1998 - Croatia resumes control over the fourth UN area, Eastern Slavonia. 1999 - Tudjman dies. 2000 - Parliamentary elections in January see Tudjman's HDZ party defeated. The social democrats and social liberals win at the head of a six-party coalition. The new prime minister is Ivica Racan.
Party wins the presidency.
2001 February - General Mirko Norac, who is suspected of committing war crimes in 1991 during Croatia's war of independence, gives himself up to a Croatian court after two weeks on the run. Norac had said he would only surrender if he had a guarantee he would not be extradited to the Hague war crimes tribunal. There had been mass demonstrations in support of Norac, whom many Croatians regard as a hero of the struggle for independence.