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| 1997, July 23 |
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| Slobodan Milosevic is sworn in as the president of Yugoslavia, the Federation of Serbia and Montenegro. | 1 |
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| 1998, Feb |
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| The Yugoslav military began battling the Kosovo Liberation Army, a pro-independence rebel faction in Yugoslavia's southern province of Montenegro. | 2 |
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| May 31 |
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| Montenegro elected reformist Milo Djukanovic as its president. An outspoken opponent of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, Djukanovic even went so far as to publicly discuss ideas of secession to Albania for Montenegro, 90 percent of whose population is comprised of ethnic Albanians. The Serbs under Milosevic brutally resisted pro-independence forces in Montenegro. As substantial evidence of “racial cleansing” tactics reached NATO, the organization expressed concern that the conflict would lead to human rights violations similar to those that had been committed against Bosnian citizens two years earlier. Agreeing to intervene in Kosovo, NATO involved itself for the first time in the affairs of a sovereign nation and its people. | 3 |
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| Oct. 12 |
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| A truce mediated by American diplomat Richard Holbrooke was signed by Pres. Milosevic, who agreed to withdraw his military forces, faced with the threat of a NATO air strike. Fighting continued, nevertheless, and neither side would agree to the compromises proposed by Washington: Kosovars wanted independence and Serbia wanted strictly limited autonomy for Kosovo. | 4 |
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