What most people seem to forget is that Serbia, like any other country in the world, has ordinary, normal, non-ultranationalist civilians living in it. People who were by chance born there and are simply trying to live their lives the best they can, people who suffered due to the decisions of politicians they did not vote for. Calling all Serbs evil is like calling all Croats fascists, all Muslims terrorists, all Germans nazis, etc you get the idea.
@@gloopdogg4861 Telling me to speak in my own name, then saying 'Serbs will fight anybody' is contradictory. Didn't you just do the same? Besides, defending one's home, nation, people, there is nothing wrong with this, and with this I agree. Propagating violence between neighbouring peoples because of the actions of a handful fascist or ultranationalist paramilitaries and corrupt politicians is wrong. Your stance seems to imply that every single Croat, Bosnian, Albanian, etc. down to the last child is a knife-wielding maniac jumping at opportunities to slaughter Serbs. I know people of all Balkan nations, and I've yet to meet one that propagates any sort of hatred toward Serbs. Most are just regular people, just like most of us. Every nation has extremists, that doesn't mean that every single person of that nation is evil. So, yes, I am advocating for peace between the common folk, because there is no sense in hating entire nations due to the actions of a handful of extremists on all sides. Not all Croats are Ustase. Not all Bosnians and Albanians are Muslim extremists. It is those same 'empires' that are instigating us to fight amongst each other, because it suits them to have us divided so that they may manipulate us. Besides, it's very easy being brave behind a keyboard. From what I can see, the most staunch 'patriots' in our country are now those who have never fired a single bullet in its defense, nor would have the guts to do so.
That is the narative, when you tell about crimes from less liked country you flag the whole nation and say SERBS KILLED INOCENT MUSLIMS & CROATS, but if you need to report about crimes from the other side you say ULTRA NACIONALIST MOVEMENT FROM CROATIA OR BOSNIA KILLED SOME CIVILIANS. Difference is existing in naming both the EXECUTIONER AND THE VICTIM.
@@Anonim_Anonimovic In this world are big problem people like you who level up all wars,thay kill,we kill everybody is same and that is level of you ignorance,so you will look the same Serbs if we was with Hitler and Nazi in WW2,you look same at Nazist and Soviets or im i wrong...Go visit Kosovo and be with Serbs who are sorunded by Albanians,go and see destroyed grave stones,all that heppening right now in 2022,go and see foreign solders who protect Christian Ortodox monanstirs and churches when about 60 % is destroyed by Albanians,after thet go in Belgrade or any Serbian city and ask Albanians if they live good there or Serbs atack them...Go and see,dont be a keyboard peace maker coz no metter how many likes you got they dont mean TRUTH
My uncle was a UN blue helmet who was deployed in the Bosnian war. It wasnt his first deployment but Bosnia was his last. It was a completely traumatic experience. This is the only mission he was sent on that he still refuses to talk about.
Onaj tko je poslao vašeg ujaka u Bosnu iz iste je kuhinje tko je zakuhao rat u Korei, Vijetnamu Jugoslaviji , Iraku , Libiji , Siriji , Kongu ,Sudanu ,Ukraina , Palestina cijena je milijunske žrtve I buduća zarista da bi zločinci gomilali profit monstruozno.
So, my dear comrades with a 5kg heavy diamond cross on your chest. What the Dutch officer and the soldiers did was not correct and not right! They were soldiers and you won't believe it: "They followed orders!". The uncle of @turntapeover5749 knows exactly what he did. We cannot and may not judge him because he followed orders. Only God will judge him and the people who were murdered by "JNA" (And in JNA soldiers serving, too. Crazy NOT???). My grandfather was in the same situation as an officer of the Red Army when they attacked Poland on both sides with the Germans in 1939 (pay check came on Jun 1941, as he was in Kiev). He never talked about it and took it to his grave. Was it good to stab a neighbor in the back with a dagger when he is lying on the ground and defending himself against kicks? Guess what: "No!". Soldiers follow orders! And they wear the greatest and heaviest cross that neither shines nor is gilded with diamonds. PS: I am not proud to write this text at all.
As a Muslim born in Serbia while this madness was taking place, I can say that politics are pure evil. Today I have a bunch of friends that are Serbs and I never had had hatred towards anyone. It still baffles me how people who lived together in peace for decades could suddenly want to kill each other off. My hometown could’ve turned into Srebrenica too but luckily it didn’t so we have to find a way to past this. Today Albanians, Bosnians, Serbs and Croats do the dirty work all over Europe often, often working together with no issues. I just hope anything like this never repeats…
Ordinary normal people don't hate anyone, Yugoslavia was dragged into war and unfortunately political elites manufactured hatred by exploiting the history of Balkans and brainwashed people's minds.. Pozdrav iz Srbije
@@zeik04 Islam is the clfasteat growing religion in the world, soon to be No. 1 in the world. How do you explain that ? There should be wars in Germany and France right now, right ?
because 60% of people are absolute npc's that you can controll like puppets. 20% are good and 20% are evil. i guess in your case 20% of evil guys were running everything and managed to silence the other 20% + influence the 60% of the sheep to do bad things.
Greetings from Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦 very well informed video. 85% of the population that lived through the war suffer from PTSD, often crippling. 60-70% of those born after the war also have PTSD, second hand. The governments are corrupt, barely functional, and play on old nationalism to cover up their own incompetence and reignite ideas of Serb independence. Young people just want to live normal lives so they leave for the West by the hundreds of thousands every year. Every family has someone who lives abroad, someone that died or was handicapped in the war, and someone permanently changed by it.
I was an 8yo kid in Macedonia, and I could say I too had PTSD, even though the war was far from home. I would watch the news every day and I would listen to my father and his friends discussing specific events. I remember a few quotes vividly: “They put them in a basement and set them ablaze” “They were skinning them alive” “They killed a little girl” None of these quotes had come from personal experience of any of the people discussing them. It was all things they’d seen on TV and things they’d heard. I would have nightmares very very frequently. It was mostly bearded chetniks going after me with knives, or being caught in bombardment and gunfire. I had told myself-next time this happens, just remind yourself that it’s a dream and open your eyes. One night, I did exactly that (or at least I thought I did) and I found myself in a different war scene. It was absolute horror. I can’t even begin to imagine what you poor souls in Bosnia were going through as you were literally living my nightmares. 🇲🇰❤🇧🇦
@@reddog5031 Bosnia and Herzegovina had an opportunity to have a larger chunk on land south of Dubrovnik but 1 specific politician chose Neum instead. As a result, Bosnia has only 22 kilometers of coastline that is right splitting Croatia.
@@reddog5031 no. In 17th century, Dubrovnik gave parts of its coast to Ottomans (Bosnia was an Ottoman province) to make a buffer from Venice. Venice held Dalmatian coast before it fell into Habsburgs Monarchy, which then became Croatia, but Neum stayed Bosnian.
Just realized this video was not monetized. Simon, this is exactly the type and length of video I'm most happy to support! What demonetized it this time, just the mere mention of the Nazis? Loving Warographics, even the Emu War!
Before I retired, I would occasionally encounter people seeking asylum in America. I don’t remember if they were Bosnian or Serbian, but there were seven men. The look in their eyes reminded me of what my dad called “a thousand yard stare.” They had seen so much death and destruction, probably dealt out some as well. Of all the people I encountered, these seven men were the only ones who scared me. Its been over 20 years and I still remember the look in their eyes. When I was in Europe, because of the “unrest”, I wasn’t allowed to see what was Yugoslavia at the time. It’s sad that so many people died. I hope all the governments of the respective countries are able to sustain peace. I hope the people prosper and thrive.
One of my coworkers is a croat refugee. She came over when she was 6 or 7. She said that she came right before July 4th. When she and her sister heard the fireworks they ducked towards the bushes because they thought they were being bombed again.
@@wngmvI am Serb from Belgrade, Serbia, all my childhood i was under embargo, sanctions, dictatorship...1999 got bombed every day,78 days straight (ok i lie, it was 78 nights actually, always at night so we cant sleep) ... It was ok.
I cannot express how grateful I am to my parents for moving us from Yugoslavia to Canada. We have family all over, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia. It was terrifying for them, and there was nothing we could do. Thank you for bringing light to these events so eloquently and completely unbiased. Very well written and presented.
I know it probably doesn't mean much, but some of the friendliest people I have met were Croats, Serbians and Bosniacs, I don't pick sides, it isn't for me to do. But my stomach loves them all, I was never allowed to leave without being fed until I couldn't eat more. The whole thing with the war in the 90s is very sad to me, knowing the feelings on each side I understand why it happened but I wish it hadn't gone that way.
I'm wondering, what's your family's last name? My mothers' family's had similar situations of sorts, and our people just migrated everywhere in a way, both within Yugoslavia, but also to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the US and Canada. Mother's last name is Sabljo
I have heard some stories from my ex-mother in law who was born in Serbia in 1944. I'm glad Simon brought this little known history (little known in America) to RUclips.
Canadian here. I had a lot of friends in the 90s that were refugees from Yugoslavia, very lovely people. ❤️ Now my daughter is dating a wonderful young man who immigrated here during the war in Yugoslavia. I'm glad your family made it here and that you are happy to be Canadian.
1:00 - Chapter 1 - The creation of Yugoslavia 6:00 - Chapter 2 - Reunited one again 14:00 - Chapter 3 - Cracks in the walls 19:35 - Chapter 4 - Slovenia & croatia 27:05 - Chapter 5 - The bosnian wars 35:00 - Chapter 6 - The republic of kosovo 38:10 - Chapter 7 - Aftermath of civil war
I was born there and lived through those horrific events. To this day it's not easy to watch and remember. Left a huge dark hole in my heart. Incredible sadness impossible to explain. Thank you so much for excellent research and video.
The area of former Yugoslavia has so much diversity and is such a beautiful place with generous, welcoming people. It has been the political chessboard for great powers since forever, and that has left the area scarred, but, interestingly, whenever ex-Yu people meet somewhere other than the Balkans, they can instantly recognize each other and get talking more easily than with anyone else. It sounds like a highly disfunctional family - cannot live together without conflict and bloodshed, but remain more interested in each other's business than in anybody else's outside the family.
Don't give me the, "Great Powers" argument. The People of Yugoslavia, killed the other People of Yugoslavia. The so-called Great Powers step in to stop that sort of thing.
It has been a political chessboard for great powers since forever. That being said let’s not throw blame on these great powers and act like they are the ones that committed the crimes. I think that’s the biggest problem with the mentality with people in that region is the fact that all of our problems are somebody else’s fault and that we would have lived in love and and everybody got along well. When the fact is that we literally started killing, raping and ethnically cleansing overnight. I feel like if we started taking some ownership and stopped acting like victims we would be way better off than we currently are! This is just the humble opinion of a war baby born in Bosnian War….
Yes and no...coming from Croatia we in most cases don't care or look across the border to the east....not so much about hate or even anything bad... simply nothing interesting there. At least that's how i see it...there are minor extreme opinions as well due to war but new generations do not care anymore since we see it very tiring. If i meet Serbs outside of Croatia i don't have problems communicating with them if they are normal but...
One of the saddest echoes of the Yugoslav conflict is the material left behind and still in use. Landmines dot the country and pose a threat to anyone out for a game of football or a casual walk, and Yugoslav weapons like AK styled assault rifles were made in mass quantities, so many that you can even still buy them for quite cheap. Naturally these guns have fallen into the wrong hands countless times in places like the Middle East and Africa. Long after the war ended, there are still casualties being taken.
I watched SKy news report off UK training off Ukranian soldiers in UK ..and every single soldier carried Zastava AKs from my town ..how that end up there
American Javelines are sold on the Black Market to Serbia !! .. only 25% of the weapons sent by NATO to Ukraine arrive at the Ukrainian frontline , 70% are sold to Serbia , Africa etc .. Serbs are among the most weaponized people in the world - nearly as much as Americans ..
My family immigrated to New York and San Francisco. Of course I was born in the US and I never really knew anything about my family's past. I have been watching videos and researching to learn since I started doing my family tree. I came in contact with one relative only to be told that nobody wants to talk about it. So here I am....thankyou for this insight. Much appreciated and well done.
This video is extremely biased political take on Jugoslav wars. If you want to explore your family history, better use local ex Yugoslav sources from several sides, as they are biased ofc. But t least you can start making a puzzle. This is just useless…
@@Magicagic89’mostly true’ you say ? Hmmmm…. In this case there’s 3-4 sides to THIS story: 1)From Serb point of view 2)From Croat point of view 3)From Bosniak(Muslim) point of view 4)And let’s say from a totally unbiased perspective. And let’s include from an Ex-Yugo Communist point of view V Royalist ‘anti-communist’ perspective ie; from the pre WW2 Kingdom of Yugoslavia view point.
When I served in the Royal Danish Army I was with the UN-Forces in Yugoslavia. Seen some really bad shit. It will takes generations for people to begin forgive what they did to each others. Suffer from PTSD today and still have nightmares of burned out villages and wake up smelling the smell of dead people. But I would do it again if I had a choice. We helped with supplies and if our presence saved even just 1 child. Then it was worth the price.
I've many friends that served there as well and told me the same thing as you said. They're Canadians and were here with the Belgians. Some are still in the Royal 22 regiment. they were with the Belgians and Dutchs. It's not rare for them to tell me how the nightmares they still have to this day about that war and Rwanda.
I was just a 12 year old kid when Bosnian war started and of all UN "peacekeepers" we pretty much only respected the Danes because they didn't take shit from anyone especially the Serbs who would test them bunch of times. I don't think Danes ever waited for approval to fire back like others.
@@Aboleo80 Danger is that when you fire back , then you might be looked like a part of conflict. Which is opposite what UN peacekeepers in modern days represent. Depends UN mandate in area or conflict.
@Carsten René Kjærulff a lot of those who lived there are suffering from PTSD, i got cancer from depleted uranium used in NATO bombs. But today that is under control in my case. Anyhow, i don't know what to think about the UN mission, it did helped in some cases for sure. IMHO Yugoslav Army was ruined and since it has mixed nationalities, that have made the things more complicated after the fast independence of a some republics. Problem was the speed of braking up as well. The UK that was getting out form the EU did that process in 3+ years, and it was not nearly connected with the EU as an ex YU republics were among them. I know that nowadays Yugoslavia ain't popular, but i miss that country.
I served in Bosnia with the. NATO security forces (SFOR) immediately after 9-11 (on literally the first commercial airliner to fly afterward). Even years after the war, there were still signs of it everywhere. The one that haunted me most was a depopulated village on one of our patrol routes. The buildings were mostly in good shape, but unoccupied, and the town looked untouched. Except for the elementary school. The wall of the school was lined with bullet holes, head height for a child, with a handful of other holes in a line head height for an adult. There was no record of what exactly happened there, and no investigation, because there was no one left to ask questions. The whole village, totally empty.
Justice can't be pursued if there is no one left to seek retribution. I understand, for me, it was trying to pull body parts out of a cave near Modrac Lake and line them up and see who and how many had been shredded by grenades in there. Too many, but we never did get a good count. I still have nightmares of the smell, and of pulling the ruined heads of children out of the piles of bodies.
Amazing. How does one lose their humanity so much the can kill innocent children without hesitation?? Very sad. It's as if all this hate just came out of nowhere. Even with past tensions, what happened seems so extreme. I hope the region can find a lasting peace.
@@YourCapyBruv_do_u_rmbr_3DpipesPeople usually only hear about Srebrenica (and rightfully so, it was a tragedy that should never be forgotten), but unfortunately there were many “smaller” tragedies like the one mentioned here and all sides did them In those days, monsters were everywhere
@@YourCapyBruv_do_u_rmbr_3Dpipes the problem is numerous wars never far enough. It was always after 20-30 yrs so people remembered. The 90s one was 45yrs after ww2 and serbs held lot of grudges against croats for NDH (BIH was inside NDH then). But yeah, it was a shitshow all around for everyone.
