The Death of Yugoslavia
The Death of Yugoslavia is a BBC documentary series first broadcast in 1995, and is also the name of a book written by Allan Little and Laura Silber that accompanies the series.
It covers the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. It is notable in its combination of never-before-seen archive footage interspersed with interviews of most of the main players in the conflict. This format, pioneered by the programme's production company, Brian Lapping Associates, was very influential and the company produced many others in similar style.
There is a malicious game to play when listening, as we all have, to people sounding off with pat formulas about the terrible civil war that destroyed Yugoslavia: how many seconds before the first flat contradiction? Even the nimblest minds usually spin off the road after less than 30.
To stress that the causes of the war are complex is not to say nobody is to blame, principles are not at stake or nothing can be done - just that making sense of complexity takes time. And time is what Norma Percy of Brian Lapping Associates has taken in an excellent, if depressing, documentary. Also check out Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War.
Episodes included: Enter Nationalism, The Road to War, Wars of Independence, The Gates of Hell, A Safe Area, and Pax Americana.
After watching this documentary I must first say that I am very happy to have stumbled on this website. I intend to spend much more time here after watching this excellent presentation that I witnesses in part on TV some years ago. Then it was difficult to understand who was right and who was wrong.
I was impressed after watching this as to the true cause of this and other wars. The cause of course is pride and the sense that one's particular race or creed or whatever is superior to another's. In my opinion there is in fact morally superior cultures such as the struggle we are now engaged in as the West and most of the civilized world opposes ISIS.
In light of true causes for war such as the defence against Nazi Germany this conflict seems to be trivial. Tragically that trivia caused the death of a nation and more importantly the deaths of thousands of human beings. The moral of the story? Get along with your neighbor and do not fall for the tired line that you are somehow more important than him. Resist the temptation to follow the latest and best leader that will give you what you want. At the time of this writing a similar battle is raging between the followers of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Both groups are exact opposites but citizens of the same nation. I fear the end of this division will not be pretty just as the civil war previously fought in America was the worst bloodbath that this nation was ever engaged in, including WW1 and WW2.
Thanks for all the people who made this documentary possible. I very much appreciated the history lesson.
@carlos1234
hey i got a slovak wife too and i live with a slovak family in a slovak village with alot of slovaks and trust trust me the only thing slovaks care about yujoslavia is that they dont like people thinking that Slovakia is Slovania or that slovakia was part of yugoslavia...
Thank you for clarifying that Slovakia has never been a part of Yugoslavia. I'm Slovak and people mistake it for Slavic all the time. Drives me nuts! I always have to explain that it's Slovak as in Czechoslovakia. Duh. Your wife must be very cool. My hubby's name is Carlos as well!
where is the 3rd rike?
"Religion is a universal mass compulsive neurosis." Sigmund Freud
The root cause of the entire issue can be summed up in one word> nationalism. Suppress nationalism for peace. The second is religion which doesn't have a solution.
The root cause of conflict is never nationalism (or religion, or humanitarian intervention, or weapons of mass destruction, etc).
The root cause is always that there are a small number of people who want something (essentially power), and can influence or convince a large number of people to fight...nationalism and all the other things are simply the tools used to influence people.
You are right - they just use religion and nationalism and anything else as tool to fool the people and create hate.
lol
there always has to be one stupid greek that comes in these types of threads and mentions "Skopjan Macedonia" and thessaloniki being the north of greece.
very funny.
OK, I am glad you "lol" found this very funny. Now:
Who wants to be a millionaire: Thessaloniki is in the north of:
A) Zimbabwe
B) Polynesia
C) Greece
D) You are ignorant
Come on now, grow up...
Thessaloniki is actually Solun, and the rest of the towns, villages and cities in Northern "Greece" all had Macedonian names, and so did the people, until the Greeks (or as they actually were, Turkish, Albanian, Gypsies and descendants from the Sub-Saharan) revolted against us, drove us away, changed the names of the cities and its people. Thats why you have people with names like Vasilios Photooraouopoulousos that speak Greek.
I'm Greek but still laughing at "Photooraouopoulousos" LMAAAOOOOOOOOO
This is the most unbiased and informational documentary I have seen and probably exists out there (on the Politics of the Yugoslavian-Wars). Although the extent and description of all the atrocities aren't described (but this is ok because there are many other books/documentaries on that).
I myself was a 3-7 year old child in Gorazde (Bosnia) during the war. I remember being frequently shelled (the horrible screaming sounds of those missiles), buildings on fire, gunfire on the hills across the Drina, hiding in the basement, not having much to eat, but at that age you're oblivious to the real extent of the situation. I have since the war made a friend, he's mother and older brother (5-6 at the time) were both killed by a missile). I have also met a guy who must of been 10 at the time, while playing with his friends in the backyard had seen one of them shot in the head by a sniper, then briefly panic and bleed to death. The number of tragedies in Gorazde were low in comparison to the rest of East Bosnia (Srebrenica, Foca, Zvornik... and to deny these atrocities can only be unprogressive.
I can personally get over the war, but for those who have truly lost, we must not forget or make rash comments which belittle these people.
The translation is slightly simplified and therefore not exactly 100% identical, but for me the meaning of the statements is almost always correctly expressed.
Nationalism and backward thinking ideologies are a big problem in this region(Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia/Kosovo). I hope with the internet, people will become more educated and realise that your nationality is not the one single most important thing in life. Peace
I will be sure to have a watch after reading this comment!!!!!!!! its certainly a struggle to find somewhat unbiased documents. And you were so young. Thank you for having the courage to share your story. I hope all of your family & friends are well; and sorry for the atrocities that the people endured. Seeing the stories is truly horrific & unimaginable but at the same time moving.
And you make such a good point, imo nationalism & backward ideologies/mentalities/racist rhetoric are tools used to supress people as an attempt for power hungry people to get power & oppress people for being supposedly 'different', 'inferior' or 'wrong;. The widespread denial & ignorance of the atrocities that is occurring is also deeply concerning. I truly wish that all victims could get some sort of justice & reparation. Even that wouldn't be enough but it would definitely be a start. Without the proper acknowledgment of the crimes I really worry for the people who lost so much. And for sure nationality is so unimportant in who people are as people. Hopefully people become more educated & realise that. A realisation that peace, tolerance, freedom acceptance, respect & love are the important things. Hopefully everyone realises that race doesn't define who we are
@rljp I hope that peace and willingness to live together will happen one day, but unfortunately I don't think it will happen any time soon... We are progressing, but there is still so much hatred.. Too bad, we have a beautiful land and so much potential..
what a sad a tragic history of conflict. I found it hard to even follow all the differing regions and religions in differing regions. I hope for all these people in the region now that the hatred has been replaced by peace and a willingness to live together to never go back to what once was.
The translation is very bad and extremely misleading.
Very sad yet interesting
hey george i was in skopje going to a club called colliseum last summer and was amazed at the sights of some, if not the most beautiful women ive ever seen in my life. What was especially crazy was that they were in groups of3-5 chicks in what seemed the hundreds - no guys with them for the most part and i dont recall 1 ugly one. i know your being sarcastic but i had to mention it since you did
From the first minute until the last of this documentary I stayed thrilled of how a civilized society that the former yugoslav was, can do great harm to herself. I knew too few about this before watching this movie, and I must say I can recommend it. I hope BBC was objective when making the movie.
As a Romanian, I'm sad that all these happened few kilometers away from were I live, in modern days.
Finally, after watching the movie I felt that it was a leadership problem more than nations' problems'.
How can you tell, in time, if your leader is blood firsty or not, in order to avoid these conflicts?
it was the USA, not Miloshevitj or any other. only USA interest bringz hate all around the world. Serbia, Vietnam, Iraq, Iran... and many others felt it.
I've seen a handful of documentaries on the issues in the Balkans. It's now a matter of tit for tat in kosovo. The Albanians there are taking advantage of the bias against the serbs due to the past and treating the serbs quite bad there. So the whole point to the serbs in kosovo raising issues in the 80's and on has actually come to fruition. I am not sure why the idea of brotherhood seemed like a bad idea. True reform and regulation would have solved any issues within Kosovo and beyond. Strong arm tactics regardless of ethnic or religious loyalties never work. It would be like me as a native Texan going into New York and rousing up all of the Texans that live there to claim dominance over those in New York and vice versa. We respect that New York natives will do thier thing and we will do ours even though our attitudes and culture are different.
i think you need help
what a hell. we all know that what started the war in Balkans- the greed for money & power. no one wanted to kill each other. no serb or croatian or bosnians or albanians wanted this war.this was Milloshevici's idea to brain wash serb people and send them to war with every one. in this war no one won.there was inocent blood spelt all over yugoslavia in the name of ''NATIONALISEM'' .i tell you gentelmen from war is only politcians the people that profit from it no one else.
trust me there are many nationalists there who were happy to kill more than just the one person, and when they got a chance they DID! and those murderers have thought their children, who are adults today to think in the same way. These countries still need to be kept an eye on.
This very interesting documentary describes in a very vivid way, what happened in Yugoslavia in the early nineties.
I was a kid back then, I lived in Greece and i remember hearing all those names in the news: Gorazde, Vukovar, Sebrenica, Radovan Karadzic, Izetbekovitch, Milosevic, the Dayton agreement and so on. It was a time when nationalism prevailed in a very persistent manner, and Greece, although not directly involved in any armed conflict, very clearly took sides with the Serbs: against Croats, against Muslims against Skopjan Macedonia and against Nato. I remember very well that there were demonstrations in the big cities of Greek people opposing the right of the newly formed country of FYROM to be called Macedonia and using ancient Greek historic symbols.
When American NATO forces disembarked on the port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece, on their way to Serbia, some people turned the direction signs upside down and some military convoys bound for Yugoslavia found themselves driving towards Athens- the south ie the opposite direction. People in general also silently encouraged, or "viewed with feelings of understanding" a few hot blooded greek youngsters that went and fought in Serbia siding with the Bosnian Serbs. Today these people would be overall considered mentally deranged, but - hey- today the country faces a completely different spectrum of reality.
The bottom line was: Serbs are good, the rest of the game is played in favor of Turkey which builds an Islamic arch starting in the Balkans from south Bulgaria, continuing into Skopia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia well into the heart of central Europe with the Turkish minorities of Germany, Belgium the Netherlands and the north African Arab communities of France. Greece as a country was mainly involved in the nationalistic fervor of the days through the dispute for the name "Macedonia" and the Greeks in South Albania, called in Greece "Northern Epirus".
Things have changed since, I must say, and today nationalism is more or less discarded as an anachronism and this condemnation is very much so a politically correct statement. Having said that, I should also add that presenting the facts in such a way as "the Serbs are monsters, the rest are the victims" is not at all convincing either.
Being myself Greek, and part of a wider Balkan heritage I have been wondering over the past years what nationalism has offered to the Balkan (or any other) peoples since it first became hot, following the emergence of nation-states in the region in 1800: what is the net benefit of all that story.
Obviously, we Greeks have not fared very well as a state, and now we are all in remorse, admitting to ourselves among others that we have made grave mistakes in term of managing our state, being as we are in the brink of financial collapse. And having been around as a people for a long time now, one cannot help but to wonder whether being Greek comes down to being a part of a bigger picture than being a citizen of a Greek state, with all its totemic symbols: flag, football, national anthem and the military in proud parade. What I mean is that being Greek is a sound identity; Greek citizenship comes very much in question. This remark might extend to other Balkan peoples as well.
Over the past years I have been leaning towards the idea, that all the region which we call the Balkans may well have lived better in a multi-ethnic state organisational structure, as it has done for many centuries in the past, under Byzantine or Ottoman rule. Having said that I want to clarify that I do not mean a Greek dominated Byzantine-like structure, nor obviously do I mean an ottoman revival state which as we all know embodies a lot of anachronistic attitudes, and after all no European people has ever been proud of its ottoman past.
But there were good things in living together, or more correct, there must have been good things, as I wasn't there at the time. We are kind of alike all us Mediterranean, and in specific Balkan peoples. We have some relatively common sense of humor, we share the same traditional values (family, neighbor, day to day humanism, and of course weather and food). There should be a better environment for us all, based more on talent, valor and imagination, a truly honest agreement, consisting of people living together in a simple and human way. Unfortunately what the Yugoslavian war showed is that people can also be aggressive, primitive, shortsighted and in a constant negative predisposition: men are not only angel, they are (?most of the time) devil... Or at least played upon and naive.
We should all have been, I believe, more vigilant to preserve our commonalities and similarities: the areas were we could co exist, rather than letting ourselves be played by cheap politicians who bet their careers in easy to arouse nationalistic sentiments. We should have tried harder to make something better for ourselves.
Maybe we still can...
Why are you lying....NO WONDER you call serbs Brothers you are same piece of S... same propaganda same mentality same ideas....I know the orthodox church is backing their ideas, but you know what the times are changing in Balkans Albanians are growing force in region you like it or not
All this blah blah blah glorious past and so on... Once again, the same old story: Nationalism, the passion of the idiots!
About South Of Albania the place one of the important places of Albanian history culture and is one of the patriotic albanian place. There great number of population is from Chameria (Southern EPIR) Albania Ethnic land until 1913 when Great power gave you that part without justice in London conference (only Astro-Hunagrians and Italian were Against), Chams starting from than were hunted assimilated but the peak when the greek goverment backed ethnic cleansing in 1945 as pretex they were allies of fascist forces (but they were NOT), your hero napoleon Zerva same as milosevic for serbs staring from ingumenitsa till western part of ancient macedonia massacre ethnic Chams from unborn babies till old people, it was one of most hell place to live at that time for an Albanian espacially Muslim one. The result was systematic genocide at the best against Ethnic Chams thousands were killed from your greek goverment. Even today Greek goverment doesn't recognize cham issues even they know very well, the survived chams are banned to visit their home their lands, your Greek goverment still has war law with albania since WW2 and hipocristy goes when they say they have great relations with albania, but the real creaziness in place goes when you still act as criminals inside our country your greek goverment funds 1. violate Albanian Graves you put in obelisce as they were Greek soldiers killed from italian forces....CRAZY 2. You gave till now (bankrupcy) 300 Euros pensions for poorer Albanian to self declare as Greek in census 2011 when greek himself doesn't recognize any minority exp. muslim in thrace which is redicioulos when you have Large aromanians but Albanians too.....Thats democRATic 3. Orthodoxy nationalism is definetlly policy which you want to incude albanian orthodoxs and all aromanians as greeks just to realize you "megalidea project" same academical project milosevic had for greater Greece........But you know what you picked the wrong people and country the times are changing we have most patriotic people from all religion, the Chams issues would be solved I think now is strassburg court, Kosova is back to what is was like in 1912 its Albanian Land, Albanians of Macedonia is growing force, in montenegro same. Albania is in Nato and in aspects growing Kosova is second Albanian country, western macedonia is populated majority by Albanians. Definetly Chameria is Land which is never gonna be forgotten cause it was Always Albanian since Illyrian-Epir province. And if you greece would now play like you played in earlier come and do it. But i dont think greece has capacity like you were before Albanians are very in good shape rite now economic and policy are great.......Albania is more than double than you know on the maps is more than triple on population you know........... Albanians have powerful lobbies in USA and EU and great friends supporters too Turkey definetlly is on our side and you cant do sh... about, if we want we can make a turkish or american army base in albania directly in greece border and you cant do sh... about, greek minority is less a procent at albania and you cant do sh... about. We have more money, more resources, more economic progress and you cant do sh... about. You are in death spiral already you dont have money to borrow anymore for your army or even for your people and you cant do sh... about you made neighbours enemies not friends staring from turkey to Albania and thats your ignorant extreme nationalist policy with all your neighbours and neighbours gonna give you what you deserved for a long time...... AND you CAN'T DO Sh.... about.
"Skopia", "Skopjan Macedonia". I 'liked' your post, because it made me laugh. greeks are the only people that can call a country by it's capitol city, not it's country name, and even still pronounce/spell the city name improperly.
Please stop with the propaganda garbage about Macedonians using 'ancient greek symbols' as their own. Go to Aegean Macedonia, what you call northern greece, and see what language the people there speak. Oh ya, how do the official greek officials call it, "a slavic language other than greek". Yes, that is exactly how a so-called democratic nation in the 21st century calls it's minorities: non-greek.
In fact, if any of you do a google search for minorities in greece, greek official statistics show NO MINORITIES in greece!!! Although it's clear in history that in 1913 Macedonia was split 3 ways - one to greece, one to bulgaria, one to serbia. The serbian part became independent in 1991 with the breakup of yugoslavia. The other two parts remain in bulgaria and greece. Yet, the greeks and their government still try to convince the world that there is no Macedonia, but some sort of confused 2+ Million people that don't know who they are. Only the greeks know who they are, and they are supreme in every way from everybody else. Go spread your crap somewhere else, yorgo.
I think you have gone a bit over the top with all this mumbo-jumbo. How old are you? Go out, get a drink, talk to a beautiful girl, have some fun. Do you have girls in Skopia? Or whatever you wanna call yourselves? Don't break my balls any more with all this angry-ness and all that. I told you from the start, I don't care about these things, I haven't assumed the role of the historical victim to go around crying like a p*ssy about the injustice that has been laid upon me. That's pathetic, you are a man, not a p*ssy.
the translation of the Serbian into English is ridiculous and false, changing words such as "organizing" into "running" is so manipulative and twisting it around. Half of the stuff translated is twisted around! Especially at 44.12
just to show you how the truth can vary let's put some simple facts about first part of the doc in which serbs say how they are 'deprived of their rights in kosovo' in 1990 there were app 10%!! serb population in kosovo and they held more than 90% of all political and social functions (lawyers, teachers, politicians...) that's what is (was) all about. Slovenia and Croatia wanted independence because more than 50% functions in all yougoslavia were held by serbs, and in the army and political functions the numbers were even greater. It is always about the money and the power, who believes in monasteries nowadays
I just finished this documentary. I think it's probably the best one on the Yugoslav Wars, because even though it's dated (came out in 1995, so we don't get to see any post-Dayton problems like Kosovo), you get interviews from some of the biggest names who were involved. I don't understand how it's 'biased,' because if anything, it's showing what this war was really about. Every side thought they were right and no one wanted to admit they were wrong. Everyone committed atrocities: the Serbs, Croats, and the Bosniaks. You can't blame any one side because it was everyone involved that was wrong.
not really, the war was fought on croatia and bosnia territory, and that is quite indicative who was defending and who was attacking
No, the war was fought on the former Yugoslavian territory that was equally populated by both Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian people.
And it was not fought by countries but by stupid people who were manipulated by individuals who wanted money and power... like all wars in the World's history.
@carlos1234
Maybe you don't care about Yugoslavia, but may I remind you that WWI started in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Hercegovina.
What I want to say this might have started WWIII!!
Excellent Documentary, One of the best I've seen in a while. Yugoslavia should still be Yugoslavia.
Eh Marko I totally agree - if we were just smart enough to remember words of our Marshal Tito :) and kick out trash like those that led us to self-destruction.
no yugoslavia
but slovenia, croatia,serbia,bosnia.kosovo.
Post-WWII Yugoslavia was artificial. It was a result of the Soviet involvement in WWII who supported the Tito partisan soldiers and left them in power.
Being a southern slav comes second after being Slovene, Croat, Serb and Bosniak.
...Well , I just finished watching the series ,and then began reading the comments.
The first comment made me sad-- because I felt pain for anyone who had gone through the wars I'd just watched (or any war situation or tragedy )who might also have read the comment.
These historical documentaries aren't made to entertain us...or to alleviate our boredom .They are made to educate us into a state by which the knowledge we gain can cause our species to evolve to a point where we don't do this to each other any more , and bring us to where compassion comes into focus before hatred is stirred.
I wish I could express to all the victims on all sides of this wars and all others , past, present and (hopefully not) future -- how sorry I am for what they have been through . And the animals and the environment that suffer as well .
When one sees the types of leaders ( MEN , in most cases...) who dragged it all down ...it makes the tragedy even more senseless and embarrassing somehow.
