Original subtitles

ROAR OF THOUSANDS APPLAUDING

This is the man whose embrace of nationalism

is blamed for the wars in today's Yugoslavia - Slobodan Milosevic.

IN SERBO-CROAT:

In 1980, Marshal Tito made a final journey in Communist Yugoslavia,

the country he had created.

For 35 years he held Yugoslavia's six republics together

with an iron hand.

Any hint of nationalism from Serbs, Croats, Muslims,

Macedonians or Slovenes was crushed.

SOMBRE MARTIAL MUSIC

He called this policy "brotherhood and unity".

Seven years later, Yugoslavia was still united.

Tito's heirs kept ethnic hatreds buried.

In Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic was the right-hand man

of the president, Ivan Stambolic.

Yugoslavia's tragedy began when Milosevic moved against him.

The story began in Kosovo,

Serbia's poorest province, bordering Albania.

The president sent his most trusted comrade

to calm an ethnic conflict that was brewing up.

The local Communists, mainly ethnic Albanians,

faced a challenge from some nationalist Serbs.

ROAR OF APPROVAL

By meeting the nationalists, Milosevic broke a central principle

of Tito's Yugoslavia - and in Serbia's most sensitive area.

ORTHODOX CHANTING

In 1389, on the Field of Blackbirds,

King Lazar had led the Serb army into battle,

to try to halt the advance of Islam.

Six centuries later,

Serb television recreated their heroic defeat.

By then, most Serbs had left this desolate province,

but extras to play the invading infidel were plentiful,

for the majority of Kosovans were Muslim Albanians.

The few remaining Serbs claimed they were being driven

from their ancient kingdom.

Stories of Albanian atrocities, no matter how wild,

were readily believed in Serbia.

Milosevic now had a chance to exploit the Kosovo issue.

He invited his most trusted advisers home.

Down in Kosovo, the local Communist Party boss

soon heard Milosevic was up to something.

The Kosovo Party boss trailed along beside Milosevic,

uncertain what he was walking into.

UPROAR

When the meeting began,

Serbs claimed Albanians in Kosovo made life impossible.

MILOSEVIC:

MIMICS LOW, BAYING NOISE

CROWD ROARS AND CHANTS

A scuffle started outside between the Serbs and the Kosovan police.

Everything was going to plan.

It was Milosevic's moment of decision.

What Milosevic said next would change everything.

That night, Serb television created the Milosevic legend.

Serbia saw him embrace the cause of the Serbs in Kosovo.

Serbian viewers were not shown how the Serbs had provoked the police.

The Milosevic myth was born with a lie at its core.

Milosevic stood accused of breaching party policy.

The Serb president tried to avoid an open conflict with his deputy

so the number three in the party issued a public rebuke.

NEWSREADER:

DUSAN MITEVIC:

Milosevic consulted his tactical adviser.

He suggested attack was the best defence.

The showdown came a few days later,

at a meeting of Serbia's top Communists.

To oust the president's man,

Milosevic canvassed every possible vote.

It was clearly a great victory for Milosevic.

Milosevic now launched Serbia on a crusade

to take control of Yugoslavia.

ORTHODOX CHANTING

The bones of King Lazar,

who died at the Battle of Kosovo,

went round Yugoslavia, inspiring Serbs to reclaim their former glory.

MILOSEVIC:

Serbia had dominated Yugoslavia.

To cut it down to size, Tito gave its two provinces -

Kosovo and Vojvodina - self-government.

In federal bodies, they could use their vote

to gang up with the republics of Croatia and Slovenia against Serbia.

Milosevic set out to seize these votes.

He started here,

as his "supporters' club" of Serb nationalists

were brought in from Kosovo.

The nationalists,

fuelled by a day out with free food and drink,

quickly turned local discontent into a popular revolution

against the grey bureaucrats of the old regime.

It took only a word from Milosevic to finish the job.

Vojvodina fell to Milosevic,

and the next target was Montenegro,

always closely allied with Serbia.

The old president could do nothing.

One more Milosevic man was installed.

By the beginning of 1989, Milosevic controlled half of Yugoslavia,

but here, in Kosovo, Albanians were in a majority, and they hit back.

The miners led a general strike.

They wanted their man back in power.

To help Milosevic make good his threat,

Kosovo Serbs arrived in Belgrade.

As they mobilised outside the federal parliament,

he asked the Yugoslav state council for emergency powers in Kosovo.

The Slovene leader saw what this could do to the rest of Yugoslavia.

Milan Kucan walked out of the meeting

and went straight home to Slovenia.

That evening, he spoke to his people.

DUSAN MITEVIC:

The TV chief watched the feed from Slovenia, and knew what to do.

He made sure Serbia got the message.

The broadcast brought the people of Belgrade onto the streets.

Next day, at first light,

before the final decision was taken on Kosovo,

local Serb workers were given a day off,

and marched into town.

Milosevic's colleagues phoned him when the throng reached parliament.

With half of Belgrade baying for law and order in Kosovo,

Milosevic sent the Yugoslav president an ultimatum -

he must give the Serbs the powers they wanted

or deal with the crowd themselves.

Faced with what he regarded as Serb blackmail,

the Yugoslav president set out to explain to the crowd

the dangers of the road they were taking.

The Yugoslav president failed to satisfy the crowd.

The party council caved in.

They gave Milosevic the power to use the Yugoslav army in Kosovo.

The crowd had waited all day

for Milosevic to tell them that Kosovo would be theirs again.

Now, with emergency powers in place,

the Kosovo parliament had no choice but to cede all authority to Serbia.

The ex-Party boss was imprisoned for counter-revolutionary activity.

All dissent was crushed.

It was the tiny republic Slovenia that turned on the Serb giant.

Kucan said he'd change the Slovene constitution

to keep Belgrade out of his affairs.

The Kosovo Serbs again mobilised.

But Kosovo was at the opposite end of the country to Slovenia.

Slovenia found an ally, the Republic of Croatia,

which wouldn't let agitators cross its border.

Kucan's police had no trouble with the few local Serbs

who turned out to demonstrate.

Milosevic would have to try something else to beat the Slovenes.

THEY SING

The instrument Milosevic chose was the Yugoslav Communist Party.

He called an extraordinary congress.

As delegates stood for the hymn to brotherhood and unity,

they all knew that this congress had been summoned

to crush the defiant Slovenes.

Kucan had only one hope -

Yugoslavia's second-largest republic, Croatia.

Milosevic selected as chairman

a leader who owed him his career.

It was the first congress the president of Montenegro attended.

This latest Serb aggression shook delegates from other republics.

The Serb block showed no mercy.

In a break, the Slovenes held a crisis meeting.

Kucan knew if they walked out,

he could be blamed for the chaos in Yugoslavia.

He offered a deal.

Before the final vote was announced

I was still at the speaking podium

when Ribecic requested the floor.

No-one gave him the floor.

He simply walked up.

Ribecic, a Slovene delegate,

had been primed to give them the signal.

He said the Slovenes couldn't accept

the climate in the Central Committee.

At that very moment,

all the Slovene delegates rose from all over the hall,

from the presiding head table,

and started leaving the plenary session by one door.

CROWD WHISTLE AND CLAP

He wanted to diminish the drama,

and he put it forward as something normal - "Well, let's go on."

Milosevic's response was daring -

to tell the Party it could survive

the defection of the troublesome Slovenes.

His gamble depended on keeping all the other delegations in line.