The
Yugoslav Wars were
ethnic conflicts fought from 1991 to 2001 inside the territory of the former
Yugoslavia. These wars accompanied and/or facilitated the
breakup of the country, when its constituent republics declared independence, but the issues of ethnic minorities in the new countries (chiefly
Serbs in central parts and
Albanians in the southeast) were still unresolved at the time the republics were recognized internationally. The wars are generally considered to be a series of separate but related military conflicts which occurred in, and affected, most of the former Yugoslav republics: