The Death of Yugoslavia
June 10th, 2008 link to (permalink)
This is the first part of six in a documentary series about the Yugoslav War. Made in 1995, the year that Bosnian-Serb General Mladic’s troops marched 8,300 Bosnian men and teenage boys out of Srebrenica, and executed them, some burned alive and tortured. Armed UN Peace Keeping soldiers watched them pass.
Despite the demands that Serbia should turn over Mladic as a precursor for eventual entry into the European Union (token efforts at complying including a 1M euro reward, were made by the Serbian government), in 2008 the ratification process was started anyway, although nobody seems to know the status and Kosovo’s independence has flared up bestial Serbian nationalism again. The whole story is making a farce of the EU.
There has been some criticism about the accuracy of translation, however, this series would be in my list of top ten documentaries of all time, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It unravels the mechanism of the sordid path of human conflict, from nationalism to genocide, like no other film before or since. It is the film that was never made about the holocaust.
Running time: 50 mins.
3 responses so far »
Grant : Jun 11, 2008 at 9:45 pm
This was made by the incredible Norma Percy for Brook Lapping productions in London (now owned by Bob Geldof’s company - TenAlps). I was lucky enough to work for them just after this was made while they were editing “Israel & the Arabs - The Fifty Years War”. I’ve probably never encountered a smarter, more serious bunch of people in my working life.
Miloš : Jun 19, 2008 at 3:43 pm
While the documentary is indeed excellent, the words that precede it are anything but. Your reduction of several complex issues into tabloid catchphrases (bestial Serbian nationalism! a farce!) could even be compared to a 30 second clip of a dog on a skateboard.
Racism aside, my compliments for both the idea and the execution of the site
Tom Foremski : Jul 14, 2008 at 1:07 pm
It’s a fascinating documentary series. I also came across: “Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War,” which offers a view of how Germany and Austria helped stir up Croatian separatism that sparked the wars. Clearly, its a complex story - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5860186121153047571&q=&hl=en
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