Thanx again Vlatko for putting this documentary out for us to see. I never understood the issues before.
whatever you may think -yugoslavia was the beautiful country to live in (personally i think it will take many centuries to create again a system like it was in Yu, on the global scale! it was communism with free market -thus combining the very best from the both 'worlds' east and west) and like every war this one was cooked by politics
this is all wrong, theese series talks about milosevic as a hero, he was nothing but a terrorist who terrorised innicent women nd children, and the rest of the serb crew. it does not show who really started the war or nothing like that.
I cant say how much I appreciate the comments from those who were touched by the conflict described in this docu. Thank you.
This docu definitely comes down hard on Serb leadership and Milosevic. I am taking this with a grain of salt as some above say the docu contains bias. I cannot say if it is biased or not, and I dare not comment on the tragic events that led up to the war(s). I think it is fair to say from my cozy home in Canada I have no idea what it was like to be a Serb, Croat, or other. The best I can say is that this shows how important it is for human beings to see past race, religion, and nationality when we look at each other. Easy to say, difficult to do.
I will watch The Avoidable War now. Thanks for the recommendation.
"I think it is fair to say from my cozy home in Canada I have no idea what it was like to be a Serb, Croat, or other. "
I know this comment is old, but I simply had to say that this is one of the best regards one could make.
Socrates said that he's the wisest man of his time because he didn't pretend to know something he knew nothing about.
That is what I would suggest to all the 'outsiders' - you can observe, you can speculate, you can even make certain comparisons with other events (for as long as it makes sense), but you cannot judge!!!
Yes indeed, nationalism is evil. Serbia was is still semms greedy. The world is full of people, cleaning out some that some don't like it filth. The serbs were gross. Be ashamed. Like the West should be. Civil war my arse. Disgusting. The Nationalistic of those above will always be ignorant and evil.
Dr Q
Carlos,
if you don't like context of this web site in regard to former Yugoslavia you are free no to be here. I or people here don't really know you, so we find irrelevant what Carlos think about films or the ex Yu. There are billions of web site to visit, so feel free to find those you prefer. Ignorant and poorly informed people are also the most arrogant.
According to the military head of the UN forces in Bosnia at the time (an Indian general), everybody in this conflict was guilty. However, the overall narrative that I find time and time again in the Western media is that the Serbs were responsible for all of the atrocities. There are also very clear implications that for the few atrocities the other sides had committed, the Serb civilians basically deserved it, because they were Serbs.
I believe that it is obvious, to a neutral observer at least, that while the Serbs certainly committed a large share of the war crimes in this conflict, every side has blood on its hands, and every side had its victims. Yet, as I've already mentioned, I feel the Serbians are getting literally all the blame and the voices of the (thousands) of innocent Serbian victims are ignored.
This, to me, does not seem right.
You see - I understand your feelings - but there is much more to it than you actually understand, now, see... Bosniaks in the war were forced into nationalizm, their fundamentalization was Karadzic's top priority - in doing so he would have excuse to keep his atrocities and destruction of the country of Bosnia and Hertzegovina, and he achieved his goal with help of the Islamic fanatic Alija Izetbegovic - he helped Serb fundamentalists destroy Bosnia by radicalizing Bosnian Muslims - think about it. Before war, and in centuries of Bosnian history, religion never played big part in politics, bosnians were never very crazy about religion, muslims were even celebrating some ortodox and catolic holidays, it was all about diversity and common struggle to survive outside pressures from Croatia (Catolics) from Serbia (Ortodox) and other parties who wanted to negate and destroy Bosnian Country. Yes all sides did atrocities, but the biggest ideological atrocity dividing so diverse and mixed up country into pieces - that's is the biggest crime and the blame is all on (not saying Serbs) but Milosevic's ideological followers'...
Wow! Very engrossing. Thanks.
Every one knows that war is bad, but sometimes you have to fight inorder to save your land and you people or you will be enslaved forever by people who feel that you are different from them. It is human reality. The serb wanted to dominet over the moslems and the croats it was good that they fought back or they would have been slavs förever. the serb have to know and they know that a moslem can not be enslaved, but a Serb can be. you paid a high price and every one have a country Bosnia,croatia,Serbia and Kosovo. no Dogslavia any more. thank you
Hi people, I`m from Croatia and first of all I`d like to say my opinion: this war was brought by all sides, and that the situation at the beginning was a consequence of more than a thousand year politricks where common people were "shuffled" by men in power (and by foreign powers) as everywhere in the world. I hold no grudge against a Serb, Bosnian, Slovenian or Croat as long as he/she is not a nationalist. But if someone is than all discussion is over cus there is no objectivity.
I think that it is very difficult to understand the relationships between these nations. Or the things that took place during the war itself. What you have seen in this documentary is macropicture, what it didn`t show you is micropicture; people of different nations living one to another, their interactions, and of course personal stories of people who took part in the war either as civilians or soldiers.
For exapmle; can you imagine what is it like to see your best friend die from bullets that were fired by an old woman that you didn`t search for a firearm a moment before? Or to watch your house being moved in by a opposite nation next door neighbor with a binocular from a small wet and cold shelter? Or defending a field in the mountains where you were born and grew up, where your father and grandfather were born, and where there is a small imprint in a stone with a year from the 18th century with your last name on it? What would you do? Would you forget? Would you be angry? What would you do if there was a chance for retaliation?
Would you kill that old woman? Would you blow the neighbors house into air? Would you raid and burn the fields as yours was? What would you do to the women and children after yours were raped than skinned than raped again? What would you command to the soldiers if you had a chance to retaliate to the people who took your family to concentration camps? The thing is that most of us don`t really know, most of us would probably "I wouldn`t", but the thing is that only small part of us actually wouldn`t.
My point is; the ex-Yugoslavia wars are far from simple, and in the end nobody and everybody is to blame. I`m just afraid that it takes to many generations to accept this kind of mind set.
@ James
There wasn`t one nation (the yugoslavs). That was forged in euphory of antifashist movement but was later forced on common people. And is one of the couses of the war.
The Death of every nation is a sad story and seeing her inhabitants murdering each other is never acceptable. Wars never brought peace. What break us part is our unseen sense of uncertainty and fear of each other. Serbs, Muslims, Croats had done this kind of ethnic cleansing before. When Nazis took a hold of former Yugoslavia, Muslims, and Croats murdered Serbs. Some say this is history. I say this is not history; this is human nature. why would we take an eye for an eye? After thousands of years, we still take an eye for an eye. It doesn't matter what nationality we are. If we watch our loved ones torn up to pieces right in front us, we still would do the same, wouldn't we?
The question remains, would this happen again in another part of the world? sure it would.
Will we ever learn from our mistakes and not to murder each?
You be the judge...
Hey, I live in Canada and I have no personal connection to any part of the old Yugoslavia at all.
But the events depicted form a significant part of the history of Europe and they have for centuries. For instance a collection of events in that region a hundred year ago precipitated into WW I--something that did effect my country, my family and the future of the West.
