Bosnian War 1992-1996

[æRLO]

---

was this the war boris yeltsin stopped a tank from running over him?

He stood atop a tank to stop the August Coup in Moscow. I think na-sagol nimu ang 1989 Tiananmen Square incident ug August Coup.

[machinecult]

• This is a telephone conversation between General Mladic, Serb commander of the army corps in Knin and the head of the Croat Interior Ministry (MUP) force in Split. This conversation between two men who apparently know each other well (having had the same career in the Yugoslav National Army) was reported by the BBC correspondent, Misha Glenny, in his book "The Fall of Yugoslavia".

- "Is that you, Mladic?"

- "Yes it is, you old devil, what do you want?"

- "Three of my boys went missing near... and I want to find out what happened to them."

- "I think they're all dead."

- "I've got one of their parents on to me about it, so I can tell them for certain that they're gone?"

- "Yep, certain. You have my word. By the way, how's the family?"

- "Oh, not so bad, thanks. How about yours?"

- "They're doing just fine, we're managing pretty well."

- "Glad to hear it. By the way, now I've got you on the line, we've got about twenty bodies of yours near the front and they've been stripped bare. We slung them into a mass grave and they're now stinking to high heaven. Any chance of you coming to pick them up because they really are becoming unbearable...?"

More images.


Battle-scarred city.

SARAJEVO -- The International Committee of the Red Cross data shows that 15,655 people are still listed as missing from the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s.

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), based in Bosnia, said on the occasion of International Day of Disappeared marked this Sunday, that 40,000 people are estimated to have disappeared in the wars in former Yugoslavia, 30,000 of those in Bosnia.

This organization also said that its data showed there are between 8,000 and 10,000 unsolved cases there, and 12,000-14,000 in the region.

All too common sight.


fighting in Gornji Vakuf, central Bosnia

In Gornji Vakuf the Croats and the Muslims were at each other's throats, which was pretty pointless in the overall picture. This guy, who was in HOS, was in one room of this building and the Muslims were in the next room. I think he invited Jon Jones and myself up so when we left the Muslims in the next room would think he had left and they'd drop their guard. There was a small hole punched in the wall big enough to shoot our push a grenade thru. The guys in the other room were undoubtedly men he had grown up with and knew well.

Refugee family flee during Serb attack.


Hiding in the cellar.

The Bosnian Army had the Croats in the Lasva Valley surrounded. This HVO soldier was fighting on the front line near the village called Brdo, in the hills above Vitez. He and his buddies had cleverly fortified the house, and had planted tomato plants as camoflage. You could pop out of the cellar and grab a nice tomato. Late July, 1993.

Bosnian check point stops British UN Warrior tank from entering town.

This Canadian UN soldier was manning a checkpoint on the road near Olovo. The UN was using the road to move food and supplies into the interior and they wanted to make sure the bridge wasn't attacked. There were also two Muslim teenagers guarding the bridge for the Bosnian Army. They had Thompson machine guns with no ammo. I asked them what they planned to do with no ammo if some bad guys showed up and they said "run!"

These two guys in Kiseljak had a jumpin business selling booze and cigarettes. During wartime you can't go wrong with the basic vices. I wish I'd made note of the prices of the cigarettes. At the time a carton of Marlboros was about 175 DM in Sarajevo.

Bosnian soldier 'Mikki' being made coffee in Stari Vitez. Mikki survived the war but no info on the woman. A truck bomb exploded across the street destroying this house.


War was at home. Young man looks after his sheep while offering his services on the front line. Which is a dug-out machine gun pit.

This girl at the Gymnasium refugee center in Travnik. Most of the people living there had been cleansed from Doboj. Dec. 2010: I've heard from a lot of people who appear in my photos as children. This girl would now be in her early 20s. I would love to hear from her! Ako vidiš svoju sliku tu, molim te da se javiš!

Soldiers' meal being prepared.


Canadian artillery training part of NATO SFOR (Stabilization force) to Bosnia

Turanj, 1992. Serbian T-34 tank and anti tank mines next to the hospital of Karlovac, which was heavily attacked by tank fire and artillery in December 1991.

Serbian paramilitary with tiger cub.

During the 1991-1995 war, up to two million land mines were laid by both sides in the conflict. This has given Croatia one of the worst mine problems in Europe; several hundred people have been killed by them and it is estimated that the country will not be free of mines until at least 2019.

