Balkan Air Wars 1991-2000 (Aircraft of The Aces: Men & Legends 52) (Repost)

The politics behind the break-up of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the summer of 1991 are long and complex. There were a number of distinct conflicts during the period from 1591 to the end of 1999. The firsr was the Slovenian war of independence in June-July 1991, followed by the Croat-Serb conflict of 1991-92. This battle front remained largely quiet until the spring of 1995 when the Croats launched a decisive series of offensives. Then in Apiil 1992 Bosnia-Herzegovina was engulfed in war between rival Serb, Croat and Muslim forces. United Nations (UN) peacekeeping troops and NATO airpower intervened in this three sided conflict from the summer of 1992 onwards, but with little impact until the autumn of 1995. The November 1995 Dayton Peace Accords and the Erdut Agreement formally ended the wars in both Bosnia and Croatia. This opened the way for NATO peacekeeping troops to enter the Balkans and separate the warring factions in Bosnia. The NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR) and Stablisation Force (SFOR) achieved their limited military tasks with case. Dayton, however, ignored the problem of ethnic Albanians, or Kosovars, living in the Serbian controlled province of Kosovo. A hint of trouble in the southern Balkans came in 1997 when Albania collapsed into turmoil, necessitating the deployment of an Italian-led European peacekeeping force. Tension in Kosovo led to war in 1998 and NA'FO intervention the following spring.