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* [[A House Divided]]: Being part of Austria-Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Vojvodina (northern Serbia) were not only cultrually different, but economically far more advanced then the other republics who for centuries were under Ottoman rule. Especially in the late 1980s this gave Slovenes and Croats the impression that due to the centralized economy they had to feed the other republics often summerized by the saying "we earn, you spend". From the Serbian perspective Yugoslavia existed on their expense. Not only weren't Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia given any autonomy nor even an entity, but Vojvodina and Kosovo received the status of autonomous republics within Serbia who de facto had the same power just like any other six republics. Tito did this to prevent Serbs dominating Yugoslavia like they did in the Yugoslav Kingdom. Not only was it often believed that Yugoslavia could exist only on a basis of a weak Serbia, but also that Croats and Kosovo Albanians, especially the latter one, were not only pardoned but also rewarded for their crimes in [[World War II]] with an autonomous province. Speaking of [[World War II]], the atrocities the ethnic groups did towards each other created a resentment that was suppressed by Titos ironfisted policy in the name of "[[The Power of Friendship|Brotherhood and Unity]]". Instead of refurbishing the dark past, it became a taboo topic only to be ignited during the collapse of Yugoslavia. Also in the name of said Brotherhood and Unity, any form of nationalism was supressed in order to create a Yugoslav identity. What put the final nail in Yugoslavia's coffin was the constitutional reform of 1974 which granted any of the six republics the right to legally scede from Yugoslavia. Said reform also accepted the Bosnian Muslims (who were either regarded as Muslim Croats, Serbs or simply Yugoslavs) as an official ethnic group making things even more complicated than they already were. The more decentralized the government became the more the local communist parties alienated from each other making Yugoslavia a loose confederation.
* [[You Fail Economics Forever]]: The reason for this entire mess. Yugoslavia's economy was unproductive and inefficient without external life support (in fact the reason why the country prospered during the [[Cold War]] was mostly American economic aid). Once the US stopped sending money to Yugoslavia everything came crashing down and the disasterous policies of the IMF put the final nail in Yugoslavia's coffin. The reform attempts of Ante Marković came too late as the Yugoslav leadership spent too much time putting its head in the sand.
** It's a bit more complicated than that. The [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Socialist_Federal_Republic_of_Yugoslavia:Economy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Wikipedia article]] has more info on it.
* [[Crazy Prepared]] / [[Fridge Horror]]: The Siege of Sarajevo and other great operations the JNA (and later Serb forces) pulled off were prepared long ago during Tito's days in case if an ethnic group should rebell. Yugoslavia has always seen her own population as her biggest threat.
* [[Dirty Communists]]: Averted from a Western point of view as Yugoslavia was economically, politically and culturally open to to the west. Yugoslavia was if not de jure at least de facto a NATO member as the north Atlantic alliance would have offered military assistance in case of a Soviet aggression. Played straight from a Croatian POV though.
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'''Reporter:''' What do you think? What are you going to do now and how will this go on?<br />
'''Soldier:''' What am I supposed to think? I'm just thinking of staying alive. }}
* [[State Sec]]: The [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_State_Security:Department of State Security|UDBA]].
* [[Vestigial Empire]]: The socialist Yugoslavia was by the late 80s and early 90s merely a shadow of its former self. Crippled and mauled by economic decline and torn apart by ethnic tensions, the local communist regimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia were toppled and replaced by right-wing ultranationalist firebrands, and it was only a matter of time until everything would burn.
 
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* [[A House Divided]]: What often bit them in the ass. The relation between Karadžić and Milošević was distanced and Belgrade's support to the Bosnian and Croatian Serbs was half-assed. Since the JNA withdrew in 1992 from Croatia and Bosnia, regular forces from Serbia proper were no longer involved. Milošević was more than happy to abandon the Krajna Serbs and in 1994 he closed the borders to the Republika Srpska and leaving them to their fate until Karadžić granted full control to Milošević.
