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I spent nearly a decade investigating
war crimes in the former Yugoslavia,

and now I head
the New York Headquarters Unit of UN´s

Office of Internal Oversight Services.

After I published my book
about my work for the Tribunal,

I lectured across Europe and the US.

This lecture was unique

because it took place
in the UN General Assembly Hall.

I will start talking about

the investigation of the war crimes
in the former Yugoslavia.

But before I start with that,

it's very important
that we understand one thing.

There might be some students
from the former Yugoslavia here,

and I'll be using the specific examples.

Please, we shall leave
the demons of the war sleeping,

because a lot of bad things happen
in the former Yugoslavia

from all sides,

from the Serbs, from the Kurats,
Bosniaks and others.

And I'll be using an example
of the crimes committed by the Serbs

or non-Serbs in Croatia.

It no means
that the others didn't commit crimes.

I just want you to understand
before I start my presentation.

I spoke to more than two thousand
students from all over the world there,

and as I was leaving, some twenty
Serbian students stopped and accused me

of giving a one-sided lecture.

Although none of them had experienced
the conflict, they were hostile to me.

I realized then, how painful the trauma
still was for the people there.

Vukovar must fall tonight.
Then we’ll move on.

In 1992, I was working for Interpol’s
national bureau in Prague,

and I had almost no interest
in what was happening in Yugoslavia.

Until I found out that UNPROFOR,
UN’s armed forces

that operated in Croatia
and in Bosnia and Herzegovina,

were recruiting civilians.

The year in war changed me.

After seeing snipers literally
hunt people and kill children,

I realized I had a moral obligation
as a criminal investigator

to get involved
with the nascent Tribunal.

I knew that I was part
of something groundbreaking:

the search for a new mechanism
of international justice.

And at the same time, I was hoping
that we could help the nations

of the former Yugoslavia
coexist as neighbours again.

The hospital became
the target of daily shelling

as well as aerial bombing.

So we decided
to move all the departments

to the basement of the hospital.

During the entire aggression,
we kept treating all patients.

We treated Croatian defenders
as well as enemy soldiers

but especially civilians.

I sent out hundreds of appeals,

urging Zagreb,
the International Red Cross, and Geneva

to protect Vukovar and Croatia

from the unprecedented aggression.

Unfortunately,
our appeals went unanswered.

Citizens! Croats! People!

We know that you want to surrender

and that it’s your only salvation.

But you must let us know

if we should stop
or start killing everyone.

There were still some 350 people
in the hospital

who kept providing care
to all the injured and sick.

We were once again on our own.

To the very end.

Till the 18th of November,

when an agreement was to be made

on the evacuation of the hospital

under the oversight of observers
from the International Red Cross.

But no one came.

We knew from the beginning
that the Yugoslav army had prevented

the Red Cross
from accessing the hospital.

In the meantime,
they brought five buses to the back

and secretly took away some 300 people
to an unknown location.

Tell us what the problem is.

He sees soldiers walking
on the street and trucks going through.

But he can go through. Why doesn’t he?

- Go there. You could have gone there.
- I just opened the bridge to traffic.

But it was closed until now.

There’s war here!

We are trying to ensure your safety
and peace, and you’re making trouble.

If you don’t like it,
you can go wherever you do like it.

Investigating 300 missing people
was a completely new experience.

Moreover, their families believed
they were being secretly held in Serbia

and trusted us to bring them home alive.

For the first ever, I saw
someone cry during an interrogation.

Even grown men cried every day.

Gradually, we realized
what had happened.

The fighting in Vukovar ended on
18 November 1991, and two days later,

when the hospital was to be evacuated,

Serbian media reported that Croats
had murdered forty-one Serbian children

on the outskirts of Vukovar.

With emotions running so high,
something terrible was bound to happen.

ITV, an independent British TV station,

reported on the massacre of 41 children
at the Borovo Naselje elementary school.

The station cited
photojournalist Goran Mikić,

who said that Croatian soldiers,
while withdrawing from Vukovar,

massacred entire Serbian families
in Borovo Naselje.

