Original subtitles

On the morning of the 28th of February 1994,

Captain Robert G. Wright is about to make history. He prepares to engage eight Bosnian

Serb airplanes spotted in a no-fly zone. This would be the first military engagement in the

history of NATO. A radar airplane issues a warning. Land or exit the no fly zone,

or be engaged. After the second warning he is cleared to attack He locks on and fires.

NATO is here to stop the war in the former Yugoslavia. A nation once built on brotherhood

that was tearing itself apart along ethnic lines. How did this happen? Yugoslavia seems

special. When multi-ethnic empires were falling apart, Yugoslavia formed a federation of six

republics. When superpowers divided the world in two blocks, Yugoslavia crafted a third. And when

the West thought war was something of the past, Yugoslavia started the worst conflict in Europe

since World War II. I traveled all across the former Yugoslavia to show you the past,

present and future of this region. Nobody wants war. If it happens, we must be ready.

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I found this book about countries of the world. It's almost 50 years old. It has descriptions and

images from all over the world. Yugoslavia is the largest country of the Balkan peninsula, it says.

It talks of the Balkan mountains, elongated islands, a federation consisting of Slovenia,

Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia. This federation has four languages,

three religions and two alphabets. It was founded during World War I. For a modern viewer, that

might seem weird. Why make a federation like this when everyone else is talking about nationalism?

But actually, it's not weird at all. For the most part, this area has been dominated by foreign

empires. I'm here at the river Drina. When a Roman Empire gets divided in two, this river

is the border. On this side, the Western Roman Empire, on the other side, the Eastern Roman

Empire. And this will have huge consequences in the future. Because these sides will both develop

an own take on Christianity. Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism. Two religions

fighting over who Jesus loves more. But that's not the only lasting effect of foreign empires.

When the Ottoman Empire invaded the Balkans, they brought Islam. Some groups converted. But despite

these religious differences, the people in this area start to believe they have more things in

common than divide them. They're all Slavs. Many speak these two languages that are so

related they're mostly called under one name. And they feel oppressed by two empires. Serbia is the

first to successfully fight for the independence. But it's the independence wish of a Bosnian Serb

that will unite the Slavs. It just needed a world war to happen. This is Sarajevo. It's

been called the Jerusalem of Europe. You can find mosques, orthodox and catholic churches. And even

a synagogue built by the Ottomans. But Sarajevo is mostly known for something else. I'm standing in

the exact spot where Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb, stood. When he attacked Franz Ferdinand,

the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne. And killed him. In 1918, Gavrilo's dream came true.

The kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is born. This makes a lot of sense. The Croats

and Slovenes are safe from potential aggression from countries like Italy and Hungary. Serbians

are spread over a big area. They can now unite in this country. And the victors of World War I are

happy to take the Austrian-Hungarian Empire apart. This kingdom later gets rebranded into the Kingdom

of Yugoslavia. But quickly, Croats and Serbs clash over how to rule this kingdom. Croats want

more federal independence. Serbs want a strong centralized state. Before this can be resolved,

Yugoslavia gets invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies. And just as in the rest of the world,

what happens next is not pretty. I'm here at Jasenovac. This is the death camp run by

the Croatian fascist regime, the Ustasa. It's basically Croatia's Auschwitz. The atrocities

committed here are not done on an industrial scale, but with knives, hammers and scythes.

It goes so far that the German commander said, "The Croats have gone raging mad." Hitler even

intervened. The thing about World War II in Yugoslavia is that it's not just an occupation,

it's also a civil war. There are three groups. You have the fascist-Croat group, the Ustasa. There is

a loose federation of Serbian royalist resistance groups called the Cetniks. And there are the

communist partisans. Both the Ustasa and Cetniks are extreme nationalists. Nation states cleansed

of other ethnic groups are all the rage in this time. The Cetniks wanted to unite all Serbians

in one state. The Ustasa and Croatia without Serbs, Jews and Roma. And the partisans want

to have an independent socialist state where all ethnicities live together. These aims conflict and

will lead to a lot of bad behavior. This monument lists 83,145 casualties, with the majority Serbs,

