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]
