History UsefulNotes / TheYugoslavWars

* WitnessProtection: What both the Serb prosecution and the ICTY failed at during the trial against Haradinaj.

** Western media too often fell under this trope. On 22 December 1992, during the Bosnian War, {{CNN}} reporter [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiane_Amanpour Christiane Amanpour]] was reporting from Kiseljak, not far from Sarajevo. Kiseljak was under Croatian military control and the town's population was almost exclusively made of Croats. Despite that, Amanpour reported that, "While people in Sarajevo are dying from starvation, the Serbs are living in Kiseljak in plenty".

** Seriba militarily defeated the KLA by May 1999, had only minimal military casualties during the entire war and successfully repulsed a combined KLA, Albanian and NATO offensive from Albania. The Kumanovo Treaty even allowed a limited number of Serb policemen and soldiers to return to Kosovo under KFOR jurisdiction in order to protect not only the Serbs and other non-Albanians but also the churches and other Serb cultural monuments. Sadly for them the the catastrophic and shortsighted policies of Koštunica and Tadić, just like the United States abusing it's position, destroyed any last hopes of Serbia ever peacefully reintegrating Kosovo.

* JackOfAllStats: Naser Orić. A relatively decent commander, an adept karate fighter, former corporal of the JNA bio-chemical batallion and a good businessman. Also accused of war crimes against Serb civilians.[[http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bosnian-army-wartime-commander-naser-oric-arrested]]

** Western media too often fell under this trope. On 22 December 1992, during the Bosnian War, {{CNN}} reporter Christianne Amanpour was reporting from Kiseljak, not far from Sarajevo. Kiseljak was under Croatian military control and the town's population was almost exclusively made of Croats. Despite that, Amanpour reported that, "While people in Sarajevo are dying from starvation, the Serbs are living in Kiseljak in plenty".[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiane_Amanpour]]

* JackOfAllStats: Naser Orić. A relatively decent commander, an adept karate fighter, former corporal of the JNA bio-chemical batallion and a good businessman.

* ''No Man's Land'', a famous anti-war movie about a Bosnian Muslim who is immobilized on a battlefield. As the Serbs have deliberately laid him on an anti-personnel mine which will explode if he gets up, he can't move at all. His choleric Bosnian friend and a bumbling NewMeat Serbian soldier then procede to bicker over him about who really started the war, etc. [[FireForgedFriends Later]], they [[EnemyMine grudgingly unite]] to fight for his and their own survival in the bombarded trenches. They even try to call help to free him from the trap. RuleOfFunny [[MoodWhiplash as well as]] RuleOfDrama [[{{Dramedy}} ensues]]. The film has a [[TearJerker major]] DownerEnding.

* ''BehindEnemyLines'' features an American airman shot down over Bosnia, who must then fight through hostile Serbian troops to get to safety. The villain's [[TheDragon dragon]] in this film served as an inspiration for Niko Bellic of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''
* The Serbian film ''{{Underground}}'' tells the story of Yugoslavia from the Serbian resistance of WorldWarTwo to the Yugoslav wars. This dark comedy is ultimately about the tragedy of Yugoslavia's balkanization. It was also released as a 5 1/2 hour miniseries called ''Once Upon a Time, There was a Country'', which is also the film's closing line. Although it was well-received, some critics accused it of being Serbian nationalistic propoganda and of having an overly idealistic portrayal of communist Yugoslavia.
* In the TV-movie ''MacGyverLostTreasureOfAtlantis'', MacGyver and Prof. Atticus go to the Balkans to find Atlantean artifacts. After finding them, they must escape from hostile military forces.
* ''{{Savior}}'' features an American soldier turned mercenary who goes to Yugoslavia seeking revenge against muslims because they killed his family. Things become a lot more complicated later on though, as the movie explores themes of redemption, honour, and the effects of war on the civilian population from a very human, "from below" perspective.

Eventually, that war ended via Western intervention, but things got trickier as Albanians in Kosovo decided that it was time to [[BalkanizeMe break ties]] with Serbia. This sparked the third big conflict, the Kosovo War. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia engaged in a ruthless crackdown which the United States used as an excuse to intervene. The war only came to an end after America outright launched a controversial bombing campaign. For several months after that, Albanian extremists proceeded to destroy old Serbian monuments (usually christian churches) and killing non-Albanian population. In 2008. Albanians in Kosovo claimed independence which is only partially recognized by the international community.

