It has been 30 years since Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, marking the breakup of the Federation after a series of bloody ethnic wars that lasted a decade. But according to the last president of Yugoslavia, Stjepan Mesic — who represented Croatia in the Federation — reaching an agreement and avoiding a war was not possible. “I proposed a confederation for three, five, eight years, as long as we needed to reach an agreement and then decide what to do.