Goran Mikić is here with us tonight.

You came back from
Borovo Naselje last night.

Please, tell us in brief what you saw.
The school, the children...

We simply saw body bags
filled with small dead bodies.

I managed to get
within some 20 meters of them

You could clearly see that
they were 5, 6, 7-year-old children,

their heads lying in pools of blood.

It was such a horrible sight
that even the soldiers cried.

And...

- at the cost of our lives, we wanted...
- How many bodies were there?

They were pulling them out of a cellar

and pairing heads with bodies.
It was just terrible.

I believe there were around 40 of them.

- I couldn’t count them...
- But you had your camera. -Yes.

- Did you try to take pictures?
- I did, I got up,

but bullets were flying everywhere.
One of the soldiers cocked his gun

and told me to duck
unless I wanted to get shot too.

We couldn’t locate Goran Mikić,

but I managed to contact
Italian journalist Milena Gabanelli,

who was also used by the Serbs.

She was brought to Vukovar
by Serbian paramilitary unit commander

Željko Ražnatović Arkan.

This is an Italian journalist,

who just couldn’t believe it

until she saw it
with her own eyes and filmed it.

Where is international community?
Where is Amnesty International?

Where is Vatican? Nobody is here.

What I would like to understand,
and I feel guilty for that,

a mass of killed people I saw.

So I can say to God that I saw this.

I cannot say that there were 40 children
because I didn't have time to see this.

It was a situation so very
dangerous, very confused, it was dark

and people that accompanied
me, that threw me out in a tank

told me that there were 40 children.

I interviewed a guy who was among
those who were doing the killing

and he said that he heard the
news about Korats killing our children,

so they decided to kill those.

It's enough one shot.

It's enough one.

Let's start the game
and then people get full completely.

Despite having doubts, Gabanelli
decided to report on the child killings,

but before she did, Reuters had spread
this fake news around the world

and retracted it a day later.

But the events in Vukovar
had already begun unfolding.

Some woman in the hospital

gave me ten or twenty thousand dinars

because we thought
we were going to Zagreb.

But we went straight to Ovčara.

There were some
two hundred and fifty of us.

We were terribly scared.

Had we known they were going to kills us

we’d have probably tried to escape.

Who would have thought
they’d kill five busfuls of people.

Zorić hit me over the head.

Tears start coming down my face.

I’m bleeding here on the head,
where he hit me with the stick,

and I still can’t believe
this is really happening.

I knew Zorić,
and I knew his two sons.

I knew Bulidža.
I used to play football with him.

I knew Lunčužanin.
I knew Dokmanović.

He scissor-kicked
one boy in the face,

and he grabbed Dado Djukić,
who was kneeling,

and slammed his head
against the concrete floor.

Siniša Glavašević came in after me.

When Dokmanović and his pack saw him

seven of them came at him at once.

We had four main suspects
in the Ovčara case.

Three high-ranking officers
of the Yugoslav army

and Slavko Dokmanović,
a civilian and the mayor of Vukovar.

He too was responsible
for what happened at Ovčara.

He even abused the captives himself.

And he was the first one we located.

We managed to convince his wife
to give us an interview for the film.

But I didn’t attend it.

It happened at night, and there was
no power. Even the witnesses said so.

One couldn’t recognize their own
mother in such darkness, let alone him.

He could not have got there.

Even if he wanted to.
Even if he knew about it.

When he read about it in the newspaper
he was horrified,

and he said:
“Someone’s head will roll for this”

He was a decent, honest,
and hard-working man.

A respectable, good man.

In the first
democratic election in Croatia,

he received by far the most votes
and beat all other citizen’s groups.

There were not just Serbs.
Vukovar is a multinational city

with Muslim, Croat,
Serbian, and Roma citizens.

Since he won the election,
he was appointed municipality chairman.

His official title was
Chairman of the Municipality of Vukovar.

While preparing for the trial,
we came to the conclusion

that we needed a witness from the unit
that did the killing at Ovčara.

A witness who was not a mass murderer

otherwise they would not be credible.