** Many Serbian paramilitary formations had different agendas. The volunteers of Arkan and the likes were mostly marauders and brigands interested only in plunder. Rumors say that Arkan's men occasionally even pillaged fellow Serbs. The volunteers of Šešelj's Serbian Radical Party were sent to give military support to local Serbs in the Krajna and the Republika Srpska, [[Unreliable Narrator|at least according to him]].
* [[Army of Thieves and Whores]]: A lot of irregular militias. Special mention goes to Arkan's [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Serb_Volunteer_Guard:Serb Volunteer Guard|Serb Volunteer Guard]] who recruited hooligans and criminals.
* [[Berserk Button]]: The assassination of Zoran Đinđić triggered a country wide manhunt in Serbia dubbed as ''Operation Sabre''. It ended with most big fish of the Serbian underworld (many who were close allies of Milošević) arrested or KIA.
* [[Big Badass Bird of Prey]]: The Serbian double headed eagle.
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** [[The Scapegoat]]: In spite of the complex nature of this conflict, the Serbs are blamed for every ill by Western media and painted as the aggressor, even though the break up of Yugoslavia was a civil war rather than a Serb [[Demonization|Nazi style conquest to expand their Lebensraum at the expense]] of the [[Designated Hero|"poor and innocent" Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians]].
** [[Villain By Default]]: Again, how the majority of Western media likes to portray them.
* [[Dumb Muscle]]: Subverted. For being the largest and most powerful force in this conflict, you may ask yourself why they didn't roll over Bosnia and Croatia. Keep in mind that the local Croatian and Bosnian Serb army and militias were badly equipped, badly trained and only had the [[We Have Reserves|advantage of numbers]] once the JNA (and thus Serbia itself) abandoned them in 1992. Generals like Mladić were mediocre at best, while most of the Serb generals of the former JNA either left when the JNA was disbanded or remained passive with the VJ in Serbia. And even those employed questionable [[Hollywood Tactics|tactics]] and methods that often led to some [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_war_crimes_in_the_Yugoslav_Wars:Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars#War_crimesWar crimes|embarrassing results]]. Otherwise averted when you see the tactics they used during the NATO airstrikes that kept their military casualties at a minimum.
* [[The Empire]]: How they were perceived by the other factions and the majority of the outside world.
** Of course, leaving aside the [[Black and Gray Morality|ethics]] of the situation, they did fit the role on a strategic and tactical level: they had dominated the former Yugoslavia in its' dying days, and so when it devolved, they took the lion's share of the regular military and equipment while everybody else had at best remnants of the old territorial militias. This trope was even [[Invoked Trope|invoked by at least the Slovenes during their Ten Day War of independence]] [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|by drawing comparisons between the Serbian armor invading Slovenia and the Chinese tanks crushing the protests at Tianenmen Square.]] It was only later, when a combination of captured equipment and Western aid and training reached the Croats and Bosniaks that the strategic situation reversed itself.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: The only reason some of their neighbours seem to have a warm relationship is their common hatred towards the Serbs.
* [[Fighting forFor A Homeland]]: The goal of the Krajna Serbs was to ensure the independence of what they saw as their homeland and to split off from Croatia the same way Croatia declared herself as independent from Yugoslavia. A similar goal had the Serbs of the Republika Srpska who fought for their fatherland against what they perceived as Muslim and Croat aggression. In fact the Bosnian War is often referred as the "Patriotic War" by the Bosnian Serbs. Unfortunately their homeland was also someone else's homeland. Serbia herself(or better said the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) fought for its territorial integrity against Albanian separatism in 1999.
