Pre-Crisis Phase (February 4, 1990-December 17, 1990): Slovenian nationalists began a movement for independence from Yugoslavia. The Slovenian League of Communists (SLC) was renamed the Party for Democratic Renewal (PDR) on February 4, 1990. The Slovenian Assembly called for negotiations with Yugoslavia on March 8, 1990. Parliamentary elections were held in Slovenia on April 8, 1990, and the DEMOS coalition won a majority of the seats in the Slovenian Assembly. Milan Kucan was elected president on May 20, 1990.
Crisis Phase (December 18, 1990-June 26, 1991): Slovenia made plans to hold an independence referendum, but the Yugoslav government warned Slovenia that it would use force to maintain the union on December 18, 1990. Some 95 percent of Slovenians chose independence from Yugoslavia in a referendum on December 23, 1990. Slovenia announced its secession from Yugoslavia on May 8, 1991. Prime Minister Ante Markovic of Yugoslavia condemned Slovenia’s independence movement on June 1, 1991. Slovenia formally declared its independence from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991.
Conflict Phase (June 27, 1991-July 7, 1991): Yugoslav government troops and Slovenian military forces engaged in military hostilities beginning on June 27, 1991. An European Community (EC) conciliation commission (Luxembourg, Italy, Netherlands) began mediation efforts on June 28, 1991. On July 4, 1991, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Permanent Council agreed to send a good offices mission to Slovenia. The EC imposed military sanctions (arms embargo) against the Yugoslav government on July 5, 1991. Jacques Delors, president of the EC Commission, mediated a ceasefire agreement, the Common Declaration for a Peaceful Solution of the Yugoslav Crisis, on the island of Brioni in the Adriatic Sea on July 7, 1991.
Post-Conflict Phase (July 8, 1991-January 25, 1992): The European Community (EC) deployed the European Community Monitoring Mission (ECMM), which consisted of 50 military observers headed by Ambassador Jo Van Der Valk of the Netherlands and Brig. General Johannes C. Kosters of the Netherlands, to monitor the ceasefire in Slovenia beginning on July 15, 1991. Yugoslav government troops completed their withdrawal from Slovenia on October 26, 1991. Sixty-four individuals were killed during the conflict. Germany provided diplomatic assistance (diplomatic recognition) to the Slovenian government on December 23, 1991. The Slovenian Assembly adopted a constitution on December 23, 1991. Slovenia formally achieved its independence from Yugoslavia on January 25, 1992.
Post-Crisis Phase (January 26, 1992-December 6, 1992): The United Nations (UN) Security Council approved the admission of Slovenia into the UN on May 22, 1992. Presidential and parliamentary elections were held on December 6, 1992, and Milan Kucan of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was elected president with some 63 percent of the vote. The LDP won 22 out of 90 seats in the Assembly of State. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) established an election observation mission consisting of 30 observers from five countries to monitor the presidential and parliamentary elections. The Council of Europe (COE) Parliamentary Assembly sent observers to monitor the elections, and reported that the elections were free and fair.
[Sources: Beigbeder, 1994, 251-252, 261; Brecher and Wilkenfeld, 1997, 613-617; Ference, 1994, 393-436; Keesing’s Record of World Events, December 1991; Zucconi, 1996, 237-278.]