Thank you for covering this. I used to work with a bunch of Croats and Bosnians. I will say, they are the most appreciative people I've ever met of America. One Croat is the toughest woman, toughest person period, I have ever seen. She has incredible, yet sad stories of the river flowing red with blood, grenade blowing up parts of buildings they were in. She's still a great friend of mine, like a second mother.
Excellent job with this video. Covered everything at the right pace, and I think I speak for a lot of your audience when I say that we love longer videos like this(40+minutes)
I mean this feels like the bare minimum to cover it satisfactory I feel.. Long wanted to understand this whole thing as the Kosovo wars is the first I remember happening and trying to understand it all years later without any real understanding of the history, who has done what to who(m?) etc is certainly not easy, thanks Simon and writer(not finished watching yet lol) for aiding in that!
I literally spend 9 hours a day listening to RUclips and watching for another 3ish. Even with all his channels It still doesn't cover my 9 hour work day.
Love Warographics. Watched a 6-7 hour documentary on this whole timeline. There was alot of horrible happenings throughout by all sides. You managing to summarize this turbulent time with a 45min video is amazing to me. You hit ALL the main points and I came away understanding the big issues of these wars. Great job, channel, video. Keep up the great work.
I joined the British army in 2006 and I had an instructor who was a Commando Engineer and was active in Bosnia and Kosovo. A few years later he went back with the UN to help excavate the mass graves. He had his own combat PTSD as so many do but I will never forget the look in his eyes when he started to talk about the things civilians and conscripted teenage boys went through. The human race is generally f’dup but this is a particularly sour episode. I did my ten years and I’m a paramedic now. Happy to pick up drunks and not deal with war wounds anymore.
As far as I can say, the only thing he got wrong was North Macedonia and Montenegro having since joined the EU, when in fact they're not even close. Only Slovenia and Croatia made it in, the two richest and most stable countries even within Yugoslavia, who had that goal from the get go, along with their Independence.
I've been to Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, and Kosovo and found nothing but wonderful people just trying to live decent lives. My heart breaks for the trauma and devastation the region experienced and I hope beyond anything that the past doesn't repeat itself again.
After the Dayton Peace Accord, when 1st Armored Division crossed the Sava river it was somewhat peaceful for a few years. We disarmed alot of the militias and enforced the Zone of Seperation. Also it was the first time Americans and the Russians worked together in the same area doing peacekeeping operations. The Russians traveled to Ft Riley Kansas to train for the upcoming peacekeeping mission the late summer early fall in 1995. It was the first time Russian troops ever trained on American soil. I know I was there. I also deployed twice to Bosnia Dec of 95 IFOR till Dec of 1996, and 1997-1998 SFOR.
And Russian nationalists hated that period as they realized the West didn't care or consult them on bombing Serbia. What you write about is literal humiliation for Russian nationalists like Putin and the official Russian narrative. They'd rather be feared than to be ignored. They believe in their greatness and a zone of influence. America/NATO crapped on that idea and showed them how irrelevant they were.
@@zeitgeistx5239 THE BEST IS THAT RUSSIA HIT AMERICA AND U.K. WITH NUCLEAR BOMB AND THAT THEY RETURN.AND ON GERMANY.THAT WILL BE GOOD FOR WORLD AND NORTH KOREA THAT THIS SHIT VANISH
@@zeitgeistx5239 And American nationalists instead of facilitating cooperation they pushed their sphere of influence and antagonised Russians Instead of working together
My dad was actually a UN peacekeeper in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the mid-late 90s. He told me stories of how horrible it was to see so much ancient culture and architecture covered with bullet holes, and how pissed he was when the Pink Floyd concert in Berlin he had tickets to go to on leave got cancelled. He went to Bucharest and had the best beef stroganoff of his life instead.
No this is not good video. He failed to mention that serbian plan is a “project” of genocide. It’s their mentality the cetnik mentality. The project is still in force but now its done politically. They are not going to give up until they unite all serbs in one country. Cetnistvo is their ideology they don’t care about economy, good relations or prosperity. They only care about “Srbovanje” project of ethnic division and future genocide. Also some people say that current republic of srbska has been agreed to or planned in advanced the west wanted it. They don’t want one bosnia. Now we are divided. Tomorrow the rs can declare independence and what are we gonna do? Only solution in my opinion is if war erupts we need to hit hard and destroy rs.
The long, complicated and bloody history of this region is heartbreaking. Unfortunately, that bloody history isn't easily forgotten by the people. I hoped that the breakup of Yugoslavia would be the end, but I have a depressing feeling that we haven't seen the end of the region's bloodshed. Love the longer videos! Very thorough and fascinating video. Great job Simon and team! 😊 👏💯
That's mostly because the breakup of Yugoslavia was also a botched job. Dayton Agreement basically destroyed real independence for Bosnia & Herzegovina and turned it into a barely-governable, decentralized mess. 1.) They don't have a President ot a Prime Minister, they have a NATO-appointed High Representative with US-appointed deputies, which has been compared to be akin to viceroyalty (similiar to how a Ban of Croatia was a viceroy of it during Austro-Hungarian times). 2.) Because of the Dayton Agreement, Bosnia is actually three seperate political entities coexisting together; Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina (the official country), Republika Srpska (autonomous Serbian minority government that is set in Banja Luka and unofficially controls almost half the country) and District of Brčko (self-governing region with an American supervisor). Basically, a deal that tried to please everyone but pleases noone, and originally, the Vance ptogram was also supposed to create another autonomous entity governed by Bosnian Croats, which would split the country into 4 self-governing districts. The principal problem is that the head of Republika Srpska, Dodik, is a staunch Serbian irredentist who advocates for Republika Srpska's total secession from Bosnia and admission into Serbia proper, and has been vocally active since the start of Russo-Ukranian War, re-igniting the feud of the 90s. So, yes, another civil war is technically possible.
@@v.s7114 Not technicaly possible, baisacly unavoidable A civil war is on its way, probably sooner than anyone thinks And as a Serb from Banja Luka, im pretty sure i know how that shit is gonna look...
The Balkans have never been a stable place - not in archaic, medieval or modern times - and the scars from the 20th century will continue to show well into the 21st
@@Redmenace96 i can confirm it that Croats still have grudge against every neighboring state. Slovenia - because of border deputes and ownership of nuclear power plant Krško (they tryed to back deal and get it threw European court, but do to their relations with Russia, American taped their governments phone calls and they lost the case do to that leak). Hungary - exploitation during Habsburg monarchy (forced implementation of Hungarian language and ban of any Croatian national institution, paying taxes that were mostly spent in Budapest, ordeal with Rijeka, then Fiume and Khuen Hedervary) and today with mayor Croatian oil company INA. Serbia - basically everything that happen between us from 1914 till 1995. Bosnia - this one is the most complicated do to how entire thing in Bosnia has not started in 1991, this problems Bosnia are much more older then you think. Montenegro - we only hate them because of their union and active corporation with Serbia during Homeland war and nothing else. Italy - Since Venetian republic took over eastern Adriatic sea for 400 years and Italy's current and after WW1 claims for their ownership.
I’ve just spent 5 days on holiday in Bosnia… these are the kindest and most welcoming people I’ve ever met… I like to think of it as the “Cambodia of Europe” Please make a video telling people about what Bosniaks have been through… specifically Sebrenica
My first deployment was with the UNPROFOR from January to August 1994. Having been in Iraq and Afghanistan, the experiences in Bosnia are the ones that haunt me to this day.
A great video. I still remember military actions during the 10-day war in my town. One guy even gave an AK-47 into my hands so I could hold it and play with it, others showed me their weapons. I was a 7-year old kid. I didn't know what was going on until the air raid sirens went off, we ran for shelter and my mum told me what tf is going on. These were my most carefree times. My neighbor got killed by 2 civillian JNA simpathisers (that didn't survive either).
Im curious, what town are you from? My cousin lives in Domžale and i remember when i was on vacation there, you could still see bullet holes on buildings in Trzin at the intersection of the road heading to Brnik.
Im originally from Mexico but I have neighbors who are from Bosnia and lived through the war, one of them was a soldier in the war and I remember one day I went over and talked to him and he told me that no video or book Can truely show how grim and evil the atrocities he had to either see or partake of as a Bosnian soldier in the war, he always told me he wished he nvr lived to see the stuff he saw during that time. Ever since then I’ve been so interested and fascinated about all this balkan and mainly Bosnian history. Ever since I’ve watched this video about the Bosnian war I know a lot more about this fascinating part of the world and the conflicts that happened. Thank you so much, it’s made me a lot more knowledgeable about things of Bosnia when I go over and chat with my neighbor abt what he experienced as a soldier
According to my grandmother (RIP Luca, Christmas 2019), Tito was the glue that held the country together. As his health started to get worse in the early 70s many Yugoslavians, including my grandmother, aunts, mother and grandfather in 1973 (who was kicked out of Germany as "unwelcome" due to his high-profile organized crime dealings and sort of resulted in the rest of my family's migrants, despite being unaffiliated with the crimes and allowed to stay, blacklisted from becoming eligible for german citizenship despite having lived in the country for 49 years and my mother having been married for 18 of them) fled the country for Germany, Switzerland and Austria especially, as everyone knew the powderkeg would explode again without his leadership. For all his faults, he was an exceptionally charismatic statesman liked by almost everyone. Except Stalin.
Seriously, _everybody_ except Stalin seemed to have the 'Eh on his policies, pretty good dude personally' view on Tito. His larger-than-life persona is... pretty fascinating to be honest.
Tito threatened Stalin by saying he will send an Assassin to kill him in a letter after getting fed up with Stalin trying to assassinate him,he had some balls. “I am the leader of one country which has two alphabets, three languages, four religions, five nationalities, six republics, surrounded by seven neighbours, a country in which live eight ethnic minorities”-Tito
I was a refugee at the benining of the war in Croatia. Later I joined the Croatian Army and served for 21 years. Those were some bad times. Thank you Simon.
As an ethnic Macedonian born in Yugoslavia I can say that it was working quite well for a while. My grandfather was a partisan and fought against the Nazis originally for an independent Macedonia but then Yugoslavia. I love all my former Yugoslavian brothers as we are basically all very similar by blood and culture.
I was in my early teens when the county broke up. Now as a Serbian I go to vacation to the beautiful Croatian coast traveling through the beautiful mountains of Bosnia. Meeting awesome people on the way. Every time I think about the beauty and diversity that Yugoslavia used to have. Then I see the mine fields and the bullet holes on houses in Bosnia and Hercegovina and get reminded of how evil and destructive extreme nationalism is.
Also one small detail. Yugoslavia had at least 8 nationalities (not 5) Albanians, Bosnian Muslims (also referred to as Bosniaks), Macedonians, Croats, Hungarians, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Slovenes. Plus an other 20+ ethnic groups which complicated the war even further. For example the Hungarians never felt that this was a war that they have to participate in yet they they where in the JNA as conscripts.
@@arpadjszaboas an Albanian, I am scared that the more uncompromising ethnonationalist Serbs who may see this will start hating you for putting Albanian first, totally oblivious to the fact that alphabetically it fits, although you messed up a little because croats should've come before macedonians, but I won't bemoan it overmuch... Just a little. Also, nationalism can be useful. It's ethnonationalism that's the danger. Civic nationalism is okay, all of Yugoslavia were civic nationalist back then. I greet you, and wish you and yours the best life has to offer komshije
29:51 I had a friend, once, from Croatia. Zagreb. She was a child during the War/s, and was almost ...cleansed. She remembers, though, NATO intervention, largely where she was were many Americans. The intervention directly led to her and her family being spared genocide. She has always had a fondness for Americans and Europeans since, and as an adult is fluent in multiple languages and has become a successful fashion designer. We often do not think of the children caught in war. We often think of the soldiers - but the potential in each child is limitless. She is a living testament to that.
Hitler was "let's completely destroy Serbian national library in Belgrade and erase their entire cultural identity" furious. General Alexander Löhr, who commanded 1941. Nazi bombing of Belgrade and was captured by Yugoslavian partisans at the end of the war, testified during his war crimes trial that Adolf Hitler personally ordered him to bomb National Library in the first run and then proceed to other military targets. When prosecutors asked him why he replied: "because that insitution kept cultural identity of the nation". They used fire bombs and burned the library to the ground destroying almost entire collection of around 354000 titles, 1365 medieval manuscripts, 226 early prints, 6260 magazines, 3770 letters and 1447 maps, drawings and photos. Centuries of Serbian cultural history turned to ashes, only few documents remained just because they were somewhere else at the moment.
“ When the war came, I did bad things, but after the war I thought nothing of doing bad things. I killed people, smuggled people, sold people” Niko Bellic
I've watched a huge catalogue of doccos on the conflict (I'm still struggling to comprehend the brutality of it) and I have to say this is probably the best I've watched. I tend to give Whistler's many, many channels a miss. But, credit where it's due - this is really well crafted: it's not easy making something so complex, so concise
WWI in color is good. That’s the part I fault to wrap my head around is the brutality. Thinking the majority of those fighting were probably 18-24 year olds
Thank you for helping me understand this war. I was young preteens-early teens when this was going on and could never keep up with all the players involved. Couldn’t understand who was the bad guy and why. Didn’t understand why Americans were involved Or why other countries were mad about it. Now being older, it’s still one of the hardest wars to completely understand. But u did a great job helping me.
It's really not that hard to understand. Serbs wanted to have the hegemony over all former Yugoslav republics, got pissed when they couldn't and then sent their army in each of the republics (except Montenegro and Macedonia) to kill off the non-Serb population. Which is why NATO bombed Serbs alone, no one else got NATO on their backs because no one else did genocide.
@@libertas5005 Right... And the Croats didnt establish their Hercog Country withjn Bosnia. Naser oric didnt exist, KLA never killed or smuggled serbian CIVILIANS. What a disgrace to humanity explaining how u explained. Far more complex than what you wrote. Also interesting how the serbs stated revolting after the day that croats stripped the serbs of their minority rights, and their useof language....anyways its far more complex.
@@libertas5005 опять же вы смотрите на ситуацию однобоко, демонизирую одну сторону, боснийские сербы защищали свои дома, в окрестностях среднего подринья было убито более 2000 мирных серьов и сожжено более 158 сербских сел, преступления совершали все, началось из за сараевского убийства на свадьбе.
Really interesting, I was only around 11 years old in the UK when this happened and remember a lot of the news coverage but wasn't aware of the history behind it all.
@@peter58peter more aware than before though, that was his point. I spend a lot of time in Serbia, and recently travelled across all the Balkan states, it taught me a lot about how they look at each other but for all the wars and sadness caused its one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Bosnia's mountains and valleys are breathtaking, Croatia's coastline is stunning, Serbia's countryside along with Tara, Kopaonik is beautiful and Montenegro has a mixture of it all. Im looking forward to seeing more of Slovenia next year. But what I can say to many others is how friendly and welcoming many many people I've met have been. Just because many of us who have watched these videos are from another part of the world doesn't mean we can't learn, for sure we'll never know of the horrors but we can learn. My cousin served as a peacekeeper in Bosnia and I heard many stories from my fiance and her mum about living in Belgrade during the bombings. I can't imagine what thats like but I can learn about it with an open mind.
My username is Slovenian but I’m a Croatian American and was unaware of a lot of this history. I just knew that Croats really didn’t like Serbs. Thank you for the detailed documentary.
You don't have to justify what Croatians did or didn't . The Serb nation is an evil one that belongs to Siberia...nothing to add more after the 20th and 21st century...
The saddest part of this was that there was hatred between various Yugoslav refugee groups here in Australia. People who had escaped these horrors on the other side of the world had to endure hatreds in their new home. Hopefully time will heal!
