Original subtitles

Slobodan mosovich former president of

Yugoslavia and Serbia is now in the

dock the first head of state to be Tried

by an international court for war crimes

and

[Music]

genocide

[Music]

mosovich had driven whole communities

from their homelands to make way for his

fellow

serbs his forces had murdered thousands

of

civilians the wars he provoked launched

the term ethnic

cleansing and they tore Yugoslavia

apart first Croatia and Slovenia IA then

Bosnia and Macedonia broke away leaving

Serbia dominant in a much reduced

Yugoslavia in December 1995 the same

mosovich who had been called The Butcher

of the Balkans was welcomed to Paris to

sign the treaty that brought peace to

Bosnia and the

region everyone at the ceremony knew

that only mosovich could prevent further

Serb

aggression he was the lynchpin of the

piece I didn't have a problem with

talking to him he was quite confident

and um said he was glad this was

over and uh look forward to better

relations and I said uh that I did too

it would depend upon how the

the Bosnian peace took hold and whether

the oppression and killing

ended back home in Serbia mosovich was a

[Applause]

hero

[Music]

even his wife Meera a strong supporter

of communist China and Cuba welcomed his

newfound friendship with the

West

most of the sanctions imposed during the

serbs war against Bosnia had been lifted

to get the West to lift the rest of them

mosovich had to prove he was a

[Music]

Democrat his opportunity came a year

later in local

elections that night he got a

shock against all predictions the

opposition defeated him in 17 of

Serbia's largest towns and

[Music]

cities

the next day mosovich confided in one of

his Coalition

[Music]

partners

this acceptance of defeat by mich's

party spokesman horrified the

activists

[Music]

Slobodan and mea's marriage was a

political partnership that had begun in

high

school

a politician in her own right she had

pushed him to take power in

1987 now she led a small party of her

own a member of the Coalition that had

just lost the local

elections

fore

mosovich Now set out to use courts he

controlled to reverse the opposition's

victories he reckoned without the

actions of a tiny group of people in the

city of

Niche nich had been a mosovich

stronghold for a decade on Election

night his party was so confident they'd

already planned the Victory

celebration

[Music]

for

their problem was that at most polling

stations the votes had already been

counted so what they did was intercept

the results before they were delivered

along with the bags of ballot papers to

the election

commission but a copy of each result had

also been given to the opposition's

representatives on the

commission

as more results were read out a pattern

emerged

for the majority of the commission

mosovich supporters dismissed her

objection and without the falsified

papers she could not prove the

fraud all the opposition could do was

protest they soon brought the city to a

standstill

[Applause]

the police prepared for a

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

showdown after 22 years of loyal service

to Niche city council the committee

clerk now risked everything enlisting

the help of two colleagues he set out to

steal the falsified

papers the main doors to the committee

room where the election results were

kept were under 24-hour police guard but

a balcony accessible from the floor

above provided another way

in

they dared not turn on the lights but

the Clark had told his colleague

precisely where the incriminating papers

[Music]

[Music]

were

in fact it was only a

[Music]

chair

but he had brought out the falsified

papers they showed how crudely the

voting figures had been

changed if the theft was discovered

mosovich is party would have the grounds

they wanted to get the elections an

olded so the Clark had planned to return

the papers after photocopying

them but his accomplice lost his

nerve

he took his photoc copies to the local

opposition leader

[Music]

the opposition tried to get the local

media to report this Scandal but

mosovich is party controlled all

television and radio in

[Applause]

Niche then the opposition got another

[Applause]

break

[Music]

TV ni's normal fair was pirated videos

and dancing girls but now it got

serious

Mrs zivkovich was chosen to put the

evidence before the

[Music]

[Music]

photos

students from Niche walked 140 Mi to

Belgrade to demand

Justice while they were on the road the

local Court ruled that the opposition

had won the the election in

Niche when the students faced mosovich

he was charm itself and readily promised

to chase down the election

[Music]

cheats he could afford to be magnanimous

over Niche because everywhere else the

courts had already ruled in favor of his

coalition

since then the opposition had been

protesting throughout

Serbia the victory in Niche gave them

New

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Hope

[Music]

night after night the protest

grew that was all the time the situation

to tell people just don't use any

violence don't even step on the grass

you know so that we don't be blamed for

anything of course we use some eggs you

know not more than

that mosovich and his brand of

nationalism remained popular with older

voters his wife refused to believe young

people had really turned against

him

for

[Music]

[Applause]

after weeks of daily protests mosovich

was persuaded to take a huge gamble his

party prepared a counter demonstration

in the heart of the

[Music]

capital

[Music]

the state of emergency would enable the

regime to call out the Army and

crucially ban future

demonstrations on the 35th day of the

protests mosovich supporters were given

the day off on full pay and brought to

[Music]

Belgrade

[Applause]

leaders of the ruling Coalition gathered

at a hotel in the city

[Music]

center

the opposition had 880,000 demonstrators

on the street that day outnumbering

mosovich is supporters by 2 to

one

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

from the moment they set foot in

Belgrade elovich's supporters were set

upon by the

opposition and someone had ordered the

police to keep off the

[Music]

[Applause]

streets

[Music]

t

[Music]

[Applause]

at 130 a mosovich supporter shot an

opposition demonstrator in the

head

back at the hotel mosovich his wife

called for

[Applause]

[Music]

action

as president of Yugoslavia lillich had

the authority to declare a state of

emergency and call out the Army mosovich

could call in the police to stop the

violence but he wanted a state of

emergency so he still

refused

the mayor of Belgrade was a crucial Ally

of mosovich but the violence on his

streets was stretching his loyalty to

Breaking

[Music]

Point

[Music]

soon after the riot police set about

closing off the main Square to allow

mosovich to speak in

safety

[Music]

he blamed the weeks of demonstrations on

The Usual

[Music]

Suspects

his supporters lapped it

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

up but his objective that day had not

been

achieved as demonstrators struggled home

mosovich and his close advisers held a

postmortem

his wife berated them for allowing the

police to stop the clashes too

[Music]

soon the chance to declare a state of

emergency had been missed the opposition

resumed their peaceful demonstrations

which now became

[Applause]

[Music]

Unstoppable on the 78th day of the

protests mosovich finally gave in he

pushed through a special law to overrule

his courts and give the opposition their

election

victories

Zoran jingit became the mayor of

Belgrade and the opposition took power

in another 14 of the largest towns and

cities in the

country more than half of Serbia's

population now found themselves living

under opposition controlled local

councils milosevic's grip on power had

been

loosened but when in trouble he had

always known how to win Serb

votes he played the Nationalist

[Music]

card he had come to power a decade

before by championing the cause of the

Serb minority in

Kosovo Serbia's claim to its Southern

province of Kosovo dates back over 700

years by mosovich is time 9/10 of those

living there were not serbs but ethnic

albanians they had long enjoyed

substantial autonomy but mosovich had

shut down kosovo's Parliament and stri

the albanians of their political

[Music]

rights a small group of Kosovo albanians

responded by setting up the Kosovo

Liberation Army the

klaa in 1996 they set out to attract the

world's

[Music]

attention

fore

for

one of the grenade throwers was a law

student in kosovo's capital

Chistina

[Music]

come R

the

[Music]

direct

the synchronized attacks in six towns in

Kosovo put the K on the map but without

serious weapons they were no threat to

mosovich

then an ill wind blew them some good

in the late spring of 1997 the

government in neighboring Albania

collapsed Anarchy

followed

for

[Music]

foree

to evade Serb border patrols the K

revived an ancient method of

delivery

with their new weapons the K's attacks

became more

[Music]

deadly mosovich is paramilitary police

hit back

hard we got a call from our

correspondent who was scared to

death he said there was there was this

shooting taking place in the village of

leosan when his photographer reached the

village he found that 20 Albanian men

had been shot dead there by the Serb

police we took photos of each and every

one of them the

corpses we decided to set up an agency

on the web so we can show this to the

world it worked the International

Community now began to take

notice Sab forces were on the Rampage

and it looked exactly like the start of

the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and you

could see that the uh mosovich and his

cronies were looking at ways of doing it

all over again but this time in kovo

that that's why I went to Belgrade in

order to confront mosovich with what was

happening he greeted me with elaborate

courtesy I made it plain that the

present situation was one that the

International Community would not accept

he once then went back to the battle of

the field of crows in

1389 and said that kova had always been

Serbian since then and it was going to

remain Serbian I did put him on the

point that on that basis Britain could

lay claim to large chunks of

France I have to say that I leave with

very grave concerns from what I have

leared in my day in Belgrade in

particular I am disturbed at the reports

that are reaching me that there was a

further sen serious operation in kosova

overnight he had heard that a Serb Force

was now targeting the home of the K

commanderin-chief whom they suspected of

murdering several

serbs as the serbs approached yar's

Village his comrades urged him to

escape

ceg

Adam yashari had decided the KLA needed

a

mar

yashar

[Music]

