| The Death of Yugoslavia | |
|---|---|
| Narrated by | Robin Ellis (BBC version)[1] Christiane Amanpour (Discovery Channel version)[2] |
| Music by | Debbie Wiseman |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original languages | English, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene, Albanian, Italian, German, French, Russian, Spanish |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Norma Percy Executive producer Brian Lapping Nicholas Fraser Associate producer Tihomir Loza |
| Cinematography | Robert Andrejas Ray Brislin François Paumard Markan Radeljić Alexandar Stipić |
| Editor | Dawn Griffiths |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company | Brian Lapping Associates |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC2 |
| Release | 3 September 1995 – 6 June 1996 |
The Death of Yugoslavia (broadcast as Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation in the US)[2] is a BBC documentary series first broadcast in September and October 1995, and returning in June 1996. It is also the title of a BBC book by Allan Little and Laura Silber that accompanies the series. It covers the collapse of Yugoslavia, the subsequent wars and the signing of the final peace accords. It uses a combination of archived footage interspersed with interviews with most of the main players in the conflict, including Slobodan Milošević, Radovan Karadžić, Franjo Tuđman and Alija Izetbegović, as well as members of the international political community, who were active in the various peace initiatives.
The series was awarded a BAFTA award in 1996 for Best Factual Series.[3] It also won the 1995 Peabody Award and the 1997 Gold Baton at the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards.[2][4] Interviews for the series have been used by ICTY in war crimes prosecutions.[5]
All the papers relating to the documentary series, including the full transcripts of the interviews, are lodged at the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King's College, University of London.[6]
| Number | Title | Originally broadcast | Overview |
| 1 | Enter Nationalism | 3 September 1995 | After the death of Josip Broz Tito, rising nationalism grips Yugoslavia. This is exacerbated after Slobodan Milošević takes power in Serbia and turns against the Kosovar Albanians. |
| 2 | The Road to War | 10 September 1995 | In April 1990, Croatia holds its first free parliamentary election. Ethnic Serbs in Croatia feel threatened by the nationalist tone of Croatia's newly elected President Franjo Tuđman and they begin a Log Revolution in August 1990. On 19 May 1991, Croatia holds an independence referendum, which is approved by a wide majority. The Battle of Vukovar of August 1991 is the first major battle in the Croatian War of Independence. |
| 3 | Wars of Independence | 17 September 1995 | Slovenia and Croatia soon declare their independence and ask for international recognition. But Belgrade (the capital of both Serbia and Yugoslavia) does not see it this way because this means the collapse of Yugoslavia. |
| 4 | The Gates of Hell | 24 September 1995 | After the war between Serbia and Croatia ends with the signing of an agreement, Serbia involves itself in Bosnia where a lot is at stake. Here begins the longest and the most tragic part of the conflict. |
| 5 | A Safe Area | 1 October 1995 | As the situation in Bosnia worsens, there is further conflict between the Serb and Bosnian forces. There is increasing UN involvement and NATO begins to step in. The Bosnians and Croats reach an agreement mediated by the UN whilst another UN agreement falls through, despite being signed by all parties. The suffering and persecution of Bosnian Muslims by Serb forces are featured. |
| 6 | Pax Americana | 6 June 1996 | Croatia launches Operation Storm and recaptures most of the territory of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina, which leads to a mass exodus of Serbs from Croatia. Bosnian Serb forces commit the Srebrenica and Markale massacres. In response, NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force and bombs the positions of Bosnian Serb forces, which forces the Bosnian Serbs to return to negotiations. US brokers the Dayton Agreement which effectively ends the Bosnian war. |
The series was later re-edited and released in three parts:
In another edit, it was broadcast as a feature-length single documentary.
