World Kanno Travel Blog: Understanding the Yugoslav War from the 1990s in Belgrade, Serbia

I was ready to ditch the drunken streets of Budapest for something a bit more unfamiliar and less touristy, so I grabbed an overnight bus from Budapest into Serbia. Woke up with twilight poking my eyes, as I awakened to a gorgeous view of fields of golden wheat and sunflower unfolding as we coasted down a country road. The morning fog slowly vanishing as the sun rose over the horizon. We passed rolls of freshly cut hay scattered along the ground with the occasional silo. It was a truly glorious moving panoramic with the Tara mountains in the backdrop.

plains of Northern Serbia

panoramic view of the Danube and Sava rivers

Belgrade Castle at Kalemegdan Park

We passed over the Sava river and arrived in Belgrade’s main bus station. I decided to make my way to my accommodations by foot close to Kalemegdan park, which was about twenty minutes away. I didn’t want to waste much time, as I had only about five weeks in total to cover as much of the former Yugoslavia as possible. To give you an idea of its size, the former Yugoslavia is about the size of Wyoming. Five weeks may seem like plenty of time, but the former Yugoslavia broke up into seven independent countries after a long and bloody series of civil wars in the 1990s. It’s nothing new for an area that was once known as the powder keg of Europe because of its relentless and volatile history of power hungry empires fighting to absorb this mountainous region and its many ethnic peoples into their sphere of influence.

Eventually, nationalist ideas evolved into full-fledged wars of independence during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which eventually ousted imperial empires like the Austrian-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. In fact, it was this region that sparked the beginning of the Great War when the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne was assassinated in 1914.

Pobednik is a monument in the Upper Town of the Belgrade Fortress, built to commemorate Serbia's victory over Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire during the Balkan Wars and the First World War

Out of the ashes of the Great War, the independent nation of Yugoslavia was born. Made up of a Slavic majority with Serbs being the largest ethnic group. The political and military power was concentrated in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. So, it was here the seemed like the best place to begin my former Yugoslavia tour.

Looking westward toward Brankov Most (bridge)

plaza on the main street in the heart of Belgrade

As a world history teacher, this place was definitely high on my bucket list of places to go. So I began shortly after dropping my bags off in the hostel. There was quite a bit of construction going on the side streets of the city center, but didn’t reflect a building boom whatsoever. This was repaving the roads kind of construction. The city is rather dull compared other European capitals. Despite the great weather and modern pedestrian commercial street, there weren’t the droves of shoppers that one would experience in other European cities. The purchasing power of a county’s shoppers is reflective in their ability to actually buy stuff. The GDP for this European country is just over $5300 per year! So, that explains why the commercial center just felt dead. Hardly anyone was actively shopping. Families strolling about window shopping, maybe having an ice cream, but that was about it.

showing my enthusiasm for the food

Dining options were even more pathetic. I specifically remember spending an hour aggressively searching for a simple Serbian restaurant that didn’t cater to the five-star customer and nothing but miserable hamburger stands, dejected cafeterias serving boiled hotdogs ad over baked pizzas sitting under a warming lamp all day. This is not accidental, it’s a direct consequence of being on the losing side of war. Furthermore, it’s an effect of sanctions, which were intended to isolate and punish Serbia for its role in the wars. The economy just seems perpetually stagnate.

nationalistic graffit

The Serbian people continue to feel the effects of the actions by their leaders more than twenty years ago. Not saying that there is not collective responsibility, but each of us inherit the cards we hold. We are given a collective identity and narrative which determines our tribe, and our inherent loyalty by birth. Most of us follow our leadership like the children of Hamelin followed the Pied Piper.

walking tour of Belgrade

And that is exactly how the former Yugoslavia spiraled into war after their communist leader, President Tito died in 1980. New leaders like Slobodan Milošević scapegoated ethnic minorities for the fledging economy. Pushed a fascist agenda built on Serbian nationalism. This was a perfect recipe for escalating conflict within a country that has had a long history of division along ethnic and religious lines.

