Glossary & Who's Who
Chetniks: Derisive term for Serb nationalists used by some Croats, Moslems and liberal Serbs to denote extremism. The term refers to a Serb nationalist movement founded in the 19th century.Dayton Peace Accords: U.S.-brokered treaty initialed in Ohio in November 1995 and signed the next month in Paris, ending the war in the former Yugoslavia, formalizing Bosnia and Herzegovina's division into ethnic states that include a Bosnian Federation (of Muslims and Croats) and a Serbian Republic, and enforcing the end of hostilities with 60,000 NATO troops including 20,000 Americans. Included is a provision to provide safe passage or a right of return to those expelled from their homes.
Richard C. Holbrooke: Former Assistant Secretary of State, the United Statesí chief negotiator responsible for the Dayton peace plan.
HVO: Translated, the Croatian Defense Council (the army of the Bosnian Croats).
IFOR: Implementation Force, the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia created under the Dayton accords.
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: Convened in The Hague by the United Nations Security Council in May 1993 to prosecute serious violations of international humanitarian law in the former Yugoslavia. The tribunal has indicted 57 suspects -- 46 Serbs, 8 Croats and 3 Muslims. It is the first such trial since those following World War II in Nuremberg and Tokyo. There are 11 judges, all from different countries, including Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald of Texas. Unlike the tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo, this one is not permitted to hand out death sentences and may not try suspects in absentia. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.
IPTF: International Police Task Force, established by the United Nations, charged with reporting human rights violations to the war crimes tribunal.
Alija Izetbegovic: First and current president of Bosnia and Herzegovina and leader of the Muslim Party for Democratic Action.
Radovan Karadzic: President of the Bosnian Serb Republic, indicted by the war crimes tribunal for human rights violations in connection with the deaths of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995 and the shelling of civilians in the siege of Sarajevo.
Knin: Croatian rail and telecommunications hub. This city, at the center of the former Serbian enclave within Croatia, is known to Serbs as the Krajina, and was seized by them early in the war. Croatians were expelled and the region was occupied by the Serbs until a devastating Croatian military rout in August 1995.
Slobodan Milosovic: President of Serbia, proponent of Serb nationalism, key engineer of the Serbian split with Croatia and Slovenia in 1990, possible target of Bosnian charge of genocide in the war crimes tribunal.