All language subtitles for The Death of Yugoslavia S01E01 Enter Nationalism

ROAR OF THOUSANDS APPLAUDING

This is the man
whose embrace of nationalism

is blamed for the wars in today's
Yugoslavia - Slobodan Milosevic.

IN SERBO-CROAT:

In 1980, Marshal Tito made a final
journey in Communist Yugoslavia,

the country he had created.

For 35 years he held
Yugoslavia's six republics together

with an iron hand.

Any hint of nationalism
from Serbs, Croats, Muslims,

Macedonians or Slovenes was crushed.

SOMBRE MARTIAL MUSIC

He called this policy
"brotherhood and unity".

Seven years later,
Yugoslavia was still united.

Tito's heirs
kept ethnic hatreds buried.

In Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic
was the right-hand man

of the president, Ivan Stambolic.

Yugoslavia's tragedy began
when Milosevic moved against him.

The story began in Kosovo,

Serbia's poorest province,
bordering Albania.

The president sent
his most trusted comrade

to calm an ethnic conflict
that was brewing up.

The local Communists,
mainly ethnic Albanians,

faced a challenge
from some nationalist Serbs.

ROAR OF APPROVAL

By meeting the nationalists,
Milosevic broke a central principle

of Tito's Yugoslavia - and
in Serbia's most sensitive area.

ORTHODOX CHANTING

In 1389, on the Field of Blackbirds,

King Lazar had led the Serb army
into battle,

to try to halt the advance of Islam.

Six centuries later,

Serb television
recreated their heroic defeat.

By then, most Serbs had left
this desolate province,

but extras to play
the invading infidel were plentiful,

for the majority
of Kosovans were Muslim Albanians.

The few remaining Serbs
claimed they were being driven

from their ancient kingdom.

Stories of Albanian atrocities,
no matter how wild,

were readily believed in Serbia.

Milosevic now had a chance
to exploit the Kosovo issue.

He invited his most trusted
advisers home.

Down in Kosovo,
the local Communist Party boss

soon heard Milosevic
was up to something.

The Kosovo Party boss trailed along
beside Milosevic,

uncertain what he was walking into.

UPROAR

When the meeting began,

Serbs claimed Albanians in Kosovo
made life impossible.

MILOSEVIC:

MIMICS LOW, BAYING NOISE

CROWD ROARS AND CHANTS

A scuffle started outside between
the Serbs and the Kosovan police.

Everything was going to plan.

It was Milosevic's moment
of decision.

What Milosevic said next
would change everything.

That night, Serb television
created the Milosevic legend.

Serbia saw him embrace the cause
of the Serbs in Kosovo.

Serbian viewers were not shown how
the Serbs had provoked the police.

The Milosevic myth was born
with a lie at its core.

Milosevic stood accused
of breaching party policy.

The Serb president tried to avoid
an open conflict with his deputy

so the number three in the party
issued a public rebuke.

NEWSREADER:

DUSAN MITEVIC:

Milosevic consulted
his tactical adviser.

He suggested attack
was the best defence.

The showdown came a few days later,

at a meeting of Serbia's
top Communists.

To oust the president's man,

Milosevic canvassed
every possible vote.

It was clearly a great victory
for Milosevic.

Milosevic now launched Serbia
on a crusade

to take control of Yugoslavia.

ORTHODOX CHANTING

The bones of King Lazar,

who died at the Battle of Kosovo,

went round Yugoslavia, inspiring
Serbs to reclaim their former glory.

MILOSEVIC:

Serbia had dominated Yugoslavia.

To cut it down to size,
Tito gave its two provinces -

Kosovo and Vojvodina -
self-government.

In federal bodies,
they could use their vote

to gang up with the republics of
Croatia and Slovenia against Serbia.

Milosevic set out
to seize these votes.

He started here,

as his "supporters' club"
of Serb nationalists

were brought in from Kosovo.

