How did the Yugoslav civil war break out?

The former Yugoslavia is often described as "one country, two languages, three languages, four religions, five nationalities, six republics, seven neighboring countries and eight political regions".

After hundreds of years of contradictions and changes in the international situation, by the beginning of the 1990s, the accumulated grievances among all ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia had intensified, and the outbreak of civil war was almost inevitable. At this time, only one Mars is needed, and the Balkan powder keg will explode.

Who destroyed this Mars? Croatian footballer zvonimir boban.

Racial hatred pervades the stadium.

The ethnic structure in the Balkans is very complicated. Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia are the three major ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia. The three ethnic groups were originally of the same origin, but they were ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, which led to the division of religion and writing.

Ethnic distribution in Yugoslavia

After the establishment of the "First Kingdom of Yugoslavia", under the national political system dominated by Serbs, the hatred between ethnic groups has intensified. This hatred and opposition also affect the players of all ethnic groups in the Yugoslav national team.

1976 European cup, host yugoslavia reached the semi-finals. Originally, the Football Association promised that as long as it reached the semi-finals, the game would be moved from Belgrade in Serbia to Zagreb in Croatia.

As a result, the Football Association failed to fulfill its promise and the semi-final was still played in Belgrade. The Croatian players on the team are very unhappy. They played very passively. Yugoslavia was reversed by the Federal Republic of Germany and had to compete for the third place.

zagreb

The third place moved to Zagreb, and it was the turn of the Serbian players in the team to protest against the boos of Croatian fans and take negative games as revenge. As a result, Yugoslavia lost to the Netherlands again, and the host team Yugoslavia, which kept going high and low during the Cup, only finished fourth.

At this time, the hatred in the imperial court was expressed through passive confrontation, because under Tito's iron fist rule, all countries in the Federation were seemingly peaceful, and all kinds of problems, including ethnic contradictions, were suppressed.

After Tito's death in the early 1980 s, Yugoslavia was once in a state of brief leaderless chaos. The confrontation between Serbs and Croats can no longer be suppressed, and football has become an important means for Croats to express their national feelings.

Tito

For many fans, the stadium is a stage for them to vent their political demands and social setbacks. Some politicians have found opportunities on the stadium and started to incite emotions with their own gunpowder-flavored football.

the national derby

1990, the Croatian Democratic Union led by nationalist tudjman won the election, and Serbian leader Milosevic spared no effort to incite Serbian national sentiment.

Milosevic

Against this background, the national derby between Red Star and Dinamo Zagreb will be held in maximilian Stadium in Zagreb on May 6th.

The extreme nationalist opposition between the two sides has shifted to the two teams. For many years, the confrontation between the two teams of fans has been recognized as a football hooligan case in Europe.

"Blue Bad Boys" is the most radical fan organization of Dynamo team, and many of them later joined the Croatian army in the civil war. Red Star's fan organization "Warrior" is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and its behavior is more like paramilitary forces and professional criminal groups.

This time, 3,000 "Warriors" members rushed from Belgrade to Zagreb, and they made trouble in the street the day before the game. Before the game, the "Warriors" shouted "Zagreb is Serbia" to Croatian fans, destroyed seats and threw stones at the upper audience.

Strangely, the Yugoslav police at the scene did not take any measures. This angered tens of thousands of Croatian fans at the scene and greatly stimulated Dynamo players.

Zvonimir boban, 2 1 year-old, was the most talented young player of Dynamo team at that time, and was born in Imotsky, a small town with strong national feelings in southern Croatia.

Dynamo Zagreb

Bo Ban himself mentioned that he grew up watching Chekhov and Dostoevsky. Bo Ban is not a person who likes to avoid things since he was a child, and he is not a person who will hide his feelings.

Flying up, history is fixed here.

After only 10 minutes, the national derby was plunged into violence and chaos. Some Croatian fans in the stands, already full of blood, can no longer control their emotions when they see the constant rude fouls of the Red Star team. They took the lead in rushing into the stadium from the stands and beating the red star players.

Well-trained Serbian fans also grabbed all kinds of weapons and rushed to the Croatian fan stands to attack every Croat in the stadium.

Maximil Stadium in Zagreb

"Everything was out of control, and there was no grass on the pitch for a while, because there were bricks and seat fragments everywhere," Dinamo defender Vlado Kapulic said.

