April 1992 — The Bosnian Parliament declares independence from Yugoslavia. The United States and most European countries recognize the independent Bosnia and Herzegovina within three days. Bosnian Serbs supported by neighboring Serbs and Montenegro boycott this movement with arm resistance aiming to divide the country into ethnic lines and to form a "Greater Serbia".
March 1992 to November 1995 — After the Declaration of Independence by Bosnian Parliament, the Bosnian War begins among Serbs, Bosnians and Croats within the country.
May 1992 — Bosnia and Herzegovina is accepted to the United Nations.
January 1993 — Bosnian Deputy Prime Minister Hakija Turajlic is killed by Serb gunmen at a Serb checkpoint near the Sarajevo airport. In 1998, government agents arrest Goran Vasic, the suspected gunman of the murder.
May 1993 — Bosnian Serbs vote against the U.N.-backed peace plan.
March 1994 — The number of parties warring declines to two after Muslims and Croats reach an accord to create the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
July 1995 — The U.N. safe area in Srebrenica is attacked by the Bosnian Serb army at 3:15 a.m. and about 7,500 Muslim men and boys are killed. A couple of days later, the United Nations declares that the safe area fell to Bosnian Serbs. Never heard from again are another 7,000 Muslim men who supposedly escaped.
October 1995 — Former U.S. President Bill Clinton announces that Bosnian and Serb combatants agree on 60 days of ceasefire.
November 1995 — Radovan Karadzic, the one-time Bosnian Serb president, and General Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb military chief, are accused of genocide by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for ordering the slaughter of Muslims after the takeover of Srebrenica.
December 1995 — The Dayton Peace Agreement is signed. This agreement ends the Bosnian War. According to the agreement, two separate entities which have their own president, government, parliament, police and other government bodies are set up. These entities are Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srspka. The Office of the High Representative is also founded with the agreement to impose decisions where authorities can not agree.
December 1995 — NATO begins its peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
May 1996 — The first international war crimes proceeding since Nuremberg opens at The Hague in the Netherlands, with a Serbian police officer, Dusan Tadic, accused of murder and torture.
September 1996 — The results of the country's first postwar elections — victories of nationalist parties and the country's Muslim president, Alija Izetbegovic — are officially certified.
September 1998 — Elections are held. Alija Izetbegovic is re-elected as the Muslim seat of the presidency. The Croat seat is won by Ante Jelavic and Zivko Radisic wins the Serb seat.
February 2000 — A new election rule introduced by the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) bans the elected officials from joining privatization agencies and the boards of state enterprises.
July 2000 — The Constitutional Court reaches the decision that all Bosnians, Serbs and Croats are constituents throughout the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This decision is ratified by the parliaments of the two entities in March 2002.
August 2000 — Former Interior Minister Alija Delimustafic is arrested on the grounds of "abuse of power" charges filed by the federation prosecutor. Delimustafic is accused of embezzlement and fraud for his role in the collapse of BH Banka, of which he is the majority owner.
October 2000 — Parliament adopts a Freedom of Access to Information Act.
November 2000 — Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic is accused of managing an illicit public fund that distributes tax revenue to Muslim political parties and connected businesses. Edhem Bicakcik is fired from the directorship of the federation electricity company by the High Representative due to the allegations of embezzlement. The total amount distributed is US $1.25 million. He runs away from the country in February.
March 2001 — The High Representative creates the post of special auditor, who will be responsible for supervising public funds in the federation.
April 2001 — Hercegovacka Banka, which is owned by businessmen who have close ties with the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ - Hrvatska demokratska zajednica), is taken under international supervision. In December, the High Representative decides to offer the bank to sale after it is understood that about US$100 million has been embezzled. The authorities think that the money might be used to finance the operations of HDZ, which tries to form a third entity in the country.
May 2001 — The Parliament of the Republica Srpska adopts the Public Procurement Law. The new law obligates publishing of all bid announcements in "The Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia" and also in one daily national newspaper, and obligates public agencies to make the tender documentation accessible to everybody.