Same here in Canada. It opened up a whole new underground conflict between different Slavic mafia groups here that were funding the respective sides in the Balkans and starting street wars in Toronto and Montreal.
At the world cup in Qatar last year the Canadian goal want racially abused with signs and taunts all referencing the wars, you also would see that type of fighting among the descendants in my high school.
As a Jugoslav born on the start of the '80s, people are still filled with hatred around here, they were the same 60 years ago but had to be quiet under dictatorship. It never really worked, the whole "brotherhood and friendship" communists advertised - did not work.
I was born in '82 (close to your age), and I never remembered the old country, but growing up in capital city of the former Yug (basically capital of the Balkans :D) I bought that propaganda that during the old Yug there was brotherhood and unity (mostly, with exceptions), and only later in life (in the last 10 years or so), when I started working at public firm with colleagues who were refugees from former Yu republics (>75% of the firm), and from their stories I found out that brotherhood and unity was always the sham, the fiction (mostly, with exceptions), and that there was always mentality of us and them........ well it's never too late for that realization, I guess...
@@gvozdenkuronja7414 its very easy to have brotherhood and unity among different ethnic groups. alot of asian countries have different ethnicities within the same country but yet there is no such thing as hatred among diff ethnic groups, for example china has 56 diff ethnic groups but yet everyone just identifies as chinese. Its politicans after Tito that pursued nationalist agenda specifically slobodan milosevic that ruined yugoslavia
It was good idea distroy by not so good people..i was Serb in 1990 from central Serbia...my school went in summer 1990 to coast line in Orebic..in same hotel was school from Zagreb..we had such great time with them..it was at that time world championship in football ,we watched and cheered together..in evening we would make parties togethet..back then i did not even thing that i am Serb and they are Croats..and all changed in just 1 year..
@@ShengYu1995 it's not that simple...... history prior to break up of YU can't compare to those Asian countries, kingdom of YU entered ww2, communist YU came out of the ww2, and during the war maaany war crimes were committed (just look up for "work camp" Jasenovac, on the territory of newly formed independent state of Croatia (naci ally), where even naci officers were appalled by the condition and murder rate), and all that was put under the rug so that communist YU could start a new leaf, and all was fine and dandy when people could see/feel that their lives were getting better year after year, but then during '80 progress slowed down and finally stopped all together, and that made fertile ground (a lot of spilled blood in the past) for all sorts of nationalistic ideas. And then finally outside forces (EU, US) jump on opportunity to dismantle communist YU by not waiting a single moment to recognize independent republics (where in power in all the republics came nationalistic options)... So it's not s.milosevic that ruined YU, he doesn't even bear the greatest responsibility for break up (just convenient scapegoat for the west, reason you remembered only his name), rather brake up of YU was result of complex socio-economic and historic point of time with powerful bad actors from outside whose interests were to make many defragmented countries instead of one significant (and truly independent) country...
I use to work with a man from Albania. The one of the best people I have ever known, one day he talked to me about the shit he saw during the wars. The look in his eyes was the same i had seen in my Uncle when he talked about his time in Vietnam.
@@frankieseward8667 They had their war it just wasn't against Serbia. They had ethnic violence between Macedonians and Albanians. It wasn't as bad as Bosnian or Croatian wars but it was worse then war in Slovenia.
@@TheWedabest unfortunately, the combined failure of North Macedonia's government to improve the country's economy and stability and Bulgaria's frankly baffling claims to the non-existence of the Macedonian identity along with their denial of their crimes done during their WW2 occupation of the region has put a stop to any improvement and entry to the EU.
This is one of those weird moments where I realize that some of my first memories of the world outside my home were hearing reports of NATO actions in Bosnia.
Very good video. There are maybe 2 or 3 inaccuracies but all in all a very well researched potrayal of the war. And I really liked that you understood very well to potray the lead up from WW1, because a lot of people who have a go at the subject seem to forget the complexity of the historical lead up. I would say its the best potrayal of the wars in a youtube format.
i was 9 when it started, for us kids it seemed like it came overnight, but looking back signs were all over for at least 3 to 4 years even before war. things started to stir after tito died.. i was 11 when granate hit the road while we were at the middle of it crossing it to get to shelter, today i am handicaped for life, suffering severe ptsd, but still dont need meds, i was lucky i only got handicapped and mentaly screwed up coz of stress and trauma, but i got friends from croatia and bosnia who i met in mid 20ties in a support group for yyoung and child survivors. some of my friends went thru real hell for couple of years, some were in filtriation camps, wich basicaly were c camps. some are so damaged that still 30 years later they cant be intimate with anyone, some had to be removed from family coz part of torture and humiliation was forcing family members to do sexual things to each others, some were raped systematicaly , beaten, forced to hold hand granades in hands.. wars are product of sick disturbed minds followed by even more disturbed people, silent and normal majority gets caught in between. wars are product of toxic masculinty, false patriotism and labeling of people... wars are part of our lives since first cave man exit his cave took a bat and said me your leader follow me... we are stupid spiecie and we dont deserve to be on this planet and we prove it over and over again. 21st century, 2022 and here we go again, ukraine today, yesterday syria, day before iraq, libya, afghanistan, yugoslavia, ww2, ww1, civil war here and here.. same sick evil circle for centuries. and will continue to dance it for next million years, coz we are stupid and one day we will destroy ourselves if we dont break a circle.. we need to get free of labels, we all are humans, all these labels we put ar ehere to divide us, from race, gender, religion, nationality, sexual orientation this and that, borders are imagninary lines on maps made by us, they change every 6 to 10 decades when ever some old far*** at the end of his life decides he wants to be part of history, saviour, refuse to realise he is old, his time has gone, will be dead in next 15 to 20 years max and screws lived for everyone else who still needs to be here for next 60+ years coz they had a fckn god complex, napoleon complex... coz it is easier to hate. to destroy instead to love and build and progress....
I remember ending up talking to someone from that area online in some of the early days of the internet and apologizing for us sending troops there and bombing up their country. Luckily for her, she was in a part that wasn't getting hit with that stuff. I think that was the first time I started to realize that there were regular ass people stuck on either side of a war, which is one good reason why war is ridiculous and people should settle their international differences in more mature ways.
@@peter58peter most times pushed because propaganda. didnt you just heard Zelensky saying "all those deaths are on NATOs account"? thats pushing.. to ww3. nice guy uh? Im against the invasion, but for me he can take that country I dont care, bettter than ww3. the ukrainians who get used to new administration (but fake news will say that a holocaust wll happen... thats pushing again but most times the mass can only be pushed if them want) the elites work well to make ppl think they have no choice. MOST of the times it is a choice, some others there isnt a choice
The summary of the invasion of Yugoslavia is so heart breaking every time I hear it. The idea of a people (especially a people as diverse as Yugoslavia's) coming together to reverse an evil committed by its leadership (a pragmatic evil committed with the intent to avoid the country being crushed as it so thoroughly was just weeks later, granted) is such an inspiring concept, but had such immediately disastrous consequences.
Even more heart breaking is knowing that Serbs, after reclaiming the balkans in WW1, could have easily made a Serbian state, just a bit smaller then the Yugoslavia. Therefore, all of the wars shown here would probably be avoided. Such a pity.
@@Aleksa208 Given how Treaty of Versailles border setting went overall, I'm not sure that a collection of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, etc would have been a possibility. Splitting the region up by national identities would have been a much better approach, but that basically rules out the Treaty of Versailles committee from making that decision by default. The Czechs and Slovaks petitioned for a Czechia and Slovakia to the committee and they got clumped together into Czechoslovakia because the Committee figured they were close enough and that Czechia and Slovakia separately wouldn't be large enough to be stable countries separately, whereas Czechoslovakia would be. Well...they're holding together pretty okay now, and I think pretty much the only thing threat that would make that a problem would be some country being pissed off about being saddled with crippling war reparations, losing chunks of the home country, having their overseas empire confiscated, and oh wait that country nommed Czechoslovakia and the countries that made them merge didn't even have the decency to do more than politely ask them to not do the same to anyone else. Meanwhile, look at the mess in the old Ottoman Empire. A huge chunk of the instability throughout that region comes from the fact that the Versailles treaty basically just drew boxes and said "and this parcel of land goes to Britain's horrible mismanagement committee and this parcel of land goes to France's horrible mismanagement committee and we don't know what any of their beliefs or political rivalries with their neighbours are or where they might draw the borders themselves (Shut up Lawrence, nobody asked the guy who's actually talked to people from the region)" Seriously, if you look at the Treaty of Versailles there are so very many things that were decided there that we've been reaping the fallout from for the past century. It's not the only source of conflict (indeed, a good chunk of it was just inflaming existing tensions)...but so much of the horror of last century of history either started from the Treaty of Versailles or was a smouldering fire that the Treaty poured a gas station worth of gasoline on. But in the alternate reality where the people writing that treaty were actually making reasonable decisions, it's entirely possible one of those decisions would have been the establishment of a variety of independent Balkan states like we see today. And if that happened, it's *possible* that local Nazi sympathizers and nationalist barbarians didn't fuck it all up throughout WWII. Or at the very least that the fallout from that would have been handled slowly over the course of 50 odd years rather than being kept bottled up by Tito until he died without having found a way to defuse the situation.
in 1990s Serbs living in Croatia and Bosnia (once Nazi puppet NDH) were genuinely afraid they were facing another genocide. as you said - everyone had a family member killed by the Ustaše. current policy of Croatian president Tudjman and Bosnian Izetbegovic were such that they only justified those fears. Serbs were being sacked from their jobs, thrown out of state rented apartments every 'working man' was entitled to in socialism, attacked on the streets and at homes and even killed at weddings. Tudjman openly spoke about ethnicly cleansing the Serbs. thanks to RUclips it's all there. the fact that Milosevic abused those people for his own unholy goals should not blind us to the real causes of Serbian 'rebellion' in Bosnia and Croatia. the Serbs did not rebel against Croatian and Bosnian secession, but out of fear what was to come after that. many of them fled to Serbia or indeed abroad even before war broke out. if Bosnian and Croatian leadership treated 'their' Serbs properly maybe the war would've been averted.
the bosnian war was a bloody and really dangerous one. My mother actually fled bosnia in 1992 and met my father here in germany. Beggining in 1999 we yearly visited bosnia because her family still lived there. (ofc, me being 2 years old at that time ment i didnt really see anything there) But as i grew older it was really hard to miss that almost everywhere in bosnia you saw bullet holes, destroyed buildings and metal scrap laying around. It was especially bad in sarajevo with buildings still having bullet holes well into 2010-2015 still visible. After i questioned what happened here i got a quick answer of "something bad, thats why i came to germany" but to what extent that was is horrifying to find out. Goodspeed to you all, it is a scary world out there.
In 1999 NATO peace keepers were trying to secure areas of Kosovo when the Russians went in and secured parts of Kosovo. At one point the Russians controlled an airport which NATO had intended to control (Russia has sent in troops the day before NATO was set to go in to purposely take it before NATO), the Russians were set to fly in more soldiers to the airport which angered US General Wesley Clark who orders British troops to go in and block the runways, however the UK commander refused to give the order telling Clark he would not start World War III over the airport. Also side note, the leader of the reconnaissance group set to take part in some of his was Captain James Blunt, the singer who had a hit with “You're Beautiful” in the mid 2000’s
@@oscarshen6855 One off many times Russia betrayed Serbia ..Also reason for Serbian military widrowing from Kosovo was Russian telling who will they be guarantee off Serbian sovereign there
Tito was glue and fire extinguisher holding the Yugoslavia together. I was the last generation of Tito's Pioneers 4 years of war constant shelling, the fear..... as child o still remember after 4 years when electricity first arrived, first chocolate in years. And seeing things from Ukraine brings memories that never should existed.
Im from Vukovar and actally live on the "tank graveyard" (24:50)road. Sity once had a population of 45k now its more like 22k villiages around the city had tousands of people now its more like hunderds. War sucks and in places of great battles like vukovar it lingers for decades maybe more.....we'l see
As seen in one clip, WW2 American 57mm anti tank guns were used in the conflict. Under the Dayton agreement they were to be destroyed. Due to some kind of error two were shipped to the UK along with some artillery pieces. One sits in my front garden…
I watched SKy news report off UK training off Ukranian soldiers in UK ..and every single soldier carried Zastava AKs from my town ..how that end up there
There is a story of an English/Scott/Irish peace keeping commando group who was serving as observers for the UN on the boarder of Bosnia. The village they were watching got attacked. They were ordered to leave but could not leave knowing everyone in the village would die. They stayed fighting off the troops who wanted to enter the village. Twelve guys held off hundreds until they were releaved.
Episodes about this kind of stuff would be cool too! But probably a lot would turn out to be blown out of proportion. There would need to be a warning of burst bubbles when the story turns out far from the truth :P Or make it a two parter, first part the story's that are more or less true or even more impressive and the second part the ones that turn out to be bull/propaganda. I wonder if it would even be doable to make an episode like that per conflict.
An truly excellent video on a uniquely complicated topic. Definitely the clearest one I’ve seen on the topic. Same with the video on Transnistria. I love that this channel focuses more on history and politics rather than military maneuvers of the world’s conflicts. Very glad to see the addition of more maps which was sorely lacking in the Transnistria War video. But they do need to be labeled and if color coded, a color key is necessary.
What was complicated? Maybe, for west, to keep on inventing lies which. kind of, for stupid, would make sense. he forgot to mention that all o those 'jugoslavian criminals' were paid, ordered and pushed to do what they did, by west. So: what's 'excelent' in there?
Small note, the thumbnail pic was taken from the italian border. There were literal tank battles between yougoslavians and slovenians a few meters from italy. The italian army was deployed and had order to shoot back at any hostile action against italy.
I like this channel for the broad coverage of the events, and then Into the Shadows for detailed retelling of specific parts, like just the Serb genocide of Bosnians
My family was stationed in Wurzburg in the 90s and my dad was deployed to Kosovo. I was only 6 at the time and just know dad had to go away for a while to go help people and would probably be back by Christmas. Now that I'm older I'm seeking out as much info as possible to understand what was really going on in the world when I was a kid. Simon's video's are very helpful.
I went to school with a girl whose family was from Serbia. I don't know how the conversation started but one day I overheard her mum and mine talking about the war...apparently her mum had been pregnant with her when she had to leave Serbia with her older children and her sister in law. Fourteen year old me had no idea this war had even happened, let alone that someone I knew was born in it.
My best friend, who also did a tour in Iraq, said the "Peacekeeping" mission in the Balkans was the worst thing he had to do during his military career. He said he still has nightmares of it. I luckily had gotten out of the Army a few years before it happened.
Near Srebrenica there was a town of Žepa. It was another Bosnian anclave/UN safe zone in territory dominated by ethnic Serbs. It had 79 Ukrainian UN troops stationed there with goal of protecting civilians. Serbs threatened to kill troops and urged them to leave. When it didn't work, they also shelled the town with mortars. Troops fortified their positions but they were left unsupported by UN or NATO. Even their APCs eventually ran out of fuel. Despite threats, mortar strikes and clear possibility of attack, garrison was ready to fight and didn't not budge. Local folk liked the troops seeing them as protectors and being more "down to earth" than other UN troops. Local folk would even occasionally feed soldiers. There were some refugees who just escaped Srebrenica and told the news of what happened there. Unit's medic would treat injuries of civilians after shelling. It goes without saying that troops also liked locals. For the context, most of those troops used to serve in a Soviet Army during the invasion of Afghanistan. There they were fighting Muslims, here they were determined to protect them. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though. Bosnian units fighting Serbs in the area were displeased (to put it mildly) that Ukrainians would not join them in a fight and would not share the ammunition. UN troops were not meant to do so, therefore they held their ground for months without resupply, relieve or rotation. Eventually the evacuation of civilians was negotiated. There were two UN troops in each bus. One Ukrainian and one French. Eventually this way UN managed to save over 9000 people. In the aftermath troops described that serbs were burning houses of former residents and mosques. This a proud, albeit forgotten footnote in history of Ukrainian military. Managing to protect civilians after the other UN unit failed to do so
This is one of the bright spots in Ukrainian role in the Balkan conflict as, I have to unfortunately claim, Ukraine (just like Russia) actually did support Serbs and the genocide they committed against their neighbors.
