Gunfire

01:00:00:00

Uechtritz:  Montenegro’s elite special force commandos in an anti-terrorist exercise. There’s little doubt who they and their president regard as the terrorist.

President Djukanovic speaks

President Djukanovic:  Mr. Milosevic is the most dangerous man in the whole region and a man from whom this country and the whole region has to be protected.

00:35

Soldiers take part in training exercise.

Dissolve to:

Uechtritz:  Tiny Montenegro knows it may become the epicentre of the next Balkans war.

00:46

Map of Balkans region. Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro highlighted. Cetinje highlighted within Montenegro 

Music

Montage of images Montenegrin countryside/people/landscape and coastal city

Monks chanting

Uechtritz:  History wafts through the monasteries and mountains of this ancient land, and laps at the shores of its glorious coastline.

Unlike their brother Serbs, Montenegrins boast their land was never completely conquered. Not in 500 years of fighting the Ottoman Empire, not by the Nazis. The independent streak remains fierce. Montenegro is the smaller of the two republics remaining in Yugoslavia. Now many here want to break from Serbia.

Montenegro was annexed by Serbia after the Great War, and has been the perennial Yugoslav little brother.

Montage wedding celebration with guns fired/people singing/ Montenegrin flag

Car horns/Gunfire/Wedding singing

Uechtritz:  So even a wedding in Cetinje these days becomes a political statement. Flags of the old Montenegrin state have been dusted off.

01:58

These are hardcore nationalists, but polls show at least 45% of their compatriots also favour independence.

Priest blesses Bride and Groom at wedding ceremony/men fire guns in celebration

Wedding ceremony

02:11

Uechtritz:  And the ceremony is by the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, recently restored after being taken over by the Serb version, 80 years ago.

02:20

To an intoxicating brew, add guns. And it’s said every Montenegrin man has one, somewhere. And is ready to use it.

Montage men run along street with guns/men in uniform

And last year in Cetinje, civilians and Montenegrin police nearly did use them, against the Yugoslav army of Slobodan Milosevic.

02:46

Sasa speaks

Sasa:  The first spark that explodes over Montenegrin territory will result in a bloodbath.

02:55

Uechtritz speaks to Sasa and two others on street/Sasa/civilian pushed forward by soldiers/soldiers and civilians

Uechtritz:  Sasa Pajavic was at home when the army came to conscript him.

03:03

Sasa:  I said I didn’t want to go and kill innocent people. I didn’t want to serve the reg  ime of Slobodan Milosevic. Some of my friends jumped in to help and that’s how we managed to get rid of them.

03:26

Sasa and brother on street

Sasa:   We were an independent country until 1918 but then we lost our statehood, and in 1920, our church as well. We have lost our state and our religion but I hope we will manage to regain our independence.

Djukonovic: This (Milosevic) regime has always been turned towards the past and following the path of the ‘Hajduks’ has made used to bloody springs. We in Montenegro do not have any illusions that he will spare us this scenario.

Djukonovic gives public address

Djukonovic gives public address/riot

Uechtritz:  Carrying their hopes is Montenegro’s youthful president, Milo Djukanovic, already demonised by Milosevic and many at home for refusing to denounce last year’s NATO air attacks.

04:14

Djukanovic’s very election to office nearly provided the feared ignition. Serb and Yugoslav loyalists, some armed with Kalashnikovs and Molotovs, tried to storm the presidency. They were seen off by police tear gas.

Police in training exercise/ Café scene/hands count money/soldiers man roadblock/army trucks on the move

Since then the president has been boosting his police force, an army in all but name.

04:37

Young Montenegrins follow his western trend, their tender now, not Yugoslav Dinar, but the Deutschmark. When Djukanovic adopted the German money as his official currency, Milosevic retaliated by sealing the internal border, choking off the supply of food and medicine from Serbia.

04:46

Local say tarpaulins on army trucks seen moving from Serbia, cover multiple rocket launches.

Djukonovic speaks to Uechtritz

Uechtritz:  Mr. President, Slobodan Milosevic has blockaded your border, there’s talk of paramilitaries here to destabilise your government, what is Milosevic up to?

Djukanovic:  Mr. Milosevic  has over the last ten years of his rule clearly demonstrated that the only thing he is interested in is strengthening his own dictatorial power. Mr. Milosevic has shown a great inclination to cause crisis and conflicts in order to camouflage his responsibility for the ever-decreasing standard of living of the people he leads.

Uechtritz and Djukanovic in conversation

Uechtritz:  I asked the president whether he could rely on the Yugoslav army, especially its Montenegrins conscripts, not to take up arms against their countryman.