The scuffle lasted for more than an hour. Serb and Croat youths attacked each other with seats, stones and even knives, and some players were involved. The Yugoslav police, who had been standing by, finally took action. They waved batons and beat Croatian fans who rushed into the stadium.

When Bo Ban saw a policeman fighting with a fallen fan, he ran over, held his head high in karate, raised his right leg and kicked the policeman.

A reporter filmed this historic moment.

After the kick, Bo Ban dodged the police flexibly and was not injured. The policeman he attacked was not a Serb, but a Bosnian Muslim. "I fully understand why Bo Ban did it," the policeman said later.

Indeed, this foot was originally just a moment in this big powder keg, but it became a representative moment of this riot because it made headlines in major media, which is also related to the role played by the Yugoslav police.

When Serbian fans rampaged in the stadium, the Yugoslav police were indifferent. When Croatian fans rushed into the stadium, they were immediately beaten with sticks by the police.

Subsequently, the police also transferred military vehicles, water cannons and tear gas to deal with Dynamo fans and escorted the Red Star players back to the dressing room. Then the Red Star team quickly fled the stadium by helicopter.

Today's Red Star Belgrade team

Officially, 6 1 people were injured in the conflict, including 27 policemen and 100 fans who were arrested. However, it is generally believed that thousands of Croats were injured under the attack of various weapons by the police.

For Croats, these scenes seem to be symbols of Serbian privilege, so this photo is very impactful.

Bo Ban later recalled the famous kick-off in an interview: "I am a public figure, and I am always ready to risk my life and reputation, all because of an ideal-the Croatian cause".

Because of this, Bo Ban was banned by Yugoslav Football Association for six months and missed the 1990 World Cup. This foot also made him famous. The following year, Bo Ban joined AC Milan, the strongest team in the world at that time.

Bo Ban is in AC Milan.

The birth of several countries

Bo Ban can't bear the pot of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia alone, but he can't deny that personal events have a great influence on the historical process. Many people think that Bo Ban's flying kick is the first "domino" on the road of Croatian war of independence.

Millions of Croats saw Bo Ban's attack on the police through TV, radio and newspapers. They realized the risks and gestures taken by Bo Ban that day, and their national sentiment was quickly ignited.

Today, in the eyes of Croats, this foot is "a symbol of 70 years of resistance to Serbian rule", and their country was born at this foot.

At the 1998 World Cup, Bo Ban and Suk held the Croatian flag.

In the second year of "Kicking", countless Croats the same age as Bo Ban fought against Serbs, and a large number of fans, including football hooligans, joined their respective armies.

At that time, Alcan, who commanded "fighters" to attack Croats in Zagreb, also became one of the leaders of the cruel Serbian army. Alcan later recalled: After that game, we immediately started to arm ourselves.

After ten years of civil war, Yugoslavia split into several independent countries.

Yugoslav civil war

Historians believe that the national derby in Zagreb is a symbol of civil war, and both Serbs and Croats are aware of the fact that conflicts break out at any time and bitter grievances are irreconcilable. What ordinary people think is that they must be armed and ready for war at once.

"After the game, everyone knew what would happen next," recalled Dragan Zazak, a former Red Star team and Yugoslav winger. "In that sunny spring, it was obvious that one era was over and another cruel and bloody era was about to begin."

Yugoslav civil war

Football can be war or peace.

There is a saying that football is a war in peacetime. People may or may not agree with this statement.

At least people can see that the football field is a space connecting various religions, races, ideologies and geographical groups. People can regard the stadium as a virtual battlefield to express hatred, and various rules ensure that the game must be fair and civilized.

More importantly, football can not only vent hatred, but also create peace.

Today's Maximilian Stadium

19 14 During the first Christmas after the start of World War I, British and German soldiers played a game and the two sides stopped fighting briefly. In the golden age of his career, Bailey bravely went to Nigeria, which was in a bloody civil war. The warring sides declared a temporary truce in order to see the king of the ball running on their grass.

Ivory Coast issued a statement before the World Cup, demanding an end to the bloody conflict in their hometown, or they would not play. This is the bright side of football. Football is by no means to mobilize people to take up arms.

Former Serbian star mikhailovich.

The smoke cleared, and the words of former Serbian star mikhailovich can well reflect people's mood:

"People will change. I always like to distinguish us from them, so I need enemies to stimulate myself. But after such a long time, I have learned a lot and understood a lot. "