** Karadžić may be the best example of a subversion. He was [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YVHQZ1eQWM most likely]] a typical nerd and a beta male who was trying to act like an alpha male with predictable results. He had absolutely no control and authority over the VRS (some go even as far and say that Mladić has always been the most powerful man in the Republika Srpska) and in spite of being urged by Milošević to return to the negotiation table (as the Srpska already achieved her goals by holding 68% of Bosnia, more than the planned 62%) and in spite of Mladić openly stating that the horribly undermanned VRS would, beyond any reasonable doubts, not be able to hold off an eventual combined offensive of the HV, HVO, [=ArBiH=] and NATO (which later happened), Karadžić's ego prevented him to return to the negotiations before thousands of Serbs were killed and expelled from Western Bosnia. [[WhatAnIdiot Ugh!]]

* CivilWar: An interesting version. While Croatian and Bosniak narrative [[PlayingTheVictimCard calls it a "Greater Serbian aggression"]] and the local Serbs see it as a [[PlayingTheVictimCard defensive war to avoid]] [[HistoryRepeats suffering the same]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_persecution_of_Serbs gruesome fate]] as they did in WorldWarII, it was in it's core a typical ethnic civil war with the characteristics of a mafia/gang war in Croatia, Bosnia and especially Kosovo with both direct and indirect outside involvement.

* DraftDodging: One of the main reasons the JNA failed her objectives in Croatia. As the people in Serbia and Montenegro felt for various reasons very apathetic towards the wars, Montenegro managed to draft 28% of her soldiers for the war while Serbia, the most powerful, largest and most inhabited republic, got only 11%. The low motivation was also the reason Serb media went far too often overboard in their propaganda efforts.

* KentBrockmanNews / PropagandaMachine: Too many cases to count. The Serb media in particular to the point of local MemeticMutation as due to some [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_of_the_media_in_the_Yugoslav_wars#Serbian_media outlandish claims]] it did a good job at [[{{Narm}} embarrassing itself]]. The media in the western countries was far too often just as bad if not outright worse than the local media in terms of hate-mongering propaganda and primitivism.

* LaResistance: In practice: everyone (or no one, depending on how you look at it,) even though Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and a diminished Yugoslavia were internationally recognized countries throughout the war.

** Interestingly the Serbs, who are blamed for every possible and impossible ill, have a far more open discussion about their wrongs and the role of their leaders in the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Others... [[PlayingTheVictimCard not so]] [[NeverMyFault much...]]

* VestigialEmpire: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of Serbia and Montenegro) considered itself as the legal succesor of the Socialist Federal Republic Yugoslavia. Though the UN and the other former Yugoslav republics think otherwise, which is why the FRY had to (re)apply for UN-membership.

** Inverted with the Republika Srpska. Being under heavy sanctions from Serbia since 1994 and having no means to repel the [[HopelessBossFight combined military apparatus of the Bosniaks, the Bosnian Croats, Croatia and NATO]], the Republika Srpska evaded utter defeat and total collapse by agreeing to the Dayton Agreement and being saved by the Americans the same way just like the Macedonian Albanians above. Today the Republika Srpska is the politically more stable entity in Bosnia and the Serbs have 49% of Bosnia and Herzegovina for themselves. Like the Macedonian Albanians above, the Bosnian Serbs are in a perfect position to obstruct anything that is against their interests.

* ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'' is very heavily based off the Yugoslav wars. Seriously, just replace the names of Dolgare with Tito and all the ethnic groups with Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian. They do not shy away from showing the hatred between the three factions either.

* FightingForAHomeland: More or less every party, save the UN and NATO forces, had this reason in mind. Unfortunately, every homeland just so happened to included parts of someone else's homeland. While the Croats and Bosniaks fought for the territorial integrity of their homeland, the Serbs of the Croatian Krajna and Bosnia sought separation from said countries and annexation by Serbia which is why the Serbs wanted to remain in Yugoslavia while others sought independence. [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Ethnic_structure_of_SFR_Yugoslavia_according_to_1981_census.jpg/640px-Ethnic_structure_of_SFR_Yugoslavia_according_to_1981_census.jpg The ethnic composition of Yugoslavia]] made [[{{Understatement}} a lot of things easier said then done]].

** The Siege of Sarajevo holds the record as longest siege in modern history.

** The villains of the infamous [[CompleteMonster Slavers]] arc are from the Balkans, and give Frank the first real challenge he's had in a while, since they think like soldiers, not gang members.
* One version of the Lizard (the SpiderMan villain) had him lose an arm in Kosovo, his trying to regenerate turned him into a monster.

Basically, without [[UsefulNotes/JosipBrozTito somebody]] to hold it together, Yugoslavia ripped itself apart in a spectacular fashion, producing the only big war in Europe since UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.The war is often thought of as religious, but has more roots in the whims of politicians manipulating myths about religion to serve their own purposes; as such, the battle lines were drawn in accordance with this masquerade: Serbs, who were Orthodox Christian, received help from the similarly Orthodox Russians; Croats, who were traditionally Catholic, received help from the Western countries; and the Bosniaks, who had converted to Islam during the Ottoman era received help from both the West and fellow Islamic countries. The wars also had an economic edge to them; the two northern republics were the most heavily industrialized, and their inhabitants often accused the government of subsidizing the Serb plurality (Serbs amounted to about 36% of the population; next largest were Croats at about 20%) at their expense, making them the first to bail.