Jews and Roma that were murdered. But most weren't killed here. In total, around 340,000 Serbs alone

were murdered by the Ustasa. In response, Cetniks kill Croats and Muslims. Partisan

forces fight Ustasa, Cetniks and also kill some civilians. Now it's important to point out that

the Ustasa never had the support of more than 10% of the politically active population. And that

not all Serbs supported the Cetniks. Many Serbs joined the partisans. And these partisans are the

largest resistance group in the Second World War. They managed to liberate themselves without much

foreign aid. But this new country needs a story to unite people after the civil war. There is one man

that will think of such a story. This is Kumrovec, the birthplace of Josip Broz Tito, the leader of

the partisans. Kumrovec is located on the border between Slovenia and Croatia. And Tito himself

was born from a Slovenian mother and a Croatian father. In that way, embodying the Yugoslav ideal.

He understands that people in Yugoslavia were "so closely related that they could live together,

and so intermingled that they had to". The story he invents is that all people in Yugoslavia fought

together against fascism. They live in a socialist brotherhood and all countries joined this republic

out of their own free will. The slogan "Bratstvo i jedinstvo" shows that. All ethnicities get

the same rights. To push this new story for the nation, the communist party built these

futuristic looking monuments all over Yugoslavia that commemorate victims of the Second World War.

Now don't be mistaken, Tito is a dictator and people that criticize the party go

to jail or worse. Religion is suppressed. But the story actually works. Inter-ethnic

relations can generally be described as good. Every year people have it better.

Healthcare and education are free. A consumer society is built. Is this a socialist utopia?

Tito did not live forever. His death is often seen as the reason for the collapse of Yugoslavia. That

without him violent ethnic tensions would have to erupt. When war in Yugoslavia did break out

in 1991, Western commentators knew that Balkans were a place where hatred and distrust lingered

to this day. Popular books like this came out that talk about Bosnian villages that were full

of savage hatreds. A hatred that had deep roots in some distant tribal past. Popular YouTube

videos also talk about the ethnic tension as the main cause for the war. The constant

ethnic and religious division. It seemed that it was only a matter of time before a breakup would

be imminent. And although the conflict played out along ethnic lines, the idea that they were

the cause of the conflict is a myth that just won't die. Before the 20th century, there had

actually never been armed conflict between Serbs and Croats. Northern Serbia and Macedonia were

also multi-ethnic. But both were generally peaceful in this period. And when Tito died,

the country did not suddenly collapse. Socialist Yugoslavia existed for 11 years after he passed.

Almost a quarter of its lifetime. What did happen is that ethnic identity was shaped by elites

during a time of traumatic changes. To start, Tito failed in preparing a successor. So the presidency

rotates around the different republics. This leads to a power vacuum. A previous change in the

constitution already gave the individual republics more power. And the richer republics soon feel a

lot less solidarity with their poorer neighbours. Look at this graph of economic growth. The world

was hit by a bad global crisis in the 70s and 80s. Many countries are suffering in the early 80s,

but then recover. In Yugoslavia, for 10 years, the situation only gets worse. It borrowed money

from the IMF. But that demands neoliberal reforms in return. They pushed the country into a bigger

crisis. In the 1990 CIA World Factbook, Yugoslavia has unemployment of 15% and inflation of 2,700.