* [[Humiliation Conga]]: An awful lot of things went wrong for the Serbs in the last two decades. First the Serbian Krajna in Croatia falls after Operation Storm. Then comes the political suicide that was the massacre of Srebrenica which branded the Serbs as genocidal savages in the eyes of the Western world. The war in Bosnia ended with a draw after the Dayton Agreement prevented a military disaster of the VRS. While the Republika Srpska does exist within Bosnia and occupies 49% of the country, keep in mind that before the turning point in 1995 they held almost 70% of Bosnia. While in the Kosovo War the Serbian forces wiped the floor with the KLA, Serbia could not afford to continue the war with a ruined infrastructure and economy due to the NATO airstrikes for much longer. When the war ended, Belgrade lost its control over Kosovo and to rub salt in the wound most of the parliament members of the new state in Europe were former KLA members protected by the Western powers. Ouch!
* [[Kick the Son of A Bitch]]: Western propaganda tried to display the KLA as noble "freedom fighters" who are in dire need of help against "Serb repression". While the Serbs did have their own share of war crimes during this conflict, is very hard to sympathize with them once you read their entry below.
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* [[A Nazi By Any Other Name]]: How they were portrayed in the most hysterical way. Though it really doesn't help when their forces were responsible for most of the atrocities like systematic mass killings, death camps and other things that Europe hasn't seen since [[World War II]].
* [[Slave to PR]]: Something they should have kept in mind if they wished to avoid the demonisation by Western media.
* [[The Sociopath]]: An awful lot of their paramilitary formations like [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Serb_Volunteer_Guard:Serb Volunteer Guard|Arkan's Volunteer Guard]], the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpions_%28Serbia%29:Scorpions chr(28)Serbiachr(29)|Scorpions]] or the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Eagles_%28paramilitary%29:White Eagles chr(28)paramilitarychr(29)|White Eagles]] who were mostly in for profit, plunder or simple [[For the Evulz]]. See [[Army of Thieves and Whores]] above.
* [[Strange Salute]]: The three-Finger salute.
* [[Won the War, Lost The Peace]]: As much as Serb forces [[Curb Stomp Battle|whipped the KLA]] and suffered embarrassingly minimal military casualties by NATO, they had to abandon Kosovo to the Western alliance when signing the Kumanovo Treaty after suffering high civilian losses and horrendous damage to the civilian infrastructure.
** Inverted with the Bosnian Serbs whose military collapse was averted by the Dayton Agreement and NATO threatening the Bosniaks to bomb them too if they don't stop.
* [[Vestigial Empire]]: Serbia and Montenegro were what was left of Yugoslavia from 1992 - 2006. The Serbs also inherited most of the JNA arsenal.
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* [[Only Sane Man]]
* [[The Pawn]]: What he was to Milošević [[Unreliable Narrator|according to him]].
* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: As International Community would recognize Bosnia (and thus see Serbia as the aggressor), Jović ordered all JNA elements from Serbia to leave the country. The Bosnian Serb elements became the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Republika_Srpska:Army of Republika Srpska|VRS]].
* [[The Stoic]]
* [[The Spock]]
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* [[Funny Moment]]: This man is a comedic gold mine especially during the trials in the ICTY mostly due to [[Refuge in Audacity]].
* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: He gives this in the ICTY during the status conferences.
* [[Hot -Blooded]]
* [[Insufferable Genius]]
* [[Knight Templar]]
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* [[Porn Stache]]
* [[What an Idiot!]]: Being completely abandoned by Serbia since the withdrawal of the JNA in 1992 and the Republika Srpska being more than busy fighting against the ArBiH and the HVO, the Republika Srpska Krajina was left to fend for itself. Meanwhile Croatia has built a considerable army outnumbering them at least 3:1 and an invasion of the Krajina was already greenlighted by the NATO. The Contact Group (USA, France, Germany and Russia) developed the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Z-4_plan4 plan|Z-4 Plan]] which would have granted the Karjina autonomy within Croatia.<br />'''You'd expect''' that given the grim and hopeless situation Martić, who at this time was the President of the RSK, would pick this last straw and save the Krajina Serbs from certain doom.<br />'''Instead''' he even refused to look at it resulting in around thousand Serbs dead and over 250,000 being forced to leave Croatia with most of them never to return after the war.