The nationalists,

fuelled by a day out
with free food and drink,

quickly turned local discontent
into a popular revolution

against the grey bureaucrats
of the old regime.

It took only a word from Milosevic
to finish the job.

Vojvodina fell to Milosevic,

and the next target was Montenegro,

always closely allied with Serbia.

The old president could do nothing.

One more Milosevic man
was installed.

By the beginning of 1989, Milosevic
controlled half of Yugoslavia,

but here, in Kosovo, Albanians were
in a majority, and they hit back.

The miners led a general strike.

They wanted their man back in power.

To help Milosevic
make good his threat,

Kosovo Serbs arrived in Belgrade.

As they mobilised
outside the federal parliament,

he asked the Yugoslav state council
for emergency powers in Kosovo.

The Slovene leader saw what this
could do to the rest of Yugoslavia.

Milan Kucan walked out
of the meeting

and went straight home to Slovenia.

That evening,
he spoke to his people.

DUSAN MITEVIC:

The TV chief watched the feed
from Slovenia, and knew what to do.

He made sure Serbia got the message.

The broadcast brought the people
of Belgrade onto the streets.

Next day, at first light,

before the final decision
was taken on Kosovo,

local Serb workers
were given a day off,

and marched into town.

Milosevic's colleagues phoned him
when the throng reached parliament.

With half of Belgrade baying
for law and order in Kosovo,

Milosevic sent the Yugoslav
president an ultimatum -

he must give the Serbs
the powers they wanted

or deal with the crowd themselves.

Faced with what he regarded
as Serb blackmail,

the Yugoslav president set out
to explain to the crowd

the dangers of the road
they were taking.

The Yugoslav president
failed to satisfy the crowd.

The party council caved in.

They gave Milosevic the power
to use the Yugoslav army in Kosovo.

The crowd had waited all day

for Milosevic to tell them
that Kosovo would be theirs again.

Now, with emergency powers in place,

the Kosovo parliament had no choice
but to cede all authority to Serbia.

The ex-Party boss was imprisoned
for counter-revolutionary activity.

All dissent was crushed.

It was the tiny republic Slovenia
that turned on the Serb giant.

Kucan said he'd change
the Slovene constitution

to keep Belgrade out of his affairs.

The Kosovo Serbs again mobilised.

But Kosovo was at the opposite end
of the country to Slovenia.

Slovenia found an ally,
the Republic of Croatia,

which wouldn't let agitators
cross its border.

Kucan's police had no trouble
with the few local Serbs

who turned out to demonstrate.

Milosevic would have to try
something else to beat the Slovenes.

THEY SING

The instrument Milosevic chose
was the Yugoslav Communist Party.

He called an extraordinary congress.

As delegates stood for the hymn
to brotherhood and unity,

they all knew that
this congress had been summoned

to crush the defiant Slovenes.

Kucan had only one hope -

Yugoslavia's second-largest
republic, Croatia.

Milosevic selected as chairman

a leader who owed him his career.

It was the first congress the
president of Montenegro attended.

This latest Serb aggression shook
delegates from other republics.

The Serb block showed no mercy.

In a break,
the Slovenes held a crisis meeting.

Kucan knew if they walked out,

he could be blamed for the chaos
in Yugoslavia.

He offered a deal.

Before the final vote was announced

I was still at the speaking podium

when Ribecic requested the floor.

No-one gave him the floor.

He simply walked up.

Ribecic, a Slovene delegate,

had been primed
to give them the signal.

He said the Slovenes couldn't accept

the climate in
the Central Committee.

At that very moment,

all the Slovene delegates rose
from all over the hall,

from the presiding head table,

and started leaving
the plenary session by one door.

CROWD WHISTLE AND CLAP

He wanted to diminish the drama,

and he put it forward as something
normal - "Well, let's go on."

Milosevic's response was daring -

to tell the Party it could survive

the defection
of the troublesome Slovenes.

His gamble depended on keeping
all the other delegations in line.