ARIS when all firing from the Yaris had

stopped the serbs entered the compound

the women and children Left Alive were

hiding in a

[Music]

[Music]

cellar

she was the only

Survivor yashari and 45 of his Fighters

and family were killed 12 of the Dead

were women 11 were young

children yar's death had the effect he

[Music]

[Applause]

intended in Pristina 100,000 turned out

in support of the

K their protest was broken up by Serb

[Music]

police six foreign ministers were called

to London they were the contact Group

which had been created to settle

arguments between Russia and the West

during mosovich his previous

Wars what prompted mad albr night to

seek the meeting is that the longer we

let this go the worse it was going to

become we met at Lancaster house in a

room where we had met a number of times

and I said gentlemen remember that

history is watching us and our

predecessors sat in this room and

watched Bosnia burn I the British and

Americans were determined to reimpose

the full range of economic sanctions

against mosovich

the truth is I was pretty obnoxious I

mean I kept feeling that we had this was

a crucial meeting and that we couldn't

start giving away things uh

early was here with them what I pressed

Yi on is that we really had to be seen

to respond to what was happening within

Kosovo if we really wanted to change

mosop thinking the most important useful

way to do it was the commercial

sanctions

the rest of the group ignored the

Russian objection and decided to impose

new economic sanctions on

Serbia they told mosovich he must start

talks with the Kosovo albanians on

autonomy mosovich was adamant that as

Kosovo was a province of Serbia how it

was ruled was a purely a domestic

concern to Ram the point home he held a

referendum with a carefully formulated

question will you accept foreign

mediation in solving the Cova

problem

95% of serbs voted as mosovich wanted

the kovo albanians boycotted the

referendum the more mosovich dismissed

their demands the more Kosovo albanians

turned to

[Music]

the we realized that we were going to

have to first of all find out who these

K were and secondly somehow try to get

them into the peace

process we assume there must be a

leadership there but it was a little

like the search for the Northwest

Passage we went out look looking for

people to talk to there were roadblocks

everywhere people had put up rakes and

plows and stuff just to block the

roads there was shooting in the area but

this was clearly in Albanian

control as the Americans hoped the K

were tracking them and made a kind of

contact in the first Village they

visited we went upstairs in the house to

sit down and we were talking to the

Village Chief and quite unexpectedly a

rather dashing man with a beard carrying

a weapon that looked larger than him

came and just jammed himself into the

seat come back and let you talk to us if

you want we can talk here we can go

outside but there wasn't a lot of room

so he practically sat on holbrook's lap

as if Holbrook were Santa

Claus in fact the Americans had got no

nearer to the K top

brass but the K had won valuable

publicity the picture went around the

world apparently showing Americans and K

rubbing shoulders and the photograph did

become part of the legend of kovo and uh

it infuriated

M the American president got an earful

but the Americans pressed

on a week later Ambassador Holbrook used

a conference in Switzerland as a cover

for another

assignation the man the K had chosen to

speak for them was a refugee living with

his family on Social

Security

[Music]

for we didn't know much about the K our

intelligence didn't make it clear who

was in charge of it where they got their

money how it was organized or even what

they stood

for asking them to exercise restraint

when they were ready fighting for their

lives was a difficult thing to do and I

understood

that

I may have suggested to mudi right away

that that was a possibility if they

handled themselves correctly even if it

was only a possibility this was the best

news the K could have

heard after the meeting they set out to

make themselves more user friendly L to

the

[Music]

West

for during the summer of

1998 the K killed 80 Serb police and 60

civilians they took over two towns and

claimed they would soon liberate all of

Kosovo the truth was they didn't yet

have a proper

Army

the serbs

dead they now targeted entire Villages

driving people out and burning their

[Music]

[Music]

homes

secretary

Albright ordered me to go see mosovich

and to make it clear this absolutely had

to stop he told me that they were simply

conducting operations against

terrorism unlike earlier emissaries the

American had traveled extensively around

Kosovo I said let me first tell you what

I saw in misho I saw men in Serb

uniforms putting television sets and

other consumer goods into a trailer I

saw another man dressed in a Serb

uniform with a can of uh of liquid

spreading it in a uh in a store and

lighting it with a match at that point

he became very agitated he stood up and

began pacing thrusting his hands in his

pockets and saying it's unacceptable

it's

unacceptable

once again mosovich was maintaining a

statesmanlike pose while with a nod and

a wink encouraging

atrocities this time the procedure

brought down on him the wroth of

America I felt that we had learned

something from Bosnia and had learned

the terrible mistake you make once you

realize you have an in transigent

situation to just keep talking and

fiddling around the edges and I I felt

we had to move in a

[Music]

hurry Well we'd still be there waiting

if that were the case because of the

distribution of

power there it was evident that uh the

Russians would veto a security Council

resolution and we would be paralyzed and

so what was the point of going down that

road and finding that you had basically

ended up in a blind

alley the United Nations which could

authorize the use of force adjourned for

the summer without doing so mosovich

drew his own

conclusions

every dictator knows that if you want to

up the ante August when the diplomats

are on the beaches and when even prime

ministers take holidays uh is the best

time to do it uh and it's true that at

the end of July as people left NATO

headquarters mosovich started sweep

operations Serb forces had the K at

their Mercy

by mid-september it was reported that

100,000 ethnic albanians were hiding

from the Serb police in the forests and

hills of Kosovo Russia now changed its

policy on the 23rd of September it

backed a UN resolution calling for a

ceasefire in Kosovo and the return of

refugees but the resolution contained no

threat of

[Music]

force

the very next day NATO's defense

ministers assembled by the seaside in

Portugal they came to discuss whether

they could issue the threat which the UN

had bed

out

the they adjourned for lunch in crisis

split a dozen ways

when they returned the Secretary General

tried to Rally

them Eng a village a day keeps NATO away

the graphic reminder that if they did

not act another Village would be burnt

tomorrow and the day after touched a

nerve but the defense ministers still

had no legal basis to threatened Force

what we needed to do there was to to put

in place some action to back up the

United Nations resolution and to stop

the horrors that were actually playing

every half hour on the television that

day in the

hotel I'd been holding the UN resolution

this List of Demands on mosovich I

suddenly thought well we have got a

strategy here and I said in my opening

intervention there's The List of Demands

he has got to withdraw the number of

troops he's got to stop the

disproportionate violence you know he's

you know he's got to do a whole variety

of things laid down by the United

Nations if he doesn't do that we know

the United Nations cannot move so NATO

uh will move NATO will say or

else just a few moments AG go the North

Atlantic Council approved the issue of

the ACT War for both a limited air

option and a phas air campaign in

C the secretary General's announcement

meant NATO's war machine was

primed in Belgrade mosovich summoned his

Supreme defense Council he faced a

mutiny

[Music]

for

[Music]

for

overruling his colleagues mosovich

dismissed NATO as a paper

tiger in Brussels America's special

Envoy asked the NATO Council for a show

of force to convince mosovich they meant

business hell I request an immediate

activation order now an activation order

means that you turn the planes over to

the Supreme Commander and let him uh

launch whenever he wants to and it is

the next to last step before the use of

force

the order gave mosovich 96 hours to

comply with all the demands in the UN

resolution we then move B-52s forward

from the United States to Britain we put

planes on the runway in Aviano gassed up

and ready to

go

we moved uh ships into the Adriatic and

we made sure that the world saw this we

were not bluffing we were hours away

from

launch faced with the display of force

mosovich caved

in

[Music]

mosovich agreed to all the West's

demands including the withdrawal of some

of his forces from

[Music]