 
=== Jovica Stanišić ===
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* [[A Father to His Men]]: Especially during his service in Croatia.
* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: The [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre:Srebrenica massacre|Srebrenica Massacre]]. While it is commonly agreed that thousands of Muslim men and boys were killed by Serb forces, there is an ongoing [[Flame War|debate]] and invesitgation on the circumstances. While Mladić is accused of genocide by the ICTY, the recorded phone calls he had with Milošević, Perišić and others suggest that while he ordered the capture of Srebrenica the crimes were commited by the ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpions_%28Serbia%29:Scorpions chr(28)Serbiachr(29)|Scorpions]]''. Needless to say the opinions people have of him range from being a hero to being a mass murderer and [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|as for now it remains to be seen wether he was an]] [[Axe Crazy]] [[General Ripper]] or not.
* [[The Captain]]
* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: The death of his daughter [[Sanity Slippage|turned him more and more into a shadow of his former self]].
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** The idea that the Srebrenica massacre was an act of revenge for Naser Oric's raids (the scale of which are usually exaggerated, and the circumstances of which are rarely taken into account by Serb nationalists) has been pretty thoroughly discredited.
* [[Sergeant Rock]]
* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: What might have happened to him if you see it from a certain point of view. The capture of Mladić was one of the main conditions for Serbia to join the EU. No matter how you see it, it is still interesting that a few days after [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Jos%C3%A9_Manuel_BarrosoA9 Manuel Barroso|Barroso]] promised Serbia that the recognition of Kosovo's independence would not be a condition to join the EU, Mladić was captured and sent to the Hague.
* [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters]] / [[Villain With Good Publicity]]: As he was the commander of the VRS and many Bosnian Serbs think that without him there wouldn't have been a Republika Srpska, it is only natural that many would regard him as a hero. To those who concider him a hero he is basically the Serb counterpart to the Croatian Gotovina and the Bosniak Dudaković.
 
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* [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]: How he killed the Bosniaks in Višegrad. See below.
* [[Faux Affably Evil]]: Just take a look at some [http://milan-lukic-hag.com/images/biografija_1990.jpg pictures] [http://www.browtf.com/wp-content/uploads/art_milan.jpg of] [http://milan-lukic-hag.com/images/biografija_milan.jpg him] while thinking about the atrocities he commited.
* [[Nightmare Fuel]]: The [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikavac_fire:Bikavac fire|Bikavac]] and [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Pionirska_street_fire:Pionirska street fire|Pionirska Street fire]]. In short: He trapped Bosniak civilians in a house which his troops set on fire and shot anyone who attempted to escape. This man puts even slasher movie villains to shame.
* [[The Sociopath]]
* [[Sociopathic Soldier]]
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* [[The Messiah]]: He was often reffered as "The Walking Saint"
{{quote| '''Pavle:''' I will not purchase an automobile until every Albanian and Serbian household in Kosovo and Metohija has one.}}
* [[My Country, Right or Wrong]]: Averted. He even condemned all the crimes that were commited by Serb forced.
{{quote| '''Pavle:''' So I say: if a Great Serbia should be held by committing crime, I would never accept it; may Great Serbia disappear, but to hold it by crime - no. If it were necessary to hold only a small Serbia by crime, I would not accept it. May small Serbia disappear, but to hold it by crime - no. And if there is only one Serb, and if I am that last Serb, to hold on by crime - I do not accept. May we disappear, but disappear as humans, because then we will not disappear, we will be alive in the hands of the living God.}}
* [[Nice Guy]]
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* [[Cunning Linguist]]: He was besides of his Serbo-Croatian mother tounge fluent in English, French and Italian which he learned through his criminal career in Western Europe. He was also familiar with German, Swedish and Dutch and also spoke some Bulgarian and Albanian too.