@@ShejtanVrbaski officially, as a state, Ukraine and it's government sent troops only as part of UN peacekeeping force. However, your comment is true, some nationalists came there on their own volition and were helping Serbs along with russians. Today this misguided effort is frowned upon by Ukrainians who are aware of it (nationalists or not). Still, it should be remembered in order to avoid making such idiotic mistakes in the future. All I can say about it is that we are sorry that some people chose the wrong side and, quite possibily, contributed to serb atrocities.
Horrific; I remember the wars so well growing up as a teenager. It is pretty much believed and understood that modern fanatic religious warfare was not honed in Afghanistan, but instead Bosnia-Herzegovina and later Chechnya.
I absolutely LOVE your videos on multiple channels, Simon! One quick note: the ethnicities peopling the Balkans during the time of the Romans you spoke of were not Slavic. Rather, the Slavs migrated into the Balkans when the (western) Roman Empire fell. Before them, the Balkans were populated by Greeks, Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, Dacians and others.
Lived thru all of it. It was a noble idea . But it costed us 200.000+ dead. What happened between us , slavic brothers and sisters is outrageous , most brutal and totaly sensless. Never again war
One of the most known but least understood wars, in my opinion. Anyone, typically, that was alive during the 90s is familiar with it. However, talk to anyone about it and almost no one unrolls a real concise explanation.
We were never meant to be together in the first place. But I find it interesting how some people say, oh we were great neighbors for decades, yeah maybe. Because no one was threatened before for their land being taken. This war turned ugly on everyone, because everyone wanted their piece of cake. Some people still didn’t get their piece but it is what it is. It is that war that showed true faces of what we really feel for each other.
I visited Yogoslavia in October of 1986. I was 15 years old. My dad was a Sergeant Major in the Army stationed in Wurzberg Germany. My mom worked as a GS13 Secretary for a Two Star General. They saw a cheap deal on a four day trip to a resort on the sea for four people. Well, dad, mom, me and a girl that worked in my moms office named Ruby. My mom had forgotten I was a raging hormone teen boy. Ruby was a head start advanced student in school who graduated 12 grade when she was 15 and with parental signature joined the Army at 16 years old. Now she was 17 same as me. My mom forgot this because Ruby was a Private First Class in the Army and seemed mature. Well things worked out so Ruby and I had to share a room that had one bed and a roll in folding bed. The activities for the trip involved daily trips to the Casino. Ummmm...Ruby and I could not go to that. You had to be 18 to go and 20 to gamble. So my parents went every day. Day one. Dad and mom get on the casino bus at 10:30am and will not be back till 6pm. Ruby and I have $80 US left with us and tickets to get lunch at the hotel. The two of us asked the hotel if we could use the tickets to get a bag lunch. The kitchen steps it up and gives us a wicker back pack designed for picnics with plates, wine glasses, utensils, napkins, two big big blankets, tiny pillows, fruit, sandwiches, cheese, crackers and......a big bottle of wine. YES! I put on the lunch back pack she grabbed hers along with our jackets and folding umbrellas incase. It was very chilly in Oct right on the coast. We walked up a cobblestone village road to the highest point by a church laughing, giggling, tickling and poking each other. We made fun of a nasty 20ish year old lady who called us scum Nazis. We got to the top. Put down a blanket and ate lunch digging into the wine right away. At the half bottle point Ruby kissed me. One thing lead to another and before long the second blanket was out. We were out of our cloths and I lost my virginity along with Ruby. We finished the wine after getting dressed and putting thing away. Hiked back down just in time to have sobered up, meet my parents for dinner and off to the rooms. My parents went to bed right away being tired. Ruby and I watched some movies we knew but they were in a slavic language. Then we had sex till falling asleep. The next morning my dad knocked on the door. I had to jump up put pants & shirt on, mess up the foldable bed a bit and answer the door while Ruby put on a T shirt and stayed under the cover. He told us to come down for breakfast. We did and made up a story about what we did the day and night before. Off went the Casino bus and off we went with picnic lunch, wine to the wooded trails and a day of learning each others physical likes. Repeat day three and four. Then on the bus home Monday night my dad notices how close Ruby and I act in our seats 5 rows behind him. How she falls asleep with her head on my shoulder but kisses me on the lips before sleeping. It dawns on him what they just did leaving a 15 year old boy, 16 year old girl unattended all day for four days in a country where we could drink wine or Kinderbeer at 15 and putting us in the same hotel room. From then on for two years I would get out of high school at 4pm meet Ruby after her work at 5pm and we dated. She was in the Army making like $700 a month in the 80s. I was a hustler and made around $200 US a week and 300 to 500DM a week so we did a lot invluding lying to my mom and dad about me at a friends house while Ruby and I would be in Berlin, Stuttgart, Manhiam, Bohn and even 3 day trips to Paris. That's my Yugoslavia.
A huge thank you to Simon and company, as a kid growing up through all of this turmoil it was very hard to understand a lot of what was going on, this video is very succinct and covers a lot of the intricacies of such a terrible period. My understanding of this time is now much greater thank you.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, many of the press have described the war as the greatest battle since World War2. I guess 20 years is a long time for some people.
It is. Maybe the death toll didn't catch up yet but this is a war of two huge states with organized armies. Yugoslav wars were mostly fought without official army and entire Yugoslavia was smaller then Ukraine and half of it's population.
@@draganmarkovic491 Economy didn´t really take part, sure some people made money like any other war and taking into consideration that wounds are still open, its hard to say it had alot of historical impact.
@@telmomoreira7616 I meant economy, as how worsening economical situation impacted on rise of national tensions and start of the war. And with history, I meant how historical events lead up to the war. But also it did have major historical impact on the region, Europe and on the World. For the region it created 6/7 "new" countries, created multiple problems and destabilized it for decades to come. In European context it was first armed conflict since ww2, it announced bigger involvement of Germany in the region and in Europe and it created a destabilized region in Europe. As for World historical impact, it was first military intervention of NATO. It also created some precedents, like NATO intervention without UN security council approval or the "right of self determination" it reignited US/NATO Russian rivalry, There probably are some other historically significant events, these were just from the top of my head.
Many thanks Simon for making this video I remember the Yugoslav wars of the nineties, I read “The Death of Yugoslavia” by Alan Little, the BBC correspondent who covered the conflict but I couldn’t work out what had gone on, why and by who This has given me the timeline and a framework to try and make sense of what was a seriously nasty, messy and brutal civil war
People in the Balkans have been professionally killing each other ever since independence. Left wing conspiracy nuts try to blame the USA for the Yugoslav wars some how
@@cannibalbunnygirl It's not that complex. For example: you know how Moscow takes majority of tax and rest of Russia doesn't even have toilet plumbing in 2022? That's how it was with Serbs and Belgrade. They wanted the Great Serbia and all the resources. Croats and Slovenes did not want to be a part of Great Serbia. Identical to Ukraine not wanting to be under thumb of Russia today.
@@idokwatcher2062 If so, then how is possible that after 30 years those 2 countries are one of the least developed in the EU and Croatia in on the last place in the EU? Because if it would be the truth what you say then those 2 countries would have min 3 times more powerful economy and industry (if the rest of Yu abused then and that Serbia). When i checked now the economy and production of Croatia it is a lot worse then it was in 80's and Slovenia is so so but they don' have any new significant infrastructure projects except the mid size were the main donations came from the EU founds. That is why the UK left out and obviously Italy and some others are seeking to get out of EU, because they had enough of giving $$$ to countries like those 2 are.
I was very very young when this was happening and my mom had been in the Canadian reserves before I was born, so she has some friends that were sent there as UN peacekeepers during this war. The history of how Yugoslavia became a country and how it split into different countries is very difficult and complicated and I wouldn’t have wanted to be a citizen there for almost their entire history, it seems like peace was rare and fragile.
At time 36:50 the bombing of the Chinese embassy wasn't accidental, the Chinese had acquired significant amounts of the wreckage of a downed US F-117 Nighthawk Stealth aircraft, the pieces were being hidden in the basement of the embassy, to prevent this technology being studied by the Chinese the US ordered an air strike levelling the building.
@@serbianwarrior385 I didn’t. All of this is new information for me. Thanks to you. I wonder what implications this had in the development of China’s J-20.
im slovenian and i have been to bosnia multiple times, i also have a lot of bosnian friends becouse my hometown has a big muslim bosnian population, and after i saw the many buildings destroyed or that still have bullet holes on them in bosnia, and the cemetary in sreberenica of all the genocide victims they found so far, or heard stories from the war from 2 security guards of the srebrenica memorial museum, that both lost relatives in the srebrenica genocide, im extremly thankful that my county was able to avoid a full invasion and that a genocide never happened to us
The Balkans, like Afghanistan, is, for some strange reason, one of those places that is always placed at the center of global politics and disputes between large powers. Yet, it is also seems to be unconquerable. Always seeking independence
I really liked how well the background was set up for this video, very well done. Going into the roots of this problem with the supression of national and sweeping the tentions under a rug of brotherhood and unity is something I hear to little of when it comes to discourse on this topic. I would however add that there were horrific war crimes done by both kosovo albanians and bosnian muslims alike which I feel was understated by this video.
As always you have supplied unknown facts. Lived in Denver most of my life and none of the local or state history courses mention Peter II living here.
What most people seem to forget is that Serbia, like any other country in the world, has ordinary, normal, non-ultranationalist civilians living in it. People who were by chance born there and are simply trying to live their lives the best they can, people who suffered due to the decisions of politicians they did not vote for. Calling all Serbs evil is like calling all Croats fascists, all Muslims terrorists, all Germans nazis, etc you get the idea.
@@gloopdogg4861 Telling me to speak in my own name, then saying 'Serbs will fight anybody' is contradictory. Didn't you just do the same? Besides, defending one's home, nation, people, there is nothing wrong with this, and with this I agree. Propagating violence between neighbouring peoples because of the actions of a handful fascist or ultranationalist paramilitaries and corrupt politicians is wrong. Your stance seems to imply that every single Croat, Bosnian, Albanian, etc. down to the last child is a knife-wielding maniac jumping at opportunities to slaughter Serbs. I know people of all Balkan nations, and I've yet to meet one that propagates any sort of hatred toward Serbs. Most are just regular people, just like most of us. Every nation has extremists, that doesn't mean that every single person of that nation is evil. So, yes, I am advocating for peace between the common folk, because there is no sense in hating entire nations due to the actions of a handful of extremists on all sides. Not all Croats are Ustase. Not all Bosnians and Albanians are Muslim extremists. It is those same 'empires' that are instigating us to fight amongst each other, because it suits them to have us divided so that they may manipulate us. Besides, it's very easy being brave behind a keyboard. From what I can see, the most staunch 'patriots' in our country are now those who have never fired a single bullet in its defense, nor would have the guts to do so.
That is the narative, when you tell about crimes from less liked country you flag the whole nation and say SERBS KILLED INOCENT MUSLIMS & CROATS, but if you need to report about crimes from the other side you say ULTRA NACIONALIST MOVEMENT FROM CROATIA OR BOSNIA KILLED SOME CIVILIANS. Difference is existing in naming both the EXECUTIONER AND THE VICTIM.
@@Anonim_Anonimovic In this world are big problem people like you who level up all wars,thay kill,we kill everybody is same and that is level of you ignorance,so you will look the same Serbs if we was with Hitler and Nazi in WW2,you look same at Nazist and Soviets or im i wrong...Go visit Kosovo and be with Serbs who are sorunded by Albanians,go and see destroyed grave stones,all that heppening right now in 2022,go and see foreign solders who protect Christian Ortodox monanstirs and churches when about 60 % is destroyed by Albanians,after thet go in Belgrade or any Serbian city and ask Albanians if they live good there or Serbs atack them...Go and see,dont be a keyboard peace maker coz no metter how many likes you got they dont mean TRUTH
i get the idea but unfortunately 80 percent of them stand with Milošević and war criminals, that idea i dont get
Serbian people are lovely people, with lovely culture of music, movies and sports. Greetings from a Bosnian-Croat
My uncle was a UN blue helmet who was deployed in the Bosnian war. It wasnt his first deployment but Bosnia was his last. It was a completely traumatic experience. This is the only mission he was sent on that he still refuses to talk about.
the cowardice of those dutch "soldiers".
Onaj tko je poslao vašeg ujaka u Bosnu iz iste je kuhinje tko je zakuhao rat u Korei, Vijetnamu Jugoslaviji , Iraku , Libiji , Siriji , Kongu ,Sudanu ,Ukraina , Palestina cijena je milijunske žrtve I buduća zarista da bi zločinci
gomilali profit monstruozno.
Ah yes lemme guess, they werent using soap
@@MarioWasntHere OK iliketopoop 6651
So, my dear comrades with a 5kg heavy diamond cross on your chest.
What the Dutch officer and the soldiers did was not correct and not right! They were soldiers and you won't believe it: "They followed orders!". The uncle of @turntapeover5749 knows exactly what he did. We cannot and may not judge him because he followed orders. Only God will judge him and the people who were murdered by "JNA" (And in JNA soldiers serving, too. Crazy NOT???). My grandfather was in the same situation as an officer of the Red Army when they attacked Poland on both sides with the Germans in 1939 (pay check came on Jun 1941, as he was in Kiev). He never talked about it and took it to his grave. Was it good to stab a neighbor in the back with a dagger when he is lying on the ground and defending himself against kicks? Guess what: "No!". Soldiers follow orders! And they wear the greatest and heaviest cross that neither shines nor is gilded with diamonds. PS: I am not proud to write this text at all.
As a Muslim born in Serbia while this madness was taking place, I can say that politics are pure evil. Today I have a bunch of friends that are Serbs and I never had had hatred towards anyone. It still baffles me how people who lived together in peace for decades could suddenly want to kill each other off. My hometown could’ve turned into Srebrenica too but luckily it didn’t so we have to find a way to past this. Today Albanians, Bosnians, Serbs and Croats do the dirty work all over Europe often, often working together with no issues. I just hope anything like this never repeats…
Islam is evil
Ordinary normal people don't hate anyone, Yugoslavia was dragged into war and unfortunately political elites manufactured hatred by exploiting the history of Balkans and brainwashed people's minds.. Pozdrav iz Srbije
Where is Islem there is suffering and wars. There never was and never will be a peacefull are in world as long as there is muslums
@@zeik04 Islam is the clfasteat growing religion in the world, soon to be No. 1 in the world. How do you explain that ? There should be wars in Germany and France right now, right ?
because 60% of people are absolute npc's that you can controll like puppets. 20% are good and 20% are evil. i guess in your case 20% of evil guys were running everything and managed to silence the other 20% + influence the 60% of the sheep to do bad things.
Greetings from Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦 very well informed video.
85% of the population that lived through the war suffer from PTSD, often crippling. 60-70% of those born after the war also have PTSD, second hand. The governments are corrupt, barely functional, and play on old nationalism to cover up their own incompetence and reignite ideas of Serb independence. Young people just want to live normal lives so they leave for the West by the hundreds of thousands every year. Every family has someone who lives abroad, someone that died or was handicapped in the war, and someone permanently changed by it.
A lot of crap. This is the cia version. Almost nothing about the infliction from the uk-/us-nazis in the beginning and the continuing conflict.