[IMG]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rnpg9fIrp7s/ThwQukOfimI/AAAAAAAAByQ/hz1AcJubIIk*******help-bosnia-now.jpg[/IMG]

[machinecult]

Kani sad ay, tan-awa ninyo ni, it's a true story about two snipers in the Bosnian War...

Finally saw it. Thank you. These are my kinds of films. Really deep and tragic stuff.

Anyway here's an article about the real story of the snipers, Vladimir Sarzhinsky "Vlado" and Slavko Simic. From the Chicago Tribune Oct. 1998.

In 1992 the front line of the Bosnian civil war landed literally 200 yards from Vladimir Sarzhinsky's front door. It transformed Sarajevo into a combat zone. In the particularly horrifying tradition of civil wars, it pitted Sarzhinsky against his best friend of 20 years and forced him to make an excruciating moral choice. It felt like he had fallen into hell.

The need to talk is often the most overwhelming impulse of those who have gone to war. Sarzhinsky -- or "Vlado," as he is called by those close to him -- is no exception.

"It was very important for me to empty. I always wanted to be honest and tell really how it is. It was good for me because you never know will you survive." Writer John Falk first recorded Vlado's experience in a powerful article in Details magazine, a story told to him while the Bosnian conflict still raged and Vlado's fate remained unknown. Falk's article inspired HBO's "Shot Through the Heart" featuring Linus Roache ("The Wings of the Dove") as Vlado and Vincent Perez ("Swept From the Sea") as his friend Slavko Simic.

The air is thick with memories as Vlado sits in a Los Angeles hotel telling his story. His body language is that of a man who has nothing to hide. The internal rage common to soldiers has subsided, though its terror lingers in the nightmares that plague him intermittently. Roache describes him as "open-hearted," and that is the prevailing impression of this man who exhibits the strength of a survivor, the vulnerability of one who knows anything can happen. Aged beyond his years, he still wears the war on his face.

"Honesty" is the operative word as Vlado unravels the bare bones of his life and the bleak necessities of war. He met Slavko when he was 12 and Slavko 14. Their mutual passion for professional sharpshooting formed the center of the friendship. Over the next 20 years they became as close as brothers. Vlado was a Croatian, Vlado's wife a Muslim, Slavko a Serb. The difference in their lineage was never an issue. Until the war.

"This is a crucial historical point," Falk says as he describes the ethnic differences that led to Yugoslavia's turmoil. "The Serbs had a choice." Serbs living in Sarajevo could remain or leave and join the Serbian perpetrators of the war. Slavko left; Vlado and his family stayed behind.

The Serbian National Army used snipers as psychological instruments of terror. Sharpshooters shot citizens as they went to replenish water supplies. Sarajevan forces deployed anti-snipers to stop the killing. Vlado's excellent marksmanship made him a designated anti-sniper; Slavko's skills singled him out as a sniper for the Serbs.

After 20 years as a marksman, Vlado knew the sound of individual guns. Like a fingerprint, each rifle revealed its identity to him. Deep into the war, he heard a gun that sent a chill of recognition through his heart. The sound of the rare German sports rifle. The expertise. The consistency. It could only be Slavko.

"He is a gentle man," Falk says of Vlado. "He loves to shoot, but he couldn't even kill a bird." Now the vicissitudes of war forced this gentle man to make a choice: track and kill his former best friend, or allow him to shoot innocent citizens. He chose the former.

Roache sees Vlado's decision as one of "conscience prevailing over personal feelings." "I think there was a mixture of deep confusion over how his friend could turn into this, a despair at the way things had gone, and yet also being very much in touch with what is the right thing to do and a willingness to do it.

"His story," Roache says, "is a metaphor for the insanity of the whole war"

Is it possible to transcend the insanity when war ends? How do you get beyond not only this defining choice, but other haunting memories -- clutching a young girl as she's shot in your arms, surveying the headless and handless bodies of friends returned in a prisoner exchange? It requires a healing of the highest order.

The road home from a battlefield frame of mind is long. For Vlado, it meant letting go of the past and dramatically altering his feelings about his friend. Slavko's remains were never found; Vlado is 99 percent sure he is dead. Before the war ended, Falk asked him what he would do if Slavko suddenly appeared.