Kosovo we never asked the K to do

anything

we never asked the K to sign anything we

simply informed

them the balance of power in covo was

about to

shift

for the international team appointed to

monitor the ceasefire were powerless to

stop

them we were possibly the only people in

Co didn't have arms but there we were

between these two forces trying to keep

them apart they were heavily armed they

were willing to use those arms and

eventually we worried that they would

maybe turn their arms on us thinking

that we had somehow were leaning in the

opposite

direction some of the monitors did lean

and mostly one

way

fore

the serbs rose to the

bait a village that had one k member

would be subject to being surrounded by

artillery being being surrounded by the

Army being surrounded by the police

bombarded for hours the police un would

then go in separate the men and the boys

take them off and

essentially pillage and loot and and

burn in the

village in early January 1999 the K shot

dead three Serb policemen the Serb

response in the village of ratak would

change

everything

[Music]

friend

for

[Music]

sec

for 6 hours the paramilitary police

fired into the Village from one end

while Army units bombarded it from the

other then the major moved in with his

police

[Music]

the Serb Force reported finding the

bodies of 15 Albanian men in the village

the Serb major says that after searching

from house to house he left a small unit

to stand guard

overnight

when the head of the monitoring team

arrived at work next morning one of his

deputies was waiting for

him I remember him saying I'm sorry sir

but I think something else has happened

up there and it might be something

pretty

bad so we drove down the highway to the

Village

by the time Ambassador walker entered

the village some K men had

returned I was told that if you want to

see what happened yesterday you go up

this

Ravine situation

here we came on the first body there was

a little rug over over the head and as I

walked up to it he been beheaded that's

affirmative not sure if he was shot

off pieces of skull Jesus Christ there

was no head on this body it was just the

neck and that's okay I mean let's give

him the Dignity of covering him

up old man as we walked up the Ravine we

kept finding one body after

another all right up to here is nine

we then came on a pile of

bodies in which I don't know there must

have been 10 to 15 bodies all piled on

top of each

other the Serb police claimed the dead

were K members killed in the battle and

that fellow K men had replaced their

uniforms with peasant clothes to make

them look like

civilians ambass aad Walker was sure he

saw evidence to the

contrary I noticed blood stain clothes

where the bullets had entered and the

blood stains were around the wound I

found it impossible to believe that the

blood stains had

somehow uh been put in just the right

place

Walker decided to give the world his

verdict from what I personally saw I do

not hesitate to describe the event as a

massacre obviously a crime very much

Against

Humanity I felt that what I had seen was

a horror and that it was in fact

perpetrated by the by the security

forces of from

Belgrade this was the kind of H evidence

the Americans had been waiting

for for months the secretary of state

had been urging her allies to use Force

against mosovich now she seized her

opportunity it's terrible to think that

something like a massacre can actually

Galvanize people to action the truth is

something terrible happened and the

question then was what to do next I make

CLE that I thought this Justified an

immediate military

response now the Europeans were not

ready to do that America's allies feared

that Mrs Albright wanted to bounce them

into war they needed a strategy of their

own France's president fired

London

Z and I were both very conscious of the

fact that the Russians obviously were in

a different position because their

closeness to the serbs and therefore we

were very anxious to try and do

everything we could through the contact

group

the problem always was in the contact

group meetings that the Western allies

would say we can't do anything because

the

Russians won't move and so I went to

Moscow in an attempt to outflank her

European colleagues she went straight to

the Russian foreign

minister when we got together we always

tried to do something nice in addition

to having the hard discussions so he had

invited me to the

[Music]

Ballo it was really an amazing scene to

sit in the Zars box with the uh Russian

for Minister and the whole place was

full of red velvet and uh gold and I I

had I thought a perfect outfit for this

which was also long

velvet people actually turned around to

look at the two foreign ministers

together I decid to take a calculated

risk to lay out our strategy that we

would have to be prepared to use force

uh I think that ianov was quite

surprised and he in turn surprised her

Ivanov made clear that he was tired of

dealing with the consequences of mich's

aggression he was tired of having Russia

appear always to defend mosovich that he

agreed that if anything was ever going

to work it was going to require the use

of force but he told her quite candidly

he could never say that

publicly having that kind of assurance

we were in a position to issue some kind

of an

ultimatum

the French and British leaders were

determined to prevent Mrs Albright using

the ultimatum as a shortcut to war they

wanted to use it to force mosovich to

change his policy in

Kosovo

Street it was a really informal evening

and it was very important that because

it was just at that crucial moment when

we had to be on the same

wavelength

Blair the consequence of these threats

is so serious in terms of the military

action for goodness sake let's give it

another try with the political processes

stick the people together

you know get all the pressure we can on

both sides to come around the table and

try and sort it

out the president and prime minister

agreed that the Europeans must take the

mosovich crisis in hand they decided to

ask serbs and albanians to a conference

which the British and French foreign

ministers would

chair we took the view that if we could

get both sides together as it happened

at Dayton and make sure that they were

obliged to confront each other and to

confront these difficult questions we

might achieve the

[Music]

Breakthrough they invited the parties to

the chadow of ruer 30 mi from Paris

which Louis the 16th had used as his

hunting

lodge but who would turn

up

the kovar Albanian delegation arrived

among them a poet a newspaper editor and

seven men from the

klaa but as the delegates assembled for

the French president's welcoming

address there was someone missing from

the Serb

delegation Slobodan mosovich

when the invitation reached Belgrade he

had consulted a few close colleagues

by sending the president of Serbia as

his standin MOS left himself room for

maneuver but soon after the conference

began the serbs learned that the Western

leaders insisted any settlement must be

policed by NATO

[Music]

troops

that evening as the American negotiator

briefed his secretary of state in her

Suite he received a

note I got a message that milovich

wanted to meet with me in the Bristol

Hotel in the piano

bar

normal uh

[Music]

the Serb wanted privacy to pursue

mosovich his pet idea ever since he had

lunched with world leaders in Paris he

had harbored a secret ambition now it

was

[Music]

revealed

I said Milan I think you've

misunderstood something but go

[Music]

on Milan we don't have years we're

talking weeks we're talking days this

has got to move

ahead

I said Milan I'm telling you there is a

point at which we could find nato in

action against your

country it was Mrs Albright who called

Belgrade I placed a call to mosovich and

I explained to him what the stakes were

and once again uh I did you're a fork in

the road and you have an option to come

back and be a part of Europe this is a

very serious time uh you need to

consider what's been offered

here Mrs Bri got the rebuff she expected

she put more effort into winning over

the Kosovo Albanian delegation she

needed them to sign up to the contact

group's terms or she would never win

approval for action against mosovich

she focused her attention on the young

KLA man who had become delegation leader

Hashim

Thai he presented his perspective about

democracy and multi-ethnic cultures and

um seem to be why eyes Beyond his years

and acted like a leader you know he

looks like a leader he's a very tall

handsome young man uh quite Urban

[Music]

looking Albright was confident that she

would accept the terms on offer even

though they promised Kosovo only aut

within Serbia not the independence the K

was fighting for but she didn't realize

the pressure the K leader was under from

home

for the K were demanding a referendum on

Independence certain that the Albanian

majority would vote for

it after 2 weeks of hard bargaining the

foreign ministers arrive for the final

session they summoned each delegation in

turn the foreign ministers all sat at at

a long table uh as if we were in

judgment or something and first thought

she was brought in with a couple of

other members of the Albanian

[Music]

delegation the question was basically do

you agree with the framework yes or no

and we were expecting a yes or I

was he needed further improvements and

of course the improvements he wanted

were ones that we knew were unnegotiable

they were impossible to get agreement on

and eventually I had to say to him look

the the real the bottom line here the

real question is can you say yes to this

[Music]

