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One of the people we interviewed was Dragoslav Canic. He was Serbian. He was born in the Former Yugoslavia, in the province of Serbia in 1951.
He was born and raised in Serbia Proper, 30 miles away from Belgrade. He comes from the part that doesn’t have any exposure from other ethnic groups, and it didn’t suffer any effects from the war. His parents also came from the same region. The closest contact he had with other ethnic groups was the Croatians and the Hungarians. He has respect for some ethnic groups, but for others, he didn’t. Before the war, he didn’t really think about it. After the events that happened, he finally realized that he has more respect for the Muslims and not so much for the Croatians.
He did not like the historical events the Croatians took part in against the Serbs, but he does have Croatian friends. “The events that took place in the 20th century, were inexcusable because the Croats always were against the Serbs.”, said Dragoslav. When Yugoslavia was formed right after World War I, the Serbs and Croats were in two opposing sides. The Croats were fighting with Austria- Hungry and the Serbs were fighting with the Allies. From the Serbian side, the formation of Yugoslavia was a good idea because it would unify all the Serbs. A large Serbian population lived in the former Austrian-Hungarian territories.
During the war, the Serbian side lost a lot of its male population. The Austrians were fighting the Croatians and Bosnians, so the idea of a unified state of the Serbs was great idea. The damage the Serbs had after the victory was tremendous and they didn’t recover for a very long time. After unification, King Alexander tried to create a feeling of equality between the ethnic groups even though they fought one another. It was impossible to give pension to one side and not the other, so nobody got nothing for the fighting they have done. A lot of widows were left with no money, no skills, and they were left with the kids. “My grandfather was the only one to survive the war after his four brothers died and when he came back he had to take care all of the families.”, said Dragoslav.
“The Serbs are accused of having a feeling of unfairness committed toward the Croats and the experiences the Serbs had with the Croats was unfair.”, said Dragoslav. “Every time there was a bigger power the Croats always align themselves with them so they can have more control of the Serbs.”, said Dragoslav. In World War II, the Croats align themselves with Hitler. The Germans declared Croatia independent and they abused the Serbs. “They were hiding behind Hitler in order to kill their enemies.”, said Dragoslav. They had a solution to the “Serbian Question”. They killed 1/3, the other 1/3, they would convert to Catholicism and the other 1/3 they would expel. “They were very excited about this solution.”, said Dragoslav.
When Tito died, Yugoslavia became very shaky. He was already in the states, so he didn’t know what happened. He doesn’t like politicians because they wanted more power. They use nationalism for power. He doesn’t know how it was done because he wasn’t there. The nationalist party (HDZ) won in Croatia in 1990 and the first thing they did was to fire all the Serbs from public offices. The Serbs in Krajina and Western Slavonia felt that they were left out and mistreated because the new constitution in Croatia did not include them and it only protected the rights of the Croats. The Serbs were losing their jobs and a new flag was introduced similar to the one from World War II. They came to local Serbian villages and took away power from the local authorities. They also took away their weapons.
The Serbs started rebelling. They put some barracks around the villages and that is how the war started. When the war was at its highest point, many Serbian villages were ruined in Slavonia. The media was not allowed to go and see this. “This was ethnic cleansing at its worse.”, said Dragoslav. The Croats let some people leave and as they were leaving, they started shooting at them. “They were washing the roads with chemicals and they were mass killings.”, said Dragoslav. The New York times didn’t even mentioned these war crimes. It only said that the Croats have Serbian territories and that now civilization is returning back to those areas.
In Krajina, Nato and the United States were bombarding these areas. As the people were leaving again they were killed. The local Croatian population were throwing bricks at the refugees and the local authorities didn’t do anything about it. He does not like the result of the war because a lot of Serbians lost their homes. They didn’t file for human rights violations and they could have saved their homes. Nobody did nothing to help them. “They are people like us and they have their pride and heritage.”, said Dragoslav. They wanted to take revenge for what the Serbs did in Austria-Hungary so there was a lot of anger building up.
“People did not focus on what really happen down there. The media has not shown everything and they try to change things.”, said Dragoslav. The media never showed to the people the concentration camps the Croats and the Muslims had. They only accused the Serbs for having their camps. “Sometimes the New York times will lie and not say the whole story.”, said Dragoslav. He believes that in couple in years, the truth will come out. He believes that it will be too late for the victims of the war on all sides. He also believes that justice will prevail.
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