• In the fall of 1994, Serbia announced it was withdrawing support for the Bosnian Serbs, would seal them off economically, and would allow a UN-EU team to monitor the border closure. The Security Council then offered a temporary suspension of some of the economic sanctions that had been in place against Serbia since 1992.
• In the summer of 1995, a series of events changed the situation on the ground: In July, two UN-declared safe areas, Srebrenica and Zepa, were overrun by Bosnian Serb forces.
• In July and August, Croatia retook most of the territory held for three years by separatist Krajina Serbs, and thus presented itself as a counterweight to further Serb aggression in the region.
• In response to the fall of the safe areas, President Clinton insisted that NATO and the UN make good on their commitment to protect the remaining safe areas.The Allies agreed to U.S. nsistence on NATO decisiveness at the London Conference on July 21, and threatened broad- based air strikes if the safe areas were attacked again.
• In late July, President Clinton decided that the changes on the ground and the new resolve displayed by NATO provided the basis for an all-out diplomatic effort to end the conflict. In early August, he sent his National Security Adviser, Anthony Lake, to present a U.S. peace initiative to our NATO Allies and the Russians.
• In mid-August, U.S. negotiators, led by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, began intensive shuttle diplomacy with the parties to the conflict. The deaths of three members of our negotiating team--Ambassador Robert Frasure, Dr. Joseph Kruzel, and Colonel Nelson Drew--were an enormous tragedy, but our efforts for peace intensified.
• In late August, a Bosnian Serb shell killed 37 people in a Sarajevo market .NATO and the UN issued an ultimatum to the Bosnian Serbs:

• On August 30, after the Bosnian Serbs refused, NATO began heavy and continuous air strikes against the Bosnian Serb military--with many missions flown by American pilots. The Bosnian Serbs then complied with the NATO demands.
• At meetings sponsored by the Contact Group in Geneva (September 8, 1995) and New York (September 26, 1995), the Foreign Ministers of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia (now also representing the Bosnian Serbs) agreed to basic principles for a settlement in Bosnia:

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