* [[The Dreaded]]: Many Muslims immediately left their homes when hearing about his troops approaching. [[Kill Them All|For a good reason]].
* [[Evil Overlord]]: He was before his death the undisputed overlord of the Serbian underworld and one of the most influencial persons in Serbia, second only to Milošević. He was the founder and leader of the Serbian Volunteer Guard (who later became the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_Unit:Special Operations Unit|JSO]]) and the short-lived Party of Serbian Unity, married to the most popular singer Svetlana Ražnatović "Ceca" and owner of the soccer team FK Obilić. Before that he had a criminal career throughout Western Europe. The only thing he didn't have was a giant mace and a spiked armor.
* [[Evil Power Vacuum]]: Pretty much the reason for his assassination as Milošević and his cronies wanted to take over the entire Serbian underworld.
* [[Pirate]]: Just like any other war profiteer from this period.
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* [[A Nazi By Any Other Name]]: Next up in line behind the Serbs to get this treatment, particularly in the Serbian and Russian media. Of note is the fact that they recieved a sizable amount of aid from Nazis by the *same* name, as Western Neo-Fascist groups [[It Makes Sense in Context|jumped on their bandwagon.]]
* [[Character Development]]: Just like Serbia, Croatia's political landscape changed since the end of the war to the point of being almost unrecognizable.
** The [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Democratic_Union:Croatian Democratic Union|HDZ]] which started as right-wing ultranationalist thugs turned into Christian democrats and center-right social conservatives over the years. The [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Party_of_Rights:Croatian Party of Rights|HSP]] transformed itself from neo-fascists to right-wing ultranationalists.
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Storm:Operation Storm|Operation Storm]]. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] when you take into account that the the Army of the Serbian Krajna was at best a militia of 40,000 rag-tag peasants led by a dentist who were outnumbers by a professional army by 3:1 that [[Game Breaker|had NATO support]].
* [[Demonisation]]: The Croats were demonized by Serbian propaganda during the war and the memories from the fascist NDH state during [[World War II]] and the atrocities of Ustaše being used as demonizing devices to stir up the hatred even more. In fact, Croatian forces and to a certain extend even civilians were informally designated as Ustaše.
* [[Determinator]]: Against all odds the Croats held out in [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar:Battle of Vukovar|Vukovar]] against a larger force of the JNA and local Serb militia making it a Pyrrhic victory at best for them.
* [[The Empire]]: How the Krajna Serbs viewed and Serb media portrayed them.
* [[Fighting forFor A Homeland]]: Croatia itself fought for its independence against the JNA and later after its retreat for the reintegration of the renegade Serb provinces. The Bosnian Croats who lived in Bosnia sought to split off from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
* [[Putting On the Reich]]: The HOS used symbols reminiscent of the Ustasha like for example the [http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datoteka:13._bojna_HOS-a.jpg 13th Company from Tomislavgrad]. It doesn't help that the HOS was the military arm of the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Party_of_Rights:Croatian Party of Rights|HSP]] which was back then a semi-fascist right wing party.
* [[The Rival]]: To the Serbs.
* [[Won the War, Lost The Peace]]: The Bosnian Croats. After Croatia dismanteled the Herceg Bosna due to American preassure and the promise that Croatia would enter a confederation with Bosnia after the war, the Bosnian Croats ended up in the Bosniak-Croat Federation where the Bosniaks are de facto calling the shots. While the Serbs have with the Republika Srpska their state within a state, the Bosnian Croats lost virtually everything. Just to add insult to injury, during Mesić's rule Croatia turned her back on the Bosnian Croats and told them that Bosnia was their state while Serbia is still flirting with the Republika Srpska.
