Documentation on the Breakup of the Former Yugoslavia

Two thematic collections of documents titled “Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Time of the Breakup of the Former Yugoslavia” and “Serbian Political Elites and the Vance-Owen Plan” were presented at the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center.

Dr. Kosta Nikolić and Dr. Vladimir Petrović, both from the Institute of Contemporary History, authors of those publications, explained that the project was dedicated to the research of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the war that accompanied it.

Dr. Vladimir Petrović said that the backbone of the project were the documents generated by state institutions: “By publishing those particular documents we can gain a better insight into the way a critical war situation was handled by the government”, explained Petrović.

Dr. Kosta Nikolić said that those documents illustrated how it was possible for Bosnia and Herzegovina to be engulfed in a civil war although its citizens opposed it for so long.

Historian Latinka Perović emphasized that it was important to get rid of the illusion that the truth about the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia could be learned, adding that those publications were very important for studying the ideology that led to it.

Publications “Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Time of the Breakup of the Former Yugoslavia” and “Serbian Political Elites and the Vance-Owen Plan” were prepared as part of the “Yugoslav Crisis” project implemented by the Institute of Contemporary History and the Humanitarian Law Center.