A Reckoning in Yugoslavia

This chapter recounts the author's return to Yugoslavia as the Sunday Times gave Louise Branson a contract to be its Balkans correspondent based in Belgrade. However, Yugoslavia's six ethnic republics had just elected non-Communist, nationalist governments. Serbia's leader, Slobodan Milosevic, was whipping up Serb nationalism to roaring crowds. The author became alarmed as the reviving nationalism in Yugoslavia grew, with calls for violence and retribution. In June of 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from Yugoslavia. But ethnically mixed Croatia was not going to break away so easily. Branson and the author found themselves covering clashes as forces loyal to the government of Croatia were pitted against both the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Croatian Serb forces. The escalating war that they were now covering included sieges of the cities of Vukovar and Dubrovnik. They then headed to England; the job in Yugoslavia was increasingly turning into war reporting.