After the highly publicized Bruce Lee monument was erected in Mostar, a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2005, a series of similar ventures were initiated in rural Serbia. Some sociologists describe the glorification of nonpolitical celebrity figures as the result of an identity crisis caused by the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, a period when a once functioning multi-ethnic unity collapsed.

— Turbo Sculpture is an essay by Aleksandra Domanović about sculptures of pop culture heroes, e.g. Bruce Lee, Rocky Balboa and Bob Marley, which have been placed or proposed in the nation-states that once comprised Yugoslavia. You can also watch a photo-illustrated reading of the essay voiced by a dead-pan British man. [via We Find Wildness]
posted by Kattullus on Jan 18, 2012 - 5 comments

Columbia University Prevents Bosnian Americans from Attending Dodik Lecture Columbia university invited Milorad Dodik, president of the republika Srpska (a Serb republic within Bosnia and Herzegovina) to give a lecture on 10/25/2011. Dodik is an adamant denier of the massacres of Sebrenica and has said in the past that they were staged. Outraged, the Congress of North American Bosniaks registered to get the required invitations, and were turned away.
posted by Tarumba on Oct 27, 2011 - 28 comments

The Secret Life of Radovan Karadzic.
A 45 minute documentary made by Rageh Omaar who travels to Serbia and Bosnia to investigate the decade-long period the former president of the Republika Srpska spent in hiding and examines his legacy in present-day Bosnia and beyond. (Warning: graphic and disturbing in parts).
As his trial for Genocide finally commences Karadzic defends his actions as "Just and Holy" ( Meta Related 1; 2; )
posted by adamvasco on Mar 1, 2010 - 13 comments

Radovan Karadzic was a war criminal who was able to escape prosecution for his war crimes during the genocide in Bosnia. In a particularly strange twist, Karadzic assumed the name Dragan Dabic and rose in the ranks of the alternative healing community in Belgrade. [more inside]
posted by reenum on Dec 9, 2009 - 20 comments

The BBC World Service has put together a special report on the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe (they also have a simpler portal). There is a wealth of material, including TV reports on key events from the BBC archives, interviews, a map timeline, a report on Catholicism's role in the 1989 revolutions, a first-hand report of what it was like to gather news in East Germany during that time and much more.
posted by Kattullus on Oct 27, 2009 - 20 comments

Hello to the Krilcic family. Ten years after we last saw you we are alive and well. And I hope you are. We would like to hear from you and see you. Goodbye.
In each episode of Videoletters, two former neighbors, friends or colleagues separated by the Bosnian war exchange video messages. Since 1999, two filmmakers have been helping people from across the former Yugoslavia find and reconnect with one another in this way, often with heart-breaking results. Watch a sample episode here about two young men, Vlada (a Serb) and Ivica (a Croat), whose families were close friends when the war began. [Bit more inside]
posted by Ljubljana on Apr 29, 2005 - 3 comments

Bosnia's horrific war memories There were countless horrors in the wars which led to the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. A Serbian army general has now surrendered to the authorities and will go to the United Nations tribunal in The Hague to answer war crimes charges dating back to 1999. But what happens once camp guards have served their sentences? Dragan Kolundzija (Kole) stood trial in The Hague in Holland in 1999 Dragan Kolundzija, Kole to his friends, is sitting at the bar of the Hotel Prijedor when we enter....
posted by Postroad on Jan 30, 2005 - 1 comment