Croat–Bosniak War
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The Croat–Bosniak War was a conflict between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, supported by Croatia, that lasted from 18 October 1992 to 23 February 1994. It is often referred to as a "war within a war" because it was part of the larger Bosnian War. In the beginning, Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Croats fought in an alliance against the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). By the end of 1992, however, tensions between Bosniaks and Croats increased. The first armed incidents between them occurred in October 1992 in central Bosnia. Their military alliance held out until early 1993 when their cooperation fell apart and the two former allies engaged in open conflict.
The Croat–Bosniak War escalated in central Bosnia and soon spread to Herzegovina, with most of the fighting taking place in those two regions. The Bosniaks were organized in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), and Croats in the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). The war generally consisted of sporadic conflicts with numerous ceasefires signed in the course of it. However, it was not an all-out war between the Bosniaks and Croats and they remained allied in other regions. Several peace plans were proposed by the international community during the war, but each of them failed. On 23 February 1994 a ceasefire was reached and an agreement ending the hostilities was signed in Washington on 18 March 1994, by which time the HVO had lost half of its controlled territory. The agreement led to the establishment of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and joint operations against the Serb forces which helped alter the military balance and bring the Bosnian War to an end.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted 17 HVO and Herzeg-Bosnia officials to a total of 268 years and two ARBiH officials to a total of 5 and a half years for war crimes committed during the conflict. The ICTY ruled that Croatia had overall control over the HVO, that the conflict was international, and that a joint criminal enterprise existed that sought to annex or control parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina in correspondence with the borders of the 1939 Banovina of Croatia.