05:43

Djukanovic: Above all, I hope that the Yugoslav army is going to be able to resist this latest attempt by Milosevic to use it again for his crooked deeds. If this doesn’t happen and the army is once again drawn into an adventure against the democracy and the will of the people of Montenegro that will be the end of the Yugoslav army.

SOT  commander: There is not a single task that our unit cannot deal with, so long as it is in accordance with the constitution and the orders of our commanders and the President of the Republic.

Soldiers in training

Uechtritz:  They look impressive, but Djukanovic’s special forces are hopelessly out muscled, by the massive firepower of the Yugoslav army. Surely Montenegro would need weapons from the west , or NATO itself.

06:37

Djukanovic

Djukanovic:  I have never directly sought military aid from the West in order to protect Montenegro- but I have warned foreign officials that their responsibility for the stability of the Balkans is greater than ours.

06:52

Djukanovic meets supporters and envoys

Uechtritz:  while the president is under domestic pressure to hurry to a referendum, he has a rotating door of foreign envoys urging him not to provoke Milosevic. Djukanovic has proposed to Belgrade a confederation of equal partners, with separate foreign relations.

Djukanovic

Djukanovic:   I repeat we are not going to rush nervously into independence knowing that this could provoke internal conflicts which nobody needs anymore- and which have already torn the Balkans apart- but if Serbia is not willing to take up this civilised offer we will not give up our strategic national and state interests and we will take the route towards independence.  

07:34

Uechtritz:  But it’s a tricky, dangerous path.

08:02

Pavicevic and Uechtritz look at photos

Pavicevic:  This is just a picture of my activities over the last ten years. 

Uechtritz:  Mileta Pavicevic fiercely opposes Djukanovic and Montenegrin independence. His walls document a high profile role in the fight to keep Yugoslavia intact.

08:11

Pavicevic:  It’s difficult, because Serbia and Montenegro are one nation- one Serbian and orthodox nation. There are one million Serbs in Belgrade. Separating Serbia and Montenegro would be difficult indeed. This is really terrible- it could lead to a disaster. I don’t know what will happen but the situation is very tense.

Pavicevic takes us to visit his Serbian tribe in the mountains.

Montage Pavicevic greets old lady/Villagers go about village tasks

Pavicevic:  Look at her! For ninety years she’s been a Serb! Do you agree we should live with the Serbs?

Old lady:  Of course I do.

Pavicevic:  There you go.

Uechtritz:  This is pro-Serbia, pro-Milosevic country. The people are as intensely proud as they are poor. Their view of history is that Montenegrins are basically Serbs, but tougher. As the core of the estimated 40% who don’t want to sever ties with Serbia, they’re the main reason President Djukanovic hasn’t yet announced his referendum.

09:15

Pavicevic talks to lady

Pavicevic:  And are you from Serbia?

Woman:  Yes we are, thank God…the whole village is.

Pavicevic:  God willing.

Villager with young boy/villagers at meeting/

Father:  Show them who you are! Give them the Serbian salute.

09:49

Uechtritz:  Each new generation is raised to respect Serbian warrior traditions and the very essence of being Serb.

09:55

Man at meeting:  We are ready for the referendum. Our people want to stay in the federation. They could win only by stealing votes, as they did last time. Even in that case they would not be able to secede- I can guarantee that. If need be, we will shoot but they won’t get away with secession.

10:00

??

Demonstration rally

Uechtritz:  We found a very different sort of defiance when we ventured into Serbia itself, at least in the town of Kraljevo. These Serbs are on the streets because they’re sick of Milosevic, and his wars.

10:22

Man at rally:  Dear friends, we have gathered here tonight to protest against evil people….

10:41

Uechtritz:  Milosevic police had confiscated the television transmitter of the local independent station. It had dared voice opposition to yet another caller of army reservists.

10:52

Townsfolk feared the call-up meant a fifth Milosevic war was imminent. Leading nightly marches were young locals of the Serbia wide OTPOR, or resistance movement.

Bojan and Uechtritz/People and soldiers on street

Bojan:  Young people are dying, young people are going away.

11:17

Uechtritz:  Bojan Brkic is one of the resistance leaders.

Bojan:  This is a small community. We have about 100,000 people here you know, and many of our people were called up into war, last war, you know, war in Kosovo, about 23,000 you know.

11:23

Uechtritz:  The uniforms on the street reinforce those staggering figures. Literally one quarter of Kraljevo’s total population, and an even higher percentage of young people were called up for Kosovo. Forty-one died and hundreds more were wounded in that war. Previous wars claimed thousands, just about every child playing in Kraljevo square has a relative affected by war.  It’s this generation resistance wants to save.