Looking back now,

I’m certain that I already knew
all the prisoners would be killed,

and I couldn’t do anything about it.

I drove away this professor,
his wife, and one boy,

we used to be neighbours in Mitnica.

and several other people
I knew from Vukovar,

and then I returned to Ovčara.

I asked if I could take away
some more people,

and they told me
that I could take ten more.

I took them out,
where they got on a trailer.

When they left,
my commander came to me

and told me
that I was doing a good job.

That they followed me like sheep.

He ordered me to keep separating them
into groups. That’s when I realized

that the first group had been killed

and that everyone else
would be killed too.

Even though he saved several people
at Ovčara and his testimony helped us,

I can’t think highly of him.

He now lives under a secret identity.

He got off really cheap.

But I cannot forget the things he was
involved in in Vukovar and at Ovčara.

How hard must it be to accept
such people when you live there?

Is it possible at all?

I arrived at Ovčara in August 1996,
expecting that the exhumation

would take about three weeks.

But the first layer of soil revealed
that there would be hundreds of bodies.

Heads, arms, and legs
were protruding from the ground.

It was clear the exhumation
would take much longer.

In the end, I spent seven weeks there.

I left reeking of dead bodies.

I managed to wash the stench away,

but you can’t rid yourself
of what gets stuck in your head.

At the time
the Hague Tribunal was established,

I was the head of the Croatian
Commission for Missing Persons.

That’s when I met Vladimír.

It was in our common interest
to bring Dokmanović to the Hague.

The Tribunal had existed for four years.

There were judges, prosecutors,
investigators, lawyers, analysts,

but no perpetrators.

The former Yugoslav countries did not
cooperate in arresting war criminals,

and NATO claimed
it had no mandate to get involved.

He was in hiding.

Another country was hiding him
although they knew he was a criminal.

He was not from Serbia, he was
from Croatia, and he hid in Serbia,

which protected him
and sheltered him from justice

instead of bringing him to trial,

as was their obligation
to the International Criminal Tribunal.

We got a permission to act on our own
and try to lure Dokmanović

to UN-controlled territory
where we could arrest him.

He had to cross the Bogojevo Bridge
between Serbia and Croatia voluntarily.

Otherwise it would be considered
kidnapping and, therefore, inadmissible.

Sometime in February,
he got a call to come to Vukovar

to discuss what would await the Serbs
once the Croatian government took over.

He asked what would happen with
the property Serbs left behind

since our house was there as well.

They promised him safety,

and he took the bait.

We urged him not to go,

but he was the kind of person
who always makes good their promise.

“I promised I would go, and I will.”

And so he went.

We were taken from Vukovar
to where the arrest was to take place.

We hid in two white containers
and then waited for ages.

The heat inside was suffocating,
and our anxiety was palpable.

After the escort left for the bridge
to wait for Dokmanović to cross over,

the atmosphere grew even tenser.

It was perfectly clear to us
that if the arrest failed,

if any of us was injured or even killed,

it would paralyse the Tribunal as such
operation would never be approved again.

The Tribunal would fizzle out
without any impact and fade into memory.

But then we heard the agreed signal.

Mr. Dokmanović,
my name is Vladimír Dzuro.

I work for the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

The Tribunal has issued
an arrest warrant in your name.

You are charged with grave breaches
of the Geneva Convention, war crimes,

and crimes against humanity for your role
in the abuse and the killings at Ovčara

near Vukovar on 20 November 1991.

Did you understand all I said?

I did, but it’s not true.

I had a sort of premonition.

The news had already started,

but we were sitting on the terrace,
and the TV wasn’t on.

Then one of our friends
who worked with him called us,

and he said in a trembling voice:

“Danilka, BK just announced
that Slavko is in Hague.”

I was to read Dokmanović his rights,
and thus become the first investigator

to do so since WW2.

Any mistake could result in the court
releasing him due to a procedural error.

I felt it was my duty not to disappoint
the families of the Ovčara victims,

who were waiting for someone
to finally answer for the crimes.

We never said that Dokmanović
was the worst Yugoslav war criminal.

There were far greater monsters,
who massacred thousands of people.