So this is a country with mass unemployment and never-ending crisis. Where the same bread can be

four times as expensive in a single month. And then something happens that will have an even

bigger impact. To understand what that is, you have to look at this photograph. This is from the

1984 Winter Olympics, organised in Sarajevo. The Yugoslav delegation is sandwiched between the USA

and the Soviet Union. There was also deposition on the world stage. Yugoslavia was one of the

founders of an organisation of countries that was not part of the Western or the Soviet Bloc. That

this conference should call upon the powers of the world to disarm. If you want peace, stop preparing

for war. A country where leaders from all over the world visited. Yet the relationship with the

Soviets was never easy. The fear of a Soviet invasion kept the country together. But when

communism starts crumbling, that fear evaporates. The Americans lose interest in supporting an

unaligned socialist country. And people demanding change all over Eastern Europe scare Yugoslav

communist elites. How will they keep power? They quickly understand if democracy comes,

they need to appeal to national sentiments. And in Serbia, one leader grabs his chance.

I'm here at Kosovo Polje, which means Kosovo Field. This place is extremely

important for Serbian mythology. Because in 1389, they fought a battle against the

Ottomans. And this battle would lead to the end of the independent Serbian state. And

it's also here that Slobodan Milosevic gives a speech in 1989. 600 years after the event.

Six centuries later now, we are being again engaged in battles and are facing violence.

They are not armed battles, although such things cannot be excluded yet. The Serbian conservative

elites made a plan to stay in power. What if they change the conversation? They don't want to talk

about the economy, they want to talk ethnic conflict. So they paint Serbs as the age-old

victims in Kosovo. On the television, World War II crimes of Croatian Ustasha are being broadcast

all the time. Now Milosevic is often shown to be the only reason for the breakup of Yugoslavia and

the wars by creating ethnic tension. And he is very important, but just part of the picture.

The Slovenians have the strongest economy. They no longer feel like paying for the rest. They

give up on the Yugoslav project. The Croats feel the same. And also that they are being

dominated by the Serbs. The political elite in Croatia also rediscovered the Second World War

and paint all Serbs as Croatian-killing Chetniks. Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia hold independence

referendums that pass. And they set the stage for the breakup of Yugoslavia. As seen before,

when violence erupted in multi-ethnic communities, it was easily explained as something expected. And

if you grew up in the West like me, all Serbs have been painted as blind followers of nationalist

propaganda. Actually, Milosevic had a problem. The Serb population didn't want ethnic conflict. Many

Serbs were living in multi-ethnic communities in Croatia and Bosnia. These were not multicultural

paradises, but they were peaceful. We know this because we have polling data. In 1989,

66% of Croat respondents said relations in their own community were very good or mainly good. The

Serbs in Croatia were even more positive. 72.1% said they were very good or mainly good. In the

80s, 29% of Serbs in Croatia were marrying Croats. But when asked about ethnic relations

on the level of Yugoslavia, people say it is a lot worse. In Bosnia, where basically everyone

lives in a multi-ethnic community, when asked about relationships in the Republic of Bosnia,

just 24% say good. But when asked about their own community, 90% are happy. So the propaganda

helped to give the idea relationships were bad on a national level. But in their daily lives,

in the communities, when people meet Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks, people are happy. Ethnic identity is

fluid. It depends on the context. People can have overlapping identities, they can feel Croat and

Yugoslav, and most people don't wake up thinking about their ethnic identity. They think about

their jobs, their family, their daily life. But there are things that can make ethnic lines hard.

Fear, economic insecurity and war. This is not our flag. This is a communist flag. Serb elites wanted

to make war and the defense of so-called innocent Serbians outside of Serbia the only acceptable

story. So they send in paramilitary forces to force conflict and atrocities exactly in those

areas in Croatia, where people are living together peacefully. Even then, the language of ethnic

hatred doesn't fit. It was the largest opposition rally in Serbia since Yugoslavia's civil wars

erupted. When the war starts, Serbs don't all rise up to support their ethnic brothers in Croatia. In

Serbia, there are mass protests against Milošević. 200,000 young Serbians don't want to fight and

flee the country. And 50% of all Serbians and 80% of Belgrade residents dodge the military draft.

The enemy of Serbian people, of Serbian future is not in Washington, in Moscow, London or Paris, but

right here in Belgrade. And shame on us. So, far from ancient hatreds or politicians stepping into

existing ethnic tension, this tension had to be created to silence the people that don't want war.

