1. For Serbian paramilitary activities, see Norman Cigar, Genocide in Bosnia: The Policy of "Ethnic Cleansing" (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995); James Gow, "Military-Political Affiliations in the Yugoslav Conflict," RFE/Radio Liberty Research Report, 15 May 1992; Robert Thomas, The Politics of Serbia in the 1990s (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 93–106; United Nations, Final Report of the U.N. Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992), S/1994/674 (New York: United Nations, 1994), Annex III; and Paul Williams and Norman Cigar, "War Crimes and Individual Responsibility: A Prima Facie Case for the Indictment of Slobodan Milošević," in The War Crimes Trials for the Former Yugoslavia: Prospects and Problems (Briefing of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe CSCE, 28 May) (Washington, DC: CSCE, 1996).

2. Branko Milinković, "Yugoslavia: Who Is in Charge of This War," Inter Press Service, 18 November 1991.

3. Andrej Gustincic, "Yugoslav Conflict Creates Bizarre Assortment of Folk Heroes," Reuters North American Wire, 20 August 1991.

4. Marcus Tanner, "Assassination Divides Serbs," Independent (London), 7 August 1991.

5. Tim Judah, "Kaleidoscope of Militias Fights over Bosnia," Times (London), 30 May 1992.

6. Philip Sherwell, "Serbia's Warlords Walk Tall in Benighted Bosnia," Sunday Telegraph (London), 26 April 1992.

7. United Nations, Final Report, Annex IIIA, para. 24.

8. Former U.S. State Department official with access to classified intelligence,

9. Colonel Dragutin, interview by author, Banja Luka, May 1997.

10. A brochure published by Arkan's Serbian Voluntary Guards, for example, includes numerous references to Serbian history, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and royalist symbols.

11. Robert Thomas, The Politics of Serbia, 94. Arkan was later killed by unknown gunmen in Belgrade. For details of Arkan's career, see the international tribunal's indictment. ("The Prosecutor of the Tribunal Against Željko Ražnatović," case # IT-97–27, 30 September 1997. Available online at www.un.org/icty/ind-e.htm.)

12. Robert Thomas, The Politics of Serbia, 99.

13. Miroslav Mikuljanac and Gradiša Kapić, "Exiting with Trumpets and Cameras," Borba, 21 November 1993. In Serbo-Croatian.

14. For the higher estimate, see Cvijetin Milivojević and Miroslav Mikuljanac, Šešelj's Jail Circle (Belgrade: Mimeo, 1994). In Serbo-Croatian.

15. James Gow, "Military-Political Affiliations," 22.

16. Robert Thomas, The Politics of Serbia, 98–99.

17. Louise Branson, "Scapegoat Goes into the Dock," Times (London), 20 November 1994. The Wasp commanders were indicted by Serbian republican authorities for war crimes in 1994 (Šabac District Court indictment dated 28 April 1994, doc. #398/93). Additional information was supplied by Dragoljub đorđević, lawyer for the defense, in an interview by the author in Belgrade on 31 May 1997. See also Human Rights Watch, War Crimes Trials in the Former Yugoslavia (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995), 41–45.

18. đorđević, interview by author.

19. Details of Petrović's case come from videotaped testimony given by Petrović to Danilo Burzan, member of the Montenegrin parliament. The tape was made in 1996 but never publicized. I viewed it in Podgorica in June 1997.

20. Robert Thomas, The Politics of Serbia, 99.

21. Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights, Report on Ethnic Cleansing Operations in the Northeast-Bosnia City of Zvornik from April through June 1992 (Vienna: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, 1994).

22. Obrad, interview by author, Belgrade, 26 May 1997.

23. Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Report on Ethnic Cleansing, 23.

24. Obrad, interview.

25. Estimates of Bosnia's overall war dead vary widely, ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands. For a lower estimate, see SIPRI International Yearbook 1996 (Stockholm: SIPRI, 1996), 24, estimating total (all ethnic groups, civilians, and combatants) deaths between 1992 and 1995 at 25,000–55,000. A similarly low estimate can be found in George Kenney, "The Bosnia Calculation," New York Times Magazine, 23 April 1995. In 1997, however, Kenny wrote of 100,000 war casualties; see George Kenney, "Take off the Blinders on Bosnia," Los Angeles Times, 5 June 1997. Kenney is a controversial figure, however, as discussed in Mary Battiata, "War of the Worlds," Washington Post, 30 June

For higher end estimates, see the figure of "more than 160,000" deaths and 2.5 million displaced in the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Annual Report 1997: Bosnia-Herzegovina (Vienna: International Helsinki Federation, 1997), 1; or the U.S. State Department's estimate of 250,000 slain and 3 million displaced in Bosnia and Herzegovina Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1996 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State, 1997), 1. Some argue these numbers are based chiefly on Bosnian government estimates from December 1992 (Patrick Bishop, "Combatants Play Numbers Game with Bosnia's Body Count," The Daily Telegraph, 20 May 1995). Ilijas Bošnjović, "Half of Bosnia without an Address," Oslobođenje, 24–31 August 1995 (English translation available online at http://www.cdsp.neu.edu/info/students/marko/oslob/oslob6.html), argues for 279,000 deaths, 50 percent of which were Muslim, 32.5 percent Serb, and 11 percent Croat; of 2.5 million displaced, Bošnjović says, 1.24 million were Muslim, 730,000 were Serb, and 377,000 were Croat.