But we wanted him arrested, tried,
and convicted like all the others

to show that the hand of justice
could reach all the perpetrators,

even the political elites.

The prison was empty,
and there were no Serbs.

So they would grab anyone
just to justify their existence.

Serbia was demonised.

I suppose that was their main goal.

So after they brought him in,

they retroactively added
his name to the indictment.

I only met Toma Fila during my
questioning about Dokmanović’s alibi.

Before I entered the courtroom,
my colleague Clint Williamson told me:

"Whatever happens during
the cross-examination, tell the truth.

We can deal with the truth. But if Fila
catches you lying, we’re screwed."

Fila welcomed me with a smile
and said he had just a few questions,

and in the end,
I was cross-examined for three days.

We realized that more than Dokmanović,
he was defending the Serbian regime

and President Slobodan Milošević.

We didn’t know how else to explain
that he had Dokmanović testify twice,

given his disastrous first testimony

and poor mental state.

14 December 1949

Your Honour, the witness
needs not to be instructed.

Not guilty.

Not guilty.

Not guilty.

Not guilty.

That year was
like a concentration camp for us.

For us and for him.

It was awful.
We would cry every day.

He and we. He on the telephone.

And even when we visited him,
we would cry all the time.

Even when we were with him,
we didn’t know what to say.

I can’t even describe how we felt.

Awful. Awful.

And on Vidovdan in 1998,
at half past one in the morning,

Fila’s people called to tell me
they found him dead in his cell.

He imposed a punishment on himself
that the Tribunal never would.

We were back at the beginning.

All our effort,
two years of work...

and justice was not served.

It had all been for nothing.

I went to Hague five times.

Was it necessary each time?
I don’t think so.

Let’s say they needed me there twice.

It was worthwhile to them
to repeat it again and again.

So all in all, I can’t really...

I can’t praise them.

They simply made good money.

I think we aroused high expectations.

When the Tribunal was established,
it was stressed that it’s goals

were both to convict war criminals
and reconcile the ex-Yugoslav nations,

which gave the impression
that it would solve all problems.

We hoped that Yugoslavia
would go the way of post-war Germany.

But Yugoslavia was not Germany.

The Serbian side was doing
everything they could

to justify their aggression against
Vukovar and Croatia,

arguing that it was necessary
in order to protect Serbs from Croats.

To cover up their own war crimes,

they brought charges against
Dr. Njavro and me in Serbia.

They claimed that we had not treated
injured Serbs properly

and that our inadequate treatment

resulted in the death
of one Yugoslav soldier.

The last time I was to go
to Hague to testify,

they called me the day before to tell me

an arrest warrant
had been issued in my name.

I told them I wouldn’t go then.

I didn’t want to end up
in a Serbian prison again.

Later, whenever
I wanted to travel somewhere,

I would first check with the police
if there was a warrant in my name.

Many people, including myself,
come to the conclusion

that the Tribunal...

would bring
the victims no satisfaction.

Neither justice nor the rule of law.

And that was really very disappointing
and brought disillusionment

to all of us in Croatia.

Many of the people who actually
did the killing never stood trial.

This inevitably causes frustration
among those affected by the war.

Justice will never be served in full,

and since the Tribunal has become
such a lightning rod for frustration,

it will take people a lot of time
to come to terms with the past.

We pray to you, Lord, for all
who sacrificed their lives for Vukovar.

For those who laid down
their lives for Vukovar,

and especially those gruesomely murdered

and buried in a mass grave at Ovčara.

Justice should have been dispensed
in the former Yugoslavia,

in courts in Croatia,
Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,

but that was impossible at the time,

and even now,
more than 25 years after the war,

it is still very difficult.

It’s easy to try Croats in Serbia
and vice versa,

but it’s very difficult to try
Croats in Croatia and Serbs in Serbia

Good afternoon, citizens of Sanski Most,

the city for peace and unity.

We are happy to see
that so many of you gathered here

to hear our messages,
with which we want to call for peace

and for people to get along again

in Bosnia and Herzegovina
and our Yugoslavia.

