19 February - 2 March 1996

Compiled by Stefan Krause

An ongoing chronology highlighting events and deadlines connected
with the Balkan peace effort and the implementation of the Dayton Accord

19 February

• Momcilo Krajisnik, president of the self-styled Bosnian Serb parliament, says that ³the Serbs will make the release of General [Djordje] Djukic and Colonel [Aleksa] Krsmanovic a condition for any future cooperation with the international community.² Djukic and Krsmanovic were arrested by Bosnian government forces on 30 January and sent to The Hague for questioning by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on 12 February.
• The deputy Bosnian Serb army commander, General Zdravko Tolimir, fails to show up for a meeting with Implementation Force (IFOR) and Muslim and Croatian military representatives aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier USS George Washington. IFOR says his boycott violates the Dayton and Rome agreements.
• IFOR issues a ³wanted poster² with poor-quality photographs of 17 suspected war criminals and cursory descriptions of 35 others.
• French IFOR troops seize a Bosnian Serb arms cache near Sarajevo.

20 February

• Bosnian Serbs from Sarajevo suburbs slated to pass to government control leave for territory under the jurisdiction of the Republika Srpska, taking exhumed coffins with them. They will be settled in ³ethnically cleansed² areas or along the strategically important northern supply corridor.
• The mayor of the eastern, Muslim part of Mostar, Safet Orucevic, resigns in protest of the reunification plan adopted at the Rome summit.
• U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher says Mostar ³has been reunited,² but Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic says he is not satisfied with the pace of reunification.
• After meeting with the IFOR ground-forces commander, Lieutenant General Sir Michael Walker, Tolimir says his forces will continue to boycott contacts with IFOR until Djukic and Krsmanovic are released.
• The Bosnian government deports three Iranians arrested on 15 February in a suspected terrorist camp.
• The European Union says reconstruction in Bosnia is threatened by donors¹ failure to deliver on aid pledges. Of more than $700 million promised for the first three months of 1996, only $67.5 million has arrived so far, reportedly coming only from the EU.

21 February

• The IFOR commander, Admiral Leighton Smith, says the three parties are complying with the military aspects of the Dayton accord.
• The Bosnian Serb leadership says it will re-establish links with the international community, but it continues to protest the ³unprincipled conduct² of the Bosnian government.
• Izetbegovic signs an amnesty law pardoning those who violated the former martial-law regulation, including those who joined the Bosnian Serb army instead of the government one. War criminals are not protected by the law.
• Richard Holbrooke leaves office as U.S. assistant secretary of state.
• CNN reports that the exodus of the Serbs from Sarajevo suburbs initiated by the Bosnian Serb leadership in Pale is less than a complete success. Pale had ordered the Serbs to leave but failed to provide adequate transportation, leaving hundreds of people stuck in a snowstorm.
• Onasa reports that 50 federal experts will be sent to the Sarajevo suburb of Vogosca to clear mines after it reverts to government control and that some 10,000 Croats and Muslims are expected to return there.
• Onasa reports that Orthodox Bishop Hrizostom of Banja Luka has called on Serbs to reject ethnic cleansing and to return to their homes outside the Republika Srpska. He says the Pale leaders ³are cheating you² and that they ³have used our trust against the interests of their people.²
• Nasa Borba reports that the rump Yugoslav government has proposed legislation granting amnesty to all draft evaders.
• Radio Bucharest reports that members of the Hague tribunal in the Romanian town of Timisoara have interviewed Serbs who were detained in Muslim camps during the war in the former Yugoslavia.

22 February

• Izetbegovic is hospitalized with unspecified heart problems.
• Serbs from Sarajevo suburbs continue to leave despite calls from Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and the anti-nationalist Serbian Civic Council (SGV) to stay put. United Nations sources say that about 20,000 Serbs have left already.
• The SGV appeals to the German ambassador to ask the Contact Group countries to send their ambassadors to the suburbs slated to pass to government control in order to stop the continuing flight of Bosnian Serbs.
• Commander Smith asks the UN Security Council not to lift sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs until they resume contacts with the international community. Under the Dayton accord, sanctions are to be lifted one day after the IFOR chief certifies compliance with the military aspects of the agreement.

23 February

• The first of 85 federal police arrive in Vogosca. The population of the suburb has shrunk from 17,000 to about 2,500. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Kris Jankowski says the Serbs who left ³were incited to go by their own authorities.²
• Russian President Boris Yeltsin unilaterally withdraws Russia from UN sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs.
• IFOR¹s Walker and Bosnian Serb General Tolimir meet in the Serb-held Sarajevo suburb of Ilidza. It is the first official meeting between IFOR and Bosnian Serb representatives since the Serbs broke off contacts on 8 February.
• Bosnia¹s factions agree on ground rules for organizing elections by September. Lists of voters are to be drawn up by 31 March, and everyone, including refugees, will be allowed to vote from their 1991 residences.

24 February

• EU Administrator of Mostar Hans Koschnick says he will step down from this post in July and will not prolong his stay ³under any circumstances.²
• Free movement in Mostar is reported, but the number of crossings from the eastern Muslim zone to the western Croatian area is still small. Attacks in both parts of the city are reported.
• At a meeting of the governing Croatian Democratic Community, Croatian Defense Minister Gojko Susak attacks Sarajevo¹s military expansion program and says that the Croatian army will ³protect Croatian strategic interests² if necessary.
• TV Serbia quotes Serbian Minister for Municipal Planning Branislav Ivkovic as saying that Serbian and rump Yugoslav authorities urge refugees currently in rump Yugoslavia to return to their homes.