26. Susan Woodward, Balkan Tragedy, pp. 265–266.

27. The former Yugoslavia had a territorial defense system parallel to the Yugoslav federal army. Each municipality had a territorial defense commander charged with mobilizing local reservists in times of crisis. The command-and-control structure linking the local territorial defense forces, republican governments, and the Yugoslav federal army shifted frequently during 1945–90. For details, see James Gow, Legitimacy and the Military: The Yugoslav Crisis (New York: St. Martin's, 1992).

28. Human Rights Watch, Deadly Legacies: The Continuing Influence of Bosnia's Warlords (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1996).

29. The Serbian Democratic Party was formed in Sarajevo in 1990 as a branch of the Croatian Serbian Democratic Party, largely in response to the establishment of the Bosnian Muslim-led Party of Democratic Action and the Bosnian Croatian Democratic Union. Its initial leadership drew on Bosnian Serb intellectuals from Sarajevo.

30. The Serbian autonomous region of Herzegovina was created on September 12, 1991; Bosanska Krajina on September 16; Romanija on September 17; and North-Eastern Bosnia on September 19. For details, see James Gow, Triumph of the Lack of Will (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 34.

31. "Serbian Villages in Olovo Municipality to Join Autonomous Region," Tanjug, 24 September 1991, available through BBC Summary of World Broadcasts [cited 26 September 1991], EE/1187/B/1.

32. Susan Woodward, Balkan Tragedy, 226, fig. 8.1.

33. "Romanija Serbs Determined to Stay with Serbia," Tanjug, 17 March 1992, available through FBIS [cited 18 March 1992], EU-92–053.

34. "Serbian Autonomous Regions Oppose Decision on Bosnia-Herzegovina's

35. James Gow, Triumph, 34.

36. James Gow, "The Use of Coercion."

37. Nenad Kecmanović, interview by author, Belgrade, 13 March 1997. Kecmanović, a well-known Sarajevo figure, was asked to lead the Serbian Democratic Party. He refused and fled to Belgrade during the first months of the fighting.—

38. "Serb Plan to Occupy Bosnia ‘Leaked Out, ’" Vjesnik, 3 April 1992, available through FBIS [cited 21 April 1992], EEU-92–077.

39. "Ministry Sets Up Internal Security Centers," Tanjug, 31 March 1992, available through FBIS [cited 1 April 1992], EEU-92–063.

40. "Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Bosnia Seen as ‘Putsch, ’" Oslobođenje, 2 April 1992, available through FBIS [cited 20 April 1992], EEU-92–076.

41. Stanica, interview by the author, Banja Luka, May 1997. Reference to the "Serbian Defense Forces" was also made in United Nations, Final Report, Annex V, para. 194, which reported that the unit trained in the Kozara military barracks in Banja Luka and participated in the takeover of Banja Luka as well as Prijedor.

42. Vučjak mountain was the unit's headquarters. Unit members reportedly wore a White Wolf patch on their left shoulder.

43. "Wolves from Vučjak, Colonel Veljko Milanković," Duga, 24 October 1992. In Serbo-Croatian.

44. Major Stanko, interview by author, Banja Luka, May 1997.

45. Nikola, interview by author's assistant, Banja Luka, May 1997.

46. Stanica, interview by author.

47. Human Rights Watch, Deadly Legacies. This document drew heavily on Western military intelligence.

48. Most of the material for this section comes from United Nations, Final Report, Annex V. See also Human Rights Watch, The Unindicted (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1997), and the international tribunal indictments of Bosnian Serb authorities in Prijedor, "The Prosecutor of the Tribunal against Simo Drljača and Milan Kovačević," case # IT-97–24, 13 March 1997. Available online at www.un.org/icty/ind-e.htm.

49. According to the United Nations report, the Party of Democratic Action won thirty seats, the Serbian Democratic Party won twenty-eight, and the Croatian Democratic Union won two. Independent left-wing parties won the remaining thirty municipal assembly seats. According to the 1990 census, Prijedor's population numbered 47,745 Serbs, 49,454 Muslims, and 6,300 Croats. By 1993, Prijedor's numbers had changed dramatically, with only 6,124 Muslims and 3,131 Croats in the town, versus 53,637 Serbs. Thus some 43,000 Muslims had fled, been deported, or were killed.

50. United Nations, Final Report, Annex V, paras. 113–114.

51. Cited in United Nations, Final Report, Annex V, para. 136. Original interview published by Siniša Vujaković in Kozarski Vjesnik, 9 April 1993.