* FightingForAHomeland: More or less every party, save the UN and NATO forces, had this reason in mind. Unfortunately, every homeland just so happened to included parts of someone else's homeland. While the Croats and Bosniaks fought for the territorial integrity of their homeland, the Serbs of the Croatian Krajna and Bosnia sought separation from said countries and annexation by Serbia which is why the Serbs wanted to remain in Yugoslavia while others sought independence. [[http://www.euro-webonline.com/world_cultures/images/yugoslav_ethnic_map.jpg The ethnic composition of Yugoslavia]] made [[{{Understatement}} a lot of things easier said then done]].

Eventually, that war ended via Western intervention, but things got trickier as Albanians in Kosovo decided that it was time to [[BalkanizeMe break ties]] with Serbia. This sparked the third big conflict, the Kosovo War. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia engaged in a ruthless crackdown which the United States used as an excuse to intervene. The war only came to an end after America outright launched a controversial bombing campaign. For several months after that, Albanian extremists proceeded to destroy old Serbian monuments (usually christian churches) and killing non-Albanian population. In 2008. Albanians in Kosovo claimed independence which is only partially recognized

Eventually, that war ended via Western intervention, but things got trickier as Albanians in Kosovo decided that it was time to [[BalkanizeMe break ties]] with Serbia. This sparked the third big conflict, the Kosovo War. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia engaged in a ruthless crackdown which the United States used as an excuse to intervene. The war only came to an end after America outright launched a controversial bombing campaign. For several months after that, Albanian extremists proceeded to destroy old Serbian monuments (usually christian churches) and killing non-Albanian population. In 2008. Albanians in Kosovo claimed independence which is only partially recognized

Eventually, that war ended via Western intervention, but things got trickier as Albanian extremists in Kosovo decided that it was time to [[BalkanizeMe break ties]] with Serbia and make Kosovo a part of "great Albania". This sparked the third big conflict, the Kosovo War. What was left of Yugoslavia decided to take measures against radical islam terrorists in the southern region which United States used as an excuse to intervene. The war only came to an end after America outright broke the peace treaty it just signed as soon as Yugoslav soldiers left the province and (with help of Nato) bombarded Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia with tons of depleted uranium, killing (both Albanian and Serbian) men, women and children. After that, the former leaders of KLA military organization were put in charge of the region's goverment, with extremists proceeding to destroy old Serbian monuments (usually christian churches) and killing non-Albanian population. In 2008. Albanians in Kosovo claimed independence which officially isn't recognized by the majority of the international community, but is recognized by most countries of Nato and some of their former colonies.

->''"[[{{Foreshadowing}} If you saw what I see for the future of Yugoslavia, it would scare you]]."''

* TheCaligula: Milošević and especially his wife Mirjana Marković which got her the nickname The Red Witch of Dedinje. As a matter of fact the entire Serb leadership was a conglomerate of ruthless, power hungry, unscrupulous, and decadent opportunists rather then Greater Serbian imperialists.

* [[CrazyCatLady Crazy Cat Man]]: Koštunica, especially [[{{Flanderization}} his depiction in Serb media]].

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: Too many to count...

* GuileHero: Slovenia. Before starting military activity they established media centre to present themselves as [[DavidVersusGoliath a small democratic country standing up against oppressors]] and then banked on the idea that Yugoslavia won't intervene in full force due to international pressure and more urgent situation in Croatia (which unlike Slovenia had significant Serbian minority). [[BatmanGambit They were rigtht.]]

* WarForFunAndProfit: Dozens. Arkan was the most prominent one from the Serb side who build a lot of his fortune from pillaging Bosniak and Croat homes and according to rumors even fellow Serbs. Some Bosniak commanders in Sarajevo, Srebrenica and Bihać made a fortune making black market deals with the Serbs and often extracted money from the locals they were "protecting". Even on the American side we have Wesley Clark (taking over Kosovo's coal mines) and Madeline Albright (taking over Kosovo's telecom) as an aftermath of the war. It is evident that for the political elite this trope was the main motivation for the war, using the ethnic hatreds of their respective peoples as a pretext. Needless to say the smell of Yugoslavia's carcass attracted a lot of hyenas and vultures.

** The other reason it succeeded was because the entire Slovene government was this and the Albanians more or less copied from them. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War#Preparations_for_war The tropes that Westerners know about the Yugoslav Wars largely started as their PR strategy]], though unlike the KLA they [[GuileHero had a far better claim to moral superiority.]]