25 February

• NATO is reportedly allowing the Bosnian Serb army to evacuate the remaining Serb-held areas of Sarajevo.

26 February

• NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, in a letter to the UN, confirms that the Bosnian Serbs are in compliance with the military aspects of the Dayton accord and have withdrawn from the zones of separation delimiting the Bosnian entities under the accords.
• UNHCR spokesman Jankowski says that as the Bosnian Serbs leave they continue to pillage the Sarajevo suburbs slated to revert to government control. He says the population of Ilijas, where federal police will arrive on 29 February, has shrunk from 17,000 to 2,000.
• Mostar Administrator Koschnick announces, ³I handed in my mandate today.² But he says he would stay on until the EU¹s mandate in the divided Croat-Moslem city expires next July if a replacement is not found.
• The prime ministers of Croatia and Bosnia, Zlatko Matesa and Hasan Muratovic, respectively, sign agreements on air traffic, investments, and legal assistance in civil and criminal proceedings.
• The EU foreign ministers say future cooperation with the successor states of the former Yugoslavia is conditional on the free movement of people, goods, and services.

27 February

• The UN Security Council lifts the sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic says this marks the beginning of the ³great future² for Republika Srpska.
• The rump Yugoslav government votes to lift sanctions against the Republika Srpska.
• The U.S. government warns Milosevic that international sanctions against rump Yugoslavia will stay in place if Belgrade continues to crack down on independent media.
• The EU foreign ministers decide to maintain the arms embargo against Bosnia, Croatia, and rump Yugoslavia until the IFOR mission ends and Eastern Slavonia is transferred to the Croatian government. Eastern European foreign ministers endorse the continuing arms embargo after meeting with their EU counterparts.
• Bosnian republican Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic; his Croatian-Muslim federation counterpart, Izudin Kapetanovic; and Republika Srpska¹s premier, Rajko Kasagic, meet with international-community High Representative Carl Bildt in Banja Luka. The agenda focuses on restoring infrastructure across the boundaries separating Bosnia¹s entities.
• The Hague tribunal concludes its hearings against Krajina Serb leader Milan Martic in just one day. Martic is indicted for war crimes because of a rocket attack on Zagreb.
• The Independent Union of Professional Journalists of Bosnia-Herzegovina decides to boycott Carl Bildt as of 1 March to protest the Bosnian Serbs¹ continued detention of Bosnian photographer Hidajet Delic, who was arrested on 8 February and accused of war crimes in apparent response to the arrest of Djukic and Krsmanovic. The journalists say Bildt is responsible for ensuring freedom of movement in Sarajevo.

28 February

• Martic says any attempt to arrest and extradite him to The Hague would be ³a terrorist act.²
• IFOR Commander Smith admits that Karadzic was in Banja Luka the previous day at the same time as some IFOR troops, but Smith says they could not arrest him because ³there clearly would have been some resistance² from Karadzic¹s guards.
• Onasa quotes Bosnian Prime Minister Muratovic as saying evidence is being collected against former UN Protection Force Commander General Lewis Mackenzie of Canada on suspicion of participating in war crimes, ³mainly rapes.²
• Bosnian Cardinal Vinko Puljic warns of the danger of ³Islamizing² Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• Nasa Borba reports that the International Olympic Committee will allocate $14 million for the reconstruction of the destroyed Olympic arenas in Sarajevo.
• Novi List says the Croatian parliament¹s legislative committee has in principle endorsed cooperation with the Hague tribunal but asks for changes in the court¹s statutes in accordance with the legislative systems of Croatia and other Yugoslav successor states.

29 February

• The Guardian asserts that Djukic is an officer in Belgrade¹s and not Pale¹s army and the ³international community² was long aware of Milosevic¹s role in the war in Bosnia.
• The multi-ethnic Bosnian police force takes up posts in the Sarajevo suburb of Ilijas. The 90-strong contingent includes 25 Serbs and 15 Croats. This formally ends the blockade of Sarajevo, as Bosnian Interior Minister Avdo Hebib reopens the overland route to Tuzla and Zenica.
• The Bosnian Serbs rejoin the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe­sponsored arms-control talks in Vienna after a two-week boycott.
• A bomb destroys a Muslim-owned bank in the Croatian portion of Mostar.

1 March

• The Hague tribunal charges General Djukic with ³crimes against humanity² and ³violation of war rights and convention.² Colonel Krsmanovic is to be detained until at least 6 April.
• The OSCE opens its first office on Bosnian Serb territory, in Banja Luka.
• The World Bank approves $45 million in emergency aid for the reconstruction of Bosnia.
• Bosnian Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic leaves for Tehran to discuss ³Iranian aid to the postwar reconstruction of Bosnia.²

2 March

• Reuters reports that Karadzic in a letter to Milosevic asked the Serbian president to help Bosnian Serbs fleeing Sarajevo.
• Milosevic is re-elected as party leader during the third congress of the Socialist Party of Serbia. The party¹s central committee is purged of ultranationalists. Milosevic says that the Bosnian Serbs and Croatian Serbs owe Serbia a debt of gratitude for supporting them throughout the conflict.
• The UN peacekeeping force in Croatia officially ends its mission, but a new international peacekeeping force is to be deployed in eastern Slavonia by summer.