A trillion dinar note from the Yugoslav war. This was worth about 40 euros at the time

The former Yugoslavia would become the only region in Europe to descend into war since the end of World War II. And like any war, there are the ones who are seen as the aggressors and the ones who are seen as the reactionary. Most of Europe and the US blame Serbia for most of the aggression during the Yugoslav wars. But, speak to any Serb and you will hear an alternative version, which is worth considering.

Kalemegdan Park

It was on a Belgrade city tour that I began to understand more of how the Yugoslav wars of the Nineties is remembered by Serbians. The Serbs who led my tour often emphasized their own suffering as a result of the war. Particularly, during the NATO bombing campaign. The city has left alone bombed out and bullet riddled buildings as memorials to the victims and and reminders to visitors of the “atrocities” committed by the international community against the Serbian nation.

damaged building from NATO missile strike

Serbians, I spoke with are quick to remind that both sides committed terrible acts on civilian populations, but the world only focuses on Serbian atrocities. Estimates of close to two thousand civilians killed are commonly accepted by the Serbians I spoke to, rather than the four hundred deaths claimed by the international community. Serbians also stressed how the NATO strikes were illegal by international law because it was the first time NATO used military force without approval of the UN Security Council, which is illegal.

politically charged graffiti

At the time, I was a young airman in the United States Air Force, stationed in Ramstein, Germany. NATO launched a 78-day bombing campaign on Serbia in retaliation for massacres against ethnic Albanian populations by Serbian militias in Kosovo. Many of the missions originated from my air base. The EU had been criticized and rightfully so, for its inability to prevent genocide against Bosniaks by Serb forces and the nearly one million Tutsis massacred in Rwanda in the mid-nineties. The US and the EU were determined to not allow another genocide from happening.

my Air Force days

Who could have thought that the former Yugoslavia could devolve into situation ripe for ethnic cleansing after Tito? He suppressed any nationalist movement during his thirty five year rule. Yugoslavia’s economy prospered due to political and economic harmony it had established with both the First and Second worlds. But when Tito died, Yugoslavia’s situation became more and more volatile.

Tito held Yugoslavia together for over 35 years before it descended into civil war

Tito's Mausoleum

Basically, the geopolitics of super powers have always been to support regimes and governments that will align themselves with their sphere of influence. Most of the former Russian satellites of Eastern Europe rejected communism for democracy and nationalism after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 89. Soon after, Yugoslavia imploded and ethnic groups like the Slovenians, Croats, Bosniaks, Macedonians, and Albanians favored independence over remaining Yugoslavia where power was concentrated in Serbia. However, Serbs living in these ethnic diverse enclaves outside of Serbia pledged their loyalty to Belgrade and thus began civil conflict along ethnic and religious lines.

Serbia aligned with Russia, so obviously, Washington had an interest in supporting the separatist movements taking place as long as they aligned themselves with the West. Russia had already lost most of its eastern European allies to the West, so were eager to support Belgrade’s position to prevent further alignment by separatist movements within Yugoslavia with Western Europe and the US.

Armed Forces recruitment poster

This “tug of war” of countries between Moscow and Washington has dominated the United States’ relationship since the end of WWII: Germany, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Eastern Europe, and most recently, Syria and Ukraine are just to name a few. In the Nineties, the new cold front between the US and Russia become the former Yugoslavia.

It’s been nearly twenty years since the NATO campaign and the peace building effort to restore a sense of harmony has not been easy. The reconciliation is not really possible for the first few generations. The wounds are too fresh and most who were directly involved just don’t want to deal with it. Even those who were too young to remember inherit the legacy of hate and mistrust.

main meeting point in Belgrade is at this statue in Republic Square

Prince Mihailo Monument is a national monument for Serbians. Erected at a time when forming a Serbian identity was crucial after wars of independence from the Austrian-Hungarians and Ottoman Turks.

So, for now, a vacation in Belgrade is unlikely to reveal the lessons learned when long standing ethnic divisions that devolved into civil war are so fresh. Instead, you will discover a people, despite the economic funk they find themselves in, still finds a reason to celebrate life with food, music, and drinks among friends and family on the regular. Belgrade is known for it's night life and party boats along the Sava River. It was much easier to make a conversation about living life now than fretting on the hardships of the past. And I can’t blame them, history and the lessons we learn is a part of the long game. Tomorrow is not promised. So, make the most of what you have while you have it.