Serbia in the Yugoslav Wars from the FRY, as the Bosnian Serb faction alone could not pay for the costs. The Bosnian Serb Army was led by Ratko Mladić, an extremely controversial figure, who served the Yugoslav Army during the Croatian War of Independence 1991-1992, and has been accused of committing war crimes in Bosnia. Serbian Radical Party founder and paramilitary Vojislav Seselj publicly claimed Milošević personally asked him to send paramilitaries from Serbia into Bosnia and Herzegovina. After 1993, media reports of large-scale atrocities by the Bosnian Serb armed forces, such as the long siege of Sarajevo, resulted in increased pressure and sanctions by
Operation Summer '95 later be cited as a pretext for the Bosnian Warwas held. Bosnian Serbs set up barricades in the capital Sarajevo and elsewhere on 1 March, and the next day the first fatalities of the war were recorded in Sarajevo and Doboj. In the final days of March, the Bosnian Serb army started shelling Bosanski Brod, and Sarajevo was attacked on 4 April. The Bosnian Serb armyrenamed the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) after the Republika Srpska state proclaimed in the Bosnian Serb-held territorywas fully integrated with the JNA. As 1992 carried on, it controlled about 70% of Bosnia and Herzegovina.