Love and peace...

Love and peace...

Let’s sing about love,

let us all sing!

Love and peace...

Love and peace...

Let’s sing about love,

let us all sing!

Love and peace...

Love and peace...

Let’s sing about love,

let us all sing!

Peace is behind us, peace is
in front of us, and it’s next to us.

And where else should it be?

In Yugoslavia, in our hearts!
Do we all agree?

Yes we do!

It seems children come first.

There have been
happenings for peace here before,

but never with so many people.

In 1992, when the Bosnian War started,

many people fled from here,
especially Bosnians and Croats.

I too was waiting in the line
for the papers you needed to leave,

but they suddenly stopped it,
and said: “No more departures.”

“These people will stay here.”

They kept us here literally by force

to do the hardest work for them.

We had to cut down trees
and repair local roads, for example.

Then they started sending us
to the front lines. That was the worst.

Some will praise us,
and others will criticise us.

The enemy will definitely criticise us
because as you have seen or heard

we don’t treat them with kid gloves.

But our people will praise us.

Especially people of this region,
whom we came to help.

To save them from this pure fascism.

Later, our team
started investigating the Arkan case.

Željko Ražnatović participated
in the war from its very beginning.

He put together his own
paramilitary unit called Arkan’s Tigers.

He was already a criminal,
and his involvement in the war

was motivated by his own interests.

We first noted his activities in 1991
during the fighting around Vukovar.

Our later investigation focused
on the Bosnian town of Sanski Most,

where he had a base in the Sanus Hotel,
and where he initiated ethnic cleansing.

Two years later, we stayed there too.

Not because the place
was directly connected to the crimes,

but because it was far and wide
the only open hotel.

We came here to stop
the attack of the Muslims,

and to repel their attack

along the entire front line.

I would like to ask the citizens

not to run away
because we definitely won’t run away,

and to remain in their houses
until it’s safe out here.

We’ll protect them to the last tiger.

There was a small window
above the door to the boiler room.

Tiny, really.

We all had to squeeze
inside through that window.

One of us was a bit stocky,

and the poor guy
got stuck in the window.

The soldiers beat him
from behind until he fell in.

He was half dead.

Arkan’s soldiers tortured us

and forced us to do unspeakable things.

They beat one young man so much

that he shit his pants.

One of the soldiers
made him lick his own faeces

until his underwear was clean.

Two men died in the boiler room.

Their bodies laid there
with us for several days.

They wouldn’t let us take them out.

When the smell of the bodies
spread to the courtyard,

they finally allowed us
to carry them out.

Arkan simply

arrested and killed

non-Serbs.

So they grabbed anyone
who was not a Serb,

they arrested them and killed them.

When we arrived in Sanski Most

on a truck loaded
with ammunition and weapons,

we stopped in front of the Sanus Hotel.
Arkan came out

and one by one asked our names.

Then he sent us to one of the corridors

and told us to take a rest
because we would have a lot of work.

After a while, this...

smallish guy came in and asked me:
“Are you a Turk?”

“If you are a Turk, sit down
and cross your legs like Turks do.”

“And get your head to the floor.”

I could never cross my legs before,
but I managed to do it then out of fear.

I saw that they were handcuffing us
into pairs and loading us into a truck.

They lifted the tarp and said:
“Two of you outside.”

Shortly after the first pair
stepped out, there were two shots.

And so it went on: “Next! Next!”
We went into some garage,

and there I saw the two who went
before us dead on the ground.

I suppose I stumbled
over one of the bodies there

so the bullet
that he probably fired at my heart

hit me a little higher
and went through my collar bone.

When I realized I was alive,
I pretended to be dead.

Someone in the pile of dead bodies
was still gurgling.

One of them said: “Some are still alive.
Shoot each one in the head.”

The bullet they shot at me
hit me in the chin.

Because Arkan was still alive,
the investigators from Hague asked me

if I wanted protection
since I decided to testify.

I went there to prove the involvement

of the Serbian army
in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Because it was from
those soldiers that I experienced...

I basically survived an execution.

And right now, we are
where it all happened.