I trust the documentary depicted events leading up to what will prove to bethe last war waged on European soil. It's fitting and significant that it ended, more or less, with the end of the 2nd millenium A.D.
So, it *is* interesting and worthwhile. Your comment is uninformed and unfortunate.
Nice documentary.
thnx Vlatko! a piece of Balkan history. greetings from Sarajevo.
wat are people bagging this for, im aussie and i loved it, want to know more.
poor yugoslavia
Riley
an added note. having now watched "The Avoidable War" on this site, which has a very different perspective on the late Balkan conflict, quite a bit of additional history/background, along with a tendency to a much-less anti-serbian interpretation of events, and produced 5 years or so after this doc, I'd recommend it.
between the two docs, maybe those of us outside start to get a glimmer of the complexities, the game-playing that went out inside & outside of the area which had such a devastating effect on the people living there.
I think you are very biased and show parts that are true but you leave out a lot of other information that is also true.
The commentary is somewhat biased in its intrepration of events.
You tell the events correctly. You are biased in your intrepretations.
where can we buy these films from?
thank you very much Vlatko, i was really wondering how yugoslavia ended, these series were really good. this is the first time i watched a documentary on this ste and i havent read the rest of the comments here but only beginning, i cant understand why would somebody writes that nobody is interested when he is not interested alone. if you are not interested just turn the page just dont watch what is the big deal :S
@ Ivan
Thank you for the link, it's excellent!
I'll post that doc from the link. Seems good. Thanks Ivan.
I'm Bulgarian and I am deeply horrified by what happened to and between our neighbours. By the time the war took place I was just 8 years-old.
I am currently writing my master's thesis on the role ot the United Nations on the protection of human rights during the war in Bosnia. Obviously, they did almost nothing. Such a shame.
I watched all six parts of the documentaries and I just can't help being shocked every time I watch or read what happened in Yugoslavia. Honestly, I am out of words and I want to apologize for my poor vocabulary trying to explain my real pain. Bacause pain is what I feel in my heart. Pain and anger for the so calle International Community stood practically indifferent.
I want to express my deepest regret and my moral support to all the yugoslavian people who had to go through this hell years (I am really not an expert, but I suppose that there are still some pretty painful issues left unresolved).
I remember that as a child my parents had a bunch of Bosnian friends who came to Sofia, Bulgaria, as a way to escape. As far as I remember they were Bosnian Serbs from Sarajevo. They told us horrible stories about atrocities committed by all three parties.
Thank you, Vlatko, for posting these series. It helped me understand a good part of the war(s).
I hope that we, the people from the Balkans (as well as peolpe from all over the world), may live in peace from now on...if peace is ever possible on the Balkans...
. . . and it very very bad that it could happened in Europe in 1990s. So many death people for nothing, just because of some mad leader who cares just about history and their own interests. Europe leader, USA leader, UN, . . . was just watching . . .
I was 16teen when war started, just waked up from teenager reality, looking where to put my head to survive. Still, I was lucky, living in not such a place like Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Bihac, Mostar, posavina, . . .
Sad think it it will reape it againg, in 20, 30, 50 years . . . or even tomorrow when NATO leave this beautiful country in the middle of Europe :(
A fascinating insight into the "cause and affect" of nationalism and geo-politics. A great series of documentaries attempting to explain the recent crisis in the Balkans and the sparks that ignite contemporary wars...Overtones of National Socialist Germany.
All six films were compelling and It was great to see the British political manoevers through the Owen and Carrington negotiations. "The World At War," has become the seminal historic explanation of WW2, and I think this documentary series will become the definitive film to explain the Yugoslave crisis.
As for Carlos... were the subtitles too much for your phlebian intellect to take in? People like you obviously have the attention span of a goldfish. Poor man hasn't got the education or intellect to make a worthwhile comment, which makes me wonder why he subscribes to SeeUat Videos in the first place....What an arse!
Nice work Vlatko, keep these types of documentaries coming!
for years i have heard about yugoslavia (i mean former )though not understand much..thanks to this documenatary series it really helped me to get the whole picture..
yes it is a disgrace - to keep so many other war criminals out of justice and courts... in recent years. but of course these (yougoslavian ones are the real ones so lets put the anguish on them). i would restrict pointing my finger anywhere knowing that with some crimes the public is being safficiently provoked.
they're all a bunch of old war criminals, and it's a disgrace that they have not been put to justice. An even greater disgrace is that it took so long for the europe to react, and once again we had to have the americans come storming in and salvage the situation.
Watched the first five so far. Its astonishing to watch those Serbs that have now been convicted (in fact many have been convicted today, my timing for watching this is purely coincidental) of crimes against humanity sit there and calmly (and with pride) describe horrendous acts of genocide. Seselj seemed particularly monsrous in his attitudes.
A brilliant documentary for those of us non-Balkans trying to understand the madness and chaos that happened in Yugoslavia.
I have read books and tried to understand the conflicts but always felt I've only picked up a fraction of what was happening. This documentary is an outstanding entree into the very complex world of the former Yugoslav nation. All the better for being able to pause and rewind at the many history-changing statements made. I like to follow body language and so it's an additional boon to be able to read subtitles then rewind to read the speaker.
I am slightly ashamed of the British role in all of this. Carrington seemed naive, and David Owen seemed quite narcissistic. Alas for the people of the Balkans.
There was a sound quality issue with the last video - Pax Americana - but apart from that it was a highly educational documentary.
Thank you for uploading these valuable videos.
S C.
@ tallorder,
I understand your logic, but the problem is that the Serbs actually owned about 49% of the land. Owned as in owned physically, in the cadastre books. Why else do you think the international community would have agreed to such division of land? The reason for that is very simple. Since the Ottoman occupation, the Muslim population was concentrating mostly in the towns whereas the "raja" - the common, non-Muslim folks, were peasants occupying the surroundings of the towns, and working fields.
you are obviusly not educated about teritories in balkan. The thing is that you can't demand a land with the sentence: 'to je naše pravo'- It is our right'- becouse our peple live dear.The Serbs wanted to make a Big Kingdom of Serbs, and if that isn't a bigest crime, then what is?
Just think about it like this : me and my familly come to your land we spread for generasions, and then one day someone comes to idea.....that where ever me, my familly and others of my nacionality live deserves/have a right to claim your land. And if you denied we will come and kill you all.
That is not normal.Anyone that can start killing for his goal (HAVING IT ALL) should be ashamed, and everyone that could make an exuse for such crime should be ashamed evan more.
Ivan,
Thanks for your comments. I agree that all sides should be listened to, all sides have a piece of the truth that won't or can't be told by the others, and that skepticism is always, for these and other reasons, needed to maintain a bit of reserve, even to the extent of one's own experience, memories, previous evaluations.
Humility, respect, curiosity, reflection & courage are good things, especially when balanced together.
