Embargo in the Adriatic Sea
- Duration
- 19 June 1992 - 27 May 1996
- Military personnel
- 6.485
- Fatalities
- 1
- Decorations
- none
Since it was founded in 1945, the multicultural state of Yugoslavia consisted in administrative terms of 6 constituent republics which, following a constitutional change in 1974, were largely independent. The oil crisis and the accompanying economic malaise, together with the upsurge of Serb nationalism, produced a fatal mixture in the course of the 1980s, which was to herald the end of the federation.
Serbian identity
The Serbs were in favour of upholding a powerful unified Yugoslav state to guarantee that they would retain their political power and cultural identity. The Serbs also feared for the rights of their fellow Serbs in the other republics. The Serb president, Slobodan Milosevic, fanned the flames of the nationalistic fire by calling for a Greater Serbia and appointing himself as the protector of all Serbs in Yugoslavia.
Independence
On 25 June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence, with the Bosnian Croats and Muslims following suit on 3 March 1992. The Yugoslav army (JNA) intervened almost immediately and the war in Bosnia began on 2 April 1992.
Arms embargo
In September 1991, the Security Council imposed an arms embargo on the whole of Yugoslavia, followed in May 1992 by a trade embargo against Serbia and Montenegro. In July 1992, NATO ships and Western European Union (WEU) aircraft began to observe shipping heading for Yugoslavia in the Adriatic Sea. It soon became clear that monitoring was utterly worthless without the power to crack down on any contraventions.
Enforcing the embargo
In November 1992, the Security Council therefore decided that the ships belonging to the member states should be authorised to use force if necessary to enforce the embargo. Since 15 June 1993, the maritime operations have been under the operational command of the NATO Commander Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe. The embargo was suspended by the UN on 18 June 1996 and lifted altogether on 2 October 1996.