I consider it an act of great courage
for a secret Tribunal witness

to connect their face and name
with their testimony

Especially in a country,
where over 100,000 people were killed

and the conflict is still smouldering.

When Sanski Most was liberated,

I was in Germany.

We watched it on the news.

Reporters kept bringing fresh news.

During one report,
I noticed something.

I saw the dead bodies,
and I called to my wife:

“That’s our garage! Our house!”

“Oh, come on!” she said.

“It is, look!” I replied.
“I can see bodies lying there.”

It was not a house any more but a ruin.

We were the first to return. No one else
was staying in Trnova overnight.

He went to bed in the evening,
and I was standing by the window.

Terrified, I was waiting
if the shelling would start again.

He wasn’t scared at all.
He slept like a log.

I just started going to school

when the war broke out

in the former Yugoslavia,

and I have to say
that in those years,

I heard nothing about Arkan.

But immediately after the war,

Arkan became very popular in Serbia.

He was then frequently invited to

both political TV programmes
and light entertainment shows.

On those shows,
he was presented as a strong man,

a successful man
and a witty and charismatic person

who fought for Serbian values
and protected us during the war.

We knew that he had been
the commander of some unit,

but we knew nothing
about what exactly he had done

besides that he had protected us.

Until it was made public

that he would be indicted
by the Hague Tribunal

and what charges
would be brought against him.

Popularity brought Arkan prominence,
but the focus of his activities

was economic crime.

Under the guise of defending Serbs,
Tigers plundered wherever they went.

He used the money he had made by looting
for his political campaign in Serbia.

He even became an MP for some time.

The Serbian nation
continues to be divided

into communists and monarchists,
Partisans and Chetniks.

All that is history
that we don’t need any more.

We need the Serbian nation

to become a single, united nation.

Only then will we all be

the strongest and invincible.

Only then will we all be
Serbs and humans.

And that’s the most important thing!

We went after him for two long years.

He could only be arrested legally
outside Serbia, under international law.

In September 1998, we received intel
that Arkan would go to Madrid

to watch his football team Obilić play.

He had spent an incredible amount
of money to get the club

into the European league.

Perhaps Arkan got a tip-off
or just gave us the slip,

but we left Madrid empty-handed.

I led a team
that worked on locating them.

So we located and arrested them
and then sent them to the Hague.

If it weren’t for the Tribunal,
no one would have been able to stop

those rolling Croatian,
Bosnian, and Serbian war machines.

Only the Tribunal
and the threat of being arrested

somewhat brought them
to their senses. No one else could.

There was no chance that the courts
in Serbia would do anything

nor those in Croatia and Bosnia, I think.

For several years, we tried to arrest
Arkan all over Europe.

Then, out of the blue, in April 1999,

it was announced that Arkan
would cooperate with the tribunal.

At the time, Slobodan Milošević
was on trial, and Arkan testifying

would spell a huge problem for him.

Shortly after, Arkan was shot dead
by a Serbian police officer in Belgrade.

It’s strange.

The two most important cases
I had ever worked on ended this way.

Arkan would never
have gone on trial in Serbia

just like many other people
who were involved in war crimes.

Had he been tried
and convicted by the Hague Tribunal,

I think that it would have been the end

of the Serbian mainstream narrative

that paramilitary units
simply form on their own

when four friends get together
and decide to go to war,

and it has nothing to do with Serbia.

I was invited to Nuremberg.

We were in courtroom 100.

That’s the courtroom where the leaders
of the Third Reich were tried,

and there’s a photograph there,
in which you can see the dock.

I saw Göring,
and then I noticed Jodl.

And, interestingly, all of them
had very concerned looks on their faces.

They were worried about
what would happen to them. And I said

that it was a pity that the guys
from our country hadn’t seen the photo

and how terrified they looked.

I think that things
would have gone differently here.

Our press then confronted me, asking
how I dared compare those fascists

with our peacemakers.

They came at me.

I am rather critical

of the Hague Tribunal.

But ask yourselves
what would have happened

if it had not been established.