 
=== Franjo Tuđman ===
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* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: Is he a [[Reasonable Authority Figure]] who stayed sane in times of insanity or just a world-class opportunist who switches allegiances and ideologies that suit him the most for his political career? Is he a man devoted to peace or only beloved when he speaks against a certain group (Serbs, Bosnian Croats)? Or all of them? It is safe to say that especially amongst the Croats Mesić is a controversial figure who sparked countless [[Flame War|Flame Wars]].
* [[Big Ol' Eyebrows]]
* [[Commander in Chief]]: [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Generals_Letter:Twelve Generals Letter|After a letter was published]], he reminded everyone that he was the chief.
* [[Didn't See That Coming]]: He led [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|the relief convoy]] to [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Dubrovnik:Siege of Dubrovnik|Dubrovnik]] as the supreme commander of the Yugoslav armed forces and wound up having to negotiate safe passage with the blockading Yugoslav Navy. Whooops.
* [[Fan Dumb]]: Lots of his ardent detractors hate him for supposedly claiming he ended Yugoslavia, whilst at the same time lauding the end of Yugoslavia. Go figure. He actually said that his post on the Presiding Council as Croatia's member does not exist anymore since Croatia was no longer a member state of Yugoslavia.
* [[Forbidden Friendship]]: He was a close friend of the late colonel Gaddafi, much to the displeasure of the US and UK.
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=== Tropes that apply to all Bosniak factions ===
 
* [[Won the War, Lost The Peace]]: Bosnia Herzegovina, a once prosperous Yugoslav republic, is today a highly dysfunctional state and one of the poorest former Yugoslav republics. Having still not recovered from the effects of the war, the economy is artificially kept alive by the EU and the UN and most of the development aid being lost the the swamp of corruption. Split into three entities (the Serbian ''Republika Srpska'', the Bosniak-Croat ''Federacija'' and the ''Brčko Distrikt''), the central government has no authority and the three ethnic groups, especially the Republika Srpska, show almost no interest in working together.
* [[Zerg Rush]]: A popular tactic employed by the ArBiH.
 
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* [[Humiliation Conga]]: After the fall of the Republika Srpska Krajna and with the military collapse of the Republika Srpska, Abdić had no means to defend Velika Kladuša against the ArBiH and the advance of Dudaković's forces brought an end to the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia. When the Serbs abandoned him Croatia granted him asylum which was revoked after Tuđman's death. Since 2002 he has been convicted by the Croatian court to 20 years prison (which 2005 was reduced to 15 years) for war crimes.
* [[Just Like Robin Hood]]: Propably the reason the Bosniaks forgave him the Agrokomerc scandal as they thought that "he may have been a thief but at least he was our thief".
* [[Les Collaborateurs]]: His short-lived and Serb-aligned [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Province_of_Western_Bosnia:Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia|Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia]].
* [[Meaningful Name]]: He got his nickname for a good reason. Being the CEO of [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Agrokomerc |Agrokomerc]] since the 1970s, he turned Velika Kladuša from a remote backwater village in one of the most prosperous cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
* [[Only Sane Man]]: He saw no point in dragging the Bosniaks to a war against the Serbs. See [[Pragmatic Villainy]] below.
* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: As Babo was at first of all things a business man he saw it as more practical to ally himself with the Serbs and do business with them instead of dragging his people to a bloody war.
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* [[Designated Hero]]: The KLA and it's successor organisations.
* [[Redshirt Army]]: While the KLA and the Armed forces of Kosovo employed successful hit and run tactics against the local Serb police, they became this once they fought the Yugoslav Army.
