as for croatia declared independence after the first armed conflicts it is true that the war escalated after the declaration of independence but it was certainly in existence before croatia formally declared independence as for i agree that yugoslavia could have went on without one or more republics but the situation on the ground was that four out of six republics declared their independence during the war events not necessarily linked to the war but arguably influenced by it and the badinter arbitration committee said that in november january sfr yugoslavia dissolved inter alia due to slovenian and croatian independence votes as for that means that they did not change when situation before march and after november is compared of course the borders are the same since by demarcation committees not in but the first two dates specified are important here erdut agreement and unsc resolution define the territory as croatian the un mandate as temporary and define the outcome as transfer to croatian control furthermore expelling forces civilians or troops leaving a country and un mandates do not constitute territorial changes and should not be in this field at all all of these issues are quite comprehensively addressed by the article itself