I was an 8yo kid in Macedonia, and I could say I too had PTSD, even though the war was far from home.
I would watch the news every day and I would listen to my father and his friends discussing specific events. I remember a few quotes vividly:
“They put them in a basement and set them ablaze”
“They were skinning them alive”
“They killed a little girl”
None of these quotes had come from personal experience of any of the people discussing them. It was all things they’d seen on TV and things they’d heard.
I would have nightmares very very frequently. It was mostly bearded chetniks going after me with knives, or being caught in bombardment and gunfire.
I had told myself-next time this happens, just remind yourself that it’s a dream and open your eyes. One night, I did exactly that (or at least I thought I did) and I found myself in a different war scene. It was absolute horror.
I can’t even begin to imagine what you poor souls in Bosnia were going through as you were literally living my nightmares.
🇲🇰❤🇧🇦
Is it correct that Bosnia Herz got stripped of almost all it's coastline by the Croats?
@@reddog5031 Bosnia and Herzegovina had an opportunity to have a larger chunk on land south of Dubrovnik but 1 specific politician chose Neum instead. As a result, Bosnia has only 22 kilometers of coastline that is right splitting Croatia.
@@reddog5031 no. In 17th century, Dubrovnik gave parts of its coast to Ottomans (Bosnia was an Ottoman province) to make a buffer from Venice. Venice held Dalmatian coast before it fell into Habsburgs Monarchy, which then became Croatia, but Neum stayed Bosnian.
Just realized this video was not monetized. Simon, this is exactly the type and length of video I'm most happy to support! What demonetized it this time, just the mere mention of the Nazis?
Loving Warographics, even the Emu War!
It's monetized as I'm watching it, at least I'm getting ads and I think that means it's monetized right?
@@justinjenkins2682 RUclips can put adds on demonitized videos, it just means they get the whole bag from the add.
Simon has simply made so much money, he has moved to philanthropy.😊
@@samwill7259 That’s really shady. “Sorry you can’t make money from this video but we can”… the f*ck.
@@-MarcusAurelius Welcome to the wonderful wide world of RUclips :D
Before I retired, I would occasionally encounter people seeking asylum in America. I don’t remember if they were Bosnian or Serbian, but there were seven men. The look in their eyes reminded me of what my dad called “a thousand yard stare.” They had seen so much death and destruction, probably dealt out some as well. Of all the people I encountered, these seven men were the only ones who scared me. Its been over 20 years and I still remember the look in their eyes.
When I was in Europe, because of the “unrest”, I wasn’t allowed to see what was Yugoslavia at the time. It’s sad that so many people died. I hope all the governments of the respective countries are able to sustain peace. I hope the people prosper and thrive.
One of my coworkers is a croat refugee. She came over when she was 6 or 7. She said that she came right before July 4th. When she and her sister heard the fireworks they ducked towards the bushes because they thought they were being bombed again.
@@wngmvI am Serb from Belgrade, Serbia, all my childhood i was under embargo, sanctions, dictatorship...1999 got bombed every day,78 days straight (ok i lie, it was 78 nights actually, always at night so we cant sleep) ...
It was ok.
I cannot express how grateful I am to my parents for moving us from Yugoslavia to Canada. We have family all over, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia. It was terrifying for them, and there was nothing we could do. Thank you for bringing light to these events so eloquently and completely unbiased.
Very well written and presented.
I know it probably doesn't mean much, but some of the friendliest people I have met were Croats, Serbians and Bosniacs, I don't pick sides, it isn't for me to do. But my stomach loves them all, I was never allowed to leave without being fed until I couldn't eat more. The whole thing with the war in the 90s is very sad to me, knowing the feelings on each side I understand why it happened but I wish it hadn't gone that way.
I'm wondering, what's your family's last name? My mothers' family's had similar situations of sorts, and our people just migrated everywhere in a way, both within Yugoslavia, but also to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the US and Canada. Mother's last name is Sabljo
@@alexander-mauricemillamlae4567 My Family name is Marinkovic. 😊
I have heard some stories from my ex-mother in law who was born in Serbia in 1944. I'm glad Simon brought this little known history (little known in America) to RUclips.
Canadian here. I had a lot of friends in the 90s that were refugees from Yugoslavia, very lovely people. ❤️
Now my daughter is dating a wonderful young man who immigrated here during the war in Yugoslavia. I'm glad your family made it here and that you are happy to be Canadian.
1:00 - Chapter 1 - The creation of Yugoslavia
6:00 - Chapter 2 - Reunited one again
14:00 - Chapter 3 - Cracks in the walls
19:35 - Chapter 4 - Slovenia & croatia
27:05 - Chapter 5 - The bosnian wars
35:00 - Chapter 6 - The republic of kosovo
38:10 - Chapter 7 - Aftermath of civil war
You’re the real hero of Yugoslavia sir.
32:56 Srebrenica Genocide
@@ismar9547 noz zica
@@ismar9547 *massacre
@@SrbijaSrbima1312 Da bog da ti krepala sva porodica
I was born there and lived through those horrific events. To this day it's not easy to watch and remember. Left a huge dark hole in my heart. Incredible sadness impossible to explain.
Thank you so much for excellent research and video.
I wasn't born there but it's affected me for nearly 30 years
The area of former Yugoslavia has so much diversity and is such a beautiful place with generous, welcoming people. It has been the political chessboard for great powers since forever, and that has left the area scarred, but, interestingly, whenever ex-Yu people meet somewhere other than the Balkans, they can instantly recognize each other and get talking more easily than with anyone else. It sounds like a highly disfunctional family - cannot live together without conflict and bloodshed, but remain more interested in each other's business than in anybody else's outside the family.
Don't give me the, "Great Powers" argument. The People of Yugoslavia, killed the other People of Yugoslavia. The so-called Great Powers step in to stop that sort of thing.
Very well said and good analogy
It has been a political chessboard for great powers since forever. That being said let’s not throw blame on these great powers and act like they are the ones that committed the crimes. I think that’s the biggest problem with the mentality with people in that region is the fact that all of our problems are somebody else’s fault and that we would have lived in love and and everybody got along well. When the fact is that we literally started killing, raping and ethnically cleansing overnight. I feel like if we started taking some ownership and stopped acting like victims we would be way better off than we currently are! This is just the humble opinion of a war baby born in Bosnian War….
And you can be sure the US MIC were somewhere in the mix.
Yes and no...coming from Croatia we in most cases don't care or look across the border to the east....not so much about hate or even anything bad... simply nothing interesting there. At least that's how i see it...there are minor extreme opinions as well due to war but new generations do not care anymore since we see it very tiring. If i meet Serbs outside of Croatia i don't have problems communicating with them if they are normal but...
One of the saddest echoes of the Yugoslav conflict is the material left behind and still in use. Landmines dot the country and pose a threat to anyone out for a game of football or a casual walk, and Yugoslav weapons like AK styled assault rifles were made in mass quantities, so many that you can even still buy them for quite cheap. Naturally these guns have fallen into the wrong hands countless times in places like the Middle East and Africa. Long after the war ended, there are still casualties being taken.
Guns are made to fall in the wrong hands!
I watched SKy news report off UK training off Ukranian soldiers in UK ..and every single soldier carried Zastava AKs from my town ..how that end up there
@@dzonikg ko i sovjetski kalaš pane režim dolazi korupcije ukradeš oružje i prodaš
@@dzonikg why are you surprised, its the uk
American Javelines are sold on the Black Market to Serbia !! .. only 25% of the weapons sent by NATO to Ukraine arrive at the Ukrainian frontline , 70% are sold to Serbia , Africa etc .. Serbs are among the most weaponized people in the world - nearly as much as Americans ..
My family immigrated to New York and San Francisco. Of course I was born in the US and I never really knew anything about my family's past. I have been watching videos and researching to learn since I started doing my family tree. I came in contact with one relative only to be told that nobody wants to talk about it. So here I am....thankyou for this insight. Much appreciated and well done.
This video is extremely biased political take on Jugoslav wars. If you want to explore your family history, better use local ex Yugoslav sources from several sides, as they are biased ofc. But t least you can start making a puzzle.
This is just useless…
u wrong mate , this is mostly true @@mhnzam
@@Magicagic89’mostly true’ you say ?
Hmmmm….
In this case there’s 3-4 sides to THIS story:
1)From Serb point of view
2)From Croat point of view
3)From Bosniak(Muslim) point of view
4)And let’s say from a totally unbiased perspective.
And let’s include from an Ex-Yugo Communist point of view V Royalist ‘anti-communist’ perspective ie; from the pre WW2 Kingdom of Yugoslavia view point.
When I served in the Royal Danish Army I was with the UN-Forces in Yugoslavia. Seen some really bad shit. It will takes generations for people to begin forgive what they did to each others. Suffer from PTSD today and still have nightmares of burned out villages and wake up smelling the smell of dead people. But I would do it again if I had a choice. We helped with supplies and if our presence saved even just 1 child. Then it was worth the price.
I've many friends that served there as well and told me the same thing as you said. They're Canadians and were here with the Belgians. Some are still in the Royal 22 regiment. they were with the Belgians and Dutchs. It's not rare for them to tell me how the nightmares they still have to this day about that war and Rwanda.
I was just a 12 year old kid when Bosnian war started and of all UN "peacekeepers" we pretty much only respected the Danes because they didn't take shit from anyone especially the Serbs who would test them bunch of times. I don't think Danes ever waited for approval to fire back like others.
@@Aboleo80 Danger is that when you fire back , then you might be looked like a part of conflict. Which is opposite what UN peacekeepers in modern days represent. Depends UN mandate in area or conflict.
@Carsten René Kjærulff a lot of those who lived there are suffering from PTSD, i got cancer from depleted uranium used in NATO bombs. But today that is under control in my case. Anyhow, i don't know what to think about the UN mission, it did helped in some cases for sure. IMHO Yugoslav Army was ruined and since it has mixed nationalities, that have made the things more complicated after the fast independence of a some republics. Problem was the speed of braking up as well. The UK that was getting out form the EU did that process in 3+ years, and it was not nearly connected with the EU as an ex YU republics were among them. I know that nowadays Yugoslavia ain't popular, but i miss that country.
Hvala💪🏽
I served in Bosnia with the. NATO security forces (SFOR) immediately after 9-11 (on literally the first commercial airliner to fly afterward).
Even years after the war, there were still signs of it everywhere. The one that haunted me most was a depopulated village on one of our patrol routes. The buildings were mostly in good shape, but unoccupied, and the town looked untouched. Except for the elementary school. The wall of the school was lined with bullet holes, head height for a child, with a handful of other holes in a line head height for an adult. There was no record of what exactly happened there, and no investigation, because there was no one left to ask questions. The whole village, totally empty.
Justice can't be pursued if there is no one left to seek retribution. I understand, for me, it was trying to pull body parts out of a cave near Modrac Lake and line them up and see who and how many had been shredded by grenades in there. Too many, but we never did get a good count. I still have nightmares of the smell, and of pulling the ruined heads of children out of the piles of bodies.
Amazing.
How does one lose their humanity so much the can kill innocent children without hesitation??
Very sad. It's as if all this hate just came out of nowhere. Even with past tensions, what happened seems so extreme.
I hope the region can find a lasting peace.
@@YourCapyBruv_do_u_rmbr_3DpipesPeople usually only hear about Srebrenica (and rightfully so, it was a tragedy that should never be forgotten), but unfortunately there were many “smaller” tragedies like the one mentioned here and all sides did them
In those days, monsters were everywhere
I did KFOR, some grim sights there too
@@YourCapyBruv_do_u_rmbr_3Dpipes the problem is numerous wars never far enough. It was always after 20-30 yrs so people remembered. The 90s one was 45yrs after ww2 and serbs held lot of grudges against croats for NDH (BIH was inside NDH then). But yeah, it was a shitshow all around for everyone.
Thank you for covering this. I used to work with a bunch of Croats and Bosnians. I will say, they are the most appreciative people I've ever met of America. One Croat is the toughest woman, toughest person period, I have ever seen. She has incredible, yet sad stories of the river flowing red with blood, grenade blowing up parts of buildings they were in. She's still a great friend of mine, like a second mother.
Excellent job with this video. Covered everything at the right pace, and I think I speak for a lot of your audience when I say that we love longer videos like this(40+minutes)
I concur. The longer and more in-depth videos like this are smarter in every way.
Yeah, I enjoy the short ones sometimes....but for the most part I like the longer vids!
I mean this feels like the bare minimum to cover it satisfactory I feel.. Long wanted to understand this whole thing as the Kosovo wars is the first I remember happening and trying to understand it all years later without any real understanding of the history, who has done what to who(m?) etc is certainly not easy, thanks Simon and writer(not finished watching yet lol) for aiding in that!
Longer videos are better
I literally spend 9 hours a day listening to RUclips and watching for another 3ish. Even with all his channels It still doesn't cover my 9 hour work day.
Love Warographics. Watched a 6-7 hour documentary on this whole timeline. There was alot of horrible happenings throughout by all sides. You managing to summarize this turbulent time with a 45min video is amazing to me. You hit ALL the main points and I came away understanding the big issues of these wars. Great job, channel, video. Keep up the great work.
Indeed
Where'd you watch that documentary?
Sounds right up my alley!
@@Adrian-zd4cs search death of Yugoslavia... Six parts about 50 minutes each
@@Adrian-zd4cs RUclips Balkan Wars it's a 7 part series maybe more parts I can't remember but it's VERY in depth
he did not hit one piece of truth, that I can tell?
I joined the British army in 2006 and I had an instructor who was a Commando Engineer and was active in Bosnia and Kosovo. A few years later he went back with the UN to help excavate the mass graves. He had his own combat PTSD as so many do but I will never forget the look in his eyes when he started to talk about the things civilians and conscripted teenage boys went through. The human race is generally f’dup but this is a particularly sour episode. I did my ten years and I’m a paramedic now. Happy to pick up drunks and not deal with war wounds anymore.
For what is an extremely complex topic, this was a very well researched and balanced overview. Well done Fact Boi and team.
nothing in this made up report is researched nor balanced. Just plain, idiotic, western lie.
No it wasnt well researched it is shallow and shady
@@funkyribar2301 okay bro
As far as I can say, the only thing he got wrong was North Macedonia and Montenegro having since joined the EU, when in fact they're not even close.
Only Slovenia and Croatia made it in, the two richest and most stable countries even within Yugoslavia, who had that goal from the get go, along with their Independence.
@@funkyribar2301 Well, I'll watch yours when it comes out. :)
Served on Peacekeeping duty in BiH 2001-2002. Beautiful country scarred deeply, both physically and spiritually. Thanks for your work on this video.
I've been to Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, and Kosovo and found nothing but wonderful people just trying to live decent lives. My heart breaks for the trauma and devastation the region experienced and I hope beyond anything that the past doesn't repeat itself again.
Kosovo is serbia
@@zero_zero107 It’s also 93% ethnic Albanian. The combination of those to facts is most of the problem.
I'm glad you already visited Serbia, but I invite you to come up north as well. The party is in Belgrade. ;)
@@sdstormI'd love to visit Belgrade!
@@sdstorm he did not mention serbia sir.
There was a Eastern European guy making moves in Liberty City that was involved in this war but... He went quiet
Yoo! Good one bro.
After the Dayton Peace Accord, when 1st Armored Division crossed the Sava river it was somewhat peaceful for a few years. We disarmed alot of the militias and enforced the Zone of Seperation. Also it was the first time Americans and the Russians worked together in the same area doing peacekeeping operations. The Russians traveled to Ft Riley Kansas to train for the upcoming peacekeeping mission the late summer early fall in 1995. It was the first time Russian troops ever trained on American soil. I know I was there. I also deployed twice to Bosnia Dec of 95 IFOR till Dec of 1996, and 1997-1998 SFOR.