* [[Start of Darkness]]: Contrary to popular belief, Albanians and Serbs had a relatively normal relationship until the early 20th century. When Serbia took Macedonia, Sandžak and Kosovo and occupied parts of northern Albania during the Balkan Wars, the local Albanians, who sided with the Ottomans, went on an armed resistance against the Serbs. The Serbs in return retaliated brutally. Since then Serbia made no effort to integrate her Albanian population while the Albanians showed little to no interest in being part of Serbia. After [[World War I]] the Serb dominated Kingdom of Yugoslavia followed a predatory policy towards Albania attempting to annex northern Albanian territorries while encouraging Serbs to resettle Kosovo. During [[World War II]] forces of the Axis aligned Albania and militias like the Balli Kombëtar commited a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Kosovo Serbs. In Tito's Yugoslavia Serb refugees were prohibited from returning to Kosovo while said region became an Autonomous Province and 1974 a de facto republic. After many years of local authorities abusing said right by allowing the development aid to be lost in the swamp of corruption and turning a blind eye on the violence towards Serbs and other ethnic minorities, Kosovo lost its privileges in 1990. As a result the Albanians created a parallel state known as the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Kosova:Republic of Kosova|Republic of Kosova]] and resisted Serb authorities either passively and non-violently by rallying behind Ibrahim Rugova, or joined the KLA which became active in 1996.
* [[Villain White Washing Service]]: Again the KLA by the Western media. An irredentist terrorist group who weren't any better than the IRA or the ETA, who had a good share of atrocities, who had ties to organized crime and accoring to some reports even Osama Bin Laden and whose goal was a [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Albania:Greater Albania|Greater Albania]] cleansed of Serbs, Roma and other "undesired elements".
* [[Villain With Good Publicity]]: The KLA was the head of. A guerilla force, not unlike the IRA or the ETA, that has been on the international list of terror organisations up to 1998, has been portrayed by western media in the most heroic light possible.
*** Allegedly, many NATO soldiers are dreaming of the day they can open fire on the Albanian gangsters they are meant to protect. This is what always happens when you try to solve the Balkan gang war by knocking out the largest gang; another gang will simply move in and take over.
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* [[Not So Different]]: He isn't much different from Milošević. Read the rest of his entries.
* [[Organ Theft]]: What he and his goons are accused of.
* [[Professional Butt -Kisser]]: How many of his fellow Albanians from the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Vet%C3%ABvendosje! |Vetëvendosje!]] movement regard him.
* [[Villain With Good Publicity]]: This man was once the leader of a terrorist organization that played in the same league as the the IRA or the ETA , has ties with the mafia and is alleged of being the head of an [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_theft_in_Kosovo:Organ theft in Kosovo|organ trafficing ring]] and yet he is presented as a legitimate and democratic politician by the media.
 
=== Agim Çeku ===
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* [[Game Breaker]]: The NATO.
* [[General Ripper]]: Wesley Clark. While ordering the deliberate strikes on civilian targets in Serbia during the Kosovo War was morally objectionable enough to say the least, he ordered the British and French KFOR contigent to attack the Russian forces that after the war occupied the Pristina International Airport. Fortunately the British General [[Reasonable Authority Figure|Mike Jackson]] refused to carry out the operation and thus spared us [[World War III]].
* [[Good Republic, Evil Empire]]: How they portrayed the conflict.
* [[Kangaroo Court]]: The ICTY especially to the Serbs and Croats.
* [[Police Are Useless|Peacekeepers Are Useless]]: In both Bosnia and Kosovo where the only thing they accomplished was arming and protecting local warlords while doing nothing to prevent the ethnic cleansings.
* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: The Luftwaffe's participation on the air strikes against Yugoslavia amongst the German people.
* [[Unreliable Narrator]]
* [[WrittenbytheWritten By the Winners]]
* [[Won the War, Lost The Peace]]: After the deployment of the KFOR, Kosovo became an even more unstable region and a haven for narco terrorists. On top of that having set a precedence for Albanian seperatists the war swapped over to the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_the_Pre:Insurgency in the Pre%C5%A1evo_ValleyA1evo Valley|Presevo Valley]] and [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_the_Republic_of_Macedonia:Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia|Macedonia]]. Even up to this day Kosovo has [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Kosovo:2011 Kosovo%E2%80%93Serbia_border_clashes93Serbia border clashes|yet to be a safe and stable place]].
 
{{reflist}}
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