52. United Nations, Final Report, Annex V, para. 168.

53. United Nations, Final Report, Annex V, paras. 178–179.

54. United Nations, Final Report, Annex V, paras. 170–171.

55. United Nations, Final Report, Annex V, para. 176.

56. For details of the Kozarac events, see Opinion and Judgement: The Prosecutor v. Duško Tadić (The Hague, Netherlands: International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, 1997), available online at http://www.un.org./icty/970507jt.html.

57. United Nations, Final Report, Annex V, para. 177.

58. Former State Department official, interview by author, Washington, D.C., March 1998. See also Thom Shanker and Charles Lane, "Bosnia: What the CIA Didn't Tell Us," New York Review of Books, 9 May 1996, 10.

59. For examples, see Wayne Bert, The Reluctant Superpower: United States Policy in Bosnia, 1991–1995 (New York: St. Martin's, 1998); James Gow, Triumph; Roy Gutman, A Witness to Genocide (New York: Macmillan, 1993); Noel Malcolm, Bosnia: A Short History (New York: New York University Press, 1994); Michael Sells, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995); Milan Vego, "Federal Army Deployments in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Jane's Intelligence Review, 4: 10 (1992): 445–46; and Warren Zimmerman, Origins of a Catastrophe: Yugoslavia and Its Destroyers (New York: Random House and Times Books, 1996).

60. Milan Vego, "Federal Army Deployments," 445–446.

61. Roy Gutman, A Witness to Genocide.

62. Roy Gutman, interview by author, Washington, D.C., February 1997.

63. Sonja Biserko, interview by author, Belgrade, April 1997.

64. United Nations, Final Report, Annex III, para. 20.

65. Nataša Kandić, interview by author, Belgrade, February 1997.

66. Boro, interview by author, Belgrade, March 1997.

67. "The Prosecutor of the Tribunal against Slobodan Milošević—Bosnia Herzegovina," case #IT-01–51, 22 November 2001. Available online at www.un.org/icty/ind-e.htm.

68. See Tim Judah, The Serbs, 170, for specific mention of the Military Line. More generally, see 168–203.

69. Julian Borger, "Milošević Case Hardens," Guardian, 3 February 1997.

70. Julian Border, "Milošević Case Hardens," and Tim Judah, The Serbs, 170. See also Robert Thomas, The Politics of Serbia, 93.

71. Misha Glenny, The Fall of Yugoslavia (Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin Books, 1992), 150.

72. "četnik Duke," Telegraf, 28 September 1994. In Serbo-Croat. Vakić gave the Telegraf interview soon after a Serbian police crackdown on Serbian Radical Party activists. For details of the radicals' split with Milošević, see Robert Thomas, The Politics of Serbia.

73. Cvijetin Milivojević, "I Am Ready, Awaiting Arrest," Spona, 18 December (1993), in Serbo-Croatian, translated in Paul Williams and Norman Cigar, The War Crimes Trials, 7.

74. Cited in Mark Brennock, "Right Wing Rally Features Ominous Battle Cries," Irish Times, 9 September 1996.

75. "Serbian Radical Party Leader Says Belgrade Gave Orders to all Serbian

76. Michael Mann, The Dark-Side of Democracy, Chapter 14.

77. U.S. State Department official, interview.

78. Boro, interview.

79. Aleksandar, interview by author, Belgrade, February 1997.

80. Miroslav, interviews by author, Belgrade, March and April 1997.

81. Daniel Snidden, interview by author, Belgrade, March 1997.

82. Colonel Stevo, interviews by author, Belgrade, February and March 1997.

83. Dragutin, interviews by author, Belgrade, February, March, and April 1997.

84. Tomo, interviews by author, Belgrade, March and April 1997.

85. Julian Borger, "Milošević Case Hardens." The police chief, Marko Nicović, spoke at greater length about paramilitary recruitment in Dragan Bujošević, "The Sporting Life of the ‘Grey Fox, ’" NIN, 12 April 1996, in Serbo-Croatian, as cited in Paul Williams and Norman Cigar, The War Crimes Trials, 17.

86. Miroslav Mikuljanac, interview by author, Belgrade, April 1997.

87. Obrad, interview.

88. Borivoje, interview by author, Belgrade, March 1997.

89. Julian Borger, "Milošević Case Hardens."

90. Vladan Vasilijević, interview by author, Belgrade, 15 February 1997. Vasilijević, who has since passed away, served briefly on a state-created war crimes commission in 1992 and was widely regarded as an informed observer of Serbian involvement in Bosnia and Croatia. His allegation regarding paramilitary fighters, however, is difficult to verify.

91. Gojko đogo, interview by author, Belgrade, May 1997.

92. Separation between Serbia and Bosnia was politically difficult, but certainly not impossible. In fall 1994, for example, Milošević's regime did cut many ties to the Bosnian Serbs, chiefly due to international pressure.