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BiH Atlas
Era 13 of 161992–1995

The Bosnian War

The 1992 to 1995 war: how it began, the Bosniak-Croat 'war within the war' and the Washington Agreement, the 1995 turning points, and the Dayton Agreement that ended it, told through what international courts later found.

How this page is worded
This page describes crimes and casualties. Numbers are given with their source (memorial registers, court findings, the Research and Documentation Center) and the wording follows what the ICTY and ICJ found. Where sources differ, both figures appear.

International recognition in April 1992 coincided with the start of large-scale fighting. Units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Bosnian Serb forces, reorganised in May 1992 as the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), took control of roughly 60 to 70 percent of the territory by the end of 1992. The ICTY later found (Karadžić, 2016; Mladić, 2017) that the takeover of municipalities was planned and coordinated as part of a joint criminal enterprise to permanently remove Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Serb-claimed territory, and that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia exercised overall control of the VRS (Tadić appeal, 1999).

The government of RBiH formed the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) to defend the country's multi-ethnic sovereignty. Under the leadership of President Alija Izetbegović and commanders like Sefer Halilović and Rasim Delić, the poorly equipped ARBiH fought a defensive war. In 1993, a devastating 'war within a war' erupted between the ARBiH and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) in Central Bosnia and Mostar, which was resolved by the US-brokered Washington Agreement in March 1994, restoring the alliance and establishing the Federation of BiH.

Strategic military operations in 1995, combined with NATO air strikes following repeated civilian atrocities, turned the tide. On November 21, 1995, the warring parties initialed the Dayton Peace Agreement in Dayton, Ohio (formally signed in Paris on December 14, 1995), which ended the active conflict but partition-structured the country into two highly decentralized entities under a single state framework.

Dated events

  1. April 1992

    Outbreak of Full-Scale War

    JNA and VRS forces launch a rapid nationwide military offensive, initiating the modern conflict and civilian expulsions.

    Actors: JNA, VRS, ARBiH, President Izetbegović

  2. March 18, 1994

    The Washington Agreement

    Ends the destructive Bosniak-Croat conflict, merging ARBiH and HVO zones into the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    Actors: Haris Silajdžić, Mate Granić, Bill Clinton

  3. December 14, 1995

    Dayton Peace Agreement

    Formally signs the peace accord in Paris, ending the war but establishing a complex, dual-entity constitution.

    Actors: Alija Izetbegović, Franjo Tuđman, Slobodan Milošević

Sources and verification

Fact-checked 2026-09-11. Errors found in the draft were corrected and logged.