Vlado said, "I would take off his shirt and see if he had a scar where I shot him. If he did, I would kill him again." After the war, Falk asked him the same question. Vlado responded, "I would hug him, I would drink with him, and call him my best friend. Because I understand now how it happened to him."

"I'm not angry any more," Vlado says. He sighs deeply as he explains his change of mind and speculates on the reason for Slavko's transformation. Was it ancient ethnic resentments awakened by army propaganda? Was it what Perez sees as a commonplace of war, "the slow descent into savagery to survive"? The search for a definitive answer is futile, but the decision to forgive is liberating. "People must forgive," Vlado emphasizes. "Not to forget, but to forgive."

The HBO film represents another step in his recovery. He hopes viewers realize his story is one of many; it stands for all Sarajevans who bravely defended their homes.

"The film is not just about me. I, my wife, my daughter, we are not anything special. We are so very, very ordinary." There were so many deaths in Sarajevo that they filled the cemeteries, forcing the conversion of a football field into a graveyard. The cemetery's back-to-back monuments bearing the same year of death attest to the full reach of this inglorious war. Vlado's voice softens almost to the point of inaudibility as he contemplates the future.

"I hope, I trust that I will find it. That peace of mind I once took for granted. It will be better. It's coming."

[machinecult]

Weird custom armored cars in the conflict. "Necessity is the mother of (all) invention". What they didn't have they create.













Train tank






If it still flies, use it.




Lastly, my personal fave. A glow in the dark tank.

[machinecult]

...must continue sharing...

These lightweight and cheap weapons are effective. It really bugs me that the US spends so much on arms when we're going up against the local dudes armed with the cheapest possible weapons....which happen to be pretty good. Near Vukovar I met an old chetnik who told me the best combat weapon ever was the Thompson sub-machine gun....."If you have the ammo. Otherwise, the best is the Russian-made AK47." These guys are HVO fighters in downtown Gornji Vakuf.

Some Albanian AKSH another paramil organization operating in Kosovo.


Bound and blindfolded Serbian POWs.


Yugoslavian federalis looking out for snipers.






Bosnian soldier weeps after fighting for months returns home only to find his entire family has been killed.


Women (they're quite the looker. I hear it was the result of too much potatoes and vodka?)


Serbs in Vukovar.


Muslim woman take position among the undergrowth. She fights for the Muslim Bosnians called, Bosniaks.


Armed Bosniak women.


Albanian


Young girl taking up arms as part of a Croatian militia.


Batch of Serbian female soldiers. Can you believe Bill Clinton would order F-117's to bomb Serb positions where these fine Christian Orthodox women are stationed?

[walker]

People who love to read about war, have never been to one, will never be willing to be in one.

War is always a curse.. both for the victor and the vanquished.

Why must people have to kill each other?

[hlongimanus]

gatan-aw lng ko gabii sa "In the Land of Blood and Honey"...nka-ingon man pud ko nga grabe kaau ni ang tao usahay noh...human beings man unta ang tawag pero inhumane kaau.

[machinecult]

People who love to read about war, have never been to one, will never be willing to be in one.

Excuse me, Walker but I find YOU putting that first sentence here really insulting. People read and watch this stuff regardless if they want to go to war or not! Its not up to YOU to psychobabble us!

[æRLO]

People who love to read about war, have never been to one, will never be willing to be in one.

War is always a curse.. both for the victor and the vanquished.

Why must people have to kill each other?

How can you explain many war memoirs that are made by veterans who have served during conflict eras, I know scores of military historians who've served in wars since Vietnam. There is a difference between reading about wars objectively and glorifying it. Are you referring to them as "armchair generals" as well?

[SPRINGFIELD_XD_40]

The sad fact is , there is truth in what WALKER just stated .

@ AERLO ...

It would not make any sense if the very people who wrote it was never there .

Do you guys know why ? I myself is a veteran of 3 conflicts ( civil wars ) and so is WALKER . It might be insulting to you guys but the fact remains , there is truth in it . You call that FACSINATION . Just because you guys are facsinated doesnt mean you are an ARM CHAIR GENERAL also or not glorifying anything .

To put substance in the statement , AERLO and MACHINECULT ... after seeing the pictures , would you guys still ENLIST and fight the war ?