b Macedonia was never at war or in conflict with any of the factions other than the Albanian NLA guerillas, and was never in any form of alliance with Serbian factions listed above.

c From 1992-1994 the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was at the time representative mainly of the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina itself. From 1994-1995, after the Washington Agreement, the state was also representative of the Bosnian Croat ethnic group.

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of violent conflicts fought in former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s and 2001. The wars were characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts between the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians on the other; but also between Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia and Macedonians and Albanians in Macedonia. The wars ended with massive economic disruption to Yugoslavia.

Often described as Europe's deadliest conflicts since World War II, they were characterized by mass war crimes and ethnic cleansing. They were the first conflicts since World War II to be formally judged genocidal in character and many key individual participants were subsequently charged with war crimes. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the United Nations to prosecute these crimes.

Albeit tensions in Yugoslavia had been mounting since the early 1980s, it was 1990 that proved the decisive year in which war became more likely. In the midst of economic hardship, the country was facing rising nationalism amongst its various ethnic groups. At the last Communist party conference in Belgrade in 1991, the congress voted for an end to the one-party system, as well as economic reform, which prompted the Slovenian and Croatian delegations to walk out and thus the break-up of the party, a symbolic event representing the end of "brotherhood and unity".

The Yugoslav wars may be considered to comprise of two sets of successive wars affecting all of the six former Yugoslav republics, including Kosovo:

• Wars during the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia:

1. War in Slovenia (1991)

2. Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995)

3. Bosnian War (1992-1995)

• NATO bombing in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995)

• Wars in Albanian-populated areas:

1. Kosovo War (1998-1999)

• NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia (1999)

2. Southern Serbia conflict (2000-2001)

3. Macedonia conflict (2001)