Some of you may be interested in the BBC’s decision to consider the BNP leader Nick Griffin to attend a Question Time panel. You may also be interested in history; in particular how nationalism has played a role in politics. The off air collection contains many fine examples of journalism that documents the nightmare of nationalism. The spectre of nationalism has raised its head many times throughout history and Yugoslavia is a recent example where sectarianism displaced centuries old communities and murdered tens of thousands of innocent people.
I found The Death of Yugoslavia documentary about the break-up of Yugoslavia compelling. Transforming from a tourist paradise where holidaymakers flocked into a war zone spiralling out of control, the film reveals how hostilities easily unfolds when nationalistic lines are drawn by ambitious political leaders interested in power. The film tells how Slobodan Milošević whipped up Serbian nationalism by declaring himself the spokesperson and indeed the saviour of a threatened Serbian nation, exploiting factions, engineering political opportunities, and organising mob violence to create the conditions where separatist agendas inevitably escalated into bloodshed. The film also reveals how Slovenia walked out of a Yugoslav Communist Party marked the beginning of the end for Yugoslavia. Politicians from all sides fanned the embers of old divisions – Serbs versus Croats, Orthodox Christians versus Catholics versus Muslims, and so on. Most disturbingly, the film captures actual footage of the unravelling genocide and mass expulsions that swept over the Balkans, including the Srebrenica massacre where 8,300 Bosnian men and teenage boys were killed. Uniquely, those being marched off to their deaths were interviewed by curious journalists wanting to record their final moments.
While some well-documented criticism about the accuracy of a few of its subtitles continues, it won the BAFTA TV award for Best Factual Series in 1996 and is routinely championed as one of the greatest documentaries ever made. If you’d like to read more about the film, the accompanying book The Death of Yugoslavia by Laura Silber and Allan Little (Penguin, 1996) is available at 949.7024 sil in the University Library.
The Death of Yugoslavia DVD is available at 949.7103 DEA in the off air collection on the ground floor of the University Library.
Q. Who was the Second World War resistance leader and revolutionary who established Democratic Federal Yugoslavia and became its dominant figure until his death in 1980?
Tags: Balkans, BBC, communism, fascism, journalism, Milošević, nationalism, Question Time, sectarianism, Srebrenica, war, Yugoslavia
I think it was none other than Josip Broz Tito!
Correct! Marshall Tito famously fell out with Stalin, almost causing a war between Yugoslavia and the USSR. Stalin attempted to assassinate Tito several times earning this famous rebuke from Tito:
“Stop sending people to kill me. We’ve already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle…If you don’t stop sending killers, I’ll send one to Moscow, and I won’t have to send a second”.