package

he kept kind of moving around the issue

and when he wouldn't say yes I remember

taking off my earphones just putting

them down on the table in just pure

exasperation she didn't like in

particular in

I thought that the way that the language

had been

constructed provided what in diplomacy

we call some creative

ambiguity

and Dei got more and more insistent and

said are you willing to give up

Independence you see this is what I told

you

and you see I told you so

for the cameras Mrs Albright stuck to

her usual

line

the Serb delegation Bears The Lion Share

of responsibility for the difficulties

we have experienced today but in private

with Hashim Thai she took a different

tag I said look I don't understand what

just happened in there you have let us

down uh it is an impossible situation

now how could you do this we expected

you to be a

leader

you could see that he was just shocked I

mean he looked like a high school

student that I had dressed

[Music]

down the kovo ALB Ians were given three

more days they wanted to sign but they

were still under pressure from the

gunman back home for 72 hours they did

not leave the castle or go to

bed as the deadline approached the

delegation was still arguing then the

American negotiator went to their

room and I said guys we're there now

we've got 5 minutes now to really decide

this

[Music]

thing I said so are you going to sign

this thing or are you not at that point

soroy spoke

up

sooy Had a Brain Wave the document they

were being asked to sign said in 3 years

years an international meeting would

consider a final settlement for Kosovo

and the will of the people would be

taken into

account siroy suggested they could sign

it if Mrs Albright accepted a letter

stating that the will of the people

would be tested in a

referendum thate was trying to read the

draft on his translator's computer

screen and I have Jim O'Brien and Jamie

ruin

behind telling me hurry up man hurry up

he can read it later and Hashim was

saying well maybe you could change that

I said no no you can't change and I

begin to step in front of him and sort

of bump him back away from the computer

I want it done and thi becomes

tremendously nervous he says you're not

leaving this chair until I get both

wordings in both languages make give me

bre

[Music]

for Brien just takes the sheet of paper

knowing that if the paper remains few

more minutes in th's possession he would

probably change his mind I said Jamie

here's a copy you're going to announce

this I thought that I better first check

with the secretary of state and I uh

snuck into the conference room and

whispered in her ear what had happened

and she said go out and announce it

the letter was addressed to Mrs Albright

so she was able to accept the referendum

compromise without consulting her

colleagues then I really started to get

my blood pumping and I began running

through the halls of this crazy castle

and out through the gates and into the

Town Square to finally tell the

reporters something good very briefly

the coastar Albanian delegation has

voted in favor of this agreement pending

consultations with the people of Kosovo

the albanians had chosen peace and uh

deferred Independence and the serbs had

not and now there was Clarity that uh

the world needed in deciding whose side

they should be

on with a referendum in the bag thate

won over the Commander's back home the

delegation returned to Paris for the

signing

ceremony

mosovich stayed home claiming Foul

Play what was uh try to be imposed in

rambu was not autonomy at all that was

Independence and I really don't believe

if you if you show it to any honest

American that there is one single honest

American who will tell you that if they

were on a place of our delegation would

sign

it Serbia's Parliament duly backed

milosevic's rejection of the ruer terms

as did the Serb

[Applause]

public Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister

revealed what mosovich was planning to

do

next

nationalism had brought mosovich to

power now it threatened to bring about

his

[Music]

downfall mosovich had already launched

two Wars against cro CA and Bosnia to

secure his vision of a Yugoslavia

dominated by

serbs now in March 1999 his forces were

terrorizing Kosovo part of his own

country where the majority of the people

were ethnic

albanians as his forces in intensified

their Third campaign of ethnic cleansing

the Western Powers United against

him they issued an

ultimatum mosovich was required to give

Kosovo a province of Serbia

self-government under the protection of

NATO

[Music]

troops as the deadline approached the

chairman of the European Union went to

talk him round

[Music]

re

we are defending ourselves I think we

are defending right to be free and to be

independent and right to live in

peace the last effort was made by

America's special

Envoy I was asked to go back and to give

mosovich a very clear message that if he

didn't accept the r bu agreements we

would

bomb he spelled out what would happen in

a meeting with president mosovich and

his number two the president of

[Music]

Serbia Mich looked almost disin interest

in and it sort of U moving his head to

the side just kind of shaking his head

and in in disgust he said well that's

nothing I can do I'm not going to

sign ambasador hook walked out of the

room was walking across the large

reception area and he just flashed a

thumbs down shook his

head

yeah

no I was in the White House when he

called I felt very strongly that we had

to move quickly we couldn't have another

Bosnia where the International Community

and Europe and nato in particular kind

of fiddled around for two and a half

years I said yes and what I authorized

to use the force I said emphatically yes

are you ready to go with us Tony and I

said yes without

[Music]

the squadron commander pulled the entire

Squadron into the briefing room Pilots

maintenance professionals everybody in

the Squadron pulled them together and

said boys we're going to

[Music]

war

[Music]

for

everybody was talking 3

days and all the pilots were telling me

you got to get me in you got to get me

in cuz uh I need to go I want to go and

uh bomb Before the War is

[Laughter]

Over the first night we didn't get a

knockout blow on the serve air defense

it didn't come up we shot down three

migs the second night we didn't get any

migs and they also didn't bring up the

air defense so we begin to realize we

had trouble the third night there was

bad weather the fourth night was a

Saturday night we lost n 117 and all the

missions got scrubbed so it was pretty

clear by Sunday and Monday that we

weren't going to get a knockout

[Music]

blow what made matters worse was the

reaction of Serbia's traditional Ally

Russia hardliners in Moscow were trying

to use popular support for the serbs to

undermine their government's pro-western

[Applause]

[Music]

policies

only two hours before the bombing had

begun President Clinton had fed to

inform the aing president yelon that

NATO was about to take unilateral

action

and I argued to him you know we actually

took a lot of heat off of Russia by

having NATO do this I went through all

the steps that the warnings mosovich had

been given the opportunities that we had

that were blown to avoid any kind of

conflict in Kosovo months before it

actually Mater

materialized the one man who thought he

could talk Y in round was the French

[Applause]

president

[Music]

[Music]

for

the Serb Army were doing quite well on

their own they had mastered some of the

techniques needed to outwit NATO's

Airmen

the serbs had more tricks up their

sleeves

for

the West had gone to war to prevent a

humanitarian catastrophe milosevic's

forces responded by stepping up their

campaign to drive the Kosovo albanians

out

a week into the war the Serb special

police reached the area of

misho Bachi taught science in a local

school

there in 9 months his family had been

forced to move home five times fearing

that the approaching serbs would kill

the able-bodied men faty hid in the

forest leaving his wife and children

with the family

car he had hidden his video camera under

a barrel outside a friend's house now he

returned to collect it

fore

speee

fore

with his camera Bary made a unique

record of Serb ethnic

cleansing next he made for the place

where he was told the serbs had caught

up with the people fleeing from his

village

for five men among the fleeing villagers

had been killed on the

spot

and Bary found his family's red

Volkswagen Gulf

abandoned

me mosovich is police were still cming

the

area to avoid them he took the long way

round to the

Village

[Music]

among the mutilated corpses B's friend

had found his own brother it was too

much for him

for

foreign

foree for near

some

them

at the sight of this massacre barley

filmed 36

bodies among them was his

uncle

ending the catastrophe that had struck

people like these was NATO's War

aim but its Targets in the first phase

of the bombing were not not the police

units who were to blame they were Serb

air defense installations and only

enough of them for a 3-day

War all the target sets that were given

had been hit so there weren't any

approved targets to go hit anymore

unless we went out there and struck the

same targets again which in fact is what

we

did we just turn basically bigger rocks

into smaller

rocks

the NATO Commander had a problem to

enlarge the range of targets he could

attack he needed approval from all 19

NATO

countries

we had to strike at the Serb means of

transportation including their their

Highway Network their rail network their

tunnels and so forth and especially the

highly significant bridges over the danu

river they both knew who he meant

president Shirak left for his Easter

break but President Clinton tracked him

down

president sherro said quite

understandably that if you if you hit

them where they live if you sort of try

to break down the economic

infrastructure of Belgrade and with it

Serbia after all these sanctions you'll

just make them more

angry I disagree to the extent that I I

said look I think this bombing campaign

can work but we have to be able

to have enough muscle to have

impact

shak's words gave Clinton an opening

they agreed NATO could bomb targets

related to mosovich is command

capability in

Belgrade

here's the two Targets it's the Serb

ministerial specialist police here's the

Yugoslav ministerial specialist police

both headquarters are in Belgrade both

are involved in directing the ethnic

cleansing I want to strike both of

[Music]

them

[Music]

the strikes were effective they were

precise there w't no civilian injuries

there were no collateral damages and uh

it sent a resounding signal of NATO's

resolve that same night the 11th of the

war NATO sidestepped the French veto

General Clark bombed two Bridges across

the danu but not in

[Music]

