orders the VRS’ Drina Corps to reduce the size of the Srebrenica enclave to the territory of the town only, and to reduce the Žepa enclave to a territory of 3km only.
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1995
March: SDS leader Radovan Karadžić issues Directive 7 of the Supreme Command: to forcibly end the war and coerce the international community into accepting the new status quo on the ground.
28 May: The UN “safe area” of Goražde is attacked again by VRS forces, violating the withdrawal agreement of April.
May-June: UN Military Observers notice VRS buses, soldiers, artillery, trucks with ammunition, multiple rocket launchers and several SAM-3 anti-aircraft systems being deployed near Srebrenica.
3 June: VRS Drina Corps stage a full-scale rehearsal of the final invasion of Srebrenica, by attacking and taking control of the UN observation post in the village of Zeleni Jadar. Influx of refugees into Srebrenica.
28 June: Special meeting between Radovan Karadžić and the command of the Drina Corps, in which Karadžić orders the Corps to hasten preparations for a final attack on the Srebrenica enclave, named “Operation Krivaja-95”.
1 July: Srebrenica school forced to shut due to intensified Serb shelling.
6 July: The VRS’ final offensive on the UN-declared “safe area” of Srebrenica, named “Operation Krivaja-95”, begins.
9 July: VRS forces reach the suburbs of Srebrenica.
11 July: Serb forces enter Srebrenica. The refugee population of approximately 40,000 flee to the UN military base in Potočari. Of the 40,000 refugees, a group of approximately 15,000 civilians (predominantly men and boys) decide to flee the Serb onslaught by embarking on the infamous “death march” through the woodlands towards free territory in Tuzla.
12 July: UN officials supervise a meeting between VRS general, Ratko Mladić, and a handful of Bosniak refugees who were told they had to ‘volunteer’ to meet Mladić. The meeting concludes with the understanding that the Bosniak civilians seeking refuge at the UN Potočari base would be deported.
12-13 July: Contrary to the conclusions of the meeting, Mladić and his VRS forces arrive at the UN Potočari base to orchestrate a process of forced separation and mass killing. As Bosniak families follow UN instructions and exit the base to board Serb-driven buses, VRS soldiers await them. Men and boys are ripped from their families’ arms to be taken away in VRS trucks. These men and boys are massacred over the course of several days at various execution sites. These mass killings constitute the Srebrenica genocide of July 1995.
13 July: Mass killing of the Srebrenica genocide is committed in the Cerska Valley, where 150 Bosniak men and boys aged 14-50 are murdered by the VRS.
13 July: Mass killing of the Srebrenica genocide is committed in Kravica, where more than 1,300 Bosniak men and boys are murdered by the VRS in a warehouse.
14 July: Mass killing of the Srebrenica genocide is committed near Orahovac. Approximately 1,000 Bosniak men and boys are killed by VRS soldiers. General Ratko Mladić is reported to have been present at several of these executions.
14-15 July: Mass killing of the Srebrenica genocide is committed at a school in Petkovci. 1,000 Bosniak men and boys are killed by VRS soldiers.
14-15 July: Mass killing of the Srebrenica genocide is committed at the Branjevo Military Farm, where 1,200 Bosniak prisoners are killed. This is followed by another mass execution of 500 Bosniaks at the Pilica Cultural Centre.
15-16 July: Mass killing of the Srebrenica genocide is committed near the village of Kozluk. Approximately 1,000 Bosniak men and boys are killed. Several smaller killings take place in the days that follow.
16 July: After five days and six nights on the “death march”, the first of very few survivors arrive in free territory in Tuzla.
21 November: The United States (with diplomatic input from the European Union, NATO and Russia) broker the Dayton Peace Agreement, which is initially signed by the President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the President of Croatia and the President of Serbia in Dayton, Ohio. It would be formally signed on 14 December in Paris. This peace agreement enshrines the SDS’ desired Republika Srpska entity—founded on atrocities including genocide and mass rape—as a constituent entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The armed conflict in BiH will gradually end over the weeks and months that follow.