Not having ever set foot in the Balkans, perhaps my comments could be more reserved, as well.
If the Serbs hadn't been so out front in initiating the break-ups & conflicts, perhaps the inclination to focus more-or-less exclusively upon them wouldn't be so great.
That analysis almost has to be a huge reduction from the reality, but there it is.
Will check out the links you have provided.
jr
@Ivan
I watched this the other night and rember alot of this from when it was going on.I also read through all the comments on here and I have to say that , I enjoyed reading your comment most of all. First hand point of views are always best.
Alot of people dont realize , that there were more than just Jews being slaughtered in WWII , and I remeber when the war broke out in the 90's. It upsets me to watch this doc and to bring to thought all the innocence and lives that were taken in the conflict and wars that have plagued this area for decades. So many people were killed and exiled.
You are 100% right about what happened in the 90's was no better than what the Nazi's did to Europe in the 40's.People tend to overlook this part of history in the rest of the world . This be taught with some degree of detail, right along side WWII in the history books in schools. Also , thanks for the youtube link, it was very interesting to see point of view from the inside media as opposed to outside.
peAce
Nice links and comments Ivan. One question. Milosevic was a communist and as such i assume against the power of states and religion. Why was he trying to unify former Yugoslavia? and what i guess i am getting at is wasn't his motives just a bigger part of the communist gameplan ordered by Kremlin?
This may suggests why the unholy alliance of the Anglo-American political establishment came down on him?
really good watch this doc, needless killing. They could have just split Bosnia to three sides in the beginning instead to killing each other first and still ended up with 3 sides. Serbs got greedy in the end, only 1/3 of Bosnian were Serbs but they demanded to get 49% of the divided land. If Bosnia was split in the beginning, the Serbs would only got 33% of the land. Anyway, needless killing. Just to show that mankind are pest. The quicker we extinct the better.
if every nation must be perfect in order to begin to analyze or critique the behavior of another, we'd have the Serbs running amok, which pleases only the Serbs.
which appears not to be a good idea, Ivan.
to you point, though - some of those bombs from America (i.e. in France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Belgrade) kept people free, or tried to free them from regimes which were attempting to enslave them. did America always succeed? no. is the effort to do so always reprehensible? again, no.
other bombs were of a less worthy inspiration. so, yeah - American has done bad things, generally but not always from worthy, if mis-guided, motives. The least worthy motives arise from capitalist / militarist agitation (as in Iraq).
our period of naked agression ended when we'd secured the continent from the Natives, about 150 years ago.
these aforementioned subjects are, all of them, deal with, at length, in histories, programs, documentaries, etc. It's not like America is excepted from criticism. Whether or not we get our due share is a question for another forum.
Back to Yugoslavia, or its demise: What worthy motivation existed to exterminate Bosnian Moslems in their homes, one by one, by Serbs who were their neighbors, after many generations of living peacefully side-by-side? Why the need to justify such atrocities?
Much further back, why alienate confederate states such as Slovenia & Croatia, when a modern sense of economic self-interest councils cooperation & healthy commercial interaction?
It seemed to me that the theme of the events, as they transpired, is that a powerful faction took the opportunity using the name/troops/weapons/political & diplomatic capital of Yugoslavia as a club, all in service to an effort to run roughshod over the rights, property & lives their neighbors, now reduced, in the minds of the Serbs, to the status of 'foreigners' - a process which led, as we know, to catastrophe. a process which, by the evidence shown, was cheered on by the Serbian people, at large.
they're not cheering now. their leaders sought to and suceeded in subverting the whole, of which they were ostensibly a member, for their bloated sense of what was their part alone.
once that game was afoot, the Croats jumped on board quickly, in their own 'self-interest', the Slovenes bailed, and the wagon rolled down to the cliff.
in broader terms, not a new story. or, really, one to try to defend.
cheers
from the documentary it seems yugoslavia was destined to split from the very beginning since no one in yugoslavia saw themselves as yugoslavian. They saw themselves as Croats, Slovenians, Serbs, Bosnian, etc. I wished they could have split peacefully instead of killing each other.
Pardon me, correction "the fact that it developed into an international WAR" (instead of LAW)
Gorane,
With regard to your above post, the war certainly started as a civil war - as per international law. The fact that it developed into an international law at a later stage, when first Slovenia and then Croatia and Bosnia were recognized as independent states, is a different story.
As to your remark that Croatia existed as an independent country in the 7th century (btw Serbia did as well, but neither did exist so for too long as they were mostly occupied throughout their history, Croatia a bit longer than Serbia) does not change anything in terms of modern international law.
One more thing, it was not a war of aggression, unless you call the Serbs who live in both Croatia and Bosnia (have no idea why Wikipedia would include Macedonia here) were aggressors in their own homes as they live as large minorities in both of these countries - in Bosnia they are the second largest nation. It is a war with much deeper roots and much more complicated causes, dear Goran - as you know yourself - than what would be explained (for political reasons) as aggression. The fact the Serbian communist elite at the time used the historical animosity and current sentiments of people is also a story that deserves a much more in-depth analysis than what Wikipedia can present.
Came to this doc with only a very cursory understanding of the conflict(s). This account sewed the major entities & actors together, over time.
I found it extremely useful in having a much better (up from ignorance, really) handle on the contours of the conflict.
Found myself wondering that if Serbia had not inherited the apparatus of the federaton to begin excercising that people's sectarian interest, maybe things would have not grown so dire.
It's clear that the Serbian leadership was completely duplicitous and amoral. That perception I'd already gained from watching the news, and this doc did nothing to disabuse that notion - watching such folks (esp. Milosovich, Jovic, Mladic, and Karadzik and some of their minions) wearing suits, sitting in easy chairs whilst smirking as they re-rehearsed their evasions & misrepresentations of un-provoked aggresion and atrocity, was entertaining too, in a bleak way.
Simply Brilliant!!!
Great doc... Seen other doc's about the Yugoslavia war but no one like this... Her you could hear both of the fighting sides give there opinion on what really happend... 6 parts almost 6 hours felt like hardly an hour, but thats maybe because I'm really interested in ex-yugoslavia and history in general. And Jota i really do agree with your comment i couldn't have said it better ...!
I just have one major complaint to the publisher and asian guy/girl. This was NOT a civil war. Croatia existed since the 7th century. We are an independent nation and the reason the war last as long as it did is because the UN saw it the way Milosevic wanted them to see it - as an internal conflict which does not concerne them.If after watching this you still think and say this was a civil war then you just wasted your time.
"Type of war: Two conflicting views exist as to whether the war was a civil or an international war. Since neither Croatia or Yugoslavia declared war on each other, a prevailing view in Serbia was that it was a civil war between Croats and Serbs in Croatia. By contrast, the prevailing view in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia is that the war was a war of aggression from Serbia and Montenegro against Croatia, supported by local rebel Serbs.