Belgrade

shak's prediction came true the bombing

rallied the serbs behind mosovich

targets became the latest Belgrade

fashion

[Music]

accessory

[Applause]

[Music]

for

[Music]

even belgrade's westernized

sophisticates who watch the BBC on

satellite fell in behind mosovich

suffering of the refugees dis by

refes

200,000 of Muslim mosovich too dismissed

the plight of the refugees you are right

there are lot of

refugees but they are result of bombing

and they are not only

albanians everybody is running away

because of

bombing serbs Turks Gypsy Muslims deers

are running birds are running everybody

is running

away because of

bombing Beast are running president

mosovich gave no other televised

interview during the

war he spent most of his time inside his

palacial compound in a suburb of

Belgrade he neither visited the wounded

nor toured areas hit by

bombs from these Grand rooms he directed

The Campaign against the kova

albanians and against his political

enemies at

home

10 days into the war the two men at the

top of the hitlist met in central

Belgrade the man he was meeting was

newspaper owner slav Co

chuia his paper the telegraph had been

closed down by the regime and its

offices ransacked after he waged a

campaign against mosovich is new

censorship

law previously he had counted mosovich

his wife as a valued

contact when I met her last

time on a day when they passed that

crazy and unconstitutional law I said

look Mira this is very bad this is

dictatorship she

said we should have done it 3 years

ago in the deserted Cafe the publisher

the opposition leader and their wives

compared

notes

but he stayed in Belgrade the next

weekend he and his wife went out for

Sunday

lunch

[Music]

s

[Music]

is

for

love several hundred attended chua's

funeral including the man whose name was

next on The Hit

List

for

the Republic of Montenegro was Serbia's

Junior partner in the Yugoslav

Federation

milanovich had become president of

Montenegro by opposing mosovich

he tried to stay out of mosovich his

conflict with

NATO president deanovich clearly was not

very keen on being bombed in the same

way as we were bombing Belgrade and

parts of Kosovo you can see why he was

not in sympy syy with meliss at all but

it was

necessary uh to take out some of their

defense capabilities of Yugoslavia that

were based in

[Music]

monegro

the president told shro that we simply

had no choice that there was too much of

a risk to our own pilots and our own

military people to give Sanctuary to the

Serb forces that were using Montenegro

as a base we got to look at the targets

if we can hit targets with a high level

of certainty that we're not going after

civilians but that will go to the heart

of what they're doing then we ought not

to rule any Targets off the

list sherak backed down on condition

that the bombing of Montenegro was

restricted to limited strikes on Serb

military

targets soon after NATO launched a huge

bombing raid the French President

demanded an

explanation

for

soon after NATO raids on Montenegro were

stopped Serbia's leaders were more

single-minded in selecting targets a

month into the war more than half a

million kovar a third of the population

had been driven from their

homes amongst those on the roads was

Bali Thai searching for his

family in fact his wife elmir who was N9

months pregnant had fled with their

three children she was as afraid for her

husband as he was for her

before leaving the women prepared for

the

worst

for the police caught the fleeing

villagers in this clearing and marched

them off at

gunpoint

[Music]

prod they were herded onto buses and

driven into the mountains towards

Albania

[Music]

