Ordinary Men at War

Abstract

As already elaborated, the war in the former Yugoslavia did not begin suddenly. Throughout the 1980s, it was the symbiosis of nationalistically-oriented intellectuals, clergy and obedient media that paved the road to the disaster. At the summit of the conflict, however, it would be six men—the presidents of six Yugoslav republics—that would become the real masters of war and peace. For more than a year, these six men moved from one city to another, from one palace to another, and from one tourist resort to another. They discussed a future for people living in Yugoslavia. Instead of peace at any cost, they opted for the war(s) in which young men were asked to kill and to be killed in the name of their leader and in the name of the society they came from.