utterly rubbish film and an offense to anyone who has an iota of
interest or served during that period.
it is based very loosely on an incident during the decade, but alot
of it is utter rubbish.
the balkan wars started in 1989 with the unofficial separation of
slovenia [a favrouite skiiing resort], against the wishes of the
federation.
the federation sent in forces to retain the separated country, and
after some action they declared a ceasefire, and the federation
allowed slovenia to go her own way.
croatia seized the opportunity and mobilized her own nationalistic
forces, cutting off the remaining federation forces in
slovenia.
1990-1991 saw the start of the major action between the federation,
and croatia, breaking into war between the serbian/federal armies
and those of croatia.
after some negotiation, something resembling a truce came to pass,
but it was during this period, in the mid 90s that croatia used
this break to reorganize her forces and started the so-called
'homeland war', wiping out the serbian community in croatia and
forcing the largest ethnic cleansing of the decade - that of serbs
out of croatian territory.
the balkan war became one involving the central territory, which
also broke away, predominantly muslim, creating its own forces but
at the same time fighting amonngst itself [multiple muslim
factions, and also created an influx of so-called islamic
mercenaries [taliban, etc]] as well as fighting both against and
aside croatian forces, against the serbian/federal forces which
were allied in the region [bosnian-serbs, bosnian-croats and
bosniaks].
the federal army withdrew support and the bosnian-serbs were on
their own against the croats, the bosnian-croats and the
bosniaks.
during this time, NATO was heavily involved, often alongside or
taking over from UN peacekeeping forces, and trying to enforce the
peace without getting too involved.
after some bitter fighting, again a semblance of a truce was
maintained and the croats, the bosnian-croats, bosnian-serbs and
bosniaks were forced to draw up plans for borders and their new
states.
late 90s saw the kosovan region, originally a serbian ethnic
region, beset by ethnic riots [ethnic-rapes against the serbs,
albanian ethnic increase, etc] during the 80s, overflowed into the
90s, and came to a head in the late 90s after the main balkan wars,
when the remaining albanian fighters, fresh from war, went to join
the kla, joining with units from over the border in albania, to try
and separate kosovo into an albanian only state.
serbian state police forces went in, later followed by federal
units, leading to further NATO action.
while remaining a state of the former federation, serbia withdrew
its military forces intact, and kosovo remains a volatile
region.
serbia is often painted as the new bad guys in movies, often
because people dont read beyond the tabloid papers.
us forces/NATO was not prepared for operations in the balkans as
the us were still reeling from its foreign policy farce in somalia
[think blackhawk down] and europe was still reeling from finding a
bloody civil war in its backyard.
weather and terrian and the bloody history behind the region
[thousands of years of bloody invasion and oppresions, often
against each neighbour and based on ethnic ties] also meant that
NATO operations were often ineffective, and the locals were well
aware of this and used it to their advantage on all sides.
the bosnians made a particular plea to look like the underdogs,
croatia was in bed with hungary and germany which was influential
in how the rest of europe saw her, and serbias only ally was russia
and they didnt play the same propaganda game as effectively as the
other factions.
historically, croatia was remembered for its nazi past during ww2,
employed, and under its own will, to stamp out and oppress the
serbians in the region.
the only reason yugoslavia was formed at all, was because of tito,
the communist leader who led his forces to defeat the nazi powers
in the balkans and the allies helped create the state of
yugoslavia.
yugoslavia was held together by tito until his death in the early
80s.
this is when the differing ethnic factions began to fall apart
[ethnic riots, leading to milosevic's rise through the federation
[leadership based on ethnic rotations] based on populist
propaganda], and leading upto the explosion in the late 80s,
early90s and the balkan wars.
with milosevic gone, serbia [& montenegro] is looking to
re-integrate with the international community but the bad-guy
propaganda from the period lingers on, croatia lost its [almost war
criminal] tudjman but is a thriving tourist resort, slovenia is
back with its winter resorts, and bosnia is rebuilding. kosovo
remains a violent hotspot, and all sides still have factions aching
for revenge and more fighting.
the srebenica incident is based on a lot of unfounded reports and
information that also includes the battles in and around that
region featuring divisions from the bosnian army that were not
supposed to be there [it was a de-miliitarized zone] who lost
heavily in the running battles with smaller but better equipped
units of the bsa.
recent unearthing of militia video showing executions hasnt helped
the bsa's case.
[its often important to form distinctions amongst the regular
federal army of serbia which was not involved, and the locally
irregular militia armies formed from criminal gangs and locals that
were employed by all sides, particularly within bosnia]
ive spoken with mercenaries from those wars, some loonies, some not
so, and i had family there too, and spoke to quite a few locals in
the region [mostly croats].
all in all it was a very messy episode in the history of europe,
and not one that'll be forgotten nor forgiven, and one that
continues to be used and abused and feed misinformation from and by
hollywood and the mass media.
its worth watching savior,
featuring dennis quaid, warriors mini-series featuring damian
lewis, and no-mans land -
all show how futile and how pretty bad all sides were during those
years of conflict.
and are all much better than 'behind enemy lines'.
[i'm ina hurry so this was typed out asap]