The ICTY (in its indictments) characterized the war to have been civil war until 8 October 1991[citation needed], when Croatia declared independence, and international war after that date, since another country, Yugoslavia, held its troops (JNA) there."
The first part of the movie, where they try to portrayed MIlosevic's words "You will not be beaten again" shows that even big media such as BBC are not truly indenpendent.To say that everything began from Milosevic is really naive.First of all for a conflict you need to have hate towards the other ethnic group.History of Yugoslavia show us that Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Croats had a serious conflicts among them in the 20 century?If you just look the WW2 in Yugoslavia you will see enough reasons to think is this really indenpendent as it should be.
Good doc. I am from Montenegro and i u can see how our president was a funny figure and puppet of Miloshevich. After Bosnia, there was war on Kosovo and war with NATO on Serbian and Montenegro territory. Also mutiny in Macedonia. It will be interesting to complete the whole series of bloody events in ex YU.
Few day ago, or more, Serbian parliament has convicted in their declaration crimes on Srebrenica. I know, it is not enough.
Uff... its to hard to comprehend all this even now...
??????? ????? ? ????? ?????! Pozdrav svima i svako dobro!
Zdravo Simo,
Please note that the war in 2001 in Macedonia was orchestrated by Serbian intelligence authorities, who provoked a small war/conflict in Macedonia by using the KLA - kosovo albanian terrorists - to cross the border into Macedonia and start shooting at police stations. The albanians in Macedonia were a different, more peaceful people than the ones that came from kosovo, but that is now all over, thanks to NATO and the Serbs. God bless the Balkans.
...and a lot of things happened after 1995...
I wasted my life in this bloody country!
btw the movie is great.
I am from Kosovo (Albanian). I was 8 yrs when we left 1992. I remember how almost every Albanian thought that it would be temporary, year after year we just waited until the war would be over so we can return. But that never happened and it will never happen. It´s sad. I allways wonder how my life would be in a Yugoslavia with peace. I hate to be an immigrant every were I go, even Kosovo.
@Vlatko
Great website man I watch at least one documentary everyday
Have already seen the six parts of the doc.
I maintain the same opinion than before. It’s a superb and inestimable historical testimony.
This doc should be archived in every library and university of the world, to everybody see and learn something from it.
In the end, after watching the six chapters, I could only remember one of the last scenes of the film “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. In that scene, one of the characters, Major Clipton, after witnessing the crazy carnage that becomes the zenith of the story, shakes is head with incredulity and says clearly and soundly to himself – like if he was talking to every person that was watching the film: “Madness… madness!”
He was referring to man behaviour during wartime, a behaviour that doesn’t make any sense at all.
The same can be applied to the Yugoslavian war: Madness… madness!
Thank you for filming the documentary. As an Asian, although I have read about the war among the states in Yugoslavia but could never understand the fundamentals. Seeing the documentary has given me better understanding of the the civil war which happened in Yugoslavia during that period. Thank you once again for the film. I appreciate it.
only thing i remember from those days is hiding in a basement with my family, eating "military" cookies(: and i remember my moms tears while dad was blocking doors from inside.. cant forget that scene.
@Jota ( the best persons to talk about this issue are the ones that lived under the Yugoslavian rule. Their opinions and point of views would be very important… )
true. there are things that no politician will tell you. for example how croatian government didn't help in defending vukovar.. my uncles and other brave volunteers protected villages around it by making bombs from water heaters.. very sad.
there are a lot of tensions and hatred feeling in whole former jugoslavia. but i know we can all again live in harmony.. i hope that day will come soon. world needs that.
sorry for my english(:
peace
Haven't seen the documentary yet but looking forward to it. I'm a Croatian from central Bosnia and the war obviously has had a big impact on my life. I agree with Pedja when he states that human stupidity led to this. It's pointless hatred based on ethnicity and religion. It's why I'm an atheist. It's disturbing to see how many religions will attack each other, just to prove that theirs is right and most peaceful.
@ Jota, your observations are correct. The problems that surfaced so violently in former Yugoslavia in these bloody wars are consequences of certain decisions made in the past, which were influenced by the geo-political interests of the major world powers. Having a proper background information certainly helps to better understand what happened. Unfortunately, it doesn't bring back so much that has been lost... My greetings to you :-)
S.M. UK, I thank you for your words. I just wouldn't want to be misunderstood, I believe that everybody in former Yugoslavia suffered, the difference is that some suffered to a much greater extent than the others - those who lost their loved ones or everything they worked hard their whole lives for or those who had to leave their homes and find refuge somewhere far away from their homes, involuntarily. For what it's worth, I personally do feel the need to tell you, as a human being to another human being, that I feel so very much sorry for what "my" people did to other peoples, to your people. "My" in quotes because I don't see any of the criminals I feel the need to apologize for here as my people in any way.
Sorry for the smiles.... I wanted to put :( and not :)
Once again... sorry :(
I've seen the first part, and I can say that the archive footage is simply excellent. I’ve already read many books about the ex-Yugoslavia and the years that led to the war, but the interviews with the main intervenients are simply overwhelming.
Those first person testimonies are more precious and instructive than all the books that were written about the Yugoslavian war. They’ve given to me a more accurate perspective of all that “madness” – nationalism upraise and the subsequent war.
Until now, this doc seems not to be biased, because the footage speaks by itself. Each viewer can take is own conclusions.
Let’s see if I’ll maintain the same opinion after watching the all doc, but it believe it haves all the ingredients to be a “must see”.
Just one remark: to have a good opinion (at least a reasonable one) about what the hell happened in that part of the Balkans, it’s necessary to know what kind of geo-strategic engineering the European big powers tried to achieve in that part of Europe during the last centuries (and why they’ve done it). This leads to the big question: why in the first place there was a Yugoslavia? And never forget that the troublesome happenings that occurred during World War II also contributed to boil an historical tension that led to the war.
But… the best persons to talk about this issue are the ones that lived under the Yugoslavian rule. Their opinions and point of views would be very important… but I can imagine that it’s a very traumatic and delicate matter to them. Many people suffered, too much people died :)
@carlos1234, that’s why your (maybe innocent or naïve) comment wasn’t well received. You must understand that your words seemed offensive to the ones that suffered during the Yugoslavian war.
Yes… it’s very complex to understand what happened there. I’m also trying to understand it :/ But one thing I’m sure… nothing can justify the atrocities that were committed. Not even the passing of history can absolve that :)
WTC7 Thank you for your previous comment; it helps to restore my faith in humanity.
As a Bosnian I realise there was a level of propaganda used by Milosevic on his own people getting them to believe in and act upon his lies.
However what we cannot understand is that today so many years after the war the Serbs will not accept and publicly state, "We were used, we believed Milosevic's propaganda, we accept what has happened, it was wrong and we are sorry" ????
