Minsk Peace Conference

The Minsk Peace Conference was a peace conference hosted in Minsk by Mikhail Gorbachev in an attempt to end the conflict formed from the break up of the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. The conference aimed to address issues such as Croatian and Bosnian self-determination and an end to the fighting. While initially negotiations were slow, the first major achievement was an indefinite ceasefire. However, negotiations to end the war proper would only be concluded after three weeks of negotiations. The treaty stipulated that Croatia and Bosnia were to become independent nations but, the national borders were ill defined and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia refused to ratify much of its clauses. As a result, large swathes of Bosnian territory remain under occupation primarily by Yugoslav forces. Croatia also maintained its "security zone" in the south, as well as partial occupation of the "Brcko Corridor" in the north; occupying it under the aegis of "stabilising" - though this is mainly seen as a response to Serbia keeping its occupation zones. While the peace treaty was signed, the failures of it to be taken seriously by the belligerent parties has led international observers to characterise the Yugoslav conflict as a "frozen conflict".