August 2001 — The U.N. War Crimes Tribunal sentences Radislav Krstic, a former Bosnian Serb general, to 46 years in prison.
August 2001 — Parliament passes a new law on elections. The law obliges all parties and candidates to declare all assets and donations over US$50 after an election.
November 2001 — The Parliament of the Republica Srpska adopts an anticorruption program called the National Strategy for Fighting Corruption. The Serbian government also appoints the members of new Anti-Corruption Council.
March 2002 — The High Representative dismisses Mijat Tuka, former deputy minister for refugees, and prohibits him from holding public office after the report of auditors claiming that the ministry had overpaid about US$7 million to private companies.
May 2002 — Judicial and prosecutorial councils that will be responsible in the appointment of all judges at all levels, except for those at the Constitutional Court, are established at the state and entity.
May 2002 — The Legal Reform Department headed by Professor Zoran Pajic is established within the Office of the High Representative.
June 2002 — The finance minister of the Republica Srpska resigns from his post by claiming that the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS - Srpska Demokratska Stranka) is not taking the necessary measures to curb corruption in Office of Customs and pension and health schemes and blaming them for opposing the fight against corruption.
June 2002 — The High Representative dismisses Nikola Grabovac, the Finance minister of the federation, because of the allegations that his ministry is involved in an illegal payment of US$700,000 to a private company as a custom deposit refund.
July 2002 — Nezavisne Novine (literal translation: Independent Newspaper) opens the country's first private printing press.
September 2002 — Police chief of Serb Sarajevo, Zeljko Markovic, is murdered in front of his home. Local media reports assert that he was well known with his efforts to fight against lawlessness.
October 2002 — The Serious Crime Unit is created under the Office of High Representative in order to supervise reform in the fight against organized crime and corruption.
March 2003 — Muhamed Sacirbey is arrested in New York. The former Bosnian ambassador to the United Nations and foreign minister is accused of embezzling US$2.5 million from nation's Investment Fund Ministry and Bosnia's representation at the U.N. He remains in a U.S. prison until July 2004 and is then released on bail. The U.S. decides to extradite him to Bosnia; he remains in the U.S. while he appeals the ruling.
March 2003 — Supervisors find that the public electricity company lost US$91 million annually through mismanagement and poor business practices in the Republica Srpska, and US$86 million in four years through not charging companies and individuals having ties with HDZ in the Mostar branch of the company.
October 2003 — The Board of BH Telecom resigns after audits reveal that the three large telecommunication companies (BH Telecom, RS Telecom and HT Mostar) lost US$57 million as a result of misuse of funds, corruption and mismanagement.
July 2004 — A report prepared by international auditors on the activities of SDS reveals many cases of abuse of resources, such as freely using municipal properties and failure to pay for public utilities.
October 2004 — Local elections for municipal assemblies and mayors are held. The elections are declared to be fair and in line with international standards.
November 2004 — For the first time, Bosnian Serb authorities apologize to relatives of around 8,000 Muslims killed by Serb forces in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
December 2004 — European Peace-Keeping Forces (EUFOR) replace the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR).
April 2005 — High Representative Paul Ashdown fires the Croatian member of presidency, Dragon Covic, who is accused of abusing the office via tax evasion and bribery. Later the court sentences Covic to five years in prison.
September 2005 — The State Court sentences Ante Jelavic, a former Croat member of presidency, to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of embezzlement while he was finance minister.
October 2005 — The European Foreign ministers agree to open talks on the Stabilization and Association Agreement, which could end with full membership in the EU.
November 2005 — Political leaders sign a commitment to pursue constitutional reform in Washington, DC.
February 2007 — Parliament approves the new government and Nikola Spiric becomes the prime minister of the country after the end of three-month-long negotiations with the parties, which got the highest votes in the elections on coalition. This new government is the first to govern the country without international supervision since the Dayton Peace Agreement.
February 2007 — The International Court of Justice in The Hague rules that the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 is genocide, but does not state that the Serbs are the ones who are directly responsible.
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