Ten-Day War

Ten-Day War
Part of the Yugoslav Wars

Yugoslav T-55 tank hit by Slovenian anti-tank fire at the Italian border post, Rožna Dolina, Nova Gorica, during a Slovenian ambush.
Date27 June – 7 July 1991
(1 week and 3 days)
Location
Result

Slovenian victory[1][2]

Territorial
changes
Slovenia gains full independence from Yugoslavia
Belligerents
 Yugoslavia  Slovenia
Commanders and leaders
Socialist Republic of Serbia Slobodan Milošević
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Borisav Jović
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Veljko Kadijević
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Blagoje Adžić
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Konrad Kolšek
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Aleksandar Vasiljević
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Milan Aksentijević[3]
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Andrija Rašeta[3]
Slovenia Milan Kučan
Slovenia Lojze Peterle
Slovenia Janez Janša
Slovenia Igor Bavčar
Units involved

Yugoslav People's Army

Territorial Defence
National Police
Strength
22,300 personnel[4] 35,200 soldiers
10,000 policemen[4]
Casualties and losses
45 killed
146 wounded
4,693 captured[4]
19 killed
182 wounded[4]
6 Slovenian[5][6] and 12 foreign civilians killed

The Ten-Day War (Slovene: desetdnevna vojna), or the Slovenian War of Independence (Slovene: slovenska osamosvojitvena vojna),[7] was a brief armed conflict that followed Slovenia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991.[8] It was fought between the Slovenian Territorial Defence together with Slovene Police and the Yugoslav People's Army (or JNA). It lasted from 27 June 1991 until 7 July 1991, when the Brioni Accords were signed.[3]

It was the second of the Yugoslav Wars to start in 1991, following the Croatian War of Independence, and by far the shortest of the conflicts with fewest overall casualties. The war was brief because the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, dominated by Serbo-Montenegrins, although still made up of all the nationalities of Yugoslavia) did not want to waste resources on this campaign. Slovenia was considered "ethnically homogeneous" and therefore of no interest to the Yugoslav government. The military was preoccupied with the fighting in Croatia, where the Serbo-Montenegrin majority in Yugoslavia had greater territorial interests. In the BBC documentary The Death of Yugoslavia, which used archival footage, Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia, is recorded stating that "I was against using the Yugoslav Army in Slovenia." while Borisav Jović, President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia, stated that: "With Slovenia out of the way, we could dictate the terms to the Croats."

  1. ^ Klemenčič, Matjaž; Žagar, Mitja (2004). "Democratization in the Beginning of the 1990s". The Former Yugoslavia's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook. ABC-CLIO. pp. 297–298. ISBN 978-1-57607-294-3.
  2. ^ Lukic, Rénéo; Lynch, Allen (1996). "The Wars of Yugoslav Succession, 1941–95". Europe from the Balkans to the Urals: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Oxford University Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-19-829200-5.
  3. ^ a b c "The Death of Yugoslavia, Part 3, Wars of Independence". BBC. May 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d J. Švajncer, Janez (May 2001). "War for Slovenia 1991". 25 June 2001: 10 Years of Independence. Slovenska vojska.
  5. ^ "THE ROLE OF MONTENEGRO IN THE WARS OF THE 1990s: "FROM A CONSISTENT WARRIOR TO AN (UN)WILLING ALLY", Montenegro and the war in Slovenia (1991)". 14 May 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  6. ^ "Slovenci, ki so dali svoja življenja za samostojno Slovenijo". Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  7. ^ Clapham, David (1996). "Slovenia". Housing Privatization in Eastern Europe. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-313-27214-1.
  8. ^ Fraudet, Xavier (2006). France's Security Independence: Originality and Constraints in Europe, 1981–1995. Peter Lang. p. 129. ISBN 978-3-03911-141-1.