And Russian nationalists hated that period as they realized the West didn't care or consult them on bombing Serbia. What you write about is literal humiliation for Russian nationalists like Putin and the official Russian narrative. They'd rather be feared than to be ignored. They believe in their greatness and a zone of influence. America/NATO crapped on that idea and showed them how irrelevant they were.
Crazy right? Russia and USA CAN work together and make the world better. Your governments just choose to measure up till the end of humanity it seems.
@@zeitgeistx5239 THE BEST IS THAT RUSSIA HIT AMERICA AND U.K. WITH NUCLEAR BOMB AND THAT THEY RETURN.AND ON GERMANY.THAT WILL BE GOOD FOR WORLD AND NORTH KOREA THAT THIS SHIT VANISH
@@zeitgeistx5239 And American nationalists instead of facilitating cooperation they pushed their sphere of influence and antagonised Russians Instead of working together
@@zeitgeistx5239 It would be great if everyone functioned like pawns for the american hegemon but im afraid the russians have different ideas
My dad was actually a UN peacekeeper in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the mid-late 90s. He told me stories of how horrible it was to see so much ancient culture and architecture covered with bullet holes, and how pissed he was when the Pink Floyd concert in Berlin he had tickets to go to on leave got cancelled. He went to Bucharest and had the best beef stroganoff of his life instead.
"Peacekeeper"
Didnt tell you for uranium bombs????
I'm from Bosnia, born in '93. Your video put things into perspective that I have not known before. Thank you, Simon!
Because you dont learn that in school now in Federation.
Bas si ljepa hajmo na kafu.😅
He does not tell about the background of the conflict.
Sad to read that the people doesnt realize that the us-/uk-nazis destroyed their country.
No this is not good video. He failed to mention that serbian plan is a “project” of genocide. It’s their mentality the cetnik mentality. The project is still in force but now its done politically. They are not going to give up until they unite all serbs in one country. Cetnistvo is their ideology they don’t care about economy, good relations or prosperity. They only care about “Srbovanje” project of ethnic division and future genocide.
Also some people say that current republic of srbska has been agreed to or planned in advanced the west wanted it. They don’t want one bosnia. Now we are divided. Tomorrow the rs can declare independence and what are we gonna do? Only solution in my opinion is if war erupts we need to hit hard and destroy rs.
The long, complicated and bloody history of this region is heartbreaking. Unfortunately, that bloody history isn't easily forgotten by the people. I hoped that the breakup of Yugoslavia would be the end, but I have a depressing feeling that we haven't seen the end of the region's bloodshed.
Love the longer videos! Very thorough and fascinating video. Great job Simon and team! 😊 👏💯
That's mostly because the breakup of Yugoslavia was also a botched job.
Dayton Agreement basically destroyed real independence for Bosnia & Herzegovina and turned it into a barely-governable, decentralized mess.
1.) They don't have a President ot a Prime Minister, they have a NATO-appointed High Representative with US-appointed deputies, which has been compared to be akin to viceroyalty (similiar to how a Ban of Croatia was a viceroy of it during Austro-Hungarian times).
2.) Because of the Dayton Agreement, Bosnia is actually three seperate political entities coexisting together; Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina (the official country), Republika Srpska (autonomous Serbian minority government that is set in Banja Luka and unofficially controls almost half the country) and District of Brčko (self-governing region with an American supervisor). Basically, a deal that tried to please everyone but pleases noone, and originally, the Vance ptogram was also supposed to create another autonomous entity governed by Bosnian Croats, which would split the country into 4 self-governing districts.
The principal problem is that the head of Republika Srpska, Dodik, is a staunch Serbian irredentist who advocates for Republika Srpska's total secession from Bosnia and admission into Serbia proper, and has been vocally active since the start of Russo-Ukranian War, re-igniting the feud of the 90s. So, yes, another civil war is technically possible.
@@v.s7114 Not technicaly possible, baisacly unavoidable
A civil war is on its way, probably sooner than anyone thinks
And as a Serb from Banja Luka, im pretty sure i know how that shit is gonna look...
The Balkans have never been a stable place - not in archaic, medieval or modern times - and the scars from the 20th century will continue to show well into the 21st
Because no side is willing to forget. If you hold a grudge for generations, you get the Balkans. Forgiveness is tough for humans.
@@Redmenace96 i can confirm it that Croats still have grudge against every neighboring state.
Slovenia - because of border deputes and ownership of nuclear power plant Krško (they tryed to back deal and get it threw European court, but do to their relations with Russia, American taped their governments phone calls and they lost the case do to that leak).
Hungary - exploitation during Habsburg monarchy (forced implementation of Hungarian language and ban of any Croatian national institution, paying taxes that were mostly spent in Budapest, ordeal with Rijeka, then Fiume and Khuen Hedervary) and today with mayor Croatian oil company INA.
Serbia - basically everything that happen between us from 1914 till 1995.
Bosnia - this one is the most complicated do to how entire thing in Bosnia has not started in 1991, this problems Bosnia are much more older then you think.
Montenegro - we only hate them because of their union and active corporation with Serbia during Homeland war and nothing else.
Italy - Since Venetian republic took over eastern Adriatic sea for 400 years and Italy's current and after WW1 claims for their ownership.
I’ve just spent 5 days on holiday in Bosnia… these are the kindest and most welcoming people I’ve ever met… I like to think of it as the “Cambodia of Europe”
Please make a video telling people about what Bosniaks have been through… specifically Sebrenica
My first deployment was with the UNPROFOR from January to August 1994. Having been in Iraq and Afghanistan, the experiences in Bosnia are the ones that haunt me to this day.
So much ethnic cleansing and war crimes. Slobodan Milosevic was a monster.
What have you witnessed? My father fought in this war and never wants to talk about it
@@josephcro2138 I have seen what people are capable of doing to each other. All because of old grudges, religion and greed.
Never forgive never forget
What exactly fascist unprofor did over there; besides; spreading around sexually transmitted disease?
A great video. I still remember military actions during the 10-day war in my town. One guy even gave an AK-47 into my hands so I could hold it and play with it, others showed me their weapons. I was a 7-year old kid. I didn't know what was going on until the air raid sirens went off, we ran for shelter and my mum told me what tf is going on. These were my most carefree times. My neighbor got killed by 2 civillian JNA simpathisers (that didn't survive either).
Im curious, what town are you from? My cousin lives in Domžale and i remember when i was on vacation there, you could still see bullet holes on buildings in Trzin at the intersection of the road heading to Brnik.
Im originally from Mexico but I have neighbors who are from Bosnia and lived through the war, one of them was a soldier in the war and I remember one day I went over and talked to him and he told me that no video or book Can truely show how grim and evil the atrocities he had to either see or partake of as a Bosnian soldier in the war, he always told me he wished he nvr lived to see the stuff he saw during that time. Ever since then I’ve been so interested and fascinated about all this balkan and mainly Bosnian history. Ever since I’ve watched this video about the Bosnian war I know a lot more about this fascinating part of the world and the conflicts that happened. Thank you so much, it’s made me a lot more knowledgeable about things of Bosnia when I go over and chat with my neighbor abt what he experienced as a soldier
According to my grandmother (RIP Luca, Christmas 2019), Tito was the glue that held the country together. As his health started to get worse in the early 70s many Yugoslavians, including my grandmother, aunts, mother and grandfather in 1973 (who was kicked out of Germany as "unwelcome" due to his high-profile organized crime dealings and sort of resulted in the rest of my family's migrants, despite being unaffiliated with the crimes and allowed to stay, blacklisted from becoming eligible for german citizenship despite having lived in the country for 49 years and my mother having been married for 18 of them) fled the country for Germany, Switzerland and Austria especially, as everyone knew the powderkeg would explode again without his leadership. For all his faults, he was an exceptionally charismatic statesman liked by almost everyone. Except Stalin.
Seriously, _everybody_ except Stalin seemed to have the 'Eh on his policies, pretty good dude personally' view on Tito. His larger-than-life persona is... pretty fascinating to be honest.
And you should have seen his funeral. Saddam, queen, carter, yassr arafat all together crying 😂
Tito threatened Stalin by saying he will send an Assassin to kill him in a letter after getting fed up with Stalin trying to assassinate him,he had some balls.
“I am the leader of one country which has two alphabets, three languages, four religions, five nationalities, six republics, surrounded by seven neighbours, a country in which live eight ethnic minorities”-Tito
Tito was f***ing criminal! No one loved him, we "had" to love him!
@@rp4all584 how do i know youre not yugoslavian or did not live in his time
I was a refugee at the benining of the war in Croatia. Later I joined the Croatian Army and served for 21 years. Those were some bad times. Thank you Simon.
u never joined anything which does not exist. u was one of that vaticans fascist who helped destroy country.
U got give some experiences
As an ethnic Macedonian born in Yugoslavia I can say that it was working quite well for a while. My grandfather was a partisan and fought against the Nazis originally for an independent Macedonia but then Yugoslavia. I love all my former Yugoslavian brothers as we are basically all very similar by blood and culture.
Ethnic Macedonian, wtf is that 😂😂
Your either Serb or Bulgar
I was in my early teens when the county broke up. Now as a Serbian I go to vacation to the beautiful Croatian coast traveling through the beautiful mountains of Bosnia. Meeting awesome people on the way. Every time I think about the beauty and diversity that Yugoslavia used to have. Then I see the mine fields and the bullet holes on houses in Bosnia and Hercegovina and get reminded of how evil and destructive extreme nationalism is.
Also one small detail. Yugoslavia had at least 8 nationalities (not 5) Albanians, Bosnian Muslims (also referred to as Bosniaks), Macedonians, Croats, Hungarians, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Slovenes. Plus an other 20+ ethnic groups which complicated the war even further. For example the Hungarians never felt that this was a war that they have to participate in yet they they where in the JNA as conscripts.
@@arpadjszaboas an Albanian, I am scared that the more uncompromising ethnonationalist Serbs who may see this will start hating you for putting Albanian first, totally oblivious to the fact that alphabetically it fits, although you messed up a little because croats should've come before macedonians, but I won't bemoan it overmuch... Just a little. Also, nationalism can be useful. It's ethnonationalism that's the danger. Civic nationalism is okay, all of Yugoslavia were civic nationalist back then. I greet you, and wish you and yours the best life has to offer komshije
@@myowngenesisVratite nam Kosovo i ostalo sve normalno možemo!
I love how Macedonia getting independence was so low key it didn't even get mentioned here
We never get mentioned oh well
They didn't mention Albanian attacks on Macedonia, because they must preserve Albanians like victims
@@diktrejsi8214to be fair… yeah.. we completely missed that part in the Yugoslavian war and that was what the Albanian dictator?
29:51 I had a friend, once, from Croatia. Zagreb. She was a child during the War/s, and was almost ...cleansed. She remembers, though, NATO intervention, largely where she was were many Americans. The intervention directly led to her and her family being spared genocide. She has always had a fondness for Americans and Europeans since, and as an adult is fluent in multiple languages and has become a successful fashion designer. We often do not think of the children caught in war. We often think of the soldiers - but the potential in each child is limitless. She is a living testament to that.
everyone else ONE war - serbia FIVE in '90 - pure mathematic for pure EVIL
Tell this story to western pro Russian mouthpieces/anti NATO propagandists like George Galloway
This is untrue on so many levels, NATO in Croatia? Lol.
If only I could be paid for every time someone says in a documentary, “Hitler was furious!”
I mean, let's be honest, he was furious like every day lmao
@@mattcromwell4308 yup thats history...you say hitler...furious comes to mind. you say brezhnev..drunk comes to mind.
Hitler was "let's completely destroy Serbian national library in Belgrade and erase their entire cultural identity" furious.
General Alexander Löhr, who commanded 1941. Nazi bombing of Belgrade and was captured by Yugoslavian partisans at the end of the war, testified during his war crimes trial that Adolf Hitler personally ordered him to bomb National Library in the first run and then proceed to other military targets. When prosecutors asked him why he replied: "because that insitution kept cultural identity of the nation". They used fire bombs and burned the library to the ground destroying almost entire collection of around 354000 titles, 1365 medieval manuscripts, 226 early prints, 6260 magazines, 3770 letters and 1447 maps, drawings and photos. Centuries of Serbian cultural history turned to ashes, only few documents remained just because they were somewhere else at the moment.
Meth has a tendency to agitate and make one psychotic.
It's just the way the language sounds. It's difficult to say anything in German without sounding furious.
Rest In Peace to those that passed away.
“ When the war came, I did bad things, but after the war I thought nothing of doing bad things. I killed people, smuggled people, sold people” Niko Bellic
I've watched a huge catalogue of doccos on the conflict (I'm still struggling to comprehend the brutality of it) and I have to say this is probably the best I've watched.
I tend to give Whistler's many, many channels a miss. But, credit where it's due - this is really well crafted: it's not easy making something so complex, so concise
WWI in color is good. That’s the part I fault to wrap my head around is the brutality. Thinking the majority of those fighting were probably 18-24 year olds
Thank you for helping me understand this war. I was young preteens-early teens when this was going on and could never keep up with all the players involved. Couldn’t understand who was the bad guy and why. Didn’t understand why Americans were involved Or why other countries were mad about it. Now being older, it’s still one of the hardest wars to completely understand. But u did a great job helping me.
Almost completely provoked by the US to destroy the last communist state in Europe
It's really not that hard to understand. Serbs wanted to have the hegemony over all former Yugoslav republics, got pissed when they couldn't and then sent their army in each of the republics (except Montenegro and Macedonia) to kill off the non-Serb population. Which is why NATO bombed Serbs alone, no one else got NATO on their backs because no one else did genocide.
@@libertas5005 😂
@@libertas5005 Right... And the Croats didnt establish their Hercog Country withjn Bosnia. Naser oric didnt exist, KLA never killed or smuggled serbian CIVILIANS. What a disgrace to humanity explaining how u explained. Far more complex than what you wrote. Also interesting how the serbs stated revolting after the day that croats stripped the serbs of their minority rights, and their useof language....anyways its far more complex.
@@libertas5005 опять же вы смотрите на ситуацию однобоко, демонизирую одну сторону, боснийские сербы защищали свои дома, в окрестностях среднего подринья было убито более 2000 мирных серьов и сожжено более 158 сербских сел, преступления совершали все, началось из за сараевского убийства на свадьбе.
Expertly explained - not an easy job to get your head around all the details. Thank you.
Really interesting, I was only around 11 years old in the UK when this happened and remember a lot of the news coverage but wasn't aware of the history behind it all.
Being from ingland; u'r still unaware.
@@peter58peter more aware than before though, that was his point. I spend a lot of time in Serbia, and recently travelled across all the Balkan states, it taught me a lot about how they look at each other but for all the wars and sadness caused its one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Bosnia's mountains and valleys are breathtaking, Croatia's coastline is stunning, Serbia's countryside along with Tara, Kopaonik is beautiful and Montenegro has a mixture of it all. Im looking forward to seeing more of Slovenia next year. But what I can say to many others is how friendly and welcoming many many people I've met have been.
Just because many of us who have watched these videos are from another part of the world doesn't mean we can't learn, for sure we'll never know of the horrors but we can learn. My cousin served as a peacekeeper in Bosnia and I heard many stories from my fiance and her mum about living in Belgrade during the bombings. I can't imagine what thats like but I can learn about it with an open mind.
My username is Slovenian but I’m a Croatian American and was unaware of a lot of this history. I just knew that Croats really didn’t like Serbs. Thank you for the detailed documentary.
Well, now you'll understand the shared cultural homogeny and it's breakup. But hopefully it doesn't leave a sad feeling in your heart.
To be fair Dončić is a Serbian name. Luka's dad is a Serb.