11:42

Uechtritz and Bojan at resistance headquarters/rally

Uechtritz:  So it really is underground?

12:12

Bojan:  Yes, it’s really underground. You can see that they’re afraid of us, because only our activists are being arrested, you know. Not the leaders of opposition parties, not the people at rallies that you see, but only us.

The activists were beaten up by police, and the material was took from them, and even… thirteen members were arrested at that moment.

Rally/Dusan at rally with supporters and at graveyard

Uechtritz:  Dusan Vukovic has become a symbol of Kraljevo’s agony. The students have adopted him as a sort of figurehead. They call him father.

13:03

But Dusan and Snezana Vukovic’s real son Alexander lies in the Kraljevo graveyard. They visit him every day. A ritual not missed in the twelve months since he was killed in Kosovo.

SOT: This Milosevic robbed him of his youth, his love of sport and everything else.

Dusan became a local hero when he publicly refused to accept a medal for his dead son, sent by Slobodan Milosevic. The scene with Milosevic’s envoy has become folklore.

Woman at grave/Dusan at grave and at home

Dusan:  …This is very hard. It’s a tragedy, not only for my son but for all the other families in this tortured land. I’m not defending NATO. What they did… they should have done by other means. They should have bombed the tyrant… the psychopath… and he should be bombed, even as we speak.

Uechtritz with Dusan and wife at home/Uechtritz at Student meeting

Uechtritz:  Risky language in a country where someone was jailed for a year for carrying a sign saying, Free Media. The students too, risk all.

13:58

Student:  I think there is a real danger. I think that there is a possibility to begin war in Montenegro. I think that our people must do something to bring police and army on our side.

14:06

Student2 : We think this is our last chance and we have no more time to lose. Losing the time means losing the people. This is our last chance.

Uechtritz:  We saw protests last year, we saw protests in 1996, big protests. I was reporting in 1991, way back then, anti-Milosevic rallies… Yes, big demonstrations. But what makes you think now your protests and your rallies will make any difference.

Marina:  Yes, I think we are the last chance generation. We tried in ’91 as you said, in ’96. People just don’t have the energy. The government is playing with he energy of these people. They are so weak, they are in some lethargic state, they’re so hopeless. They don’t know who to trust. They feel betrayed.

Uechtritz:  NATO’s bombs have made their task harder.

14:54

Zjelko:  We think that with bombing they just help Milosevic... Not anyone else… Not anyone else. They did a great job for Milosevic, by bombing. They didn’t help us, or anyone in this country but him.

14:59

Marina: I think this bombing was one of the terrible mistakes of the last century but we are ready to forgive that, we are ready to start again with a new strength, with a new people, to make Serbia not to be a black hole in the cosmos as it is now, just to be part of the world.

Zjelko:  Montenegrins are brothers, you know. We’ve lived for 700 years with them. We are the same people. So it would the same  – I could call it a civil war, you know… It would be the national war, that would be the civil war, and I don’t really know who’d take part, who sane would take part in that war, you know, because I have cousins in Montenegro. He has cousins. He is Montenegrin, you know.

15:47

Maybe it’s too late for us, I hope not but maybe it is, but for those kids you saw today on our square I think it’s not too late but someone has to fight for them.

Village scenes

Uechtritz:  That was Serbia itself, but back in northern Montenegro, among Montenegrin Serbs, the mood is quite different.

16:39

Zjelko with family

Zjelko:  Their grandfathers and great-grandfathers stood like this and did the same three-finger salute.

Uechtritz:   Here, you talk Montenegrin independence, and you talk certain war.

16:56

Man:  The Kutchis and the northern parts of Montenegro  are going to stay with Serbia.  A civil war would thus be inevitable.  He is trying to suppress us with his police terror.  He’s preparing the terrain for a referendum.  But he has  not the support  for the majority of the people.  If he had that support, he’d have held a referendum long ago.  He doesn’t dare separate us from Serbia.  The only way he could attempt that  would be with the help of NATO- occupying us by force.  That would be the only way.

Acting group

Singing:  Oh, you bright May dawn,  Oh Montenegro our mother…

17:26

Uechtritz:  The chorus for independence, especially among the country’s youth, is growing. But the population seems irrevocably split. A referendum might give Slobodan Milosevic the trigger he wants. But with passions swirling, the limbo Montenegro occupies, is not necessarily safer.

17:48

Singing END

18:18