stumbling and in pain they reached the

Border

they made it to Albania and elmia gave

birth to a

girl but she was born with suspected

brain damage due to

malnutrition a lot of people who oppose

to any

action in Kosovo and against Serbia

we're saying you guys have course this

so we were getting huge heat and

pressure on that is the prime minister

aware that the absolute human Calamity

that we see on our screens every day has

got much worse since the bombing began

the death and

destruction is being wrought by mosovich

on innocent K Albanian people he is the

person who began this policy of ethnic

cleansing we are trying to put a stop to

it stopping e cleansing from 15,000 ft

was not easy even with the most accurate

targeting technology mankind had ever

used mistakes did

happen 3 weeks into the war foreign

journalists who had been restricted to

Belgrade were shephered to Kosovo to

witness a terrible

scene not

for NATO had mistaken the column of

Kosovo Albanian refugees for a Serb Army

Convoy when all the bodies were

discovered the number of dead was

73

can you deny that NATO was responsible

for the the incident uh or incidents

which are being shown on Serbian

television and to which Western

correspondents were invited to go and

look at at headless bodies and so on

which appeared to have occurred on the

road between Jack ofit in prison is is

that can you deny that Doug I have no

indication at the present time that NATO

was responsible for any was it the one

that is being shown on for which you are

being

blamed

protests against the bombing campaign

spread across

Europe mosovich turned the

screw when our soldiers are dying they

know why they are dying they are dying

for their Homeland for their

Fatherland and for what will die your

soldiers 5,000 miles from home killing

children until they

sleep

killing women and

girls and peaceful citizens and

ruining what we were building through

the decades after second world

war in London the Prime Minister phoned

President

Clinton I said to him look we're losing

this we're losing the propaganda battle

I mean we're losing it big time this is

like you know you and I are familiar

with this is like fighting a political

camp campaign you got to have a proper

you know press War Room propaganda war

room where you're putting out the

correct information you're correcting

the lies of your opponents you're

setting the

agenda he took his press advisor to Nato

headquarters in Brussels to improve the

Press operation

there for me at that point it was a very

low point in one sense but in another

sense I was absolutely determined then

that we see this thing

through the prime minister went off to

meet the General running the

war I brought prime minister Blair in

the office we had a one-on-one scheduled

and he sat down on the sofa and I said

well can I get you a cup of tea or

coffee or something he said no I said

I've got a briefing here he said let me

ask you a question I thought I might as

well just come to the point because it

wasn't going well from the outside so I

said to

him are we going to win this thing

nobody had asked this question not of

me and I I said prime

minister I've never lost anything

significant in my life and we're not

going to lose this one well are we going

to do it by air power alone to which he

said well we can't be sure of that he

said

because the future of every government

and leader or almost every government

leader in Western Europe depends on this

I then said to

him well let's you know let's cut

straight to the point are we going to

need ground troops we might well if

that's the case then we better start

preparing for that for that prime

minister I'll probably have to depend on

you prime minister thank you so much for

coming if ground troops were needed Tony

Blair would have to bring about a sea

change in the thinking of all NATO

governments

a month into the war NATO held its 50th

birthday party President Clinton was the

host the last thing he wanted was a

violent public Clash amongst his fellow

Nat leaders some of whom feared that

backing a ground war could bring down

their

governments

d for Tony Blair the only hope of

persuading them all to back the ground

troops option was to win over Bill

Clinton I was worried that

the people in the Congress who did not

support what I was doing most of whom

were

Republicans uh not in my

party and not subject to my persuasion

would actually uh more vocally oppose

our involvement and try to stop pass

some resolution to say no ground troops

can

go Blair had come to Washington 2 days

before the summit to bend the

president's

ear when they arrived at the uh at the

White House we all gathered it was a

fairly small group of of Blair's very

closest advisers and and just a handful

of us uh with the president to avoid a

direct disagreement with the Prime

Minister the president had his National

Security advisor speak for him he argued

that they must not raise the ground

troops issue at the summit meeting we

had some

very uh shaky

reads uh uh at that stage uh leaders

under enormous uh pressure uh to try to

end this um it was not the place to show

mosovich that we were divided there was

only one way Slobodan mosovich could win

this war and that was to break the unity

of the alliance

I

said

look this will be a shorter

campaign if he knows we have the total

will to

win if he believes that we're prepared

to use ground troops to do whatever it

takes to make him back

down then he is going to back down

quickly from the air we had a thousand

to one

advantage and it was a matter of time

until we wore down mosovich

once we had 100,000 or 200,000 troops on

the

ground uh in Serbia in those

mountains um it was not 100 to1 or a th

to one advantage Sand's point was look

you know it's all very well for you guys

but it's the Americans who going to have

to provide a lot of the hardware for

this and and troops

themselves it was clear the ground

troops issue could not be settled by

committee buil Clinton said to me look

why don't we just go up to my study I

talk about it

all and I said to him are we prepared to

lose first of all I told him that I was

quite sure it would lead to a deep

division in America at this time one

that I was fully willing to

absorb if

necessary but that I didn't think that

we needed the ground troops to win you

may not need to use them but you do need

to threaten to use them we came up with

this language that said we're going to

do whatever it takes to

win whatever it takes to win a phrase

high on determination but low on

specifics was a slogan they could all

unite

behind they took that message into the

NATO meeting the next

day 19 leaders seated around a table not

in a conference call not in a cable not

to their foreign ministers look looking

at each other in the eye and essentially

making a personal commitment to each

other that NATO will not

lose if NATO did go on to defeat

Russia's Ally yelton's government would

be in Peril he used a television

appearance to announce a surprise

initiative Maybe

[Music]

the final speeches were being made uh

when we got word that president yelson

was online we pulled the president out

of the meeting it was clear that that

yelon had something on his mind and the

single message that he wanted to try to

get across and he kept coming back to

and back to was Bill we've got to fix

this problem we've got to fix this

problem he went on and on about it you

know he was mad at mosovich too I mean

he didn't

he he had tried to talk sense to him and

had certainly not wanted another round

of ethnic cleansing so yelon said you

know Bill I want to I want to work with

you on this new diplomatic effort to to

bring about about an end to the war but

I need a bombing pause I need to be able

to show that Russia has some

influence my view was that mosovich had

to cry Uncle first that you know we may

have to talk to him but first of all

there had to be a clear un ambiguous

defeat for the aggression forces in

Kosovo

though playing a weak hand yelen now

planned a political Master stroke to

extend Russia's influence in the Balkans

he called in his former prime minister

who he knew was well trusted in the

West

President Clinton also called on a

trusted colleague 30 years earlier

strobe Tober and Bill Clinton the one

with the beard had arrived in Oxford

together now Tober was the president's

Russian expert together they set out the

conditions The Joint peace Mission must

impose on mosovich

those conditions are that his forces

have to get out of Kosovo uh he's got to

let uh an international presence which

by the way is going to be led by NATO

into Kosovo and the refugees have to

come home and until those conditions are

met the bombing is going to

continue a week later president yelton's

Envoy arrived in Washington Tolbert

presented him with the

terms agreeing peace terms to put to

mosovich would not be easy but before

the Russians and Americans could get

down to work events in Serbia

intervened that same week over Serbia's

thirdd biggest city Niche NATO decided

to use a controversial

weapon cluster bombs had been ruled out

by the NATO commander in Bosnia as too

prone to kill people but the current

NATO Commander had a different View

cluster bomb units are the right

Munitions to go after certain targets

like in the case of Niche what you had

was the dispersion of the helicopter

force and some of the aircraft outside

the bounds of the Airfield hangers the

cluster bomb unit is the appropriate

area weapon to

use it disperses explosives over a very

large

area Liliana spich a medical student was

in Niche on the day of the bombing

staying with her

in-laws

said

[Music]

[Applause]

for

within minutes the mayor arrived at the

scene

[Music]

foree

[Music]

Mrs spage was taken to hospital where

her leg was

amputated

she did not know that by the side of the

road her daughter-in-law lay

dead we'd used these weapons before some

1,400 had already been used in the

campaign at this point and one

malfunctioned the bomb in Niche was not

the only one that went astray that day

in Belgrade NATO bombed the Chinese

Embassy mistaking it for the

headquarters of an arms smuggling

company and they killed three

Chinese the CIA blamed an out-of-date

map the Chinese didn't believe

it and president yelson made the most of

it the French president alarmed that the

Russian American peace effort would be

stopped in its tracks invited himself to

[Music]

Moscow

for

[Music]

[Music]

for

bisol

shak's idea that Russian troops formed

part of a Kosovo peacekeeping force was

just what yelton was angling

for the russian-american peace effort

could now get

started President Clinton had been very

clear uh even in the phone call during

the NATO Summit that NATO was going to

have to be basically in charge yeah

for the two peacemakers were so far

apart they needed a mediator of their

own so the president of neutral Finland

agreed to join them on one

condition

what became known as the troa had barely

got down to work when Tolbert got a

phone

call it's happening the uh the war

crimes tribunal is about to indict

movich

[Music]

the troa feared that now mosovich had

been indicted for war crimes he was less

likely than ever to capitulate if

convicted he faced life

[Music]

imprisonment but mosovich knew that as

long as long as he remained president of

Yugoslavia he was safe from the

international war crimes

[Music]

[Music]

Tribunal

[Music]

comat

the solution was to find a Target close

to mosovich that they could claim was

legitimate beneath his residence was the

most secure air raid shelter in

Belgrade his home had a big

Communications um bunker underneath it

and so we struck at that

bunker but when the residence was hit

the movices were away

NATO was finding no quick solution s and

its campaign supposed to last 3 days was

now entering its third

month the pressure on NATO was growing

as key members faced serious political

crises over the war the most vulnerable

government was

Germany's at his party conference the

German foreign minister faced an open

revolt

[Applause]

become far

the German Chancellor summoned the three

men charged with ending the

war

C

worse was in store the decision to

deploy ground troops fudged at the NATO

Summit could no longer be

avoided if the war was to end before

winter the huge logistical operation to

prepare for an invasion of Kosovo had to

start

soon Sandy Berger called and he said now

how long he said is it going to take to

do the

deployment General Clark rather

ingeniously was moving uh forces into

the region uh into Macedonia into

Albania uh Pache helicopters I mean he

was putting pieces on the board uh by uh

step by step I said I'll look at it

again I've looked at it in great detail

and I think the date is the 1st of

June on June the 1st the troa reconvened

at a German government house outside Bon

the imminent decision on ground troops

made their task even more

urgent they decided not to leave until

they had agreed all the terms to put to

mosovich

Mr chair amiran had in his delegation a

Russian general by the name of iof he

said no to everything every conceivable

proposition NATO at the core no total

withdrawals no you name it the answer

was no

for

at the end of the day uh the

disagreement between us was going to

come down to one three-letter word all a

l l which happens also to be a

three-letter word uh in Russian

vs so the only way to create what is

called a secure environment in Kosovo is

to get all of the serbs out that meant

all all of the sered Armed Forces all of

the paramilitary all of the special

police out all of them

everyone they took a break so that

chirin could phone Moscow and report

that the Americans would not budge from

the word

all

when they resumed the next day the

Americans got a pleasant

surprise the Russians had a um laptop

computer on the table where we were

negotiating and they kept churning out

drafts and counterd drafts and redrafts

of the paper that uh CH M was prepared

to take with him and all of a sudden

that morning the three-letter word

popped out a l l

for

for what the Russian general did not yet

know was that chenin had been instructed

by their president and prime minister to

play for higher Stakes to gain Russia a

foothold in

Kosovo

if you had a Russian sector within

Kosovo it would automatically attract uh

serbs and particularly the more militant

and violent Serb elements who would want

to get in under the Russian

umbrella

the reason we didn't feel we had to

resolve that in the Petersburg talks

because it was n of mich's business what

we had to get mosovich to agree to was

get all his people

out

they were setting off for a country that

had suffered 9 weeks of

[Music]