@@zivkovicable fair point, mine is Karlovich hbu
Your username is nothing close to Slovenian, that's a Serbian lastname
DONT WORRY ABOUT SERBIAN COMMENTS, TO THEM EVERYBODY IS A SERB lol
Croatia did not kick Serbs at the end.. they left.. most of them known what they did in 4 years and were in fear..
You don't have to justify what Croatians did or didn't . The Serb nation is an evil one that belongs to Siberia...nothing to add more after the 20th and 21st century...
The saddest part of this was that there was hatred between various Yugoslav refugee groups here in Australia. People who had escaped these horrors on the other side of the world had to endure hatreds in their new home. Hopefully time will heal!
Same here in Canada. It opened up a whole new underground conflict between different Slavic mafia groups here that were funding the respective sides in the Balkans and starting street wars in Toronto and Montreal.
At the world cup in Qatar last year the Canadian goal want racially abused with signs and taunts all referencing the wars, you also would see that type of fighting among the descendants in my high school.
@@Steadyaim101That's why smart countries don't take everyone in.
@@DefinitelyNotEmmai guess the US isn’t one of those “smart” countries
@@youwayo Certainly not, and it's quite evident.
As a Jugoslav born on the start of the '80s, people are still filled with hatred around here, they were the same 60 years ago but had to be quiet under dictatorship. It never really worked, the whole "brotherhood and friendship" communists advertised - did not work.
It couldn't work, it was insane to even try it, at least second time, after what happened during WW2 Yugoslavia was dead...
I was born in '82 (close to your age), and I never remembered the old country, but growing up in capital city of the former Yug (basically capital of the Balkans :D) I bought that propaganda that during the old Yug there was brotherhood and unity (mostly, with exceptions), and only later in life (in the last 10 years or so), when I started working at public firm with colleagues who were refugees from former Yu republics (>75% of the firm), and from their stories I found out that brotherhood and unity was always the sham, the fiction (mostly, with exceptions), and that there was always mentality of us and them........
well it's never too late for that realization, I guess...
@@gvozdenkuronja7414 its very easy to have brotherhood and unity among different ethnic groups. alot of asian countries have different ethnicities within the same country but yet there is no such thing as hatred among diff ethnic groups, for example china has 56 diff ethnic groups but yet everyone just identifies as chinese. Its politicans after Tito that pursued nationalist agenda specifically slobodan milosevic that ruined yugoslavia
It was good idea distroy by not so good people..i was Serb in 1990 from central Serbia...my school went in summer 1990 to coast line in Orebic..in same hotel was school from Zagreb..we had such great time with them..it was at that time world championship in football ,we watched and cheered together..in evening we would make parties togethet..back then i did not even thing that i am Serb and they are Croats..and all changed in just 1 year..
@@ShengYu1995 it's not that simple...... history prior to break up of YU can't compare to those Asian countries, kingdom of YU entered ww2, communist YU came out of the ww2, and during the war maaany war crimes were committed (just look up for "work camp" Jasenovac, on the territory of newly formed independent state of Croatia (naci ally), where even naci officers were appalled by the condition and murder rate), and all that was put under the rug so that communist YU could start a new leaf, and all was fine and dandy when people could see/feel that their lives were getting better year after year, but then during '80 progress slowed down and finally stopped all together, and that made fertile ground (a lot of spilled blood in the past) for all sorts of nationalistic ideas. And then finally outside forces (EU, US) jump on opportunity to dismantle communist YU by not waiting a single moment to recognize independent republics (where in power in all the republics came nationalistic options)...
So it's not s.milosevic that ruined YU, he doesn't even bear the greatest responsibility for break up (just convenient scapegoat for the west, reason you remembered only his name), rather brake up of YU was result of complex socio-economic and historic point of time with powerful bad actors from outside whose interests were to make many defragmented countries instead of one significant (and truly independent) country...
I use to work with a man from Albania. The one of the best people I have ever known, one day he talked to me about the shit he saw during the wars. The look in his eyes was the same i had seen in my Uncle when he talked about his time in Vietnam.
THIS!... is probably the most unbiased and well derived and paced story of my birth country, Jugoslavija. Well done!
"meanwhile over in kosovo"....lol that sentence will simply never have a positive ending
It does though its people are free from servian opression and have their own sovereign country in which they live in peace 🇽🇰☺️✌🏻
Free them selves from Serbia and 2001 attack Macedonia, lol, Albanians internal victims, who doesn't know you......
My grandad was a Serb, and he would weep whilst he watched Yugoslavia tear itself apart on the TV
Macedonia: “We managed to break away peacefully! Now for 20+ years of naming disputes”
They settled that a few years ago
Better than 20 years of war.
Didn't they had a small conflict few years ago?
@@frankieseward8667 They had their war it just wasn't against Serbia. They had ethnic violence between Macedonians and Albanians. It wasn't as bad as Bosnian or Croatian wars but it was worse then war in Slovenia.
@@TheWedabest unfortunately, the combined failure of North Macedonia's government to improve the country's economy and stability and Bulgaria's frankly baffling claims to the non-existence of the Macedonian identity along with their denial of their crimes done during their WW2 occupation of the region has put a stop to any improvement and entry to the EU.
This is one of those weird moments where I realize that some of my first memories of the world outside my home were hearing reports of NATO actions in Bosnia.
Very good video. There are maybe 2 or 3 inaccuracies but all in all a very well researched potrayal of the war. And I really liked that you understood very well to potray the lead up from WW1, because a lot of people who have a go at the subject seem to forget the complexity of the historical lead up.
I would say its the best potrayal of the wars in a youtube format.
i was 9 when it started, for us kids it seemed like it came overnight, but looking back signs were all over for at least 3 to 4 years even before war. things started to stir after tito died.. i was 11 when granate hit the road while we were at the middle of it crossing it to get to shelter, today i am handicaped for life, suffering severe ptsd, but still dont need meds, i was lucky i only got handicapped and mentaly screwed up coz of stress and trauma, but i got friends from croatia and bosnia who i met in mid 20ties in a support group for yyoung and child survivors. some of my friends went thru real hell for couple of years, some were in filtriation camps, wich basicaly were c camps. some are so damaged that still 30 years later they cant be intimate with anyone, some had to be removed from family coz part of torture and humiliation was forcing family members to do sexual things to each others, some were raped systematicaly , beaten, forced to hold hand granades in hands.. wars are product of sick disturbed minds followed by even more disturbed people, silent and normal majority gets caught in between. wars are product of toxic masculinty, false patriotism and labeling of people... wars are part of our lives since first cave man exit his cave took a bat and said me your leader follow me... we are stupid spiecie and we dont deserve to be on this planet and we prove it over and over again. 21st century, 2022 and here we go again, ukraine today, yesterday syria, day before iraq, libya, afghanistan, yugoslavia, ww2, ww1, civil war here and here.. same sick evil circle for centuries. and will continue to dance it for next million years, coz we are stupid and one day we will destroy ourselves if we dont break a circle.. we need to get free of labels, we all are humans, all these labels we put ar ehere to divide us, from race, gender, religion, nationality, sexual orientation this and that, borders are imagninary lines on maps made by us, they change every 6 to 10 decades when ever some old far*** at the end of his life decides he wants to be part of history, saviour, refuse to realise he is old, his time has gone, will be dead in next 15 to 20 years max and screws lived for everyone else who still needs to be here for next 60+ years coz they had a fckn god complex, napoleon complex... coz it is easier to hate. to destroy instead to love and build and progress....
Sorry to hear about your experience. Children always pay the most for older peoples greed
@@Ado555555 How does LSD, which screws up the mind, help people with PTSD?
@@tassosplatis2143 Maybe widen your view, it was even in your own comment if, LSD effects the MIND and PTSD is a condition in the MIND :D
@@tassosplatis2143 lsd does not “screw up” the mind. It can be used to better yourself. mushrooms are being used for therapy in the us
I remember ending up talking to someone from that area online in some of the early days of the internet and apologizing for us sending troops there and bombing up their country. Luckily for her, she was in a part that wasn't getting hit with that stuff. I think that was the first time I started to realize that there were regular ass people stuck on either side of a war, which is one good reason why war is ridiculous and people should settle their international differences in more mature ways.
Absolutely in the end all that genocide accomplished nothing but hate
People r pushed. forced, to take up arms and go to fight. Truth.
What websites did you use
@@peter58peter most times pushed because propaganda. didnt you just heard Zelensky saying "all those deaths are on NATOs account"? thats pushing.. to ww3. nice guy uh?
Im against the invasion, but for me he can take that country I dont care, bettter than ww3. the ukrainians who get used to new administration (but fake news will say that a holocaust wll happen... thats pushing again but most times the mass can only be pushed if them want)
the elites work well to make ppl think they have no choice. MOST of the times it is a choice, some others there isnt a choice
@@hidof9598 This was back in the days of the early internet. I think it might have been AOL.
32:45
"NATO despatched 2 A10 Warthogs to handle the problem"
This had me rolling.
“Some damn thing in the Balkans will set it all off.”
- Otto von Bismarck.
The summary of the invasion of Yugoslavia is so heart breaking every time I hear it. The idea of a people (especially a people as diverse as Yugoslavia's) coming together to reverse an evil committed by its leadership (a pragmatic evil committed with the intent to avoid the country being crushed as it so thoroughly was just weeks later, granted) is such an inspiring concept, but had such immediately disastrous consequences.
Even more heart breaking is knowing that Serbs, after reclaiming the balkans in WW1, could have easily made a Serbian state, just a bit smaller then the Yugoslavia.
Therefore, all of the wars shown here would probably be avoided.
Such a pity.
@@Aleksa208 Given how Treaty of Versailles border setting went overall, I'm not sure that a collection of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, etc would have been a possibility. Splitting the region up by national identities would have been a much better approach, but that basically rules out the Treaty of Versailles committee from making that decision by default.
The Czechs and Slovaks petitioned for a Czechia and Slovakia to the committee and they got clumped together into Czechoslovakia because the Committee figured they were close enough and that Czechia and Slovakia separately wouldn't be large enough to be stable countries separately, whereas Czechoslovakia would be. Well...they're holding together pretty okay now, and I think pretty much the only thing threat that would make that a problem would be some country being pissed off about being saddled with crippling war reparations, losing chunks of the home country, having their overseas empire confiscated, and oh wait that country nommed Czechoslovakia and the countries that made them merge didn't even have the decency to do more than politely ask them to not do the same to anyone else.
Meanwhile, look at the mess in the old Ottoman Empire. A huge chunk of the instability throughout that region comes from the fact that the Versailles treaty basically just drew boxes and said "and this parcel of land goes to Britain's horrible mismanagement committee and this parcel of land goes to France's horrible mismanagement committee and we don't know what any of their beliefs or political rivalries with their neighbours are or where they might draw the borders themselves (Shut up Lawrence, nobody asked the guy who's actually talked to people from the region)"
Seriously, if you look at the Treaty of Versailles there are so very many things that were decided there that we've been reaping the fallout from for the past century. It's not the only source of conflict (indeed, a good chunk of it was just inflaming existing tensions)...but so much of the horror of last century of history either started from the Treaty of Versailles or was a smouldering fire that the Treaty poured a gas station worth of gasoline on.
But in the alternate reality where the people writing that treaty were actually making reasonable decisions, it's entirely possible one of those decisions would have been the establishment of a variety of independent Balkan states like we see today. And if that happened, it's *possible* that local Nazi sympathizers and nationalist barbarians didn't fuck it all up throughout WWII. Or at the very least that the fallout from that would have been handled slowly over the course of 50 odd years rather than being kept bottled up by Tito until he died without having found a way to defuse the situation.
This conflict has always confused me and this really only helped moderately
Yea same I’m still a bit confused
That quote about doing nothing and paying a greater price for it later on makes me think about the current crisis in Ukraine.
in 1990s Serbs living in Croatia and Bosnia (once Nazi puppet NDH) were genuinely afraid they were facing another genocide. as you said - everyone had a family member killed by the Ustaše. current policy of Croatian president Tudjman and Bosnian Izetbegovic were such that they only justified those fears. Serbs were being sacked from their jobs, thrown out of state rented apartments every 'working man' was entitled to in socialism, attacked on the streets and at homes and even killed at weddings. Tudjman openly spoke about ethnicly cleansing the Serbs. thanks to RUclips it's all there. the fact that Milosevic abused those people for his own unholy goals should not blind us to the real causes of Serbian 'rebellion' in Bosnia and Croatia. the Serbs did not rebel against Croatian and Bosnian secession, but out of fear what was to come after that. many of them fled to Serbia or indeed abroad even before war broke out. if Bosnian and Croatian leadership treated 'their' Serbs properly maybe the war would've been averted.
the bosnian war was a bloody and really dangerous one. My mother actually fled bosnia in 1992 and met my father here in germany. Beggining in 1999 we yearly visited bosnia because her family still lived there. (ofc, me being 2 years old at that time ment i didnt really see anything there) But as i grew older it was really hard to miss that almost everywhere in bosnia you saw bullet holes, destroyed buildings and metal scrap laying around. It was especially bad in sarajevo with buildings still having bullet holes well into 2010-2015 still visible. After i questioned what happened here i got a quick answer of "something bad, thats why i came to germany" but to what extent that was is horrifying to find out. Goodspeed to you all, it is a scary world out there.
In 1999 NATO peace keepers were trying to secure areas of Kosovo when the Russians went in and secured parts of Kosovo. At one point the Russians controlled an airport which NATO had intended to control (Russia has sent in troops the day before NATO was set to go in to purposely take it before NATO), the Russians were set to fly in more soldiers to the airport which angered US General Wesley Clark who orders British troops to go in and block the runways, however the UK commander refused to give the order telling Clark he would not start World War III over the airport.
Also side note, the leader of the reconnaissance group set to take part in some of his was Captain James Blunt, the singer who had a hit with “You're Beautiful” in the mid 2000’s
One of the closest moment to WW3 that's supriseingly not well known to the public.
If had bullet for every time some general stoped WW3 happning i would have enough to start WW3.
@@oscarshen6855 One off many times Russia betrayed Serbia ..Also reason for Serbian military widrowing from Kosovo was Russian telling who will they be guarantee off Serbian sovereign there
First time we indulged Russia we didn't stop for 20 plus years
how you know that? Russia old Serbs that is OK and that they will protect Kosovo, but after 3 days it was over.
Tito was glue and fire extinguisher holding the Yugoslavia together. I was the last generation of Tito's Pioneers
4 years of war constant shelling, the fear..... as child o still remember after 4 years when electricity first arrived, first chocolate in years.
And seeing things from Ukraine brings memories that never should existed.
Serbs should of never ended a yugoslavia it should of been only Serbia after 1918 that was a catastrophic mistake.
@Goran Vresk he was croatian and slovenian
@@bilic8094 That is the reason for war in 90s .
Thank you, Mr Whistler! You have clarified a subject that I've found confusing when reading other sources.
Im from Vukovar and actally live on the "tank graveyard" (24:50)road.
Sity once had a population of 45k now its more like 22k villiages around the city had tousands of people now its more like hunderds.
War sucks and in places of great battles like vukovar it lingers for decades maybe more.....we'l see
As seen in one clip, WW2 American 57mm anti tank guns were used in the conflict. Under the Dayton agreement they were to be destroyed. Due to some kind of error two were shipped to the UK along with some artillery pieces. One sits in my front garden…
I watched SKy news report off UK training off Ukranian soldiers in UK ..and every single soldier carried Zastava AKs from my town ..how that end up there
There is a story of an English/Scott/Irish peace keeping commando group who was serving as observers for the UN on the boarder of Bosnia. The village they were watching got attacked. They were ordered to leave but could not leave knowing everyone in the village would die. They stayed fighting off the troops who wanted to enter the village. Twelve guys held off hundreds until they were releaved.