To make war the only acceptable political talking point. And to keep a hold on power. When that was

successful, horrible things happened in Croatia and then Bosnia. These Yugoslav wars in Croatia

and Bosnia have been covered countless of times. So I will not give you a day-to-day account. I

just want to show you this cemetery in Sarajevo. This place is full of people that died too soon.

War damage is still visible in the city that had to endure the longest

siege in modern history. In these wars it's the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosniaks,

that suffer the most. Mostly from Serbian aggression incited by elites. With the

massacre of 8372 men and boys in Srebrenica as the worst act. Deliberate attempt to erase Bosniaks.

But it's also Croats that work together with the Serbs to divide Bosnia. They engage in

ethnic cleansing of Serbs and Bosniaks. And some Bosniak soldiers engage in war crimes.

This results in an estimated 1 to 200.000 deaths and millions of refugees. In 1995,

after the NATO war of intervention ends with the Dayton Accords, Bosnia was divided in two. A place

where people once lived together peacefully, now divided along ethnic lines. Serbia and Montenegro

continue Yugoslavia in a new union. But war in the region was not over. If you go to Kosovo,

you'll notice something you don't see often these days. Streets named after American generals.

Monuments to former Secretaries of State. And even a full-on statue for American President Bill

Clinton. Why do they love America so much? This all has to do with what happened in 1999. Where

ethnic tensions were low in most of Yugoslavia, Kosovo was different. The tension was between

minority Serbs and majority Albanians. Serbia saw Kosovo as its province. But Kosovo Albanians tried

to gain an independent status since the 80s. This was mostly low-level insurgencies and peaceful

protests. Under Milošević, they are suppressed. Still, their leaders support non-violent protests.

But when they noticed they were not part of the 1995 peace treaty, Kosovo Albanians were

done with peaceful protests. They start an armed struggle for independence. They target the Serbian

minority living in Kosovo, attacking religious heritage and Serb security forces. And Milošević,

with his popularity falling again, answers with great force. What exactly did they do? They killed

eight of my cousins, men, boys. Two of them, they were age of 16 years old. I've seen a cut head,

the eyes taken out, eyes. And I have not managed to continue anymore to look on them.

Serb paramilitaries assaulted an estimated 10 to 20,000 women. And with the atrocities in Bosnia

on their mind, NATO once again steps in. My fellow Americans, today our armed forces joined our NATO

allies in airstrikes against Serbian forces responsible for the brutality in Kosovo. NATO

expects this to be easy, but Milošević doesn't fall quickly. So in a controversial move they

start hitting the infrastructure of the country, destroying almost half of Serbia's industrial

output. This war was stopped as well, with Kosovo basically becoming a protectorate of the UN.

They're removing the traces of what they see as the Serb occupation of Albanian land. And tens of

thousands of Serbs in Kosovo fleeing their homes. An hour ago they were farming as they have for

generations. Now they were setting out to become a refugee statistic. Yugoslavia finally ended when

Montenegro voted to leave the Union in 2006. If you look back at the 90s, you see communist elites

turned nationalists were able to hang onto power by creating ethnic conflict and using their time

to plunder the socialist systems. Both in Croatia and in Serbia the same parties ruled for almost 10

years. In Serbia individuals become extremely rich. They take over state-owned companies

and steal 4 billion of Serb savings. Modern Serb leaders in Serbia and Kosovo that want change have

been assassinated. In Croatia the leading party has made the biggest plunder of all countries

transitioning from communism. They used the money to support separatist insurgencies in Bosnia. They

even used intelligence agencies to spy on soccer clubs that were playing the president's favourite,

really. With socialist Yugoslavia buried for over 30 years I wanted to know what the legacy

of this country is. How do the present and the future look? I can share statistics.

Press freedom and corruption indices put former Yugoslav countries low on the list in Europe.

When it comes to the Human Development Index, a measure that compares economic and social

developments, Slovenia is far ahead with the countries that saw war lagging behind.