Until this happens, hatred will always continue under the surface and within the next 50 years, there will be another war.
carlos1234, you could at least try to learn how to spell the names of these countries you're (by the way) not interested in and haven't even watched the doc talking about the misery that befell them. Why do you bother commenting at all is beyond my understanding.
I’m posting this one again - edited, ’cause can’t wait for the moderation… Sorry, Vlatko :-)
I just finished watching the first part. My stomach was in a know the whole time… I was 23 in 1990. I was old enough to understand what was going on, I was following the developments closely and I knew that we were heading toward the point with no return, though many were saying that the civil war was not possible. Already then it amazed me to see how easy it was for just one megalomaniac and amoral man to misuse the existing dissatisfaction of people. It had still been possible at that time to channel all this negative energy and let it vent without bursting. But instead of putting it out, more oil was being added to the fire. I remember the prime-time news at 19.30 becoming more and more a time for outrageous nationalistic propaganda, when all sorts of ‘political commentators’ would read their prepared speeches explaining to us how much all the ‘others’ actually hate us and are preparing all sorts of devious things for us. We have been the innocent victim of our bloodthirsty enemies… I was amazed to see how normal people slowly loose their compass and their ability to think with their own heads under such pressure, simply give in and start believing in all that BS they are being told over and over and over again, every single day…. I guess my youth gave me the courage and I participated to every demonstration organized against this vampire but our numbers were much lesser than those who had either crossed the point of no return to normalcy or those who were simply afraid… By the time we finally succeeded it was already too late – the absolute catastrophe had already happened… Many are now ashamed and would rather not be reminded of how they succumbed to hatred and fear, but in my eyes it doesn’t wash the guilt off them, because without them he could have never succeeded with his wicked plan.
Great doc's! very informing.. thank you
great documentary...interesting topic...the war in the balkans...greedy serbs trying to expand their will on its borders provinces...if the croat-bosnian&h serbs wanted to be part of the serb controlled newly reformed yugoslavia...then why didnt they want to move there..instead of living under a government they didnt want to be governed by...serbs are mostly to blame..a lot of propaganda being played out...and carlos- you dont know what your on about mate....mike UK
@ross
yeah all leave my ignorant comments to youtube couse apperently youtube people can handle personal opinions but whatever....
@jasonsociety
hey i got a slovak wife too and i live with a slovak family in a slovak village with alot of slovaks and trust trust me the only thing slovaks care about yujoslavia is that they dont like people thinking that Slovakia is Slovania or that slovakia was part of yugoslavia...
@carlos1234
Please reserve your ignorant comments for YouTube - "but hey thats just me".
@Vlatko
Thank you for a sad and difficult to watch documentary -- let's all hope we learn from this.
@Pedja
My heart is with you!
I've seen it already.. seen it happening in real life actually. couldn't go through it again. But thanks for posting Vlatko.
Nice! very interesting!
Should watch if your into your geopolitics!
:)
thanks for the upload mate :D
Interesting doc only watched first part so far, but this documentary provides evidence from the people directly involved in the seperation of the region rather than many others ive seen which offer propaganda filled with disturbing images (which after watching this doc, i have no doubt the serbs produced)
Worth a watch if your interested in how stupid people manage to cause a war!
peace :D
Vlatko hvala za ovaj film.
@carlos134
My wife is slovak and most slovaks do care about what happened.
@vlatko
keep up the good work vlatko, amazing site! and thank you.
Hello Vlatko.
Apology that I have to make my first post on this website as a 'negative' one... Although, I don't know... not sure if it is negative.
This is the only video on your website that I will not watch, at least not for now, at least not for a long period of time.
As someone who grew up just before and then spent late teens and early 20is in the disastrous times portrayed by these videos, I can not watch them without actually (again) going through something I hope to forget, forever.
What is portrayed by these videos is a story of human stupidity and consequent suffering on an immeasurable scale something probably best left to rot in the dark alleys of forgotten memories.
I recommend to all to watch these videos and learn for themselves how not to sort political issues, something we need - it seems - a constant re-education in.
Apart from that, your website is truly amazing and I truly wish to thank you for all the efforts.
To say that this is the number 1 documentary website is simply missing the point.
Your website it in a league of its own.. it is the first and the last and the only website when it comes to documentaries.
Thank you so very much.
Pedja.
"Thank you for making this one available to us Vlatko! I am from the region and should have watched it a long time ago but I didn’t, for many reasons, so this is a great opportunity. I’ll watch it tomorrow (a bit late now ). Thanks again!" x2 :D
and who cares about Spain ?
Thank you for making this one available to us Vlatko! I am from the region and should have watched it a long time ago but I didn't, for many reasons, so this is a great opportunity. I'll watch it tomorrow (a bit late now :-) ). Thanks again!
@carlos1234
So I should pay attention on what people say in comments. :) I thought I was doing that already but I'll try harder from now on.
It is true that most of the people comment on the subject of the documentary and probably that is the most important thing but you failed to do so on this one. I guess "twisted facts, biased material" are subject matter components. I think we are done.
Vlatko
it seems that you read alot of the coments people leave on your website (which is really good) but you should pay attention to what people say in the comments. Go and see how many people are leaving comments talking about the narration, presentation, footage, or material most people whatch these great documantaries ( couse most are great) and the ones that leave comments, like to comment about the subject mostly and they leave there own personal opionion about whatever doc they watched which is good thats the way it should be :)
@carlos1234
The point was that this short line of yours with capital letters is not doing anything beneficial for the visitors (at list I think so). If the doc is not good for you maybe you should elaborate in few paragraphs why is that (bad narration, presentation or footage, twisted facts, biased material and so on) so others can benefit from your comment. Just a thought.
Vlatko your probably from eastern europe you have a slovik name so im assuming your from some country out in eastern europe....and i dont care what people say about USA or Canada im not from either country....and yes i watched the first chapter (half way) and it just seems boring.....and i also wrote in my last message "but hey thats just me"........and for the record vlatko im living in Slovakia (for about a year now)so i know a thing or two not much but a lil bit about yugoslavia (not that Slovakia was part of it ) i know whhatever slovakiens know
If you happen to be interested in the subject this is actually a very good series. I live in Slovenia and we were the first country to seperate from Yugoslavia. Our war with Yugoslavian army lasted only 10 days. We were extreemly lucky. I was only 11 years old at the time so I did not fully understand what was happening. Thanks Vlatko! Much appreciate it.
VERY VERY BORING AND UNINTERESTING!!!!! but hey thats just me (who care about yugoslavia) :0
Pathetic Ignorance, poor spelling, deplorable English grammar along with ignorant computer skills! This should say enough! You must not even know where the former Yugoslavia is located or its place in history! It was ONLY in Sarajevo that started WWI, but (as you say) who cares? Well, anyone that wants to know history and how not to make the mistakes of the past cares and well as try to prevent future conflagrations cares! Don't post when you have no knowledge of a subject!