In the next election,
we would have likely re-elected

Slobodan Milošević as our president,

Arkan could have become
Minister of the Interior or Defence,

and all the people
that were charged

with very serious crimes
by the Tribunal would have been free,

and after the war, they would have
probably kept their positions and power.

We all grew up here in Bosnia.

Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians.

As far as I know, only the Croats,

who had some 50 houses around here,
they alone didn’t come back.

All the young people
have left for abroad.

That’s how it is.

Of course I would prefer if my
children and grandchildren were here.

Who will serve my son dinner
when he comes home from work?

I arrested both
Karadžić and Mladić

so I wasn’t very popular.
Even today, some people say:

“That’s the guy that arrests only Serbs.”

But the neighbourhood
I live in is quite classy.

There’s a lot of decent people here,
and I get no trouble.

But as soon as I head to the suburbs,
they call: “Look, it’s him!”

From the moment
the Tribunal was established

I firmly believed
that it was an institution

that would help bring to justice

perpetrators of war crimes,

but that it would also help

national courts

to start trying war crimes.

I testified at a national court

in several cases of war crimes
perpetrated by Croats.

As a result, I was labelled as someone

who took the enemy’s side.

It’s not pleasant for me
nor for my family.

I was targeted by the media
at one point, and it went on for a while,

but it made me realize

that it was probably time
for me to leave my job.

I don’t want to live in a society
where my neighbour

is someone who has killed
200 people in Croatia or Bosnia.

I don’t want my child

to play with such person
or even say hello to them.

I don’t want it to be acceptable
that they won’t be convicted

because twenty-five years have passed.

In total, the Tribunal prosecuted
161 people and convicted 90 of them.

I can’t say it’s a low number,
but it’s not enough for me.

We gradually obtained
the names of the actual shooters,

and most were out of our reach.
Outside our jurisdiction.

More justice could have been served,
had the Yugoslav states

fully cooperated with the tribunal.

We could have solved
far more for them.

When you do this job for ten years,

the stress and emotions
inevitably get to you.

That’s why
I eventually left the tribunal.

I got a job offer from the UN,
and I thought to myself

that ten years was enough.

In hindsight,
I think I made the wrong decision

and that I should have continued
working for the tribunal.

We did a lot of bad shit
But there’s a catch

You burned and stole, too
We’re a match

Years went by, we only
stuck with our brothers

Never grew the balls
to talk to the others

That’s why, dear Milan,
I’m writing you this letter

We’re not the same
Some are worse, some better

They’ll raise their voice
But I made my choice

My intention is kind
I have a peace of mind

Fuck their rules
I’ll never be a hater

Time will tell
If I’m a fighter or traitor

We all suffer
When will it end

I’ll be the first
to reach out my hand

How can you show
some love to the others

Kicked by your team
Spat on by their brothers

They will use you
to fight in their ring

Look at the sky
New fires are burning

How can you show
some love to the others

Kicked by your team
Spat on by their brothers

They will use you
to fight in their ring

Look at the sky
New fires are burning

I’m afraid even
when I’m writing these lines

They’ll say I spat at
our granddads’ lost lives

I know you’re waiting
for the phone to ring

I know cause I, too,
have been waiting

We’re so alike
It’s a shame

We come to visit
lying about a relative’s name

Feeling like a swine
in Teheran

Just like me
when I come to Trebinje

How can you show
some love to the others

Kicked by your team
Spat on by their brothers

They will use you
to fight in their ring

Look at the sky
New fires are burning

How can you show
some love to the others

Kicked by your team
Spat on by their brothers

They will use you
to fight in their ring

Look at the sky
New fires are burning

I won’t be bugging you
about Dodik’s lies

the nationalism machine
just to make more dough

We’re not brothers
Fuck the good old days

Going to each other’s
Bayrams and holidays

They sold it all
It fell apart

Brothers into rivals
overnight

No more counting
deaths and corpses

Burned mosques
Torn down churches

It’s hard to stand
the guilt trip, the tension

when my people call you
a genocidal nation

You’re not like that
I know it’s bullshit

I want you to know
that’s not what I think