Episodes about this kind of stuff would be cool too! But probably a lot would turn out to be blown out of proportion.
There would need to be a warning of burst bubbles when the story turns out far from the truth :P
Or make it a two parter, first part the story's that are more or less true or even more impressive and the second part the ones that turn out to be bull/propaganda.
I wonder if it would even be doable to make an episode like that per conflict.
This comment would require a mythbusters episode. 🤣
You're probably talking about the Canadian UNPROFOR unit in the Medak Pocket September 1993.
My next door neighbor was a nuclear scientist, he was originally from Yugoslavia. He was a really cool guy knew just about anything about everything
An truly excellent video on a uniquely complicated topic. Definitely the clearest one I’ve seen on the topic. Same with the video on Transnistria. I love that this channel focuses more on history and politics rather than military maneuvers of the world’s conflicts.
Very glad to see the addition of more maps which was sorely lacking in the Transnistria War video. But they do need to be labeled and if color coded, a color key is necessary.
What was complicated? Maybe, for west, to keep on inventing lies which. kind of, for stupid, would make sense. he forgot to mention that all o those 'jugoslavian criminals' were paid, ordered and pushed to do what they did, by west. So: what's 'excelent' in there?
Small note, the thumbnail pic was taken from the italian border. There were literal tank battles between yougoslavians and slovenians a few meters from italy. The italian army was deployed and had order to shoot back at any hostile action against italy.
I feel like this should be an into the shadows vid
There's a dozen or more into the shadows episodes hidden within the broad events covered here
I like this channel for the broad coverage of the events, and then Into the Shadows for detailed retelling of specific parts, like just the Serb genocide of Bosnians
@@seanpoore2428, nope, they are better placed here, since they're one of the bloodiest wars in recent history(Libya does not compare to Yugoslsvia).
Ditto
My family was stationed in Wurzburg in the 90s and my dad was deployed to Kosovo. I was only 6 at the time and just know dad had to go away for a while to go help people and would probably be back by Christmas. Now that I'm older I'm seeking out as much info as possible to understand what was really going on in the world when I was a kid. Simon's video's are very helpful.
The history of the Balkans is pure tragedy.
I went to school with a girl whose family was from Serbia. I don't know how the conversation started but one day I overheard her mum and mine talking about the war...apparently her mum had been pregnant with her when she had to leave Serbia with her older children and her sister in law. Fourteen year old me had no idea this war had even happened, let alone that someone I knew was born in it.
My best friend, who also did a tour in Iraq, said the "Peacekeeping" mission in the Balkans was the worst thing he had to do during his military career. He said he still has nightmares of it. I luckily had gotten out of the Army a few years before it happened.
Simon, diplomacy is the art of saying "Good Doggie" to a vicious rabid pit bull while you reach for a gun.
Near Srebrenica there was a town of Žepa. It was another Bosnian anclave/UN safe zone in territory dominated by ethnic Serbs. It had 79 Ukrainian UN troops stationed there with goal of protecting civilians. Serbs threatened to kill troops and urged them to leave. When it didn't work, they also shelled the town with mortars. Troops fortified their positions but they were left unsupported by UN or NATO. Even their APCs eventually ran out of fuel. Despite threats, mortar strikes and clear possibility of attack, garrison was ready to fight and didn't not budge.
Local folk liked the troops seeing them as protectors and being more "down to earth" than other UN troops. Local folk would even occasionally feed soldiers. There were some refugees who just escaped Srebrenica and told the news of what happened there. Unit's medic would treat injuries of civilians after shelling. It goes without saying that troops also liked locals. For the context, most of those troops used to serve in a Soviet Army during the invasion of Afghanistan. There they were fighting Muslims, here they were determined to protect them. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though. Bosnian units fighting Serbs in the area were displeased (to put it mildly) that Ukrainians would not join them in a fight and would not share the ammunition. UN troops were not meant to do so, therefore they held their ground for months without resupply, relieve or rotation.
Eventually the evacuation of civilians was negotiated. There were two UN troops in each bus. One Ukrainian and one French. Eventually this way UN managed to save over 9000 people.
In the aftermath troops described that serbs were burning houses of former residents and mosques.
This a proud, albeit forgotten footnote in history of Ukrainian military. Managing to protect civilians after the other UN unit failed to do so
This is one of the bright spots in Ukrainian role in the Balkan conflict as, I have to unfortunately claim, Ukraine (just like Russia) actually did support Serbs and the genocide they committed against their neighbors.
@@ShejtanVrbaski officially, as a state, Ukraine and it's government sent troops only as part of UN peacekeeping force.
However, your comment is true, some nationalists came there on their own volition and were helping Serbs along with russians. Today this misguided effort is frowned upon by Ukrainians who are aware of it (nationalists or not). Still, it should be remembered in order to avoid making such idiotic mistakes in the future.
All I can say about it is that we are sorry that some people chose the wrong side and, quite possibily, contributed to serb atrocities.
@@katamarankatamaranovich9986 There are Ukrainian minority in northern Bosnia. They are where on our side in VRS. Heroes.
Thank You for the in-depth but still brief review! That's the most complete one on the topic found on RUclips.
Horrific; I remember the wars so well growing up as a teenager.
It is pretty much believed and understood that modern fanatic religious warfare was not honed in Afghanistan, but instead Bosnia-Herzegovina and later Chechnya.
I absolutely LOVE your videos on multiple channels, Simon! One quick note: the ethnicities peopling the Balkans during the time of the Romans you spoke of were not Slavic. Rather, the Slavs migrated into the Balkans when the (western) Roman Empire fell. Before them, the Balkans were populated by Greeks, Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, Dacians and others.
Oh, and the Kumanovo Treaty was not signed in 1991, but in 1999.
My dad and his family took in a Bosnian Refugee during the war, he still lives about 20 minutes away from us and they’re still friends to this day
Lived thru all of it. It was a noble idea . But it costed us 200.000+ dead. What happened between us , slavic brothers and sisters is outrageous , most brutal and totaly sensless. Never again war
Once all slavs leave balkan the way they came from (russia, Ukraine) there will be true peace once again in the balkans
One of the most unknown and misunderstood wars. Thank you for your selfless informative nature. God bless you.
One of the most known but least understood wars, in my opinion. Anyone, typically, that was alive during the 90s is familiar with it. However, talk to anyone about it and almost no one unrolls a real concise explanation.
We were never meant to be together in the first place. But I find it interesting how some people say, oh we were great neighbors for decades, yeah maybe. Because no one was threatened before for their land being taken. This war turned ugly on everyone, because everyone wanted their piece of cake. Some people still didn’t get their piece but it is what it is. It is that war that showed true faces of what we really feel for each other.
I looked this up on Wikipedia this morning. What a pleasant surprice this great documentary is.
I visited Yogoslavia in October of 1986. I was 15 years old. My dad was a Sergeant Major in the Army stationed in Wurzberg Germany. My mom worked as a GS13 Secretary for a Two Star General. They saw a cheap deal on a four day trip to a resort on the sea for four people. Well, dad, mom, me and a girl that worked in my moms office named Ruby. My mom had forgotten I was a raging hormone teen boy. Ruby was a head start advanced student in school who graduated 12 grade when she was 15 and with parental signature joined the Army at 16 years old. Now she was 17 same as me. My mom forgot this because Ruby was a Private First Class in the Army and seemed mature. Well things worked out so Ruby and I had to share a room that had one bed and a roll in folding bed. The activities for the trip involved daily trips to the Casino. Ummmm...Ruby and I could not go to that. You had to be 18 to go and 20 to gamble. So my parents went every day. Day one. Dad and mom get on the casino bus at 10:30am and will not be back till 6pm. Ruby and I have $80 US left with us and tickets to get lunch at the hotel. The two of us asked the hotel if we could use the tickets to get a bag lunch. The kitchen steps it up and gives us a wicker back pack designed for picnics with plates, wine glasses, utensils, napkins, two big big blankets, tiny pillows, fruit, sandwiches, cheese, crackers and......a big bottle of wine. YES! I put on the lunch back pack she grabbed hers along with our jackets and folding umbrellas incase. It was very chilly in Oct right on the coast. We walked up a cobblestone village road to the highest point by a church laughing, giggling, tickling and poking each other. We made fun of a nasty 20ish year old lady who called us scum Nazis. We got to the top. Put down a blanket and ate lunch digging into the wine right away. At the half bottle point Ruby kissed me. One thing lead to another and before long the second blanket was out. We were out of our cloths and I lost my virginity along with Ruby. We finished the wine after getting dressed and putting thing away. Hiked back down just in time to have sobered up, meet my parents for dinner and off to the rooms. My parents went to bed right away being tired. Ruby and I watched some movies we knew but they were in a slavic language. Then we had sex till falling asleep. The next morning my dad knocked on the door. I had to jump up put pants & shirt on, mess up the foldable bed a bit and answer the door while Ruby put on a T shirt and stayed under the cover. He told us to come down for breakfast. We did and made up a story about what we did the day and night before. Off went the Casino bus and off we went with picnic lunch, wine to the wooded trails and a day of learning each others physical likes. Repeat day three and four. Then on the bus home Monday night my dad notices how close Ruby and I act in our seats 5 rows behind him. How she falls asleep with her head on my shoulder but kisses me on the lips before sleeping. It dawns on him what they just did leaving a 15 year old boy, 16 year old girl unattended all day for four days in a country where we could drink wine or Kinderbeer at 15 and putting us in the same hotel room. From then on for two years I would get out of high school at 4pm meet Ruby after her work at 5pm and we dated. She was in the Army making like $700 a month in the 80s. I was a hustler and made around $200 US a week and 300 to 500DM a week so we did a lot invluding lying to my mom and dad about me at a friends house while Ruby and I would be in Berlin, Stuttgart, Manhiam, Bohn and even 3 day trips to Paris. That's my Yugoslavia.
glad you too the time to share all that.
What a mouthfull, I hope thats what ruby got !!
Watch my playlist.....and stop acting like a kid..
@@mariosdagres8169 we all know about the muslims nothing new here love
How the hell did they not realise what was going to happen.
A huge thank you to Simon and company, as a kid growing up through all of this turmoil it was very hard to understand a lot of what was going on, this video is very succinct and covers a lot of the intricacies of such a terrible period.
My understanding of this time is now much greater thank you.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, many of the press have described the war as the greatest battle since World War2. I guess 20 years is a long time for some people.
It is. Maybe the death toll didn't catch up yet but this is a war of two huge states with organized armies. Yugoslav wars were mostly fought without official army and entire Yugoslavia was smaller then Ukraine and half of it's population.
@@draganmarkovic491 Just the reason´s that lead to Yugoslav wars happening are more interesting than all of the Ukrainian war.
@@telmomoreira7616 I would agree, a lot more historical, economical, ethnic, religious, geopolitical, ideological, social etc. intrigue
@@draganmarkovic491 Economy didn´t really take part, sure some people made money like any other war and taking into consideration that wounds are still open, its hard to say it had alot of historical impact.
@@telmomoreira7616 I meant economy, as how worsening economical situation impacted on rise of national tensions and start of the war.
And with history, I meant how historical events lead up to the war. But also it did have major historical impact on the region, Europe and on the World. For the region it created 6/7 "new" countries, created multiple problems and destabilized it for decades to come. In European context it was first armed conflict since ww2, it announced bigger involvement of Germany in the region and in Europe and it created a destabilized region in Europe.
As for World historical impact, it was first military intervention of NATO. It also created some precedents, like NATO intervention without UN security council approval or the "right of self determination" it reignited US/NATO Russian rivalry,
There probably are some other historically significant events, these were just from the top of my head.
Many thanks Simon for making this video
I remember the Yugoslav wars of the nineties, I read “The Death of Yugoslavia” by Alan Little, the BBC correspondent who covered the conflict but I couldn’t work out what had gone on, why and by who
This has given me the timeline and a framework to try and make sense of what was a seriously nasty, messy and brutal civil war
People in the Balkans have been professionally killing each other ever since independence. Left wing conspiracy nuts try to blame the USA for the Yugoslav wars some how
Me too, grew up when it was going on in the 90s and never quite understood. It's so complex I don't feel bad for not understanding at like 8 or 9.
First lesson: dont call it a civil war. Nobody here likes that term. We fought for independence, thank you very much.
@@cannibalbunnygirl It's not that complex. For example: you know how Moscow takes majority of tax and rest of Russia doesn't even have toilet plumbing in 2022? That's how it was with Serbs and Belgrade. They wanted the Great Serbia and all the resources. Croats and Slovenes did not want to be a part of Great Serbia. Identical to Ukraine not wanting to be under thumb of Russia today.
@@idokwatcher2062 If so, then how is possible that after 30 years those 2 countries are one of the least developed in the EU and Croatia in on the last place in the EU?
Because if it would be the truth what you say then those 2 countries would have min 3 times more powerful economy and industry (if the rest of Yu abused then and that Serbia). When i checked now the economy and production of Croatia it is a lot worse then it was in 80's and Slovenia is so so but they don' have any new significant infrastructure projects except the mid size were the main donations came from the EU founds. That is why the UK left out and obviously Italy and some others are seeking to get out of EU, because they had enough of giving $$$ to countries like those 2 are.
I was very very young when this was happening and my mom had been in the Canadian reserves before I was born, so she has some friends that were sent there as UN peacekeepers during this war. The history of how Yugoslavia became a country and how it split into different countries is very difficult and complicated and I wouldn’t have wanted to be a citizen there for almost their entire history, it seems like peace was rare and fragile.
At time 36:50 the bombing of the Chinese embassy wasn't accidental, the Chinese had acquired significant amounts of the wreckage of a downed US F-117 Nighthawk Stealth aircraft, the pieces were being hidden in the basement of the embassy, to prevent this technology being studied by the Chinese the US ordered an air strike levelling the building.
…Are you joking? I dislike the Chinese state, but Jesus Christ, that could’ve been a much worse incident if what you’re saying is true.
@10% Big Guy …Christ I wonder what if any connection existed between the embassy staff and Arkans’ unit
You know those pieces from F-117 were sent to China eventually?
@@serbianwarrior385 I didn’t. All of this is new information for me. Thanks to you. I wonder what implications this had in the development of China’s J-20.
@@bayersbluebayoubioweapon8477 Probably a lot because China,at that time,werent that thechnology advanced country as they are today.
London needs a billion CCTV cameras to keep it together
im slovenian and i have been to bosnia multiple times, i also have a lot of bosnian friends becouse my hometown has a big muslim bosnian population, and after i saw the many buildings destroyed or that still have bullet holes on them in bosnia, and the cemetary in sreberenica of all the genocide victims they found so far, or heard stories from the war from 2 security guards of the srebrenica memorial museum, that both lost relatives in the srebrenica genocide, im extremly thankful that my county was able to avoid a full invasion and that a genocide never happened to us
I knew a Canadian peacekeeping veteran from the Medak Pocket. Medak Pocket deserve a video in its own right.
The Balkans, like Afghanistan, is, for some strange reason, one of those places that is always placed at the center of global politics and disputes between large powers. Yet, it is also seems to be unconquerable. Always seeking independence
I really liked how well the background was set up for this video, very well done. Going into the roots of this problem with the supression of national and sweeping the tentions under a rug of brotherhood and unity is something I hear to little of when it comes to discourse on this topic. I would however add that there were horrific war crimes done by both kosovo albanians and bosnian muslims alike which I feel was understated by this video.
I agree 100% but should also ad the crimes committed by croats was also understated in this video which is why I believe it's biased.
Serbia hasn't changed at all. They're starting again.
As always you have supplied unknown facts.
Lived in Denver most of my life and none of the local or state history courses mention Peter II living here.
King Peter did not live there, he died in Denver hospital after failed liver transplantation...