[Music]

bombing

growing shortages were taking their toll

the people's tolerance was becoming

strained even in Serbia's most loyal

Heartland for over 600 years the town of

crusat had been known for its

patriotism in 1389 men from here had

marched South into Kosovo to do battle

against the

Infidel in

1999 the tradition lived

on trouble began here when the bodies of

four local soldiers were brought back

from Kosovo to the the town's main

hospital

[Music]

as the rumor spread a crowd of some

2,000 people mostly women gathered on

the Town

Square they went looking for the

man

[Music]

for they finally track down the

[Music]

mayor

[Applause]

[Music]

for

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

similar protests broke out in two nearby

towns mosovich became so alarmed that he

sent his top Soldier to calm down the

[Music]

women

rumors of the protests soon reached men

from kushat serving in

Kosovo

more than a thousand of them hijacked

military vehicles filled with weapons

and headed for

home the chief of staff intercepted the

mutineers a few miles from kushat

for

the Mutiny was contained but it was a

warning that the Serb people had a

Breaking Point would mosovich heed the

warning mosovich had risen to Power by

exploiting popular support for Serb

nationalism

78 days of bombing had weakened that

support as he prepared to greet the troa

he knew the terms they would bring could

only be

humiliating could he Salvage enough to

keep the Serb people behind him and stay

in

power as chenam in landed in Belgrade

NATO was making no secret of its

preparations for a ground war The

Proposal the troa brought was virtually

an ultimatum dictated from

[Music]

Washington

mosovich was promised that the proposed

peacemakers would not carry the NATO

Banner

for

for arari and the formal troa delegation

left not knowing if they'd done enough

to make mosovich back

down

for

[Music]

for

for

Parliament Julie approved mosovich is

decision the war was

[Music]

over president arari reported to the

German chancellor who welcomed him with

delight the settlement had come just in

time to save his government all the NATO

leaders heaved a sigh of relief that

bombing alone had brought mosovich to

heal is the peace process the withdrawal

of the Serb troops and the other matters

proceeding on schedule today the Ser

forces are

withdrawing they're withdrawing in a

fashion that uh appears uh to our

commanders to be consistent with our

commitment to be gone in the 11-day time

period but what President Clinton did

not know was that the Russians and

mosovich had a secret plan to secure

their own slice of

Kosovo

the day before the Serb forces were due

to withdraw from Kosovo the British

general in charge of the force that was

to replace them reported a hitch Mike

Jackson called and said he didn't want

to go in on Friday June 11th the serbs

had asked him could he delay for an

additional day they were not going to be

in a position to start their withdrawal

uh the following morning um and just on

organizational terms not in any sort of

sinister or or backtracking or any of

that the serbs real reason for delaying

the NATO deployment was to let Russian

troops get to Kosovo first to secure

their

[Music]

sector

[Music]

as I got ready to go to the NATO video

teleconference a note was handed to me

it said the Russians are the Russians

are are crossing the Dr preparing to

cross the Dr River

this time NATO found itself facing a

ground war it hadn't planned for the

secretary General's notes record the

moment the truth hit

them I said don't you think we need to

look at a military response he said

absolutely

we got official instructions to look at

denying the Pristina a field to that

Russian Force so very confusing fact

situation a Russian leadership situation

at that stage very very

afraid um and we're suddenly in a

situation where our fear was after 78

days we would wind up with a partitioned

Kosovo which was precisely what we'

fought this war

against Moscow was clearly up to

something Clinton's Russian adviser was

sent there to confront the Russian

foreign

minister even off said that he regretted

to inform us that uh there had indeed

been an

accidental uh deployment of Russian

forces uh into Kosovo but that it was an

accident and would be out uh in a matter

of

hours so contrite was the Russian

foreign minister that he agreed to phone

a statement to

[Music]

CNN

as early as he dared the foreign

minister woke his

colleagues the foreign minister now

learned that his president had been

behind the whole

operation

for was

in they decided to raise the stakes and

send reinforcements to Pristina

airport we we were getting information

reports that the Russians were loading

aircraft in fact it was on Moscow

television apparently showing pictures

of air airplanes and paratroops boarding

aircraft and so

forth NATO was put on standby the

commander of the covo force was ordered

to prepare to block the runway at

Pristina airport by Landing helicopters

there the force was given a warning

order we went on to 15 minutes notice to

move the British general was concerned

that what he had been ordered to do was

dangerously confrontational his boss

flew to Kosovo to talk him

round he said I won't do it I won't do

it I won't send the Apaches up there to

block those runways you don't have the

authority to order me to do this this is

not part of my mission I'm not going to

do this and I'm not taking any more

instructions from Washington my

authority is quite clearly defined both

in

task and ability to change those tasks

and

missions the British government backed

their General

Clark was ordered to abandon the plan to

block the

runways NATO had urgently to find

another way to stop the

Russians a very tense moment I would say

this is one of the tensest moment in US

Russian relations uh in the last 10

years where we

actually uh were close to a

confrontation to reach Kosovo the

Russian Air Force had three possible

routes they could fly over Hungary

Romania or Bulgaria all former members

of the Soviet

block the Russian Air Force contacted

its Hungarian counterparts and received

permission to overfly it looked as

though president yelson had pulled it

off but now NATO deployed a formidable

weapon the

telephone so we called through every

channel possible and probably multiple

channels simult ously telling them not

to give the Russians clearance over

their

airspace Hungary had just joined NATO

and NATO's strategic interest was

pointed out to them they reversed their

decision Romania and Bulgaria had

applied to join NATO they too refused

Russia permission to overfly their

territory although the Russians had

secured Pristina airport with no means

to fly in reinforcements and supplies

their Triumph was

shortlived Moscow had gambled and

lost milosovic came out empty-handed

with Kosovo under International control

and no Russian sector for the serbs to

dominate all the mosovich family had to

offer the Serb people was Bambi Park son

Marco's latest business venture which

his mother opened soon after the

war milosovic the indicted war criminal

now presided over a bomb damaged and

bankrupt

country but he was safe from the

international tribunal as long as he

remained president of

[Music]

Yugoslavia

in March 1999 when mosovich refused to

stop his forces terrorizing the people

of Kosovo the Western Powers bombed him

into

submission though Serbia retained

sovereignty over Kosovo in name mosovich

had been forced to give up real control

of the province to the United

Nations milosevic's Wars had

impoverished the Serb people and made

them International

parias young people especially wanted

change and were prepared to take

risks

they called their movement opore

resistance and their message spread like

the wind around

[Music]

Serbia predictably oor's activists were

targeted by mosovich is

police

to welcome the Millennium otpor invited

the public to a rock concert in central

Belgrade 25,000 people turned

up Belgrade star drummer performed with

his band to keep the crowd happy till

midnight when The Rock concert was due

to

begin

[Applause]

y

G

and after the roll call there was no

Rock

concert

[Music]

but mosovich wasn't worried a year after

the war his government had rebuilt most

of the 55 Bridges destroyed by

NATO his reconstruction program was a

Triumph he announced that he would stand

for reelection a year before his mandate

ran

[Applause]

out mosovich was confident because

Serbia's many opposition parties could

not get their act

together

in Washington the Secretary of State

feared the policy she had fought for was

collapsing she summoned her

advisors you know we' done the bombing

uh a lot of people had suffered and

these people if you could just get them

to deal with each other there would be

some kind of a unified opposition she

pounded rounded her fist on the table

and looked at the room and said I want

you all to understand getting rid of

mosovich is my highest personal priority

I want him gone before I'm

gone she set out to turn Serbia's

opposition parties into an instrument

for regime

change over $30 million worth of Aid

provided them with all the campaigning

skills of the world's largest

democracy this American expertise

identified the opposition's biggest

challenge finding a candidate with

universal

appeal jingit and his colleagues looked

for a frontman to challenge mosovich and

settled on the leader of what was known

as the van party as it was claimed that

all its members could fit into a single

Le

van a law lecturer voislav costuna was

notable for what he wasn't he wasn't

corrupt he wasn't a friend of either the

west or mosovich and he'd never been

smeared by the state

media but one person was not so sure

about the choice of candidate

after 5 days mulling it over he accepted

the

challenge his colleagues breathed a sigh

of

relief mosovich

confident of Victory limited his

election campaign to a few visits to

Friendly

factories he left it to his wife and

Coalition partner to tour the country

making

speeches

milosovic and his school mom found

themselves facing a student

Revolt the opposition used the young

people of oour as its election shock

troops

opposition leaders even encouraged oour

to provoke the

[Music]

