During the A.D. 500's and 600's, various groups of Slavs, including the ancestors of the Serbs, settled in the Balkan Peninsula in the area of present-day Serbia. Each group had its own leader until the late 1100's, when Stefan Nemanja, a warrior and chief, formed the first united Serbian state. During the 1300's, Emperor Stefan Dusan led the country in successful wars against the Byzantine Empire. The Serbian empire began to break up after …showed first 75 words of 679 total…

…showed last 75 words of 679 total…out in Bosnia-Herzegovina, pitting ethnic Serbs, who opposed independence, against Bosnian Muslims and Croats. After a few months of fighting, Serbian forces held about two-thirds of the country. In April 1992, Serbia and Montenegro formed a new Yugoslavia. Milosevic was reelected in December 1992. In 1994, he called on the Serbs to accept a proposed international peace plan, but the Serbs refused. In May 1995, Croatian forces began to retake areas in Croatia that were held by the Serbs.