More than statistics I was interested in the stories of young people in this area. But I

ran into a problem. Almost everywhere people wanted to talk to me, just not on camera. In

the Serbian part of Bosnia I talked for an hour with a Serb my age who had only

positive experiences working with Croats, working with Bosniaks. He was sick of the corruption.

But he couldn't tell me any of that. Because saying that would be career suicide. The war

is still very much alive. And it reminded me of this saying. The past is never dead. It's not even

past. On the road to Sarajevo I saw that Serbian town names were striked through. And although this

Bosnian youth I spoke to was positive about living with Serbs, If some guy did something in the past,

it doesn't mean that all people are bad. He surprised me with the following. Nobody wants war.

But if it happens, we must be ready. That's quite an ominous statement. After my uncomfortable laugh

he explained the Bosnians were surprised and most affected by the war. So that's why I think there

should be a little bit of change. Like in the readiness, but nothing too serious to be honest. I

put this to the bravado of the youth, but all the other people I spoke to in Bosnia told me war is a

daily topic. Both the politicians will continue to repeat these things, continue to bring up the war,

continue to bring up ethnic national tensions. It's the way they attract attention. It's the

way they attract the sort of basal emotions of people. The massacre in Srebrenica is especially

sensitive. The leader of Bosnian Serbs banned schools from teaching about atrocities from

the war. And when the UN voted to make Srebrenica an international memorial day, he threatened with

separation. In Belgrade, Serbia, the recent past is visibly present. You can find many

memories of the bombing. And disagreement with Kosovo's move to declare independence in 2008.

Its independence had not been recognized by Serbia and about half of the countries in the UN. But not

all Serbs feel Kosovo should stay with Serbia. Mane remembered the bombings in Belgrade. To even

more protect ourselves from any explosion or debris, we basically shift the furniture so that

our clothes cabinet, our cabinet, is in between us and the windows. So if the windows explode,

at least we have something in between us. And when it comes to Kosovo? I personally believe,

and I think a lot of Serbians, at least my age, believe that Albanians in Kosovo deserve the right

to self-govern, whether that's full independence or to some sort of a high degree of autonomy. OK,

like Kosovo is such an important part of Serbia, then why was never anything invested in Kosovo

when it was part of Serbia? Kosovo is not part of our country anymore. But then again,

if you give them the right to govern themselves, the same should apply to the Serbians living in

Kosovo. Speaking to locals in Kosovo, the memories of the wars were still fresh. They told me their

unresolved situation is a constant point of stress and they have a big fear for a new Serbian attack.

So what about the future for this region? The history and end of Yugoslavia is still a big

issue in these countries. But in some way, much older trends are at play. I'm here in Ljubljana,

the capital of Slovenia, the Switzerland of the Balkans. It's clean, it's beautiful and a tiny bit

boring. But don't tell the Slovenians I said that. They don't like to be called Balkan. And although

you can get a typical Balkan Burek, if you squint your eyes, you could also be in Austria.

The influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not only the architecture. This map shows

you how many people knew to read and write in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia almost a hundred years ago.

And although socialist Yugoslavia invested a lot in Slovenia's industry, its geography has always

put it close to the richer European core. History influences the present, but it doesn't define the

future. This region has a long history of ethnic coexistence. The Ottoman Empire was not interested

in creating an Ottoman people. They gave ethnic and religious minorities relative freedom. But

it's modern politicians that focus not on those long times of peace, but on times of war. Using

ethnicity to divide people. A trend you can unfortunately see all over Europe. The situation

is hard not to make you sad, because the politics are so different from the people. Everywhere I

came, I only had extremely positive experiences. The young people I spoke to were open to other

cultures. The former Yugoslav states are some of the most beautiful places in Europe. Its people

take pride in being the most hospitable. So I would really ask people, visit these countries and

talk to the locals. To experience this region for yourself. Once again, thanks to today's sponsor.

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