[Music]

police

the opposition ran a slick and energetic

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

campaign but they expected mosovich who

still controlled All State institutions

to steal the

[Music]

election

one of mosovich his former allies the

ex- mayor of Belgrade had changed sides

and was now a key opposition

strategist a week before polling day

seven key members of the opposition met

secretly in a sport Club in Suburban

Belgrade they were led to a private room

which had been swept for bugging

devices they were here to decide how far

they would go if as they expected they

won the election but mosovich refused to

stand

down

foree

[Music]

for by late morning on Election Day it

was clear the turnout was unusually high

a bad sign for mosovich

the polls closed at 8:00

p.m. at their high-tech results Center

in Belgrade the Democratic party raced

to gain a tactical Advantage by

announcing their estimate of the results

ahead of mosovich

[Music]

[Music]

milosovic turned to the instruments of

power still at his

disposal the election commission was

packed with his supporters they conceded

that costuna had won more votes but

declared that he had only

49% just short of the outright majority

required this gave mosovich a Lifeline

the commission ordered a second round of

[Music]

[Applause]

voting

[Applause]

to stop the second round of voting the

opposition had to break the rules and

quickly they called a general

strike an hour from the capital was one

of the engines of mosovich is

socialism

the coal from the kbra mine provides 2/3

of all Serbia's

electricity mosovich had always taken

good care of its 177,000

workers but the opposition had activists

in key jobs at the

mine they told the miners that a strike

at cbra could create the momentum to

topple mosovich

within the hour production had stopped

in all four of cra's coal

fields

soon 300 of the strikers were living at

the mine to stop mosovich forces taking

over the government turned the

screw

the battle for cbra was in the

balance but with the second round of

voting only 5 days away opposition

leaders had to plan their next move they

met in

Belgrade

they agreed that on the fifth of October

D-Day they would send convoys from five

cities containing every able-bodied man

they could muster they would all

Converge on Belgrade at around

midday

once in Belgrade they would Target key

buildings beginning with the federal

Parliament and the TV

station and they agreed that this was

the day their pledge to defend their

election Victory with Force might have

to be carried

[Music]

[Music]

out

well almost all of

them

some

they all knew the mosovich stood to lose

more than his presidency without the

protection of office he could be

extradited to the

Hague through his chief of police he

issued some desperate

orders

[Music]

the colonel backed by 750 police

addressed the Striking miners

but the strikers were in touch with the

opposition leadership and knew that

support was on the

way

the police kept them out for 2

[Music]

hours then a bus broke through

several thousand opposition supporters

followed in its

[Music]

wake

[Music]

hopelessly outnumbered the police could

do

nothing the minor strike was now causing

power Cuts in

Belgrade the day before the opposition's

push on the capital all Serbia saw that

mosovich was not

invulnerable he sent instructions to his

police

[Music]

Commanders

[Music]

the commander the opposition feared most

was the leader of mosovich is Special

Operations Unit A secretive Man known

simply as Leia this is the only known

film of

him

at 4 P.M on the day before D-Day jenit

got a

call

un

Leia seem to be changing sign es but

jingit couldn't be

sure

dday at dawn convoys left five cities in

Serbia for the decisive confrontation

with mosovich

is

the first test for the Convoy fromit

came 25 miles down the

[Music]

road

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

for

[Music]

the Convoy from chaak was even better

equipped

[Music]

[Applause]

for

the protesters from chaak broke through

three more roadblocks on their way to

[Music]

Belgrade the police managed to turn back

only one Convoy by midday the other four

had all made it to the

capital

[Music]

by then the drummers were summoning the

city's residents to the

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

streets

[Music]

[Music]

fore many had the same

thought there was no going back until it

was

finished

by 3:00 the Digger man and the drummers

were amongst more than half a million

protesters facing some 4,000 police on

the streets of

Belgrade they had come to bring mosovich

down first as planned they turned on the

federal

Parliament

[Applause]

[Applause]

foree

[Applause]

[Music]

for

each time the tear gas cleared the crowd

surged forward

[Applause]

[Applause]

again

many policemen had failed to show up for

work that day their colleagues vastly

outnumbered did not open

fire the main doors of the parliament

were opened the crowd surged in

[Applause]

[Music]

for but they never made it he and his

men were themselves trapped by

protesters in a nearby

Street an opposition leader went to

their

[Music]

rescue

[Music]

[Music]

for

mosovich now called on the police

Colonel who had carried out some of the

most brutal missions in

Kosovo

for

[Music]

from his Fortress home in the suburbs

mosovich called on his last

resort

for

[Music]

by now the protesters were besieging the

state television building here the

police put up stiffer

[Music]

resistance

[Music]

yes

Joe's Digger had sustained 80 bullet

holes but by 5:30 p.m. the police had

fled and the TV building was in

Flames by 6:30 all three state TV

channels were off the

[Applause]

air

the police defeated and demoralized no

longer knew who was in

charge

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

for

[Music]

[Applause]

president-elect Coston went to a

Suburban TV studio to be

interviewed

the opposition had won the day but had

they won the

war in the early hours some of them met

secretly in a Belgrade restaurant with

three senior

policemen

[Music]

for

[Music]

[Music]

for

B when the sun rose Belgrade was

quiet mosovich had often shown amazing

skill at escaping from political

disasters everyone wondered what he

would do

now president-elect Coston asked the

Army Chief of Staff to arrange a meeting

with President mosovich it was the first

time the two men had ever

[Music]

met

for

milosovic asked cost if he could address

the

people mosovich was now a private

citizen and a wanted man indicted for

war crimes by the international Court of

the

hag his son Marco saw the writing on the

wall vo love costuna was inaugurated to

the outside world there was now nothing

to stop mosovich being

extradited America called for him to be

handed over I believed as I always have

that American leadership was essential

and that we had the power to do

it I went to Belgrade to meet President

costuna we began speaking about the

Tribunal

[Music]

I said to him this is not something in

which you really have a choice this is a

clear mark

of your acceptance of the rule of law

and you'll find increasing insistence

from the West United on the need to

cooperate fully with the

tribunal the new prime minister was on

the Americans

[Music]

side

interest to extradite mosovich for war

crimes could have been dangerous for the

new

government a Serbian criminal charge

would be more acceptable

politically conveniently one of the

ex-president's closest colleagues the

head of Serbian Customs told the police

that mosovich was behind a massive fraud

on the State

Treasury

milosevic's supporters rallied to him

the previously reclusive president now

mingled with

them

this would be his last day as a free

[Applause]

man milosevic's supporters kept the

police at

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

Bang

the government sent in its crack SWAT

team led by mosovich is former Defender

Leia

the SWAT team got no further than the

entrance

gate two policemen and a journalist were

shot and

[Music]

wounded indirect

[Music]

[Music]

alol

it was at this point that President

costuna returned from a trip

abroad he summoned the ministers

responsible

milovich had run out of friends in high

places

after 33 hours Under Siege mosovich

walked out to the waiting police car as

he did so his daughter produced a gun

and shot at the government

negotiator

she

missed mosovich became prisoner number

10198 in cell 1121 of Belgrade Central

Prison he was charged with defrauding

the state

treasury but this was not enough to

satisfy the West they wanted mosovich in

the hag to face the charge of

genocide

prime minister jingit mistrusted a legal

system still dominated by mosovich

appointees

supporters of mosovich began to protest

near the

prison but this time the government was

taking no chances they whisked mosovich

Away by

helicopter at the ha he is charged with

ethnic cleansing including

responsibility for numerous murders in

Croatia in Bosnia and in Kosovo he is

conducting his own defense with

relish

We have dealt sufficiently with that the

witness has given his evidence you have

had your time and your time is now

finished