Over ten days in June and July 1991, the Yugoslav federal army tried to stop the tiny republic of Slovenia from becoming the first republic to break away from the former Yugoslavia. The country's then foreign minister, Dimitrij Rupel, recalls those days of Slovenia's war of independence and how it was a precursor for the greater, more bloody conflict to come.Photograph: a Yugoslav army tank on the Croatian/Slovenian border behind a road sign daubed with a peace symbol, 3rd July 1991 (Credit: Peter Northall/AFP/Getty Images)